trek emonda alr 5 cena

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Trek Emonda ALR 5

Emonda ALR 5 is a race-ready road bike with a top-tier alloy frame that's intensely light, fast, and far more pocket-friendly than carbon bikes of its caliber. Its lightweight frame is built with top-tier road racing H1.5 geometry, with an integrated cockpit and Kammtail tube shapes for aerodynamic advantage. It's equipped with a dependable 105 drivetrain and hydraulic disc brakes that stop on a dime no matter the weather, making it the perfect lightweight alloy bike for club rides and race days alike. It's right for you if... You want all the advantages of a bike built to be the lightest in its class, with a wallet-friendly alloy frame that has the sleek looks and handling you'd expect only from a carbon frame. You also want the confident stopping power disc brakes provide. The tech you get An ultralight 300 Series Alpha Aluminum frame with aerodynamic Kammtail shaped tubes and Invisible Weld Technology, an Emonda SL carbon fork that absorbs vibration from the road, internal cable routing in both the frame and fork, a full 2x11 Shimano 105 drivetrain for dependable shifting, powerful flat-mount hydraulic disc brakes, and tubeless ready wheels. The final word Emonda ALR 5 gives you the sleek looks of carbon without the sticker shock. Its advanced alloy frame is built to perform, and pairs with disc brakes and a reliable Shimano 105 drivetrain to give it the race-ready edge. Why you'll love it: - The all-new frame is lighter and sleeker than previous ALR models and features aerodynamic Kammtail tubes with even cleaner cable routing - It climbs fast, corners on rails, and descends with confidence - Disc brakes offer better braking performance and extra clearance for wider, more comfortable tires - It shares the race geometry of our highest-end carbon Émonda race bikes, and it gives you a ride quality that stands up in every way to far more expensive carbon bikes - Internal cable routing extends the life of your cables and adds to the bike's sleek look Features: Lightest in its class Emonda ALR was built with our best and lightest 300 Series Alpha Aluminum and a gram-trimming design to keep things light, fast, and fun. Race-ready geometry An optimized H1.5 race geometry, developed in collaboration with Trek-Segafredo, puts you in the right position for power. Refined integration Integrated cable routing cleans up the cockpit and makes Emonda ALR even faster in the wind. Faster than ever Emonda ALR's new Kammtail aero tube shaping keeps things light and fast wherever you ride – whether you're powering up climbs or racing across flats. Shimano 105 With shift technology inherited from mechanical Ultegra and Dura-Ace, Shimano 105 gives you top-shelf shifting at a budget-friendly price. Whether you're commuting year-round or training for the big race, Shimano 105 is a workhorse drivetrain that won't hold you back as you grow in the sport.

* Subject to change without notice.

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Trek Émonda ALR 5 2023

At road.cc every product is thoroughly tested for as long as it takes to get a proper insight into how well it works. Our reviewers are experienced cyclists that we trust to be objective. While we strive to ensure that opinions expressed are backed up by facts, reviews are by their nature an informed opinion, not a definitive verdict. We don't intentionally try to break anything (except locks) but we do try to look for weak points in any design. The overall score is not just an average of the other scores: it reflects both a product's function and value – with value determined by how a product compares with items of similar spec, quality, and price.

Good scores are more common than bad, because fortunately good products are more common than bad.

• Exceptional
• Not so good

The Trek Emonda ALR 5 uses the latest aluminium alloy Emonda frameset, with aero tweaks and a geometry that matches other high-end performance bikes in Trek’s line-up. It showcases the fact that this material still has a place on the racing scene, offering up the sort of stiffness and ride comfort found with carbon, although this build is far from light.

> Buy now: Trek Emonda ALR 5 for £1,999.99 from Triton Cycles

For more options and for different budgets, check out our guide to the best road bikes , from £300 to over £13,000…

I'm a big fan of aluminium frames. When done well, using the right tubing and wall thicknesses, and with well-thought-out geometry, it can result in a bike with excellent ride feel and great levels of feedback – everything a fast rider or racer wants. Trek has done an excellent job with this new Emonda ALR, which ticks all those boxes.

Even with the 25mm tyres pumped up firm, the aluminum tubing shows no signs of harshness, with an almost steel-like ride feel to it; there is a certain smoothness to it.

The frame is still incredibly stiff. Hard efforts out of the saddle don't show any signs of flex around the bottom bracket area, or anywhere else you might not want it. On the whole, it feels responsive and eager to get a shift on when you ask it to.

The only real fly in the ointment is the slightly lacklustre wheelset and the weighty tyres fitted as standard. Both take the overall shine off the performance, and contribute to the all-up bike weight of 9.1kg on our scales, so it's not exactly nippy off the line compared with bikes a kilo lighter.

Swapping the Bontrager tyres out for some Goodyear Eagle F1 Supersport Rs that were in for review dropped 320g from the overall weight, and helped to show just what this bike is capable of. Not just in terms of weight, either, but also better rolling resistance and grip.

The better grip lets you get the best out of the geometry, which is designed to be on the racy side without being overly aggressive. It's a nice balance.

On fast descents you can fling it into the corners and it'll hold its line without feeling twitchy or nervous. In fact, it feels pretty planted, but not at the cost of responsiveness or nimbleness thanks to the sub-metre wheelbase.

It's a confidence-boosting bike, easy to ride even if you aren't giving things your full attention. You don't have to be 'on it' the whole time to ride the Emonda quickly; it'll just as easily let you cover big miles without issue.

Though the ALR has kammtail tube sections, and Trek makes some aero claims, I wouldn't say it feels exceptionally quick in a straight line; it doesn't have the sort of wind-cheating properties of properly aero carbon bikes.

That said, thanks to the riding position that's achievable given the reasonably low stack height, you can certainly get a shift on if you are trying to get out of the wind. It's certainly a bike you can race on, or just ride quickly without any competition involved.

Frame and fork

Trek uses its own range of aluminium grade tubing, which in the ALR 5's case is "ultralight 300 Series Alpha". And thanks to the hydroformed shapes, and what Trek calls invisible weld technology, it looks very much as smooth and shapely as many carbon frames on the market, especially around the head tube area.

That smoothness is enhanced by the integrated cable routing, directed in through the head tube and headset before passing into the frame and exiting just below the bottom bracket.

The welding only has a smooth appearance around the front area and the top of the seat tube, though; move further down where there are bigger loads being applied, such as at the bottom bracket, and the welds are much more pronounced.

The rear of the frame actually has quite a traditional look about it, with mainly round tubes and seatstays that aren't overly narrow or heavily profiled, like you might find manufactured from carbon.

You won't find any integrated seatclamps either, with the Emonda getting a round post and a clamp that sits externally.

As for finishing touches, it's just bolts for two bottle cage mounts and nothing else. This is a performance race bike after all.

Tyre clearance is quite limited for a modern road bike at just 28mm. That's not a huge problem for me – 28mm is the maximum I use for this kind of bike – but with many of the opposition being able to take 30mm or even 32mm now, it's a little bit on the back foot.

The carbon fork, an Emonda SL, blends smoothly into the frame and provides all the stiffness required for hard cornering without suffering from any kind of understeer at all.

For the bottom bracket Trek has specced a T47, a switch it made a little while back. In a nutshell, it uses the larger dimensions of a press-fit system, but the bearings are threaded into the frame rather than being pressed. This provides the stiffness and performance benefits of a press-fit system without the creaking issues that can result if dirt gets in between the cups and frame due to poor manufacturing tolerances.

Geometry-wise, the Emonda ALR 5 uses Trek's H1.5 Race measurements, a balance of angles and dimensions that give the bike a performance edge without going too far into the twitchy, hard-to-handle realm of race bikes. It's the same as used on the higher-end carbon Emonda models.

Even though Shimano is 'charging' ahead with its electronic groupsets, and we've seen 105 Di2 become 12-speed, there is still a lot of life left in this mechanical setup. The shifting is great, with crisp and clean gear changes, and the shape of the levers lets your hands sit naturally and comfortably.

In terms of ratios, the ALR 5 comes with a 50/34-tooth compact chainset mated to an 11-30 cassette. That's a good spread of gears for all kinds of performance riding, with a 50x11 giving more top end than most people need, along with plenty of climbing gears at the lower end, providing you are reasonably strong and fit.

The hydraulic braking performance is top notch too. With 160mm rotors front and rear, you can get it to pull up from high speed to zero with just two fingers whenever you want.

Finishing kit

Trek's in-house component and accessories brand, Bontrager, supplies all of the finishing kit found on the ALR.

The handlebar and stem are both standard alloy components with nothing flash when it comes to their design, but they do the job just fine.

The Comp VR-C bar has a 124mm drop, which is shallow enough that it can be used without the bend in your back needing to be too extreme. The overall width is matched to the frame size.

The seatpost is alloy too, 6061 grade, and is 27.2mm in diameter. It comes with 8mm of offset and on this size bike it is 330mm in length.

The Verse Comp saddle is a little too plush for my liking; I prefer something with less padding for fast riding, but saddles are very much a personal choice. You might get on with it just fine.

Wheels & tyres

As for the wheels, the Paradigm SLs are tubeless ready, and for a wheelset on a bike at this price point they aren't too bad in terms of weight at a claimed 1,800g.

Their shallow rim depth doesn't bring a huge amount of speed to the party, but they are stiff enough for spirited riding, and durability doesn't look to be an issue.

As I've already mentioned, the tyres fitted aren't the best from a performance point of view. They are heavy at over 800g a pair, and with a limited thread count they have quite a 'dead' feeling to them.

Durability and reliability aren't an issue, so they are good training tyres, but they just hamper performance. An upgrade here will bring dividends to overall speed, with better rolling resistance and grip.

The ALR 5 is priced at £2,350, which is similar to Cannondale's highly regarded CAAD 13 : an aluminium road bike with a lot of pedigree. (Mat tested the CAAD13 Disc 105 in 2020.)

The latest model is similarly specced with a 105 groupset and alloy mid-depth rims, so it's no surprise to see a price virtually the same either: £2,300.

Specialized's alloy superbike, the Allez Sprint Comp , takes many cues from the carbon fibre Tarmac SL7 . Liam was impressed with it overall when he tested it last year , and Jamie has bought a frameset, which you can see in our YouTube video comparing it against the ALR 5 . It's much higher priced than the Trek, though, at £2,900, with a 105 groupset and DT Swiss wheels.

Merida has a range of aluminium Sculturas, with the 400 being the most expensive. It too comes with a 105 mechanical groupset and an alloy wheelset, but costs much less at £1,775.

The ride quality and geometry of the ALR 5 makes it a bike I'd highly recommend if you want to race but don't have a massive budget, or you just want a bike you can ride fast without getting beaten up, even on long rides. It's priced in line with key competition like the CAAD13 and is cheaper than the Allez Sprint Comp by quite a long way. Some might baulk at that price for an alloy bike, but there is no denying it has the characteristics to back it up.

