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Trek Silque SLX review

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The Silque is the latest addition to Trek’s women’s-specific road bike range and in this review Caz Whitehead puts the Silque SLX through its paces.

Trek has been creating “Women’s Specific Design” (WSD) frames for some time now but the Silque is a brand new addition to the line-up. Designed with the aim of combining the responsiveness of the Madone with the ride-anywhere practicality of the Domane (see here for a comparison review between the two) the Silque is a bike made for comfortable riding, but without diminishing straight-line speed or handling ability.

The Silque line features five different builds, from the $2,199 Silque (with Shimano Tiagra) to the $6,999 Silque SSL (with Ultegra Di2) with custom options also available through Trek’s Project One. We were provided with the Silque SLX to review, which sits just below the SSL.

Before the ride

The carbon used in the SLX model of the Silque is the 600 series OCLV, which is claimed to have the best ratio of stiffness to weight in the industry. The frame is similarly designed to most relaxed, compact geometry carbon road bikes on the market today, with thin stays and thick, sloping main triangle tubes. The fork tapers from 1 1/8″ to 1.5″, creating rigidity without too much of the added weight of thicker headtubes.

One of the most interesting features is the seatpost, which differentiates this SLX model from those lower in the range; more specifically the no-cut seatmast (see here for more info). This is both a weight-saving feature and creates a better ride quality, with the added bonus of making sure bike fittings are correct when the bike is sold in store.

It is still extremely easy to change heights, as the seatmast has 10cm of available adjustment, unlike so many of the integrated seatpost options out there. The seat tube isn’t directly connected to the top tube, but rather features a rubber shock-absorbing collar surrounding the tube, which has been implemented to act almost as suspension, thereby dampening the road vibration.

The SLX comes with full 11-speed Shimano Ultegra, featuring the smaller, more ergonomic hoods, and faster, more precise front derailleur shifting. The frame also features a built-in chain catcher, which, Trek claims, provides flawless gear shifting even under rougher road conditions. Both the gear cables and rear brake cable are all internally routed, and the small detail of blue anodised cable end caps have been added to the white cables.

One detail the pictures don’t do justice to is the sparkle through the paint. Similar to what you’d be more likely to find in a Japanese NJS track racing frame than a carbon road bike, the blue paint contains specks of small glitter, which in the sunshine, gleam proudly.

The paint is well designed and placed; feminine without being pink and floral. The blue is matched up with a stark white (no sparkles), and touches of light green also appear in a couple of places. The bike comes standard with white bartape and saddle, and flashes of blue peek through the bartape perforations. Everything matches, and has been carefully thought out, and finishes off the visual aspect of this bicycle nicely.

Head to the Trek website for more information about the Silque. Click here to see the bike’s geometry table.

After the ride

Being used to quite an unforgiving, aggressive frame, the Silque provided me with a different world of riding. Riding the same roads was an entirely different experience. The dampening in the frame worked better than expected; the rough surfaces were surprisingly smooth to traverse, to the extent that cobbles felt like a slightly rough road. The frame dampening didn’t at all impede performance, but rather increased the speed that could be carried over rough surfaces.

Straight line speed was easy to maintain, and with a similar wheelbase to that of a race-tuned bike, the immediate power transfer to speed was noticeable. Descending was a different story.

The bike wants to go quickly, and changes direction with ease but being in such an upright position meant the ability to get low enough for weight placement was difficult. This meant the bike would corner easily at lower speeds when wheel turn was applicable, but taking it into corners with more force would have the bike dragging off course, unable to be happily directed through the bend.

Out-of-the-saddle climbing was a breeze. The frame is so light, and quite responsive to input, even being thrown around on a climb, it maintained rigidity and responsiveness. Seated climbing was where my muscles became aware of the different position; being more upright meant the lungs were opened up more for oxygen intake, but the leg position meant a little potential power was lost. It’s marginal, but noticeable.

Gear changes, even while climbing, were immediate thanks to the Ultegra 11-speed, and the improved front derailleur made a difference to speed of large gear changes. Internal routing doesn’t seem to impede shifting at all, but rather keeps the cabling out of the elements, improving long-term shifting ability.

Handlebar shape is an interesting choice. The bars don’t have much bend through the tops, rather straight across, and almost a direct 90-degree bend directed toward the hoods. This means a lot of space on a smaller bar for placing hands while climbing, or for a moment to change position. The drop is ergonomically designed, and extremely shallow. For small hands, this can provide a little trouble as the design means the lever is further from reach whilst in the drops.

