In addition to the regular two bottle cage mounts inside the frame, there’s a third mount under the down tube. The wide tyre clearance is matched with some adventure-friendly mounting points. Things are tighter at back, but there’s certainly room for a skinnier gravel tyre. And I’d bet a new Shimano GRX front derailleur and matching offset crank would fix this clearance limitation. But as usual, that quoted figure is on the safe side, so much so that I managed to fit measured 42 mm Continental Terra Trail tyres into the frame front and rear, and the only touching point was the Tiagra front derailleur. Trek officially suggests the frame can fit 35 mm tyres front and rear, just shy of the 38 mm figure it achieves with the latest carbon Domane. Impressively the Domane AL Disc can go wider again. I didn’t find this to impact on handling, but along with the high bike weight it creates a ride that feels less eager to jump forward with bursts of power.Īs stock, the Domane AL Disc is fitted with 32 mm tyres, and without question, these go a long way to making the bike feel as smooth as it is. The frame offers a number of tube shapes that make it look more expensive than it is.Ī big part of that ride quality is the result of a frame that’s more flexible – this bike does have a little more sway in key areas versus more premium offerings. Instead the Domane AL Disc did a respectable job at numbing vibrations and taking the edge off larger impacts. I had expected a frameset that did almost nothing to assist with ride comfort, and I was wrong. And there’s just no pretending this is a lightweight road bike once you add in a budget-minded build, wide tyres, and disc brakes.ĭespite that basic frame construction I was left positively surprised.

With a modest build the Domane AL Disc frame and fork aren’t light and you can expect the frame to be well in excess of 1,400 grams. Up front there’s a fork with carbon fibre blades, but the rest of its construction, including the tapered steerer, is aluminium. Meanwhile, the chainstays have been dimpled to the extreme in order to provide an elegant sufficiency of tyre clearance. The tubes have been formed into shapes to closely mimic those of the carbon Domane, the top tube is curved and flattened, while the down tube is almost rectangular in shape. However, while the material may be price-point-oriented, the general construction is still quite impressive. Trek has kept rather quiet about the specifics of this tubing, but effectively it’s the company’s most affordable material blend with simple straight gauge tubes and only minimal smoothing (or none at all) of the welds throughout the frame. Like the Checkpoint AL, the new Domane AL Disc is built with Trek’s Alpha 100-series aluminium. || Key updates: Overhauled geometry to match carbon version, wide tyre clearance, disc brakes, plenty of mounting points for accessories, 32 mm tyres as stock.|| Weight: 10.45 kg (without pedals, 54 cm frame size) || Price: US$1,600 / £1,350.00 /AU$n/a || Highs: Huge tyre clearance, unique geometry is great for the purpose, quite comfortable ride quality, easy to service and upgrade, rides lighter than it feels to pick up, Shimano Tiagra just works, rim width, quality thru-axles.|| Lows: Basic and heavy frame, making the bike tubeless requires new tyres and a handful of parts, extremely heavy wheels (especially given the bike’s price), handlebar drop shape is too compact. What: Trek’s new entry-level and versatile road bike. Budget frame with all the right bells and whistles That of course assumes you can actually find one to buy.Īt our recent Field Test the Victorian High Country’s endless alpine roads and gravel paths were the perfect place to cap off our testing of Trek’s latest affordable road bike. And I truly believe a bike like the Domane AL Disc is the right choice if you can’t decide between these two. There’s the more expensive, road-focused, and performance-oriented Emonda ALR and there’s the road-leaning gravel bike that is the Checkpoint AL. Put another way, the new Domane AL Disc slips snugly in between two other aluminium drop bar bikes in Trek’s range. Much like Trek’s more premium carbon fibre Domane offerings, this new aluminium version aims to offer plenty of versatility via combining (super-)wide tyre clearance with a comfortable fit and a sporty road-bike feel. And that’s exactly the case for Trek’s new Domane AL Disc, an all-road-esq bike based around a budget-minded aluminium frame. I simply love that some of the most interesting and versatile road bikes on the market currently sit at the budget end of the spectrum. Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members!

Trex bike frame plans