The tyres hold it back a bit, but underneath is a comfortable alloy road bike with a great performance

road.cc test report

Make and model: Trek Émonda ALR 5

Size tested: 56cm

About the bike

List the components used to build up the bike.

Hub front Bontrager alloy, sealed bearing, CenterLock disc, 100x12 mm thru axle

Skewer front Bontrager Switch thru-axle, removable lever

Hub rear Bontrager alloy, sealed bearing, CenterLock disc, Shimano 11-speed freehub, 142x12 mm thru axle

Skewer rear Bontrager Switch thru-axle, removable lever

Rim Bontrager Paradigm SL, Tubeless Ready, 24-hole, 21 mm width, Presta valve

Tyre Bontrager R1 Hard-Case Lite, wire bead, 60 tpi, 700x 25 c

Max tyre size 28c

Drivetrain -

Shifter Shimano 105 R7020, 11-speed

Front derailleur Shimano 105 R7000, braze-on

Rear derailleur Shimano 105 R7000, short cage, 30T max cog

*Crank Size: 47

Shimano 105 R7000, 50/34 (compact), 165 mm length

Size: 50, 52

Shimano 105 R7000, 50/34 (compact), 170 mm length

Size: 54, 56, 58

Shimano 105 R7000, 50/34 (compact), 172.5 mm length

Size: 60, 62

Shimano 105 R7000, 50/34 (compact), 175 mm length

Bottom bracket Praxis, T47 threaded, internal bearing

Cassette Shimano 105 R7000, 11-30, 11 speed

Chain Shimano 105 HG601, 11-speed

Max. chainring size 1x: 48T, 2x: 53/39 (Shimano), 48/35 (SRAM)

*Saddle Size: 47, 50, 52

Bontrager Verse Comp, steel rails, 155 mm width

Size: 54, 56, 58, 60, 62

Bontrager Verse Comp, steel rails, 145 mm width

*Seatpost Size: 47

Bontrager Comp, 6061 alloy, 27.2 mm, 8 mm offset, 250 mm length

Size: 50, 52, 54, 56, 58, 60, 62

Bontrager Comp, 6061 alloy, 27.2 mm, 8 mm offset, 330 mm length

*Handlebar Size: 47, 50

Bontrager Comp VR-C, alloy, 31.8 mm, 100 mm reach, 124 mm drop, 38 cm width

Bontrager Comp VR-C, alloy, 31.8 mm, 100 mm reach, 124 mm drop, 40 cm width

Bontrager Comp VR-C, alloy, 31.8 mm, 100 mm reach, 124 mm drop, 42 cm width

Bontrager Comp VR-C, alloy, 31.8 mm, 100 mm reach, 124 mm drop, 44 cm width

Handlebar tape Bontrager Supertack Perf tape

*Stem Size: 47

Bontrager Elite, 31.8 mm, Blendr-compatible, 7-degree, 70 mm length

Bontrager Elite, 31.8 mm, Blendr-compatible, 7-degree, 80 mm length

Size: 52, 54

Bontrager Elite, 31.8 mm, Blendr-compatible, 7-degree, 90 mm length

Size: 56, 58

Bontrager Elite, 31.8 mm, Blendr-compatible, 7-degree, 100 mm length

Bontrager Elite, 31.8 mm, Blendr-compatible, 7-degree, 110 mm length

Brake Shimano 105 hydraulic disc

Brake rotor Shimano RT70, CentreLock, 160 mm

Rotor size Max brake rotor sizes: 160mm front & rear

Tell us what the bike is for and who it's aimed at. What do the manufacturers say about it? How does that compare to your own feelings about the bike?

Trek says, "The Émonda ALR 5 gives you the sleek looks of carbon without the sticker shock. Its advanced alloy frame is built to perform, and pairs with disc brakes and a reliable Shimano 105 drivetrain to give it the race-ready edge."

It's a smooth looking bike with an excellent ride quality, and plenty of stiffness.

Where does this model sit in the range? Tell us briefly about the cheaper options and the more expensive options

The range is topped with the ALR 6 at £3,150 and starts with the ALR 4 at £1,750. A frameset is available too, from £1,150.

Tell us about the build quality and finish of the frame and fork?

It's a high-quality aluminium frame that looks smooth, just like a carbon fibre offering, and the fork is stiff enough for hard riding.

Tell us about the materials used in the frame and fork?

The frame is made from Trek's 300 Series Alpha aluminium while the fork is full carbon fibre.

Tell us about the geometry of the frame and fork?

The geometry is on the racy side, but just backed off enough to not create a twitchy speed machine.

How was the bike in terms of height and reach? How did it compare to other bikes of the same stated size?

The height and reach figures are fairly typical for a race bike of this size.

Riding the bike

Was the bike comfortable to ride? Tell us how you felt about the ride quality.

Yes, the alloy frame has a great ride quality.

Did the bike feel stiff in the right places? Did any part of the bike feel too stiff or too flexible?

With the oversized bottom bracket shell, and stiff tubing where it needs to be, all is fine in this respect.

How did the bike transfer power? Did it feel efficient?

Power transfer is good throughout the frame and fork.

Was there any toe-clip overlap with the front wheel? If so was it a problem?

How would you describe the steering? Was it lively neutral or unresponsive? On the quick side.

Tell us some more about the handling. How did the bike feel overall? Did it do particular things well or badly?

It has fast handling, but not so much so that it becomes twitchy or difficult.

Which components had the most effect (good or bad) on the bike's comfort? would you recommend any changes?

I wasn't a huge fan of the amount of padding on the saddle, although it is a decent shape.

Which components had the most effect (good or bad) on the bike's stiffness? would you recommend any changes?

I found the wheels fine for out of the saddle efforts, and the same with the handlebar – I didn't detect any flex when really pulling on it.

Which components had the most effect (good or bad) on the bike's efficiency? would you recommend any changes?

A change of tyres would improve overall efficiency a lot, by dropping weight and improving grip.

The drivetrain

Tell us some more about the drivetrain. Anything you particularly did or didn't like? Any components which didn't work well together?

Mechanical Shimano 105 is still an excellent groupset, with awesome shifting performance and braking power.

Wheels and tyres

Tell us some more about the wheels.Did they work well in the conditions you encountered? Would you change the wheels? If so what for?

Decent enough wheels for the budget, and not too bad a weight overall.

Tell us some more about the tyres. Did they work well in the conditions you encountered? Would you change the tyres? If so what for?

Entry-level tyres from Bontrager; an upgrade would benefit the bike immensely.

Tell us some more about the controls. Any particularly good or bad components? How would the controls work for larger or smaller riders?

Personally, I'd change the saddle for something less padded, but on the whole, for the money it's a decent spec.

Your summary

Did you enjoy riding the bike? Yes

Would you consider buying the bike? Yes

Would you recommend the bike to a friend? Yes

How does the price compare to that of similar bikes in the market, including ones recently tested on road.cc?

The similarly specced Cannondale CAAD13 Disc comes in a few quid cheaper at £2,300, but Merida's aluminium Scultura range stops at £1,775 even though you get a 105 mechanical groupset and a spec similar to that of the Trek. Specialized's Allez Sprint is considerably more, though.

Use this box to explain your overall score

Thanks to the quality that can now be achieved by modern aluminium frames, this is a lovely bike to ride, with easily enough stiffness to match that of carbon machines in the real world. It is weighty, and it could do with a few component tweaks, but for the performance it delivers, for the money, it's very good.

Overall rating: 8 /10

About the tester

Age: 44   Height: 180cm   Weight: 76kg

I usually ride: This month's test bike   My best bike is: B'Twin Ultra CF draped in the latest bling test components

I've been riding for: Over 20 years   I ride: Every day   I would class myself as: Expert

I regularly do the following types of riding: time trialling, commuting, club rides, sportives, fixed/singlespeed,

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As part of the tech team here at F-At Digital, senior product reviewer Stu spends the majority of his time writing in-depth reviews for road.cc, off-road.cc and ebiketips using the knowledge gained from testing over 1,500 pieces of kit (plus 100's of bikes) since starting out as a freelancer back in 2009. After first throwing his leg over a race bike back in 2000, Stu's ridden more than 170,000 miles on road, time-trial, track, and gravel bikes, and while he's put his racing days behind him, he still likes to smash the pedals rather than take things easy. With a background in design and engineering, he has an obsession with how things are developed and manufactured, has a borderline fetish for handbuilt metal frames and finds a rim braked road bike very aesthetically pleasing!

Add new comment

>£2k for an aluminium frame?! In the same price bracket, actually cheaper, you can get a carbon frame for that money. Trek seems to be poor vfm really....

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Or steel (if you want). Having become quite inured to these prices, I was slightly shocked recently to see you can get a well-regarded steel-framed 105-equipped ride for £1000 less than this Trek. Not exactly the same sort of bike but - hydraulic brakes apart - you have to wonder where the price difference comes from. www.cyclinguk.org/cycle-magazine/bike-test-cannondale-synapse-sora-and-s...

Coming back to cycling after a number of years off I was shocked at the cost of bikes and in the end plumped for a £500 Triban RC500 from Decathlon, which I'm sure a lot of folks will turn their noses up at, but it's a great bike and does everything I need. But now I'm looking at a better bike the vfm range is incredible. Have to say Ribbles range is looking very attractive.....

I tried one in Decathlon couple of weeks ago and thought it was a great bike especially for the price, now 600 quid I think.

Hornet99 wrote: which I'm sure a lot of folks will turn their noses up at

Anyone who does that is a fool. https://road.cc/content/review/decathlon-triban-rc-500-disc-road-bike-25...

Hornet99 wrote: >£2k for an aluminium frame?! In the same price bracket, actually cheaper, you can get a carbon frame for that money. Trek seems to be poor vfm really....

Your starting point is that aluminium is necessarily inferior to carbon. I'm not sure that's always true.

While this seems expensive for a 105 11-speed bike, it's a Trek and they don't sell bikes cheaply. The ALR 4 with Tiagra is currently £1,575 (reduced from £1,750). That's quite a difference for one extra cog on the cassette. The frameset is £1,150. A Specialized Allez Sprint frameset is £1,800.

These brands spend a lot on marketing, sponsorship and R&D and that money has to come from somewhere. I wonder how the Trek ALR compares to a Giant Contend SL, Cannondale Synapse or Ribble Endurance AL.

If you compare it with the £4,500 Cervelo Soloist reviewed last week which has a low-spec wheelset, so you're looking at £800 or more on top to get something it deserves (no-one buying a Soloist will want those stock wheels). I'd suggest that is a far bigger rip-off.

There is talk of an oversupply of some models so there may be discounts if you shop around.

No mention of that colour scheme! 

