Trek Domane SL7 as gravel race bike?

I've been holding out buying a "real" gravel bike for a few years.  Been riding/racing gravel mostly on my Spark RC MTB with 45's and every once and a while on my Trek Madone with 28's when I feel like rolling the dice with flats.    

I'm looking for a fast bike for racing near the pointy end.  While I also enjoy "non-race" social gravel rides and mixed surface stuff, I can always use my MTB for cruising around and I want this new bike to be optimized for racing.  Most of my racing is around TX and our gravel is pretty tame. 

I've been riding a Madone road bike for years and really like the isospeed system for smoothing out rough roads and gravel.  So, one of the first bikes I looked at was the checkpoint SL7 with the rear isospeed.  Then, I saw that the Domane SL7 has very similar geometry, has isospeed in front and back, and has a few other features I like (2x rather than 1x shifting, threaded BB, aero frame, storage in frame).  The only downside I see with the Domane on paper is the 38mm tire clearance (and I've read that they take 40+ no problem).  While I like the idea of having flexibility of running larger tires, I think I'd rather save a few watts with the more aero domane frame if that's the trade off.  I also really hate the BB90 press fit BB on the checkpoint, so the threaded BB on the Domane is a big plus.

I'm a little torn on this because I was all ready to pick out a gravel bike and the bike I'm leaning toward isn't really designed to be a gravel bike.  Unfortunately, I don't have the opportunity to do any serious test rides to compare actual performance.  Is there something important I'm missing (besides tire clearance) that the Checkpoint (or another "gravel" bike) would give me over the Domane as a gravel race bike?  

I don’t know if you go to mtbr, but there is a guy using one as a gravel bike.  You could message him and he could probably give you a lot of info.

https://forums.mtbr.com/gravel-bikes/2020-domane-slr-gravel-build-1124417.html

I'm on a Checkpoint and considered the same thing. The only suggestion I have, and it's a small thing, is the rubber frame protection on the bottom of my down tube has taken a beating in 1500 miles of riding. If I was running a top line Domane I'd for sure install aftermarket frame protection.

Otherwise, if you're wanting to go fast, don't need massive tires, and are mainly riding tame gravel I feel like the Domane would be totally fine. 

Thanks for the replies.  I just pulled the trigger on the Domane and it should be in next week.   That post on MTBr answered a lot of my questions.  I may add a little frame protection, that's a good call out.  

While looking at gravel bikes, one of things I've seen a lot of different opinions on is the 2x vs. 1x gearing, especially with SRAM's limited cassette options with AXS road.  For a lot of the courses I do, that 2x road gearing is going to be great and gear jumps will be nice and tight.  On more challenging terrain, I'll have the flexibility to easily swap to a 1x system by swapping in a single chainring, 10-50 eagle cassette, and eagle AXS RD.  I'll just pull the Eagle AXS RD from my MTB when I want to run that config on the Domane.  The force crank can take 2x or 1x rings and the integrated power meter works with either.  Pretty slick and flexible setup the way they engineered the force crank and PM.   

pls post your thoughts after your first rides

i agree, that geometry is great and for 38s that is ideal

Here’s another thread on the Domane—just click the link: 

https://www.ridinggravel.com/forum/?p=post%2F2020-domane-gravel-build-10391771%3Fpid%3D1310436507

mosinglespeeder wrote:pls post your thoughts after your first rides

i agree, that geometry is great and for 38s that is ideal

I've got a few weeks and 500+ miles on the bike.  

So far, very happy with the bike.  I've been enjoying it so much on the road that my Madone has been mostly sitting unused.  It certainly takes more power to push it along at speed on fast group rides, but I'm a lot fresher at the end of a 5-6 hour ride. 

I've only done one gravel day on it, took it out to ride the 60 mile Castell race course.  Averaged over 18mph without pushing it too hard and felt fast and smooth and handled the rough sections fine.  Just what I was looking for in a gravel bike. 
   
