Tested: Trek Speed Concept 7.5 Triathlon Bike
It was on a sharp left turn in the late stages of an Olympic-distance triathlon that the varied impressions I’d been storing in the back of my mind about the Trek Speed Concept 7.5 coalesced into a single, clear thought: This bike is amazing!
The Left Turn comes more suddenly than you expect it to. It’s midway through a gradual descent whose first half bends lazily, like a child’s drawing of a river on a map. You’re not flying, exactly, but doing at least 25mph if you’re down in the aero bars, as I was. It feels really good, cruising down that stretch, with the arduous climbs and time-trial stretches behind you, and the finish line a few minutes away. And then, as the road’s unhurried curve veers more sharply to the left, your reverie is shattered.
It was a few years ago when I first encountered The Left Turn. I was riding a different tri bike at the time, and I tried to make the turn but quickly recognized it wasn’t going to happen. I had probably reacted a bit late and not quite aggressively enough, but that bike felt stubborn, even unwilling. It was as though I was riding an extremely expensive carbon-fiber mule. Instead of holding my line and arcing to the left with my fellow almost-finished triathletes, I leaked off the right side of the road and into some bushes. It was sheer luck that I didn’t hit a tree. I un-white-knuckled the brakes, gathered myself, dismounted, walked the bike back to the road, and set out again. But I rode the final stretch with my hands hovering over the brake levers and my tail between my legs.
That colored my perceptions of tri bikes for good. I raced on them grudgingly, but doubted their value in sprint-distance tris that weren’t as flat as Kansas. Sure, they were great for going fast in a straight line, but not much else. They were uncomfortable to ride—herky-jerky, and so stiff that you took every speedbump and crack in the road like body blows. And their fit and geometry made getting out of the saddle difficult, rendering them almost as bad at climbing as they were at cornering.
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My opinion began to evolve during my first few rides on the Speed Concept 7.5. I wasn’t surprised that it was fast—but it felt especially so. Trek bills the Speed Concept line as the fastest on the planet, with aerodynamically shaped tubes that the company says reduce drag at all crosswind angles. The carbon-fiber frame is 19 pounds—respectable for a sub-$4,000 tri bike—but surprisingly responsive to even subtle cues. The fit was the most comfortable of any tri bike I’d ever ridden. Its base bar is positioned a bit closer to the rider (which I liked), but it’s easy to slide it out to fine-tune the fit. The pads and aerobars are also highly adjustable, offering a range of possible variations. The version I tested came equipped with Ultegra 6800 Series components, which offered clean, crisp shifting up and down the 11-speed drivetrain, whether I was hammering the flats or climbing and descending the Pennsylvania rollers I spend most of my time riding. My one quibble was the feel of the Bontrager brake calipers and levers, which had a little too much give and a disconcerting (to me, anyway) lack of crispness. I prefer brakes that announce themselves with military precision, especially on a bike this fast. But the Speed Concept 7.5 seemed to prefer soft diplomacy.
So my hands instinctively brushed the brake levers this past August when I once again approached The Left Turn in the final descent of that Olympic tri. Yes, this time I knew it was coming, but the Speed Concept 7.5 was so smooth and responsive that I didn’t need the brakes. The bike—which was fast enough on the rest of the course to help me shed four minutes from my prior year’s ride—simply did what I wanted it to do: corner sharply but cleanly, delivering me to an exhilarating finish.
The Speed Concept 7.5 surprised me again a few weeks later during a sprint tri featuring a four-mile-long ascent that climbs almost 1,000 feet. It wasn’t easy—I was still riding a tri bike, after all—but I downshifted all the way and cruised to the top, past other riders serpentining or walking their bikes. A few days later, the Speed Concept 7.5 earned some style points. “That is a beautiful bike,” a diehard roadie said, after seeing it on my roof rack. “Most tri bikes look kinda alien. That almost looks like a road bike.”
And so after test-riding this remarkably versatile tri bike all summer, I paid it the highest compliment of all: I bought it.
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