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• Emonda ALR 5

Trek Emonda ALR 5

Emonda ALR 5 is a race-ready road bike with a top-tier alloy frame that's intensely light, fast, and far more pocket-friendly than carbon bikes of its caliber. Its lightweight frame is built with top-tier road racing H1.5 geometry, with an integrated cockpit and Kammtail tube shapes for aerodynamic advantage. It's equipped with a dependable 105 drivetrain and hydraulic disc brakes that stop on a dime no matter the weather, making it the perfect lightweight alloy bike for club rides and race days alike. It's right for you if... You want all the advantages of a bike built to be the lightest in its class, with a wallet-friendly alloy frame that has the sleek looks and handling you'd expect only from a carbon frame. You also want the confident stopping power disc brakes provide. The tech you get An ultralight 300 Series Alpha Aluminum frame with aerodynamic Kammtail shaped tubes and Invisible Weld Technology, an Emonda SL carbon fork that absorbs vibration from the road, internal cable routing in both the frame and fork, a full 2x11 Shimano 105 drivetrain for dependable shifting, powerful flat-mount hydraulic disc brakes, and tubeless ready wheels. The final word Emonda ALR 5 gives you the sleek looks of carbon without the sticker shock. Its advanced alloy frame is built to perform, and pairs with disc brakes and a reliable Shimano 105 drivetrain to give it the race-ready edge. Why you'll love it: - The all-new frame is lighter and sleeker than previous ALR models and features aerodynamic Kammtail tubes with even cleaner cable routing - It climbs fast, corners on rails, and descends with confidence - Disc brakes offer better braking performance and extra clearance for wider, more comfortable tires - It shares the race geometry of our highest-end carbon Émonda race bikes, and it gives you a ride quality that stands up in every way to far more expensive carbon bikes - Internal cable routing extends the life of your cables and adds to the bike's sleek look Features: Lightest in its class Emonda ALR was built with our best and lightest 300 Series Alpha Aluminum and a gram-trimming design to keep things light, fast, and fun. Race-ready geometry An optimized H1.5 race geometry, developed in collaboration with Trek-Segafredo, puts you in the right position for power. Refined integration Integrated cable routing cleans up the cockpit and makes Emonda ALR even faster in the wind. Faster than ever Emonda ALR's new Kammtail aero tube shaping keeps things light and fast wherever you ride – whether you're powering up climbs or racing across flats. Shimano 105 With shift technology inherited from mechanical Ultegra and Dura-Ace, Shimano 105 gives you top-shelf shifting at a budget-friendly price. Whether you're commuting year-round or training for the big race, Shimano 105 is a workhorse drivetrain that won't hold you back as you grow in the sport.

* Subject to change without notice.

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Trek Émonda ALR 5 review

The new alloy Émonda remains a great alternative to carbon

Simon von Bromley / Our Media

Simon von Bromley

Smooth ride quality; confident handling; easily customisable; Shimano 105 groupset continues to impress; wide range of sizes

Low-end tyres slow the bike down; uninspiring wheels

The Trek Émonda ALR is the American brand’s take on the premium aluminium race bike.

Now in its third generation, the Émonda ALR takes the recipe of the 2021 Trek Émonda but substitutes carbon fibre for aluminium.

This helps cut cost significantly, but (as we’ll come to later) doesn’t noticeably impact performance much.

The Trek Émonda ALR 5 (£2,325/$2,300) is the base model in the 2023 Trek Émonda ALR range, offering a suite of relatively affordable components alongside a frameset and groupset worthy of future upgrades.

As with most bikes at this price point, not every stock part sparkles, but the Émonda ALR 5 nevertheless impresses as an alternative to identikit carbon race bikes .

Trek Émonda ALR 5 frameset

As with the latest Specialized Allez Sprint , the updated aluminium frameset is the headline act on the Émonda ALR.

Like its carbon sibling, it features a mix of round tubing and truncated aerofoil – or ' Kammtail' – shapes.

The frame is constructed from Trek’s 'ultra-light' 300 Series Alpha aluminium, while the fork is made from carbon fibre.

Trek says a painted, size-56cm Émonda ALR frame weighs 1,257g, while the fork is said to weigh 406g.

That’s just 34g heavier than Trek’s Émonda SL carbon frameset (£2,950), which uses Trek’s second-tier carbon layup (Ultralight 500 Series OCLV Carbon) and has a claimed weight of 1,245g and 384g for the fork.

If you wanted to drop any serious weight from the frame, you’d need to step up to the Émonda SLR frameset (£4,900), which features a 760g frame and 381g fork.

The Émonda ALR frame is built using Trek’s ‘Invisible Weld Technology’, which (as the name suggests) helps hide the tube joints for a more seamless look.

Those at the rear dropouts aside, the resulting welds are certainly less prominent than those on the Allez Sprint or Cannondale CAAD13 .

The new Émonda ALR frameset also uses a T47 threaded bottom bracket .

Improved aerodynamics

At the front end of the frameset, Trek has adopted an integrated cable-routing solution similar to that on the Allez Sprint and Cervélo Soloist .

This sees the gear cables and brake hoses route externally of the handlebar and stem, and enter the frame through a slotted headset top cap.

This and the aero tubing are claimed to improve the aerodynamic efficiency of the Émonda ALR compared to its predecessor, although Trek doesn’t offer any specific figures to quantify this.

Though I’d prefer Trek to be up-front about the magnitude (or otherwise) of any potential performance boost, I suspect most prospective buyers won’t be overly fussed.

The Émonda ALR isn’t attempting to compete with the best aero road bikes , and the cables and hoses have likely been hidden for aesthetic reasons as much as performance ones.

As I’ve explored before, the performance gains from fully internal cable routing are fairly small and the downsides (such as more complex headset servicing ) can be irritating.

This style of solution does at least allow for a wide range of easy adjustments for bike fit purposes, though, and there’s no denying it lends the bike a premium, modern look.

In fact, it was notable how many admiring comments the Émonda ALR 5 attracted during testing, from cyclists and non-cyclists alike.

While the ‘Azure to Living Coral Fade’ paintjob wouldn’t be my first choice, if you like getting attention for having a 'cool bike', it would seem this is a solid option.

What about mudguards?

One notable omission from the Émonda ALR is mounting points for mudguards or fenders .

While dry-bottom obsessed riders, such as my friend and colleague Jack Luke , have cried foul and made their misgivings on this subject clear, I’m not sure it’s a huge loss.

It’s true that tastefully hidden mounts, such as those on the Trek Domane SLR , don’t add much weight or detract from a bike’s looks when not in use.

However, it’s also fair to say the Émonda ALR (like the Allez Sprint) is intended to be a race bike and – for better or worse – most road racing bikes don’t have mudguard mounts these days.

In any case, if you want an aluminium road bike for year-round riding, Trek also offers the Domane AL , which has a plethora of mounts available for mudguards, extra bottles and more.

Trek Émonda ALR 5 geometry and handling

The Trek Émonda ALR 5 adopts the same H1.5 geometry featured on the latest carbon Émonda and Trek Madone SLR .

This sits in the middle of Trek’s previous pro-style H1 and more relaxed H2 fit geometries. It means most riders should be able to customise the front end to get their preferred fit – whether that’s long and slammed or shorter and more upright.

In terms of its overall aggressiveness, the Émonda ALR sits between the Allez Sprint and CAAD13.

With 391mm of reach and 563mm of stack on my size-56cm test bike, it’s a little higher and shorter than an equivalently sized Allez Sprint.

While the head tube angle is shared with the Allez Sprint at 73.5 degrees, the Émonda ALR has 3mm more fork trail, which slows down the handling slightly.

Overall, the Émonda ALR’s handling still feels light and nimble, though just a touch more mellow than the Allez Sprint’s.

It’s also notable that the Émonda ALR frameset is available in eight sizes, from 47 to 62cm, compared to six sizes (from 49 to 61cm) for the Allez Sprint.

Trek Émonda ALR 5 build

As with most bikes at this price, the Émonda ALR 5’s build is somewhat of a mixed bag.

Trek has wisely specced Shimano 105 R7000 , the Japanese brand’s highly rated 11-speed workhorse groupset.

You get climbing-friendly 50/34-tooth chainrings up front, paired with a short-cage rear derailleur and an 11-30 tooth cassette.

Finishing kit is by Bontrager (Trek’s in-house wheel and component brand), in the form of a basic aluminium seatpost, stem and set of round handlebars.

While it lacks a posh carbon seatpost, the use of a round, 27.2mm post means aftermarket upgrade options are plentiful.

It’s the same story up front – no surprises or odd standards, just a 1-1/8in steerer and a 31.8mm handlebar clamp.

In an era when the use of proprietary parts on road bikes seems to be ever increasing, such simplicity and wide-ranging compatibility feels like a breath of fresh air.

In terms of wheels and tyres, Trek has specced a set of basic Bontrager alloy wheels paired with 700x25c Bontrager R1 Hard-Case Lite clincher tyres.

While the alloy Bontrager hubs and round spokes are fairly run of the mill, the Bontrager Paradigm SL rims are at least tubeless-ready and have a healthily wide, 21mm internal rim width . This helps plump the tyres up to around 28.5mm at 70psi/4.8 bar.

Trek Émonda ALR 5 ride impressions

Out on the road, the Émonda ALR 5 is an easy bike to get along with.

It has a marginally more relaxed personality than the Allez Sprint, but for many this will be a plus (the Allez Sprint is very racy).

Like that bike, though, the Émonda ALR belies its 9.04kg weight, feeling quick to respond to inputs and generally easy to manoeuvre.

Shimano’s 105 R7000 groupset remains as impressive as ever. Shifts are slick and fast at both ends, with excellent braking.

Unsurprisingly, the low-end Bontrager tyres disappoint compared to the best road bike tyres currently available, and make the bike feel sluggish when trying to ride fast. Upgrading these alone would likely do wonders for the whole package.

The Bontrager finishing kit is nothing flashy, but it all does the job and can be replaced easily if you have particular tastes or bike fit requirements.

The only part I didn’t get on with was the Bontrager Verse Comp saddle. It has a lot more padding than I’m used to and I quickly swapped it out for something firmer and shorter (a Giant Fleet SL).

It’s a shame Trek didn’t spec the excellent Bontrager Aeolus saddle, versions of which come with higher-end Émonda and Madone builds, but that’s a minor gripe.

The ride quality is also impressive, especially at the rear end.

While dropped seatstays and carbon seatposts are often lauded for their comfort-enhancing properties, the Émonda ALR manages to achieve a smooth ride without either.

The front end, with its stiff carbon fork and basic alloy bars, is firmer. Careful adjustment of the tyre pressures went a long way to mitigating this, though.

The Émonda ALRs tyre clearance is officially capped at 28mm, as on the previous version , but in practice there’s ample room for more.

