Saturday, June 8, 2024 Cycling, Gear

New Bike Day: Trek Speed Concept SLR 7

A 4-minute read

Today I should be in Colorado, racing Ironman 70.3 Boulder, but as luck would have it, COVID is wreaking havoc in my house this week and I had no choice but to stay home and cancel my race. However, the day I pulled the plug on the race, my sulking was cut short by an excellent piece of good news from Open Range Cycles, my local bike shop in Jackson:

Text message on Wednesday at 3:33 PM: "Hey Guillermo, Your new bike is assembled and ready for pickup. Our current hours are Tues thru Fri 10am-6pm, and Sat 10am-4pm. Thank you - Open Range Cycles"

It’s been a long time coming, but I’m finally the proud owner of an actual, honest-to-goodness triathlon bike: a brand new Trek Speed Concept SLR 7, in a customized Project One paint scheme of “Quicksilver” for the frame and “Trek Black” for the logo and lettering.

A side view of a silver Trek Speed Concept SLR 7 triathlon bike with Bontrager Aeolus wheels and a Shimano Ultegra crankset. The bike is equipped with aerodynamic handlebars and various accessories. It is positioned on a paved road with a grassy sagebrush field and a cloudy sky in the background.

I went with the middle-of-the-road SLR 7 Ultegra build; the Dura-Ace groupset didn’t seem worth the extra money and I’m used to how Di2 works on my Aethos. However, I had no idea about the Di2 synchronized shifting feature until they mentioned it at the bike shop. Basically, I only need to shift the rear derailleur and it’ll shift the front one for me once I shift past the middle of the cassette, so I can do all my shifting without coming off of the aerobars. It sounds sick, but I’ll have to test it and see how well it works in practice. If it does work well, I’ll have to see if I can turn this on in my Aethos too.

I swapped the aero bottle it came with with regular bottle cages and also mounted one between the aerobars—I hate leaky torpedo bottles, so I’d rather sacrifice a few watts to be able to swap regular bottles at aid stations and special needs. That should be more than enough for a 70.3, but I can add two more bottles behind the saddle on an XLAB Super Wing for a full Ironman.

I’m sticking with the Bontrager Aeolus Pro 51 wheelset it came with for now, although I’m going to switch to tubeless tires as soon as possible (the Bontrager R3 tires confusingly aren’t tubeless-ready despite having some “TR” in their branding). The bike comes with a handy storage compartment in the downtube for a flat kit, including a spare tube, but it’d require removing the bottle cage, so I’d rather not have to use it unless I absolutely have to; the built-in bento box on the top tube has much easier access and more than enough space for a CO2 canister, inflator and DynaPlug. For power meters, I’m using Favero Assioma Duo pedals, widely regarded as some of the best power meters you can buy. Mine have worked great so far on my Aethos, so I got a second pair for this bike.

One thing I forgot to order was the computer mount, so I’ll have to add that later, but other than that, it’s pretty much stock.

Because I am a huge dork, I’ve nicknamed my new bike Shadowfax, after the Lord of the Mearas and Gandalf’s steed in The Lord of the Rings:

“True indeed!” said Gandalf. “And there is one among them that might have been foaled in the morning of the world. The horses of the Nine cannot vie with him; tireless, swift as the flowing wind. Shadowfax they called him. By day his coat glistens like silver; and by night it is like a shade, and he passes unseen. Light is his footfall! Never before had any man mounted him, but I took him and I tamed him, and so speedily he bore me that I reached the Shire when Frodo was on the Barrow-downs, though I set out from Rohan only when he set out from Hobbiton.”

—J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Book Two, Chapter II: “The Council of Elrond.”

Perhaps I should retroactively nickname my Aethos Legolas or something, in keeping with the Tolkien theme. Anyway, without further ado, here’s a bunch of photos.

A silver Trek Speed Concept SLR 7 triathlon bike with Bontrager Aeolus wheels and a Shimano Ultegra crankset, viewed at an angle from the front-right side. The bike is equipped with aerodynamic handlebars and positioned on a paved road with a grassy sagebrush field, mountains, and a cloudy sky in the background.
A close-up view of the front fork of a silver Trek Speed Concept SLR 7 triathlon bike, showing the "Speed Concept" branding and part of the Trek logo on the frame. The image highlights the aerodynamic design and details of the bike. The background is blurred, focusing attention on the bike's frame and wheel.
A close-up view of the top tube of a silver Trek Speed Concept SLR 7 triathlon bike, showing the "Project One" branding. The background is blurred, emphasizing the detail and finish of the bike's frame.
A close-up view of the seatstay of a silver Trek Speed Concept SLR 7 triathlon bike, showing the "00:00:00" branding on the frame. The image highlights the details and design of the bike's rear section, including the wheel and part of the drivetrain. The background is blurred, focusing attention on the frame.
A close-up view of a Trek Speed Concept SLR 7's Shimano Ultegra crankset and chainring, showing the chain and part of the bike's frame.
A close-up view of the front fork and wheel of a silver Trek Speed Concept SLR 7 triathlon bike, showing the "Speed Concept" and "Aeolus" branding. The image highlights the aerodynamic design and details of the bike's frame and wheel. The background is blurred, focusing attention on the bike.
A silver Trek Speed Concept SLR 7 triathlon bike with Bontrager Aeolus wheels and a Shimano Ultegra crankset, viewed from the front-right side. The bike is equipped with aerodynamic handlebars and is positioned on a paved path. In the background, there are grassy sagebrush fields and the snow-capped Teton Range under a cloudy sky.

A huge thank you to the fine folks at Open Range Cycles for their help ordering and building this bike for me. I cannot wait to take it to Ironman 70.3 Coeur d’Alene in a couple of weeks, but in the meantime I’m going to spend some time putting it through its paces on my local bike paths and getting my fit dialed it. Run, Shadowfax, show us the meaning of haste.

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