It easily fits 38mm ramblers or 40mm Velocitas with plenty of clearance in 1x or 2x gearing setup.  I mounted up 45mm ramblers and they are right up against the FD in 2x and barely clear in 1x setup.  I wouldn't run 45's and there certainly isn't any room for mud.   This is all with the stock 25mm internal rims, so most of these tire setups measured about 2mm larger than the stated size.  
  
One negative - the storage door (with attached bottle) popped off on the first washboard section at Castell.  The latch was still in the locked position, but the fit is so loose that it just pulled out as soon as I hit a really rough section.  My dealer has a call into Trek to see if I maybe have a defect, but I suspect this is just a bad design.  It's a very loose fit and the latching tabs are flimsy flexible plastic.  There is a lot of force when a full bottle is being shaken around.  I'm using a velcro strap to make sure it doesn't happen again and I have a feeling it might be a permanent addition. We'll see.  I still like having the storage, it's a good idea that just needs a little more engineering.

It's also pretty heavy, around 20.5 lbs with pedals and cages, 38's and sealant.  I'm not a weight weenie, but it's still noticeably heavy compared to my road bike and only a few lbs lighter than my full suspension XC MTB running 2.2's.  

I really like the AXS 2x road gearing.  46-33 crank and 10-33 cassette.  Very tight gear jumps balanced with good range.  I ran it 1x 40t w/10-50 for Castell and the big jumps were annoying and I never used the 42 or 50 cogs.  I'll reserve the 1x for any courses with extreme climbs, othewise the 2x setup is going to be good for most of the gravel courses I do.  I'm doing BWR in Utah in a few weeks and will probably run 2x despite the big climb near the end.       

I am surprised you can even put a 45mm in, the clearance seems to be pretty good, too bad it is kinda porky for 2020, you have the sl or slr?

Involuntarysoul wrote:I am surprised you can even put a 45mm in, the clearance seems to be pretty good, too bad it is kinda porky for 2020, you have the sl or slr?

Mine is an SL, but the SLR frame is pretty portly as well.  Less the .25 lbs lighter comparing the frames.  Both of the frames gained over a full pound compared to prior models, which is pretty crazy just in the frame.  Both the 2021 frames come in at about 5lbs.  For me, it was a fair tradeoff for the feature set on the bike, but I might feel differently if I was just looking at it as a road bike.   

My theory on the tire clearance - Trek tried to market the Domane as their gravel bike back in 2018 since they didn't have a gravel bike back then, but the 2018 Domane tire clearance was only like 35mm.  I think they were probably in the process of fixing that tire clearance issue for the Domane redesign to make it a proper gravel bike and then had a change in course to quickly bring their dedicated gravel Checkpoint to market.  By that time, they just left the tire clearance on the Domane where it was.  It's just a theory.    

mosinglespeeder wrote:pls post your thoughts after your first rides

i agree, that geometry is great and for 38s that is ideal

I have two of them - I have bought SL6 as a "do it all" kind of bike, and I liked it so much that I could not resist very good offer on 2020 SL7 etap, so I ended with two. I run them with 38mm tires (Vittoria Terreno zero and Teravail Rampart), and these are really great bikes for most of the gravel rides that I do. I usually ride 50/50% pavement and gravel on these bikes, and the handling due to great geometry is really good.

I did not have any problems related to the bikes, only some issues related to Sram AXS (chain noise) and poor bike build (oil leak on the shifter). I particularly like Trek/Bontrager tubeless setup, plastic tubeless tape that is very easy to fit and holds air perfectly, but these have to be purchased separately. 

I did a couple of 4-5hr test rides on the 2020 Domane and really liked it.  But ultimately I opted out for two reasons.  First, supercompact gearing is better for the hilly riding I do.  Second, I wasn't sure I could live with 38c.  I'm 100kg and wanted more volume to run lower pressure than this would allow.  Now that I'm on a bike that allowed a cheap and easy mod to 46/32x11-40, and which accepts 43c with good mud clearance I'm happy with my decision.  This despite the fact that I'm on the road at least 2/3 of the time.