Trek Émonda ALR 5 bottom line

The Trek Émonda ALR 5 joins an increasing number of high-quality aluminium road bikes.

Despite its alloy construction, it’s only marginally heavier than the mid-tier carbon Émonda and offers an appealing mix of classic looks and modern tech.

Likewise, if you want a road racing bike with Trek on the down tube, then the Émonda ALR is one of the cheapest entry points and it doesn’t disappoint in terms of performance.

Hitting this price inevitably means compromises in the build, but (tyres aside) everything does a respectable job, and – best of all – can be easily customised to suit your personal tastes.

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• Emonda ALR 5

Trek Emonda ALR 5

Emonda ALR 5 is a race-ready road bike with a top-tier alloy frame that's intensely light, fast, and far more pocket-friendly than carbon bikes of its caliber. Its lightweight frame is built with top-tier road racing H1.5 geometry, with an integrated cockpit and Kammtail tube shapes for aerodynamic advantage. It's equipped with a dependable 105 drivetrain and hydraulic disc brakes that stop on a dime no matter the weather, making it the perfect lightweight alloy bike for club rides and race days alike. It's right for you if... You want all the advantages of a bike built to be the lightest in its class, with a wallet-friendly alloy frame that has the sleek looks and handling you'd expect only from a carbon frame. You also want the confident stopping power disc brakes provide. The tech you get An ultralight 300 Series Alpha Aluminum frame with aerodynamic Kammtail shaped tubes and Invisible Weld Technology, an Emonda SL carbon fork that absorbs vibration from the road, internal cable routing in both the frame and fork, a full 2x11 Shimano 105 drivetrain for dependable shifting, powerful flat-mount hydraulic disc brakes, and tubeless ready wheels. The final word Emonda ALR 5 gives you the sleek looks of carbon without the sticker shock. Its advanced alloy frame is built to perform, and pairs with disc brakes and a reliable Shimano 105 drivetrain to give it the race-ready edge. Why you'll love it: - The all-new frame is lighter and sleeker than previous ALR models and features aerodynamic Kammtail tubes with even cleaner cable routing - It climbs fast, corners on rails, and descends with confidence - Disc brakes offer better braking performance and extra clearance for wider, more comfortable tires - It shares the race geometry of our highest-end carbon Émonda race bikes, and it gives you a ride quality that stands up in every way to far more expensive carbon bikes - Internal cable routing extends the life of your cables and adds to the bike's sleek look Features: Lightest in its class Emonda ALR was built with our best and lightest 300 Series Alpha Aluminum and a gram-trimming design to keep things light, fast, and fun. Race-ready geometry An optimized H1.5 race geometry, developed in collaboration with Trek-Segafredo, puts you in the right position for power. Refined integration Integrated cable routing cleans up the cockpit and makes Emonda ALR even faster in the wind. Faster than ever Emonda ALR's new Kammtail aero tube shaping keeps things light and fast wherever you ride – whether you're powering up climbs or racing across flats. Shimano 105 With shift technology inherited from mechanical Ultegra and Dura-Ace, Shimano 105 gives you top-shelf shifting at a budget-friendly price. Whether you're commuting year-round or training for the big race, Shimano 105 is a workhorse drivetrain that won't hold you back as you grow in the sport.

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Trek Emonda ALR 5 - 2024

Emonda ALR 5 Disc is a super light and responsive alloy road race bike. Its advanced Kammtail alloy tube shapes and H1.5 race geometry give it the sleek looks and handling of a carbon bike and place it at an alloy price point. Paired with big upgrades on parts, like a dependable Shimano 105 drivetrain and powerful hydraulic disc brakes that stop in any weather, this bike is built to perform on club rides and races alike. IT'S RIGHT FOR YOU IF… You want all the advantages of a bike built to for featherweight performance in a wallet-friendly alloy frame that has the sleek looks and handling you'd expect only from a carbon frame, and the confident stopping power that disc brakes provide. THE TECH YOU GET An ultralight 300 Series Alpha Aluminum frame with Kammtail shaped tubes for increased aerodynamics, Invisible Weld Technology, an Emonda SL carbon fork that absorbs vibration from the road, internal cable routing in both the frame and fork, a full 2x12 Shimano 105 drivetrain for dependable shifting, powerful flat-mount hydraulic disc brakes, and tubeless ready wheels. THE FINAL WORD An advanced alloy frame that looks and performs like carbon and a reliable Shimano 105 drivetrain give this race-ready ride an incredible amount of versatility. WHY YOU'LL LOVE IT - This ultralight alloy frame is designed for racing and packs in super tidy cable routing - It climbs fast, corners on rails, and descends with confidence - Kammtail tube shapes help make Emonda ALR even faster than before - It shares the geometry of our highest-end carbon Emonda race bikes, and it gives you a ride quality that stands up in every way to far more expensive carbon bikes - Internal cable routing extends the life of your cables and adds to the bike's sleek look

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• Emonda ALR 5

Trek Emonda ALR 5

Emonda ALR 5 is a race-ready road bike with a top-tier alloy frame that's intensely light, fast, and far more pocket-friendly than carbon bikes of its caliber. Its lightweight frame is built with top-tier road racing H1.5 geometry, with an integrated cockpit and Kammtail tube shapes for aerodynamic advantage. It's equipped with a dependable 105 drivetrain and hydraulic disc brakes that stop on a dime no matter the weather, making it the perfect lightweight alloy bike for club rides and race days alike. It's right for you if... You want all the advantages of a bike built to be the lightest in its class, with a wallet-friendly alloy frame that has the sleek looks and handling you'd expect only from a carbon frame. You also want the confident stopping power disc brakes provide. The tech you get An ultralight 300 Series Alpha Aluminum frame with aerodynamic Kammtail shaped tubes and Invisible Weld Technology, an Emonda SL carbon fork that absorbs vibration from the road, internal cable routing in both the frame and fork, a full 2x11 Shimano 105 drivetrain for dependable shifting, powerful flat-mount hydraulic disc brakes, and tubeless ready wheels. The final word Emonda ALR 5 gives you the sleek looks of carbon without the sticker shock. Its advanced alloy frame is built to perform, and pairs with disc brakes and a reliable Shimano 105 drivetrain to give it the race-ready edge. Why you'll love it: - The all-new frame is lighter and sleeker than previous ALR models and features aerodynamic Kammtail tubes with even cleaner cable routing - It climbs fast, corners on rails, and descends with confidence - Disc brakes offer better braking performance and extra clearance for wider, more comfortable tires - It shares the race geometry of our highest-end carbon Émonda race bikes, and it gives you a ride quality that stands up in every way to far more expensive carbon bikes - Internal cable routing extends the life of your cables and adds to the bike's sleek look Features: Lightest in its class Emonda ALR was built with our best and lightest 300 Series Alpha Aluminum and a gram-trimming design to keep things light, fast, and fun. Race-ready geometry An optimized H1.5 race geometry, developed in collaboration with Trek-Segafredo, puts you in the right position for power. Refined integration Integrated cable routing cleans up the cockpit and makes Emonda ALR even faster in the wind. Faster than ever Emonda ALR's new Kammtail aero tube shaping keeps things light and fast wherever you ride – whether you're powering up climbs or racing across flats. Shimano 105 With shift technology inherited from mechanical Ultegra and Dura-Ace, Shimano 105 gives you top-shelf shifting at a budget-friendly price. Whether you're commuting year-round or training for the big race, Shimano 105 is a workhorse drivetrain that won't hold you back as you grow in the sport.

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Review: Trek Emonda ALR 5, the bike that disc brakes almost broke 

Are the days of the aluminum race bike over? Not quite yet.

I dream of aluminum race bikes. Sturdy, fast, cheap. They’re what most amateur bike racers should be on, if you ask me, but the options are vanishingly few. 

There’s the Specialized Allez Sprint, the current king of the castle, but it’s a $1,700 frameset and is often out of stock. The Cannondale CAAD13 is lovely too, but has been taken about two steps too far away from its racing roots for my liking. Now there’s a third big-brand aluminum option: the Trek Emonda ALR 5. 

I hoped for a bike I could feel confident in recommending to any young or aspiring racer. Something nimble and light, with the right gearing, a ride comparable to carbon, a few nods to modern-day aerodynamic understanding, and clever spec. Not a first road bike, perhaps, but something worth graduating to. Trek came so very close.

This is a bike that will roll off showroom floors for just over $2,000 and looks every bit like a bike three or five times that. The integrated front end, the shapely tubes – from across the street it looks like carbon. 

The Emonda ALR is a cool aluminum race bike. Looks good and rides well. It needs a few tweaks if you really want to get the most out of it, but it’s 90% of the way there straight out of the box. It only misses in a few spots, and that might not even be its own fault. 

The short of it: A good argument for not buying a cheap carbon road bike instead Good stuff: Superb ride quality, excellent handling, great looks Bad stuff: Weight  Total weight: 9.12 kg/20.1 lbs Price: USD $2,300 / AUD $3,000 / £2,150

As aluminum frames go, this one is both good-looking and well-thought-out. It uses Trek’s 300-series Alpha Aluminum and what Trek calls “Invisible Weld Technology,” which smooths out the welds themselves and provides a decidedly carbon-like look. More than one person thought I was on a carbon bike. 

The tubes are hydroformed, a technology that has now been in the bike industry for well over a decade but is crucial to creating the types of tube shapes Trek uses on the Emonda. There are nods to aerodynamics, including a truncated seat tube, big and shapely down tube, deeper head tube, and dropped seatstays. The intention isn’t to compete with the best aero bikes on the market, but a bit of aero efficiency never hurts. 

The frame is light, around 1,260 grams, plus a 400-gram carbon fork. That makes it roughly the same weight (within 50 grams) as the carbon fiber Emonda SL, which sits on the lower end of Trek’s carbon spectrum. And a complete Emonda ALR 5 bike costs as much as the Emonda SL frameset. Behold, the power of aluminum.

Down at the bottom bracket, Trek has gone with the threaded T47 standard, which we have no real problems with. James Huang is a big fan. Dave Rome is sort of ambivalent. I just know it didn’t creak over the last 6 months.

I wish the Emonda ALR had more official tire clearance. This may partly be a limitation of aluminum, but in the end, it’s a decision. The aluminum Domane fits a 40 mm tire. The Emonda ALR will officially only take a 28 mm tire. Now, if you know Trek, you know they have an exceptionally conservative legal department, and you can generally go 4+ mm wider than claimed. But the rear end, in particular, is tighter than I’d prefer on the Emonda ALR. I wouldn’t be comfortable with anything over a 30 (measured). The fork has plenty of room for a 30 or slightly larger. Just know that you’re running afoul of Trek’s official recommendation if you do this, potentially harming things like warranty, which is a shame.

