Ever since its introduction, we've found Trek’s unique Domane to be one of the best-ever rides for bad surfaces. That’s all thanks to the ‘Isospeed’ decoupler, which is essentially a rotational pivot that attaches, via lugs, the seat tube to the top tube.
Because the seat and top tubes aren't connected in the conventional way, the seat tube can bow and flex along its full length (and there is a nifty carbon composite layup under the paint to aid that). The really clever part is that unlike a true suspension system it's no more affected by pedalling than a carbon seatpost, but the increase in length available to flex offers multiple times more shock absorption than a standard bike.
- Highs: Sublimely smooth chassis, and loads of fun to ride
- Lows: Like plenty of its rivals the 5.2 deserves better wheels
- Buy if: You want a truly comfortable speed machine that’s unfazed by bad roads
When you get onboard a Domane you're likely to spend a few minutes trying to identify the rear end's movement. On decent roads you’ll be hard pushed to detect any real difference, but get onto coarser surfaces and you’ll notice it immediately. Thankfully though you don’t feel isolated from reading road texture, which is always handy when trying to judge grip levels for cornering speed. The back end does a wonderful job of nulling any fatigue-building buzz and the clever front fork with its offset dropout design also adds a little length to the fork. By increasing the path on which vibrations travel, by the time they hit you they're minimised.
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Trek’s Isospeed ‘pivot’ lets the seat tube flex for rear end plushness
All of this might sound like the Domane is just a big plush cushion of a bike to ride, but in fact almost the opposite is true. It may well be smooth but it's also stiff, thanks to the massive BB90 bottom bracket shell and asymmetric oversized chainstays. The H2 geometry (in Trek terms that’s midway between an out-and-out race bike and a more upright, short reach endurance style) strikes a highly appealing middle ground, enabling both a good low, fast position in the drops and a comfortable, not-too-stretched and not-too-short stance on the hoods.
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