Trek Émonda SLR 9 Project One
Remember that Daft Punk song released in the early 2000s, ‘Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger’? For a long while, I’ve thought those masked French DJs were secretly product managers in the bike industry, because no matter what bike, wheel, tyre or other component is launched, what follows is what I call the Daft Punk theory of innovation: everything is stiffer, lighter and more compliant.
The Émonda was first launched in 2014 as Trek’s ultralight race rocket, a promise on which it delivered with an aggressive fit and 690g frame weight. Two years later, Trek launched the SLR disc version, which dropped a few dozen grams from the frame weight, but looked and felt almost identical.
For 2021, the Émonda has undergone a complete revamp, with new geometry, aero design elements, a brand-new carbon fibre in the frame, and only available in