Any modern disc road bike should clear a 30 with no concerns whatsoever. Only 28 is just not enough. Not when pros are winning Milan-San Remo on tires that measure closer to 32. A race bike can and should have clearance for 32s these days. 

Aaargh, integration

I appreciate the thought and care Trek put into bar/stem/brake line integration on this bike. If integrated front ends are truly what consumers are looking for – and the fact that every single road brand is integrating more and more suggests that purchase data shows people want it – then why should we limit such things to the realm of the carbon fiber bourgeoise?

The plebs down here plowing fields in Aluminum Land deserve a clean cockpit too. The Emonda ALR looks great, it looks expensive, and part of that is the fact that Trek bothered to put the front end together with as much thought as they do for bikes five times the price. 

The Emonda ALR runs its brake and shift lines through an entryway at the front of the headset and then down through the frame. All the lines and housing exit right before the bottom bracket and then re-enter behind it. The headset routing is very similar in concept and execution to the design found on the Allez Sprint, though everything stays internal near the bottom bracket on the Specialized.

There are six full pages in the manual dedicated to the headset, brake line routing, proprietary spacer stacking, and all the rest. The fact that James trusted me, the Hammer, to sort this out and put things together properly is a testament to both his trust and his foolishness. Or perhaps this was his plan all along, to put the design to the ultimate test. 

Mercifully the Emonda came mostly built. Unmercifully, it also came with a kinked brake hose right out of the box, which required replacing. And, of course, I would have to do some basic fit adjustments. The kinked line ended up being quite annoying but the fit changes were no big deal. 

The brake lines run down in front of the steerer tube, in between the slightly bulbous head tube and the steerer itself. There are proprietary split spacers to be used instead of round ones. Pulling it all apart and getting it back together is finicky but not impossible, and dropping the bars two cm took less than five minutes. The spacers are annoying relative to some good old-fashioned round ones, but they also allowed me to play with stack without having to run new brake lines.

As internal brake and shift lines go, this is about as good and easy as it gets.

In the end, I ditched all of the spacers and ran the stem “slammed” because the H1.5 geometry (more on this later), in addition to the height necessitated by the cable-entry cap, meant that slammed wasn’t actually that aggressive.

You can use standard round spacers above the stem as you move the stem clamp down the steerer, should you so choose. The sleeker look obviously requires cutting the steer at the new stem height, but for the purposes of setting fit – and because this isn’t my bike – it was nice to be able to throw the ol’ roundies I had floating around my toolbox on the section of steerer above the stem. 

Now, the kinked line. This isn’t really Trek’s fault, except that I’m pretty sure a line that had more than a few short centimeters exposed between the frame and stem probably wouldn’t have had this problem during shipping. Keep that in mind if you travel with this bike: anything with this level of integration needs added care in packing because with such short exposed sections of brake line, the margin for error is smaller. 

Replacing the line was quite straightforward. Lines run down the front of the head tube, inside the upper headset bearing, and then, in this case, down to the front brake via a port in the steerer itself. It all guided through pretty easily. Re-attach, bleed, and I was off to the races. The rear brake would take slightly more effort, as it needs to be fished through a hole near the bottom of the down tube and then on through another set of holes to the caliper, but it’s no worse than any other integrated bike out there right now.

Geometry chart

The Emonda ALR uses the same H1.5 geometry as the latest Madone SLR and carbon Emonda options. It sits, as the name implies, about halfway in between the race-focused H1 geometry and endurance H2 geometry. 

It also sits right in between two of its competitors in this space, the Specialized Allez Sprint and the Cannondale CAAD13. The Allez is more aggressive, the CAAD a bit less so. 

Here’s the full chart: 

I’ll talk about the ride and handling in a moment, but a couple of things to note. The trail is a very standard 56-62 mm for most sizes. The smallest riders, as usual, get absolutely hammered with a 68 mm trail that I’m sure makes the bike feel absolutely nothing like the one I rode (a 56 cm). Sorry, anybody riding a 47 cm.

Wheelbase is about one cm longer than the Allez Sprint, trail is a bit higher, reach is shorter, stack is higher. All these things point to a less race-oriented machine. And that is the case, though not to the point that the Emonda isn’t totally race-worthy. It absolutely is.

Models and pricing

Normally, we drop all the other build options for a given frameset in this section, but because this is an aluminum bike and so few people apparently want aluminum bikes anymore, there are no other build options.

At least, that’s true in the US. The UK market has the ALR 6, which upgrades the 105 mechanical to 105 Di2 for a marginal increase in cost to £2,400. And in the US you can buy framesets on their own for USD $1,200. These have some great paint jobs and would be a fun project.

In fact, if you’re comfortable building bikes from scratch, that’s probably how I would do it. These are really cool frames, extremely well thought out, light, and quite beautiful. But the stock build kits are uninspiring, because Trek had to hit a price point. I would love to take one of these and slowly build it with higher-end second-hand parts over the course of a winter. Total cost would be similar, but you’d end up with a much cooler end product.

As a brief experiment, I put myself into character. The character: me, 20 years old, racing crits every weekend, living on like $700 a month plus race winnings, with $3,000 left over from my student loans. Decison-making: Generally terrible. Acknowledgment that the future exists: Never. FTP: High as it’ll ever be. I popped around the usual buy/sell sites and checked out some deals on groups to see what I could build. This is what I came up with in less than 30 minutes (all prices USD):

Frame : Emonda ALR in one of the cool colors – $1,200 Drivetrain and brakes : Shimano 105 7000 – $700 Wheels : Something carbon that makes a good whoosh noise – $650 on eBay or similar if you’re willing to buy something that isn’t tubeless compatible (go latex tubes for racing instead) Handlebar : Ritchey WCS Neoclassic drop – $99 (eBay) Stem : Ritchey WCS 4-axis – $25 (eBay) Seatpost : Ritchey WCS – $74 (eBay) Saddle : Bontrager Aeolus Comp: $90 Tires : Vittoria Corsa Control 30mm – $35 (not the tubeless version)

Total: $2873 plus $100 or so for cables/housing/other odds and ends. This bike is easily 2.5 pounds lighter than the stock ALR5, makes a better noise, looks cooler, and leaves me about $100 of student loan funds to spend on a week’s worth of post-ride burritos.

Build kit breakdown

My collegiate-racer fever dreams aside, the ALR 5 has a solid, reliable build. It’s a good platform to upgrade off of, if that’s your jam, and it’s perfectly serviceable right out of the box.

I have zero complaints about the Shimano 105 7000 mechanical drivetrain. It shifts, it’s quiet, it’s relatively cheap. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with it. 

I do dislike the rotors, which are the RT70 from Shimano. They are ugly and look cheap. Give me some of that finned goodness. This is 90% aesthetic but aesthetics matter.

The stock gear ratios should be enough for most, but could perhaps go a bit lower if you live somewhere hilly. A 50/34 front chainring setup is matched with an 11-30 cassette. Ten years ago, that would have been ludicrously low, but the bike industry has since realized we’re not all riding around at pro watts all the time, and these days I’d prefer a 32 or even 34 low gear on the back unless I’m racing.

If I am racing, I probably want a 52/36 with that same 11-30 cassette. But that’s a low priority and can be upgraded later.

The rest of the build is uninspiring but adequate. Trek’s component brand Bontrager provides the seatpost, saddle, stem, and handlebars. All are alloy, all are a bit heavy. The Comp VR-C bars have quite a nice bend to them, on the shallow end of the spectrum but not silly-shallow. The transition from hoods to tops is nice and smooth and the drop curvature is superb. I found them very comfortable.

There are no surprises, integration headaches, or odd standards, just a 27.2 seatpost, 1 1/8″ steerer, and round bars. All of it can be easily upgraded or swapped out.

The Bontrager Verse Comp saddle is too heavily padded for my liking. I did a couple of rides on it and it wasn’t terrible; it just wasn’t great. It’s also quite long, and I’m used to short saddles these days. Bontrager’s excellent Aeolus would have been a better match for the bike and its ambitions.

The Bontrager Paradigm wheels are heavy (roughly 1,750 g claimed) but do feature a nicely modern 21 mm internal rim width, which spreads the 700×25 hotpatched tire out to just under 28mm. The tires are Bontrager R1 Hardcase-Lite with a wire bead. They are hot garbage that should be removed immediately.  Wire bead ? Are you kidding me? Bontrager makes some nice tires these days; the R1 Hardcase is decidedly not one of them.

I took them off, riding only once on those turds of tires before swapping them out to a set of Vittoria Corsa Controls. I went from disliking the bike to liking it with that one switch. Tires are important. Granted, Corsa Controls aren’t cheap.

Ride report

That brings us to the ride. All of the figures and facts above combine in sometimes unexpected ways, mixing and melding into a ride quality that is genuinely quite impressive (once you take the terrible tires off).

I tested this bike with three sets of tires/wheels. First, the stock Bontragers. Awful. Second, the Corsa Controls and butyl tubes on the stock Paradigm wheelset. Great! A better bet would have been a good tubeless tire, since the Paradigm rims are tubeless-ready, but I didn’t have any handy that were narrow enough.

Finally, I put on a set of Continental GP5000s with latex tubes in on a set of Roval Alpinist carbon wheels. The Corsas alone dropped over 200 grams off the stock tire weight, and the Roval setup dropped more than a pound (626 grams, to be precise) off the stock setup. The overall change in ride quality from both changes was dramatic.

As a result, I’m going to ignore the stock tires for this ride quality analysis. The R1s are so bad, and tires are so important, that it feels unfair to besmirch an otherwise-good bike with their wire bead stink. If you’re reading this review, you care enough to swap them out. My opinions here are based on the stock wheelset + Vittoria Corsa Control + butyl tube setup. 

This is a comfortable aluminum bike. Trek has lots of marketing copy on its website about how its hydroforming processes and the Invisible Weld Technology combine to allow its engineers to create a frame with significantly more compliance than the aluminum of old. I would say they aren’t lying. 

The rear end, in particular, cuts road buzz nicely. The 27.2 seatpost helps, and if you upgraded to a carbon post it would further improve flex and thus comfort. The big aluminum handlebars are stiff and the front end feels harsher than the rear. I’m sort of OK with this; a stiff front end feels like it wants to race, to me, and I like that.

The size 56 I tested has a 73.5º head angle and 58 mm of trail. Both figures are about spot on for a bike that wants to be race-worthy but not race-only. The handling is therefore as I expected: predictable, on the twitchy end of the spectrum these days but nothing extreme. Ten years ago, this would have been called endurance bike geometry. But now we know better. 

This is supposed to be a race bike, and nothing in the handling would prevent it from finding success there. It is not a pure crit machine in the way that the Allez Sprint is (that bike has a more aggressive trail figure of 55 mm, plus a lower BB and longer reach). The Emonda ALR is a road racer. It’s well-balanced and goes where you point it. 

