“Ride smoother, longer and faster,” is the opening pitch from Trek for their brand new Silque women’s endurance road bike. It’s a complete redesign of the previous Domane WSD, with completely revised geometry providing increased standover height, and the carbon frame uses the unqiue Isospeed decoupler to smooth the road. Prices start from £1,500 with four models available including a Project One option.
The Silque uses the same Isospeed decoupler as the Domane, which has been raced successfully by the Trek Factory Racing team for the past couple of seasons. The unqiue thing about Isospeed is that the seat tube is only attached to the bottom bracket and isn’t fixed at the top tube, instead there is a bearing that allows the seat tube to move back and forth. The aim is to provide more comfort and a smoother ride when tackling rougher roads and cobbles.
Fit and geometry have been the main focus of the new Silque, as Trek Women’s Product Manager Amanda Shulze explains: “Research from professional training data shows that men and women have very different power and weight requirements when comparing riders who ride the same frame size.
“With that ride comparison data, we were able to design and dial in size specific women's ride-tuned frames to deliver the perfect balance of smoothness and power."
So the geometry sees the biggest changes. Compared to Trek's previous WSD geometry, the Silque has a shorter seat tube (which increases the standover height), the stack has been increased and the wheelbase and chainstays are shorter than the Domane, but longer than the Madone, to give a stable ride. The bottom bracket is higher than the Domane, the same height off the road as the Madone, which together with the other changes should produce a livelier ride character than the Domane.
Trek are offering four models; Silque (£1,500), Silque SL (£2,250), Silque SLX (£3,000) and Silque SSL (Project One) (£4,700+). Each are made from OCLV carbon fibre with size-specific carbon fibre layups. They’re offering size sizes from 44 to 56cm.
Each model shares familiar Trek features such as the E2 tapered head tube, BB90 pressfit bottom bracket, internal cable routing compatible with electronic groupsets, DuoTap compatibility and on the two cheaper models hidden mudguard mounts. All have the 3S integrated chain guard mounted just above the bottom bracket to prevent dropped chains.
The £1,500 Silque offers a Shimano Tiagra 10-speed built bike with Bontrager tubeless-ready wheels and 25mm tyres and Bontrager Race bars and stem and Affinity 1 WSD saddle.
The £3,000 Silque SLX features an Ultegra 11-speed groupset with Bontrager Race wheels, 23mm tyres and Bontrager Race X Lite finishing kit. And you can customise your own bike through Trek’s Project One bike builder.
All bikes are available now at http://www.trekbikes.com/uk/en/bikes/road/endurance_race/silque_womens/
12 thoughts on “Trek launch Silque endurance road bike”
Before anyone says it, this
Before anyone says it, this bike is NOT a women’s Domane. While it does have the IsoSpeed decoupler, that feature is not the only thing differentiates a Domane from other bikes in the range.
This is a brand new platform. Oh, and it’s fantastic. I’ve been riding one and can not believe how stable and fast it is. No, I’m not just saying that because I work at Trek. 🙂
What was wrong with just
What was wrong with just using the word ‘Silk’? Instead, that bizarre mix of phonetic mangling and attempt at making the word look more exotic lends it all the allure of a feminine hygiene product.
Specialized probably have the
Specialized probably have the copyright on the word ‘silk’.
Or the letter ‘k’, maybe
Or the letter ‘k’, maybe
Ah. The new women’s endurance
Ah. The new women’s endurance bike from US manufacturers ‘Treque’?
😉
Tu be faire, it is a kwite a
Tu be faire, it is a kwite a nyce looqueing bique in the wyte and greene couleurway.
Do all womens’ bikes come
Do all womens’ bikes come with the saddle too low? In all of the photos – including in particular the one where people are actually riding the bike, seriously why are that poor women’s knees so bent, even on the “down” foot – the saddle looks like its been set to “knee damage”.
surly_by_name wrote:Do all
Pretty hard to judge saddle height from looking at photos. Best not to
David Arthur wrote:Pretty
If you go to the photograph of the 4 women riding the bikes (the one with the artisticly positioned cumulus clouds) and look woman in the foreground, her right leg, which must be just past the bottom of her stroke (at 7.00 o’clock maybe) is bent at the knee to a much greater extent than I would argue it should be. Her left leg appears to be at 90 degrees. I don’t profess to be an expert at bike fit but I’d argue that this isn’t a position that will do much for efficiency. The only one that looks like its correct is the blue Tiagra version.
Maybe its just me, but if go to Trek’s website all of the “performance road” bikes that aren’t labelled “women’s specific design” seem to have a meaningful stem saddle drop (although less than I would have thought) whereas the Silque and the Lexa seem to be flat. Maybe I am just stirring.
Why’s it so much more
Why’s it so much more expensive than the Madone of pretty much the same spec? :/
Hello! Which Madone version
Hello! Which Madone version do you mean? The closest one to the Silque SLX, for example, is the Madone 5.9, which is £3500.
TrekBikesUK wrote:Hello!
Ah I see, it just seemed quite similar in build to the 4.7 which is £2k which is why I was wondering on the cost, but if it’s not then I stand corrected! (and a bit miffed I didn’t buy one of these instead of the Madone…)