Even with Shimano’s new lever design, winding the lever 10mm toward the bar doesn’t seem to improve the reach quite enough and means a part of the lever digs in to fingers when hands are on the hoods. An issue easily remedied by a change of bars, and not a problem anyone with larger hands would encounter.

Final thoughts and summary

Overall, this bike perfectly suits the market it has been designed for, filling the gap between the rather sluggish Domane WSD, and the race-orientated Madone WSD. It’s a comfortable bike for big weekend rides, while also being nimble on bike paths and around tight corners. It’s perfect for exploring while at the same time being capable in bunches.

A bike for those who perhaps value the adventure over the speed and who enjoy the social side of riding more than chasing down a breakaway.

What do each of the ratings criteria mean? And how did we arrive at the final score? Click here to find out.

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Trek Silque SLX road bike review

Silk? Silky? However it’s pronounced, Trek’s women’s road bike lives up to the smooth suggestion of its name, mostly…

Jamie Beach

American bike giant Trek groups its carbon-framed Silque range of women-specific bikes into Performance and Endurance categories, suggesting machines that can be comfortable during long days in the saddle can be fast as well.

How do they fit into this dual role? Well, a big part of the range’s comfort is down to the IsoSpeed decoupler – essentially a pivot that allows the seat tube to flex (as seen on Trek’s Domane bikes) – while the sub-8kg weight coupled with the wide and stiff BB90 bottom bracket means there’s still plenty of go for when you’re late for tea.

There are five models in the Silque range, starting with the £1,400 Shimano Tiagra-specced, no-extra-letters Silque and rising to the £4,700 Silque SSL that runs on Shimano’s electronic Ultegra Di2 groupset.

The Silque's 11-speed cassette combines with a compact chainset and crank for light weight

This SLX sits one rung below the range-topping SSL and gets a mechanical Ultegra groupset and 600-series OCLV carbon frame (a higher-grade of carbon than the £2,200 Silque SL). The fifth model in the range is the £1,700 Silque S, that pairs the 400-series frame with a Shimano 105 groupset. (The SL and SSL are also available as customisable Project One options, should you so desire….)

Better at the back

The SLX test model arrived with a couple of spacers under the handlebar, adding about 25mm to the height, which suited our tester’s preference for comfort over speed. But it’s likely this raised front-end contributed to the slightly nervous, almost twitchy feeling on descents, which was compounded by the bike’s light weight and 23mm tyres.

We did wonder about the tyres. Why go to the lengths of having an IsoSpeed decoupler (and handlebar with integrated gel pads) for comfort, then spec 23mm rubber, when 25mm tyres (as found on the three cheaper models) are generally accepted as being faster and more comfortable?

The comfort of the Bontrager bars is boosted by cushioned IsoZone pads, but road vibrations were still felt by our reviewer

This became more of an issue when trying to get the front end to match the rear for comfort. That IsoSpeed pivot removes most road buzz at the back, but even with the bar’s built-in IsoZone ‘pads’ our hands were tingling after less than an hour’s riding. Reducing pressure in the front tyre seemed to help, though it could have been psychological.

On climbs, the Silque’s light weight is your friend, with the compact chainset (50/34t) and 11-28t cassette providing a low enough bottom gear for most terrain. That same low weight is an ally on the flat, too, and the 50 x 11 top gear means you can zip along at pace.

Shimano Ultegra brakes provide sharp performance in the dry, but are a little laggy in the wet

When it comes to slowing down, everyone’s talking about disc brakes, and though the Silque’s Ultegra callipers work superbly in the dry, on wet days you do need to give them a bit of notice.

The Silque SLX is also a rarity among women’s bikes in that it bears no pink. Its blue and white livery not only doesn’t offend, it’s also pretty classy, though that white bar tape isn’t destined to remain so for too long….

Verdict: Plenty of comfort and speed in a package that’s possibly classier than it needs to be, 80%

Contact : www.trekbikes.com

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Trek Silque Review

“Race-smart” and “comfortable over distance” are two attributes that you don’t often find in the one bicycle. Especially in women’s specific models. In my experience over 28 years of cycling as an amateur at elite (young) and now masters (not quite as young but just as competitive) levels, a visit to the bike shop to buy a new steed usually meant choosing between comfort on long rides and being able to go quicker, in more streamlined and responsive fashion, in races.

There always has seemed to be a compromise. Choose “either” “or”, or buy two bikes.