The rich get richer, the poor get heavier

Behind this generally positive review is an unshakeable feeling that something is missing. I’m not sure the bike I dream of, and that I was hoping the Emonda ALR would be, really exists anymore. In riding the Emonda ALR and perusing the other options currently available in the same price range, the only conclusion I can draw is that it’s very, very difficult for a big bike brand to build a cheap race bike these days. 

The bike I want is a Cannondale CAAD10 from around 2015. The model with Shimano 105 went for about US$1,700 – roughly US$2,200 in today’s inflated money. In other words, nearly identical to the Emonda ALR 5. That bike weighed in the low-17 pound (7.7 kg) range. It had decent wheels and snappy handling and pretty much everybody who reviewed one or raced one called it some version of a superbike killer. It was so good. 

The Emonda ALR is better in some ways. It’s more comfortable, for one. It’s probably more aerodynamic, simply because of the integrated front end, though we don’t have any figures to prove this. It fits a much bigger tire (albeit not big enough). But it also weighs closer to 20 pounds, has pigs for wheels, and comes stock with the worst road tires I’ve ridden in years. The geometry is a bit softer, a bit more forgiving; the handling is good but I would personally prefer it to be snappier for racing. 

There is one obvious culprit for many (though not all) of these ills, of course. Disc brakes.

I’m about as far from a disc hater as you can find, and would prefer them on almost any bike I build and ride. But there is a reality to them: to build a light, nimble-feeling road race bike with disc brakes costs a lot of money. You can get to 6.8 kg, or well under, but it will cost significantly more than it did back when a rim-brake CAAD10 could get there for $1,700 plus a few smart upgrades. 

Again, the Allez Sprint – the spiritual heir to the old CAADs – is $1,700 for the frameset alone. 

Trek’s little tagline for this bike is “Never heavy. Always metal.” Which is true – if you look at the frameset. Sub-1,300 grams is superb. But the various parts needed to build a bike at this price point, with discs and thru axles and all the other complications of the modern road bike, mean that heavy is exactly what the stock version of the ALR 5 is.

None of this is directly Trek’s fault, unless you prescribe to the Big Disc conspiracy that holds that all big bike brands hoisted discs on us only to sell more bikes (which I do not). But there is no question that discs have made it harder to build a bike I would want to race for a price I could have afforded when I was racing. We have $8,000 bikes with 105 now; where does one turn if you’re racing collegiate crits, living on microwave pizzas, and want to go fast as hell? The Emonda ALR may be among the best of a dwindling bunch, but even it doesn’t quite get there. 

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Trek’s Latest Émonda ALR Is as Good as Aluminum Road Bikes Get

Dialed geometry, smooth welds, and an excellent ride feel add up to make the latest aluminum Émonda ALR a great alternative to pricier carbon bikes.

The Takeaway: The updated Trek Émonda ALR is thoroughly modern, yet simple and fully upgradable. Just the way an aluminum road bike should be.

Trek Émonda ALR 5

The Émonda ALR borrows its geometry (down to the millimeter) from its much pricier (and lighter weight) carbon fiber version of the Émonda. This means riders get the same, proven, race-winning geometry of the much pricier carbon model for around one thousand dollars less.

While the cost savings might be the most enticing feature of the ALR for many riders, the updated aluminum frame is the showstopper here. Much like its carbon version, the Émonda ALR features a mix of aerofoil (Kammtail) shaped tubes along with more traditional round profiles. Trek uses its 300 Series Alpha aluminum for the frame, which weighs in at 1,257 grams (claimed), for a painted size 56cm. It’s combined with a full carbon fork that adds 406g to the total package. This is impressive—weighing a mere 34g more than Trek’s carbon Émonda SL variant of the frame (which sells for $1,000 more than the ALR).

The Émonda ALR frame is also refreshingly free from proprietary standards. The bike uses a T47 threaded bottom bracket, a round 27.2mm diameter seatpost, and a completely normal handlebar and stem combination using a 31.8 bar clamp and 1-⅛ steer tube. All of these things make the Émonda ALR an easy-to-live-with bike that can be upgraded and customized as riders see fit.

Alloy-frame aficionados have divided opinions about the appearance of welds. Some prefer to see the handy work of the welder and how tidy they can make the welds, while others prefer not to see the welds at all. Fans of chunky welds will be disappointed as Trek employed its Invisible Weld Technology on the Émonda ALR. This technique creates an incredibly seamless look to the frame. At arm's length (and particularly with the black frame), riders can easily mistake the Émonda ALR for a pricier carbon bike.

Another big change is at the Émonda’s front end. Trek implemented an integrated cable routing setup that’s very similar to the style used on the Allez Sprint. This setup sees the cable housing and brake hoses run externally along the bar and stem and then enter the frame through the top headset bearing. This kind of integration has the advantage of allowing riders to easily swap stem lengths or handlebars while still achieving a rather clean-looking cockpit. While Trek avoids the major headaches of cockpit customization with this cable routing solution, like many other recent road and gravel bikes, it suffers the added complexity and expense of routine service (such as replacing cables and housing or servicing headset bearings).

Unlike high-end bikes with electronic shifting—since the Émonda ALR is only sold with mechanical shifting—there are double the cables routing through the headset. Bikes with similar routing often face more rapid deterioration in shift performance (compared to bikes where things are routed externally) due to the tight bends the derailleur housing must make to fit into the space. It makes replacing cables and housing a major headache and costly if you’re not doing it yourself.

According to Cadence Cycling Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, replacing a single-shift cable on a bike with through the headset routing can cost as much as $200 in labor. This is because shops tend to charge for this work by the hour and the time it takes to complete this service varies based on how complicated fishing the housing and cable is through the frame. To perform the same repair on a bike with externally routed cables, I was quoted a flat $25 labor charge.

Fit and Geometry

The Émonda ALR features the same H1.5 geometry that Trek uses on its Émonda and Madone carbon models. This geometry splits the difference between the aggressive H1 fit and the more relaxed H2 version. Meaning that a majority of riders should be able to find a good riding position regardless of whether they want to be long and low or more upright.

Additionally, Trek offers the Émonda ALR in a whopping eight sizes. The smallest size 47cm frame should be good for riders as short as 5’0”, and the largest size 62cm fits riders up to 6’5”, according to Trek.

The ALR Build

Trek currently offers only one complete bike Émonda ALR build. It features Shimano’s excellent 105 11-speed mechanical groupset, along with a Bontrager alloy bar, stem, and seatpost. Rounding things out is a pair of Bontrager alloy Paradigm SL wheels, which are very traditional with round J-bend spokes laced 2x but feature a 21mm internal width and are tubeless-ready. However, riders need to purchase the necessary items to turn them into tubeless wheels (including tubeless-specific tires, valves, and sealant).

Trek prices the Émonda ALR at $2,300 for the complete bike and $1,200 for the frameset.

Trek confirmed that the Émonda ALR will receive an update to 12-speed 105 in the near future. Unfortunately, Trek representatives have not told us how much it will cost or the complete specification list. (But for reference, a 12-speed 105-equipped Domane AL 5 sells for $2,000)

Ride Impressions

Aluminum road bikes often have a reputation for being overly stiff, harsh, and cheap (in a bad way). However, these traits are generally not found on modern and well-engineered aluminum frames. (And it’s such a pervasive stereotype that my colleague Matt Phillips wrote a whole column about it .)

While some bikes lean into aspects of that reputation (the Allez Sprint is an unapologetically stiff-as-hell criterium racing machine), the Émonda ALR takes a slightly different approach. Since it’s modeled after the carbon Émonda (a bike largely intended to win mountain stages in Grand Tour races), the ALR is designed with all-day comfort in mind. This makes the overall ride more relaxed and comfortable compared to the Allez Sprint and should be a plus for many riders.

Even if some might consider 11-speed 105 outdated (due to the recent launch of the 12-speed 105 R7100 components ), Shimano’s 105 R7000-series drivetrain is an excellent and well-proven groupset. The 11-speed group has precise and crisp shifting front and rear and also impresses with powerful braking at the wheels and excellent control of the levers.

In contrast, the most disappointing part of the Émonda ALR’s build kit is its tires. Which would be the absolute first thing I upgrade. The Bontrager R1 wire-bead road tires weigh 360g per tire and are very much included to help meet the Émonda’s price point. They make the bike feel sluggish in a straight line while also not helping to foster any cornering confidence. A swap to even a mid-range tire from any of the major tire brands will probably drop around 30-40g of rotating weight per wheel and dramatically improve the ride quality of the bike.

I found the rest of the ALR’s Bontrager finishing kit perfectly serviceable. The seatpost, stem, and saddle were nothing flashy but did the job. The handlebar has a rather classic feeling bend, drop, and reach. Best of all, if any of these stock items don’t work for you, it’s simple to swap any of them out for a preferred version.

Out of the box, I found the Émonda’s ride quality quite good but perhaps a bit on the firm side. Lowering the tire pressure to around 68-72 psi range greatly improved the comfort. And once I swapped to a set of Continental GP5000 tires, the Émonda ALR really began to shine on the road.

There’s nothing gimmicky about the Émonda ALR. It’s a classic road bike in the simplest sense of the term. Riding it for the first time felt familiar and reassuring. The geometry didn’t require me to adjust to the bike—I could just get on and go. Even on that first ride, I felt like I could dive into corners with the assurance of knowing what the Émonda ALR would do when I leaned in. The geometry was a perfect mix of stability and responsiveness with a dash of that springiness that good metal bikes have.

On flat and rolling terrain, the Émonda ALR is right up there with almost any non-aero road bike of the last few years. Its dialed geometry makes it a pleasure to descend on, and the frame has the right snap to be a truly wonderful climber.

What holds the ALR back on the uphills, though, are the stock wheels. At 1,800 grams, they’re not as heavy as some wheels on bikes in this price range, but they just feel soft and unresponsive. After upgrading the tires, a new set of wheels would be my next purchase for the Émonda ALR.

One aspect of the Émonda ALR that feels a bit dated for a road bike made in 2023: Trek caps the bike’s maximum tire clearance at 28mm. In practice, there is enough room to comfortably run 30 or even 32mm tires (depending on the tire and rim combination). Still, I would feel better with a bit more official wiggle room, especially as it’s gotten harder to predict the measured width of various tire and rim combinations.

Overall, the Émonda ALR gets way more things right than it does wrong. While it's easy to nitpick things like its tires and wheels, Trek uses these parts to get the Émonda ALR to its modest price. And the ALR is up there with some of the best aluminum race bikes. It’s an impeccably finished and thoroughly well-designed aluminum bike that’s only a few grams heavier than its mid-tier carbon version. Plus, the Émonda ALR shares geometry with its pricier siblings and uses no proprietary standards or parts. With the ALR, Trek made a bike that nails all the things that have always made me love aluminum race bikes.

Test Editor Dan Chabanov got his start in cycling as a New York City bike messenger but quickly found his way into road and cyclocross racing, competing in professional cyclocross races from 2009 to 2019 and winning a Master’s National Championship title in 2018. Prior to joining Bicycling in 2021, Dan worked as part of the race organization for the Red Hook Crit, as a coach with EnduranceWERX, as well as a freelance writer and photographer. 

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Émonda ALR 5

55.000.000 VND

It's right for you if...

You want all the advantages of a bike built to be the lightest in its class, with a wallet-friendly alloy frame that has the sleek looks and handling you'd expect only from a carbon frame. You also want the confident stopping power that disc brakes provide.

The tech you get

An ultralight 300 Series Alpha Aluminium frame with aerodynamic Kammtail shaped tubes and Invisible Weld Technology, an Émonda SL carbon fork that absorbs vibration from the road, internal cable routing in both the frame and fork, a full 2x11 Shimano 105 drivetrain for dependable shifting, powerful flat-mount hydraulic disc brakes and tubeless-ready wheels.

The final word

The Émonda ALR 5 gives you the sleek looks of carbon without the sticker shock. Its advanced alloy frame is built to perform, and pairs with disc brakes and a reliable Shimano 105 drivetrain to give it the race-ready edge.

• The all-new frame is lighter and sleeker than previous ALR models and features aerodynamic Kammtail tubes with even cleaner cable routing
• It climbs fast, corners on rails, and descends with confidence
• Disc brakes offer better braking performance and extra clearance for wider, more comfortable tyres
• It shares the race geometry of our highest-end carbon Émonda race bikes, and it gives you a ride quality that stands up in every way to far more expensive carbon bikes
• Internal cable routing extends the life of your cables and adds to the bike’s sleek look
• SPECIFICATIONS

300 Series Alpha Aluminum

Trek's premium-grade aluminum is hydroformed into size-specific tubes that provide the perfect balance of stiffness and weight.

Invisible weld technology

Revolutionary welding technology creates a better connection with each tube junction, increasing strength while using less material.

Carbon fork

Lightweight fork with carbon fiber legs soaks up hand-numbing road vibration.

Blendr stem

Bontrager stem technology lets you clip your gear directly to the stem for clean looks, maximum user friendliness.

Flat Mount disc brakes

All-new Flat Mount disc brakes are more elegant, lighter, smaller, and cleaner than traditional disc brakes, providing superior performance and stopping power under harsh conditions.

More options

Émonda ALR 4 Disc

42.900.000 VND

Domane SL 5 [2023] Gen 3

89.000.000 VND

LIGHTWEIGHT PERFECTION ALUMINUM

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All-new Trek Emonda ALR takes lightweight frame tech to alloy models

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When Trek announced their Emonda carbon road bike line , they backed up their “world’s lightest” claims with an impressive frame and fork and an even more impressive 10.25lb (4.6kg) complete bike. Now, they’re adding an alloy Emonda ALR option that’s also lightweight yet far more affordable.

To earn the Emonda badge, the frame uses their top-level 300-series Alpha Aluminum that’s been hydroformed into size specific tubes, then welded together using a no-see technique that produces smooth joints that use less material to save weight.

The process is called Invisible Weld Technology, which they say produces stronger, stiffer welds despite using less material. Video, pics and more details below…

Trek told us the unpainted frame is 1050g (56), and a painted fork is 358g w/240mm steerer.

Like the ultralight Emonda carbon models, the ALR uses their H2 race geometry, E2 tapered headtube (standard 1-1/8″ to 1-1/2″) and wide Pressfit BB 86.5, meaning this bike is made to go fast. Other frame details include a braze-on front derailleur mount (no need to add a clamp if you’re getting the frameset) and external cable routing.

We’ve requested a more technical description of the welding process (update as we get it), but the frame is only part of the story. The complete bikes come equipped with built-in extras like the a Blendr stem with integrated light/computer mount, and it has Duotrap S compatibility (their ANT+/Bluetooth 4.0 speed/cadence sensor, sold separately for about $60).

You also get a complete group, so the Emonda ALR 6 with Ultregra gets a full Ultegra group from chain to brakes to cassette and everything else. There are no mis-matched parts or down spec’d bits to cut costs. A full carbon fiber tapered fork completes the package.

The Emonda ALR will initially come in two builds, the “6” with full Ultegra, Bontrager Race tubeless ready wheels with R2 tires, and a Bontrager cockpit with alloy short reach/drop bar and carbon seatpost for $2,249.99. Our local Trek Bike Store says complete bike weight is claimed at 17.25lb (7.82kg).

The Emonda ALR 5 drops down to a full Shimano 105 group with non-series Bontrager tubeless ready alloy wheels, R1 tires and a full alloy Bontrager cockpit for $1,759.99. Claimed weight is 18.77lb (8.51kg), colors will be the gloss black/hi-viz yellow and blue shown here, plus a racing red coming soon.

The frameset shares the same paint scheme as the “6” and comes with an FSA sealed cartridge bearing headset for $989.99. The frames have a lifetime warranty carrying a 275lb rider weight limit.

Just for fun, here’s the companion lifestyle video.

All three models shown here are available now and should hit stores soon. Our sources tell us there’ll also be an Emonda ALR 5 with Tiagra, an ALR 8 with Dura-Ace mechanical and ALR 9 with Dura-Ace Di2 coming soon. That last model suggests they’ll have an electronic-only frame, too, since these first models only have external cable routing. At the very top, in terms of light weight anyway, will be the ALR 10 with a full SRAM Red group.

TrekBikes.com

Tyler Benedict is the Founder of Bikerumor.com , where he’s been writing about the latest bikes, components, and cycling technology for almost two decades. Prior to that, Tyler launched and built multiple sports nutrition brands and consumer goods companies, mostly as an excuse to travel and ride in new places.

Based in North Carolina, Tyler also loves the Vanlife & family adventure travel and is always on the lookout for the next shiny new part and off-grid adventure.

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looks like a rebadged Allez

The invisible welding looks a lot like what pretty much every other company calls smooth welding. And has been using for years. You weld the tube normally then go back over it without filler material and “reweld” it. The process smooths out the weld and helps it wet out. REVOLUTIONARY TREK!!!

Interesting that they are using hydroformed tubes but didn’t choose the aero tube shapes of the Madone design.

@Robert W – my sources say the Madone is on the way out. & if the story is about weight vs. areo it would make sense to mimick the emonda shapes. Also, the 2 series aluminum frames are already Madone-esqe.

I always find it funny that companies state how they’ve extensively optimized tube shapes for their flagship carbon fiber bikes, but then seemingly can successfully apply those shapes to materials with very different properties. There is a little marketing lie in their somewhere.

Anyway. Glad to see these Al bikes. CF has been getting too pricey fort me.

I like how they quote an unpainted frame weight, then only offer it in a painted variety. But lets also make sure we pair that unpainted weight with a painted fork weight.

Looks legit. Seeing they are coming out of the Giant factory why not put on the overdrive 2 fork and stem and really take it next level?

Aluminum, how quaint.

Why not sell them unpainted if they weight them unpainted? JBikes if I read you right what your saying is the shapes have far mo9re to do with design than engineering.all thes tube shapes are probaly coming from kitchen appliance design firm and they bs riders who rarely go over 20mph that aero is worth buying a new bike for

That Bontrager cycling kit is pretty damn nice. “Understated” as the hipsters like to say.

How about US made aluminum, with giant tubes, some internal routing, and some really funky paint jobs. Oh wait…

Hasn”t specialized already been doing this for like 3 years now? And better welded joints? Revolutionary-nothing is more like it, just another slightly modified copy frame.

Roy – no I was just commenting on the fact it’s stated how non aero tube shapes are optimized for carbon fiber for whatever properties (stiffness, weight, ride) but then a vastly different material can achieve the same with the same tube shapes? I’m sure they vary material thickness and such, but given the vast difference in CF and Al, I’d think tube shapes would vary more between the two materials, unless the CF and Al frames ride completely different.

Jesus, tough crowd. Lightweight aluminum, full component groups and small price tags… Sounds good to me.

Full Ultegra! Well… except the wheels. Of which, the Bontrager Race spec is a few notches below Ultegra…

y’all are haters. you can pick on the marketing and on random bits and pieces but in the end this is the bike you’re going to start seeing at all the local crits and races. So they have weird marketing, worry about the bike and what it can do for you.

Aluminum is the new carbon.

Yeah a bunch of haters here, Go buy a Specialized because they are not owned by the big man, Oh wait, Specialized is own by a conglomerate, and Trek is family owned. Seems like most people don’t understand the definition of “the man” Don’t hate on them just because you don’t like it that more people ride Trek than any other brand in the US.

@Durianrider, you’re killing me! Lol

When you think about it, it’s a bike people actually look for: Workhorse, and the no-nonsense but clean aesthetic.

Considering the Propel SLR might not come stateside, as well as the update TCR SLR before it, it’s nice to have another potential alloy option on the market that isn’t an Allez or CAAD.

I really like where Trek is going with their new paint schemes. Very minimal branding and no stupid racing stripes and decals. Keep it premium!

Jbikes: I understand why you’re asking about why two frames with different materials have the same tube shapes, but in fact they probably should have the same shapes.

In the bike industry (and many others), it’s common practice to design using isotropic material properties (e.g., with aluminum) for a first pass. The resulting stiffness (quantified through FEA) ensures you’re getting the most sectional modulus you can out of a given tube shape. Only then do you go back and design a laminate schedule with anisotropic materials (e.g., carbon fiber).

This allows the designer to clearly separate the modulus (stiffness) due to tube shape and the modulus due to the laminate schedule. That way, each can be optimized as a discrete step.

Except for a few corner cases, optimal frame tube shape is material-independent. Surprising but true!

Looks like a great bike at a good price. I love nice aluminum race bikes. But why no H1 geometry option? It irks me that companies (not just Trek) spec the really race oriented stuff at the high-end of the price scale. I know a short head tube doesn’t work for everyone but why not give us the option? What does the size of your wallet have to do with your flexibility?

I’m wondering if some of the frames are anodized, so unpainted weight would be pretty relevant.

JasonK – thanks! Great info. Never really thought of it that way but it makes sense.

I like the emonda and the CrossRip frame for my commuter. I would seriously consider if I was in the market and carbon was not an option.

Man that’s a light frame. Nice to see they are using full groupset specs.

I wonder if the welding is a form of aluminium brazing using a lower melting temperature brazing rod. I think this is what Shimano do with the external reinforcing tabs on the aluminium rims. This is supposed to be lower strength than welding but coming up with some newer technology is not beyond Trek’s resources. Or maybe they have come up with a way to modify the pulse action of a TIG welder with a certain filler wire application. Either way, the old double pass method for aluminium is old hat now.