Even when I returned to cycling a couple of years ago, an enthusiastic salesperson was successful in selling me a sleek and beautiful racing machine perfect for crits, that I unfortunately wasn’t destined to get the most out of because it took me couple of years to get my head and  body prepped to race again. In fact, it was downright awful to ride over my local potholed and bumpy route. Paris Roubaix eat your heart out!

I sold it (at great financial loss) and bought something more comfortable. But then, when I suddenly found myself with a race licence and a hankering for something that would be stiffer, more responsive when cornering and lighter for hill climbing, I sold that something more comfortable (at great financial loss), and bought a race bike. My new bike is beautiful. But I am not so sure that it would be comfortable for the longer sportif events that I was doing and still enjoy when I am not racing or training to race – and it really doesn’t like our local potholes too much.

As the sportif, entry level triathlon and women’s markets have grown in recent times, various bike manufacturers have endeavoured to come up with the Holy Grail – a compromise between race-smart and endurance comfortable all packed into a women’s specific frame.

Not to be left behind, the girls, apart from being typically concerned about colour, style and branding, are seeking both comfort and speed. And as more bike shops and clubs run women’s camps and women’s bike mechanical workshops, women are getting more interested in componentry, materials and weight as well.

We have recently seen a number of brands targeting female consumers, and many have moved into the “women’s” market with products specifically designed to better fit women’s torsos and limb lengths.

The question has been: How do you build a bike that is responsive and stiff, corners well, rides itself uphill, feels secure going downhill, is comfortable over distance and protects the rider from bone jarring and saddle sores? And then there is the weight factor… how do you produce an entry level bike that that is light, fast, comfortable, boasts the latest in design technology and materials, but doesn’t cost the earth?

American company Trek has taken up the challenge and come up with its new range of aimed-at-women bikes called Silque.

While developing the women’s design, Trek found that women and men of the same size generally have different power outputs and weights. This is nothing all that new, but Silque engineers went a step further and put their data to use creating unique carbon layups to optimize tube sizes and shapes specifically tuned to women at each frame size. 

And if the test model Bicycling Australia was presented with to ride is anything to go by, it has come mighty close to bridging the gap.     

The guys at Simple Cycles in Wollongong put the bike together for us and I have spent a month testing the base line model, the Silque (recommended retail price $2199) on all manner of terrain and conditions. You can also buy three other models moving up the food chain through SL ($3100), SLX ($3999) to SSL ($6999 which incorporates an electric Shimano Ultegra Di2 drive train).

The first thing you notice about the Silque is the colour. Some women love blue, but others seeking a women’s specific bike, might be turned off by blue and prefer something more girlie. They can achieve this with the next model up, the SL, which is black and pink.

The second thing you notice is its modern look design. The bike is carbon; the top tube is angled, almost reminding you of women’s bicycles from a couple of decades ago. This, Trek refers to as its WSD (women’s specific design). The third thing is the weight. It’s light, weighing just over 7kg, making it good to ride and easy for a female to pick up and put onto the car roof rack or into the boot.  

Stand back and take a further look and you will see Trek has chosen Bontrager alloy front and rear hubs, rims from Bontrager with tubeless ready disc, Bontrager tyres, Shimano Tiagra 10 speed shifters (with a 12-30 cassette guaranteed to get the rider over any climb, Tiagra front and rear derailleurs, Shimano Tiagra 50/34 compact crank and Bontrager seat post, handlebars, stem and saddle.

Of these technical matters, the saddle merits a mention. It’s very comfortable and over a longer ride of 60km or so, we found the sit bones naturally found a comfortable position.

Moving on. How does it ride? The answer can only be, smooth as Silque.

Trek promises that its innovative IsoSpeed Decoupler and women’s ride-tuned OCLV carbon frame deliver the perfect balance of smoothness and power

Company engineers developed its  Optimum Compaction, Low Void carbon manufacturing process two decades ago, enabling it to produce carbon bikes with consistency and quality previously thought impossible.

 Now Trek claims to lead the industry with its Trek OCLV, offering what it believes is the best ride for the money thanks to an optimal balance of areal weight, stiffness, and compliance. “The ‘areal’ weight range and modulus mix of 400 Series OCLV puts ultra-high performance within reach, providing an exhilarating sense of acceleration and confident handling”, it says.

“Areal weight is a composite industry term for the weight of carbon material over a given area. The lighter the material, the more expertise required to work with it and the pricier the resulting frame. “We can work magic with the lightest materials in cycling. We also know when a slightly heavier material will make the best frame for the price.”