Most companies claim unpainted frame weights. Use this general guide: If a company says “…painted frame weight is…” then it’s including paint. If they don’t specifically say painted then you can guarantee it’s an unpainted frame weight.

The only reason I wouldn’t buy one of these is the head tube is too tall…

I applaud Trek for coming out with a ‘light’ and ‘inexpensive’ aluminum frameset but I’m still not sold on the H2 geometry.

Sincerely, Worlds longest head tube.

I like the option of a high end aluminum frame as well….but this one misses the mark for me because trek refuses to make any bike with its “racer” H1 geometry that doesn’t cost at least 4,500 for a frameset. If they only would make H1 options of their emonda sl frame or this new all I’d buy one in a second. Trek already makes a million bike models….why not better fit options? Ever since they did away with the 6 series madone the options for the budget conscious racer have gone to zero. Bleh. And more seatmast length options trek!

Nearly the same weight as a Cannondale frame that was first manufactured out of the same material about 6 years ago

I think this will make a GREAT race frame.

Certainly beats trying to replace a carbon frame someone broke for you in that ‘last corner of the criterium’ crash.

If I see one more I’m-so-flexible-I-can-stick-my-head-up-my-ass comment about the lack of H1 geometry, I might give up trolling comments on bike rumor all together. Seriously, 5 years at a Trek dealer and we sold maybe 3 H1 bikes (all as special order). We ordered dozens more project 1 bikes in the ‘normal’ H2. Working now at a Cervelo dealer I have very few people balk at the head tube height, and MOST are running a positive angle on the stem anyways. At 6’3″ I run 14cm of bar drop. I have had zero issue getting a proper fit on stock bikes, including Trek. Currently on the newly updated (i.e. market norm) stack of the 2015 Cervelo S5 I still have 15mm of spacers under my stem. If H2 geo just doesn’t do it for you, grab a Cannonade with a low profile headset cap and go ride. They are making a bike for the largest market, obviously the budget racers this bike is designed for are too busy riding their bikes to complain on Bike Rumor…..

Looks like a great bike for the money and your avg rider. Nothing wrong with that. Kudos too for specing a complete group build, awesome!

Waiting for my ALR 5 to arrive!! Last bike I bought was in 1986, a Myata One Ten. Hopefully this one will last another 29 years.

uhhh… the allez actually looks good

http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bikes/road/allez/allez-comp-race

the only thing actually missing from these frames are some colorway options like the tarmacs

i had a domane and the headtube was too tall.

i might get one of these. its pretty affordable all things considered.

There doesn’t seem too much, if anything at all, to complain about here. The Emonda ALR frame MSRP is right in line with a CAAD10 frame MSRP ($10 cheaper actually). It looks good, and it’s certainly not a heavyweight bike. If it rides as good as it looks, it will be a great deal.

@MikeC – Are you kidding? I haven’t seen anyone refer to a full groupset as including the wheel since like 1999. Some people are just desperate to find something to bitch about. The Bontrager Race wheels are great. They only weigh 200g more than the Ultegras, and unlike every Shimano wheel, they are specced completely with off-the-shelf parts that are easily purchasable in any bike shop.

@Adam – Yes, because Cannondale were the first company with an aluminum racing bike. You forget the Trek, via Klein, were making awesome lightweight aluminum race bikes when Cannondale was still welding together soda cans.

@H1 Lovers – You’re all on crack. A quarter of the Trek pros don’t even ride the H1, and I promise you that you are not that fast. I can also tick off a list of local heroes, Cat 1 and PRO dudes, who get by just fine on the H2, usually preferring it to the H1.

@Psi – And the Trek is clearly much better specced than the Cannondale, with an Ultegra crank and Bontrager Race wheels, not to mention a cockpit that won’t require immediate replacement.

Wait to you see the next gen cannondale frame before you jump on this..

I am happy this exists. Buyers beware if you crash this thing it’s probably going to dent up like tinfoil.

@badbikemechanic – What makes you say that? There is a generation of high end aluminum out there that holds up just fine to the rigors of daily life. I personally have an aluminum Allez that I regularly leave locked up outside of bars, the grocery store, as well as race, and it hasn’t even scratched the anodized finish yet.

As always, opinions abound….and everyone is “right.” The H1 vs. H2 debate is clearly a hotter topic than I thought. What it boils down to though is “choice.”

Trek offers the option, meaning there are people that prefer it. I rode a 60 cm H1 Madone 6 series last year, and absolutely loved it. Sadly it was a team bike and I had to give it back at the end of the year. In looking for a replacement I want a bike with similar geometry, but don’t want to spend 4,500 to have the OPTION to get the geometry I like. The head tube on the H1 is 18 cm…compared with 21 cm on the H2. That is a LARGE difference. I don’t think anyone is right or wrong to ride whatever geometry they like. All I’m saying is that for me…the H1 geometry is perfect, and I don’t need to run a -17 stem to get my preferred position of the bike. Being a pro, being fast or slow, is irrelevant. I would just like to see the option available at a reasonable price point.

These bikes are epic. And yes, they blow the competition out of the water.

About time Trek offers something for the Joe-Racers out there. Yes, carbon is super nice but you guess what: so is aluminum. I have a locally-made Aluminum bike and it rides *amazing*. So did my old Caad7 and I bet Specialized’s aluminum bike is also fantastic. We need more people in the sport, and to do that we need a much lower entry-level bar. if for $2,200 you get a nice Al Trek with good geometry, good wheels (i own the bontis tlr and they’re indestructible and readily serviceable), good parts and cockpit that are either race-ready or hammer-ready, then god bless Trek. For the record i own a cannondale six and it’s a phenomenal bike. but my aluminum rig is my favorite. way to go, Trek – kudos indeed.

Arguing that “some pros ride H2, therefore nobody needs H1” is well, just a poor excuse for an argument. An H1 aluminum Emonda would be a hit, and I would purchase one as soon as it were available. I’ve owned and ridden both H1/H2 models, and greatly prefer the H1. As an aside, direct mount breaks on this beast would be the icing on the cake. Think about it Trek.

This bike compared with the new caad 12 is nothing …

I’ve got a current model year Allez smartweld frame built up with full 105 and tubeless Shimano wheels. I certainly didn’t do it for $1760 retail, but then some parts on my bike (bars, saddle, tires) are from a very much higher trim level. I’ve also got all the accessories (cages, tools, &c) in my price, and I was unable to use the economy of scale a manufacturer can.

ANYWAY. The ride quality of my Allez is nothing short of amazing considering. It is *as smooth* as my steel 3-speed with 38mm tires over brick roads. I have no problems riding the Allez a hundred miles, though I run out of water. The Allez smartweld is making me completely re-think aluminum as a frame material, especially for amateur racer types.

These Treks seem to DIRECTLY compete with the Allez smartweld introduced last year, which is great, since it engenders competitive designs. When you get an Allez Comp (with 105), you pay less, but you miss out on the excellent 5800 brakes and crankset, and get bog standard training wheels. Moving up to an Allez Expert (with Ultegra), gets you a full groupset with carbon SL-K crank and ‘Fulcrum’ wheels at a competitive price.

I’d love to ride these Treks back to back with my Allez.

I am happy to see Trek jump into the “high end” aluminum market. I have owned & loved several iterations of CAAD’s. I have also read good things about Specialized redesigned Allez frames. I am now hearing of a redesigned CAAD12(?) to be released later this Summer…(anyone else hearing any details?) I would have liked to have seen a disc version from Trek… (Spec as well.) I believe that road disc offerings from every manufacturer will increase exponentially once the pro’s are riding them. I wanted my next road bike purchase to have discs so that I can look for second set of wheels that will be future proof…(thru-axles coming next?) I had my eye this year’s CAAD10 Rival disc, hoping the boys at Cannondale offer an Ultegra disc spec on the CAAD12 later this year. 🙂

Just ordered my alr 6 today! I work at a trek dealer, and I have to say H2 is usually great for 99% of our customers, and they usually have the stem flipped up. For the 1% of people that actually want that huge bar drop, you can always size down and make it look super pro with a longer stem! Nothing wrong with that!

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Description

The Moskva-5 (MOCKBA-5 in cyrillic writing) was produced by KMZ ( Krasnogorskii Mechanicheskii Zavod or Krasnogorsk Mechanical factory) in the 1950s. Earlier models of the Moskva were copies of the Zeiss Ikon Super Ikonta C , but it makes more sense to call the Moskva-5 an adaptation. Unlike the Super Ikonta, its solid top plate has a built-in rangefinder and a dual-format viewfinder . The best thing about the Moskva-5 is the coupled rangefinder. A lever with rotating wedge-shaped prisms is fixed to the lens plate. Turning the lens to focus rotates the glass, thus adjusting the rangefinder: a very sophisticated device inherited from the Super Ikonta, with no mechanical linkage between the lens and the body. The two windows are 6.5 cm apart for accurate focusing. The separate viewfinder has a larger field of view, which helps composing the picture. As stated above, a sliding frame in the viewfinder selected on top of the camera can be set to 6×9 or 6×6.

The back of the camera showing the year of production (1958), two red windows for 6×6 and 6×9 numbering, the rangefinder window (left) and the separate viewfinder window (right). The symbol to the left of the serial number is the Krasnogorsk company logo.

Dual Format

Super Ikontas were made either for the 6×9 or 6×4.5 format. The Moskva-5 is a 6×6 and 6×9 camera. Since it has a fixed 105mm Industar lens, at 6×6 you have a mild tele at your disposal. To use the 6×6 size, you need to set the viewfinder to the square format. there is a lever to select the right window so you can see the numbering on the film back. The pressure plate does not need to be removed. The 6×9 red window is now blocked, so there's no room for confusion.

As a last step, the 6×6 mask has to be inserted. The camera locks right into its holes. Close the camera and you're ready to shoot.

The Moment 24c is a leaf shutter with speeds of B, 1 to 1/250s. To fire it, the film needs to be transported or the release button will be blocked, indicated by a red window on the top plate. The shutter isn't set by advancing the film; it has to be cocked at the lens by a lever. To take a picture, press the button on the left of the camera top. The button on the right is for unlocking the front plate when the camera is collapsed. Before folding the camera, you shouldn't forget to push down the lever with the polarised glass window.

• Moskva-2, -4 and -5 user manual at Butkus.org
• Tips for using the Moskva at Photosensitive
• Moskva 5 archived bulletin-board discussions, formerly at Robert Monaghan's Medium Format Photography Megasite (archived copy dated 8 May 2006, at Internet Archive )
• Locating light leaks in a Moskva 5 at Nelsonfoto forums (archived)
• Fixing light leaks (in french) at Dirapons'site
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• 6x9 rangefinder folding
• 6x6 rangefinder folding
• Soviet cameras
• Image by Dries van den Elzen
• Image by Siim Vahur

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