What does that mean in practice?

A recently resurfaced local road race route known for its potholes, ragged road edges, dips and bumps, with a new layer of gravel added, was the perfect testing ground for these claims and the Silque lived up to its name.

It seemed to absorb the bumps better than my current race bike, and I found that I was barely aware of the vibrations in the saddle area, while my wrists and shoulders were barely suffering. The bike felt like a favourite arm chair, safe and secure. All I had to do was steer it and keep on pedalling. Similarly, I was impressed at the lack of road noise in the bike. Nothing rattled despite the pave.

This feature comes from the IsoSpeed decoupler, the result of an 18-month study of how a racing bike performs over rough roads, and how that performance affects the rider.

Trek engineers designed a decoupler that allows the seat tube to rotate independently from the top-tube-to-seat stay junction, increasing vertical compliance to twice that of its nearest competitor.

Meanwhile at the pointy end of the bike, the  E2 head tube tapers from a 1.5″ lower bearing to a 1-1/8″ upper bearing, and is wider side-to-side than front to back, making for smooth steering around corners while absorbing the bumps from the road.  

The asymmetric steering system is intended to minimise weight while maximising power transfer and keeping the fork stiffer under cornering loads, resulting in a potentially more powerful and confident ride. I didn’t find the steering as direct and responsive as my own race bike, but it certainly was truer and felt more secure than many a bike I have ridden.

Going uphill was a joy. We all know that the right relationship of stiffness to weight is critical to frame performance.  Trek runs rigorous tests to ensure that it has achieved the proper stiffness/weight ratio at every part of the frame to maximise handling, pedalling performance and ride feel.

While the Silque doesn’t quite have the feeling of running at a hill and lithely cantering up as some of the much more expensive racing steeds, it certainly felt light and stiff, both in and out of the saddle, pedalling up hills of between three and eight per cent. It felt powerful and when riding on another day with a bunch at race pace, never felt like it was losing speed for any other reason than rider fitness.

Going down, it felt incredibly stable, without any sense of the death wobbles that sometimes occurs when moving at 60kmh plus. This would make it the idea entry level bike for a nervous newcomer to cycling, with enough mod-cons to carry her through the various stages of sportifs, triathlons and racing over some years without feeling like her bike was going out of fashion.

Moving through the gears was simple and accurate and the Tiagra shifters were a credit to the Shimano name.

I was grateful for the 30 cog on the 14 per cent climb I encountered on the way home after one ride and surprised that even when panicking on a particularly steep part and changing up as far as possible, there were no issues with the chain.

Trek’s 3S chain keeper is integrated directly into the bike frame and provides an elegant solution that results in flawless gear shifting even on rough roads and under heavy loads.  The idea of no more standing on the side of the road, covered in grease, unwedging your dropped chain as your mates race by is very appealing.

Another very appealing feature is the DuoTrap which seamlessly integrates the computer sensor into the frame to measure speed, distance, and cadence with no added aerodynamic drag.

It works with all the major ANT+ wireless technology players, including Bontrager, Garmin, PowerTap, and SRM.

High. The Silque is typical of what we would expect from Trek – ready to ride or race with plenty of mod-cons and the ability to upgrade componentry if desired. Well finished frame, nice to look at, smooth to ride. Perfect entry level ride.

PERFORMANCE

Excellent when the road surface is less than ideal (common); confidence inspiring on climbing and descending, secure in cornering.

Excellent given the high quality of the carbon frame and the design work and thought that has gone into it.

A very good choice for an entry level cyclist or triathlete, especially those lacking confidence, that would carry them through to racing at club level, whether juniors or masters.

Frame – 400 Series OCLV Carbon, WSD-tuned IsoSpeed, E2, BB90, performance cable routing, DuoTrap compatible, vanishing mudguard mounts, 3S chain keeper

Fork: Trek carbon road, E2

Sizes: 44, 47, 50, 52, 54cm

Frame fit: WSD Geometry

Front hub: Bontrager alloy

Rear hub: Bontrager alloy

Rims: Bontrager Tubeless Ready disc

Tyres: Bontrager R1 Hard-Case Lite, 700x25c

Shifters: Shimano Tiagra, 10 speed

Front derailleur: Shimano Tiagra, braze-on

Rear derailleur: Shimano Tiagra

Crank: Shimano Tiagra, 50/34 (compact)

Cassette: Shimano Tiagra 12-30, 10 speed

Chain: KMC X10

Saddle: Bontrager Affinity 1 WSD

Seatpost: Bontrager Alloy, 2-bolt head, 27.2mm, 8mm offset

Handlebar: Bontrager Race VR-S, 31.8mm

Stem: Bontrager Race Lite, 31.8mm, 7 degree

Headset: Integrated, cartridge bearings, sealed, 1-1/8” top, 1.5” bottom

Brakeset: Alloy dual-pivot

Grips: Bontrager Microfibre Tape

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Shop new & used Trek Silque bikes for sale at TPC - The Pro's Closet. Find reviews, specs, weight info, and prices on various models (SL, SLX) and popular years (2017, 2018 etc).

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Trek Silque - Weight, Specs, Price

Geometry: (52cm), why we love it:, read the trek road bike buyer's guide.

• Rider Notes

2016 Trek Silque Women's

A carbon frame women’s race bike with mid-range components and rim brakes. Compare the full range

For This Bike

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A bike with lower gearing will be easier to ride up steep hills, while a higher top end means it will pedal faster down hills.

Silque Women's

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Last updated June 29 Not listed for 2,531 days

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Trek Silque SL review

Unique road-smoothing ride lives up to its name

Mick Kirkman

Sarah Kesteven

Limousine comfort, deceptively quick, fantastic female fit

No disc brake option

Trek was the first major brand to introduce ‘Women’s Specific Design’ (WSD) bikes nearly 20 years ago, and the range now covers 15 different road bikes – spanning entry-level to superbike realms – as well as 14 mountain bikes and seven city bikes.

Thanks to the Silque, Trek is ahead of the curve if you’re looking for the smoothest road ride possible – and this Ultegra equipped SL is a particularly strong example of this unique bike.

Pivotal plushness

Perhaps the most remarkable part of this genuinely radical frame is that it’s easy to totally miss the parts that make it unique. Visually the only trace of the ‘IsoSpeed decoupler’ is a small rubber ‘spray deck’ around the junction of the top tube and the seat tube that pierces straight through it. There’s another rubber wrap around the sides and underside of the top tube too and that’s what hides the crucial pivot that pins the two tubes together.

Trek's unique IsoSpeed technology allows the seatpost to pivot

Yes, we did say pivot. Rather than a standard fixed joint between the vertical and horizontal axis of the frame, the Silque (like it’s Domane unisex equivalent) uses a pivot that lets the seat tube flex back and forth as the bike rattles across rough roads.

Related: Trek Domane 5.2

Curved, flattened ‘leaf spring’ seat stays add vertical compliance between the rear wheel and the IsoSpeed pivot too. The carbon sheet arrangement used in the tapered E2 fork has a lot of vertical forgiveness too, giving an impressively consistent luxury limousine feel to both ends of the bike.

Whatever Trek’s extremely experienced (the brand was among the first carbon frame producers) OCLV carbon designers have done with the layup of the carbon layers, it definitely works – as any eerily smoothed potholes or ironed out washboard gravel sections will prove immediately.

Stress relief

While Trek has remained tight-lipped about where the inspiration for the IsoSpeed Decoupler concept came, from we can remember watching a conventional rigid alloy test frame in one of its Wisconsin HQ labs being stress tested for frontal impacts. This was achieved by flexing the forks backwards and forwards in exactly the way hitting a pothole, rock or ridge in the road would do and we can still remember just how much the lower part of the seat tube bulged forwards and the top tube arced upwards as the fork tips were pumped backwards and forwards.

The front end isn't far off the back's limousine smoothness

Whether it was watching this very test and seeing the potential gains of letting the two axes of the bike move independently rather than fighting against each other that former the IsoSpeed seed we obviously don’t know. However, the theory of letting the two tubes flex with minimal restriction definitely works in practice, to let impact energy flow through the bike much more easily.

Related: Trek Silque SSL women's endurance road bike

As the bike is effectively free to move wherever it wants under the saddle it also replicates exactly the ‘hover just above the saddle’ technique that powerful riders use for the cobbled sections of classic races like Paris Roubaix. The difference is the Silque doesn’t rely on you to lift up slightly over knobbly sections; the design just lets the frame float between you and battering road surfaces, adding even more to its fatigue-reducing efficiency.

Silque by name…

The wheels and tyres can be converted for tubeless running with a snap fit rim strip too, potentially smoothing out the ride even further as well as adding self healing puncture protection.

Epic ride kindness

While the smoothness of Trek’s Domane/Silque bikes is relatively well known, the question we got asked over and over again about the bike was whether it feels soft and bouncy when pedalling too. It’s a fair question, as many flexible aftermarket seatposts we’ve used get tiresome in their twang if you’re cranking a gear round slowly on a climb.

Out of the saddle, you're disengaged from the seatpost flex, and the frame is plenty rigid enough

Happily there’s very little trace of the back-and-forward movement of the Silque saddle in the pedal stroke, and the very wide-range rear cassette with it’s 32t bottom cog means you’ll rarely have to grunt gears round slowly to provoke it. Because the ride softening mechanism is centred around the saddle, things feel reasonably firm when you stand up and – even with the extra pivot hardware and complexity it’s not a bad overall weight. All this adds up to a bike that wouldn’t be our first choice for QOM hunting on hills (Trek’s superlight Emonda WSD would definitely be in the running for that) but certainly doesn’t struggle getting to the summit.

The long wheelbase and traction enhancing smoothness make for very surefooted descending confidence too, and while there’s no disc option on any of Trek’s WSD road bikes, the Ultegra SLR-EVs are some of the best rim brakes you’ll find on a normal production bike. While it isn’t the most dynamic ‘have a go hero’ machine the docile handling also underlines the Silque’s wonderfully forgiving ‘carry you home’ character so if you’re looking to extend your epic rides resumé in 2016 and beyond you’d be hard pressed to find a kinder bike to do it on.

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Latest news, reviews and features for women who like to ride.

Road cycling, trek silque sl 2015 womens road bike reviewed, designed to provide a silky smooth ride, does the bike deliver.

First up, lets address the colours – because it’s bound to come up: this Trek Silque SL is black and ‘flamingo pink’. Some people will like that, others won’t. If you don’t, you can choose to create your own custom design for a little extra …

At £2,200, this is clearly a very considered purchase, too, but within that price tag you’re getting yourself a bike that’s designed to work hard for you, over a long period of time – this bike could be your bestie for many years to come.

If you like the sound of the Silque’s design, but not the price tag, there is a Trek Silque C 2015 women’s road bike with a more value orientated groupset available for £1,400, and plenty of models in between – so don’t stop reading yet.

As smooth as a well brewed flat white…

The ride is super smooth – as smooth as a well brewed flat white, an Aero Bubbly or a magic carpet. Road vibrations barely reached me when I took this bike for a spin.

Similes aside – what have Trek done to create a bike that sails over lumps and bumps with such serenity? It’s all about the ‘IsoSpeed Decoupler’. Which means the square root of zero to most people.

Trek have created a design that means the seat tube is isolated from the rest of the bike, so road buzz from uneven surfaces isn’t felt so strongly.  The end result is that you’ll move around less in the saddle, feel more stable, and fatigue will be kept further at bay.

Trek’s mens Domane bike has been using this technology for some time, but the Silque has been developed following careful research into what works for women.

No lugging proportionally heavy bikes up hills

Women who are smaller will generally weigh less, and so the same tubing used for a bike ridden by a 6ft man is going to be proportionally heavy.

This carbon frame goes right down to 44cm (for a rider around 4 ft 8), so Trek have addressed the issue by adjusting the tubing so that its thickness is size specific to the frame.

This means that women aren’t forced to lug bikes up hills that are heavy in relation to their generally lower body weight.

Lifting the bike to carry it down the four flights of stairs at TWC, I can confirm the frame feels super light.

No pick and mix componentry

When a bike brand is trying to save money, they’ll mix up high end, mid end and low end components.

This bike has a full Shimano Ultegra Groupset. This does increase the price of the bike – but for that you’re getting lightweight components that will last the test of time.

The wheels, tyres, saddle, and (rather nice, infact) Microfibre bar tape are all Bontrager, everything matches and is produced to a high quality.

Jacqueline-of-all-Trades

In terms of the sort of riding – the Silque prides itself on being a bit of a Jacqueline-of-all-Trades. The smoothness of this ride, compact chainset and 22 gears for climbing, plus hidden mudguard mounts, mean you could take this bike to the mountains, complete a long distance sportive, or ride it on a club ride in total comfort.

The overall position is fairly relaxed, but when I tested a few 20 second sprints along the roads  around Regent’s Park I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of ‘go’ this bike produced. The stability provided by the bump-smoothing design and tempting light weight mean you could race this beauty comfortably if you wished.

 Available from: Trek Bikes

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2015 Trek Silque SLX 54cm

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