Originally Posted by
ColonelSanders
How similar is the ride of these two bikes?
Would it be difficult to make do with just one of them and if you were to pick only one of them to have, which one would it be?
Hmmm, hard question. I honestly thought about selling the Emonda when I got the Domane, but there are some differences in the 2 that are noticeable outside of frame material and weight, so I hung on to both. I have had a longer time to futz with and get ALR perfectly setup, where I am still tweaking the Domane here and there. The ALR is 54cm and the Domane is 52cm, but the overall geometries were pretty close, everything within a few mm of each other. The 52cm frame on the Domane felt better than the 54cm, but as I started stretching more I was starting to feel a little cramped, so I recently moved the Domane to a 100mm stem and that seemed to help a bunch. The ALR has such an smooth comfortable ride, but I just recently changed my wheels from the older Aeolus 5 non TLR to the Aeolus Pro 5 TLR, which made things even better now that they are tubeless. The ALR is mechanical\Rim, the Domane is Di2\Disc, I freaking love Di2, but the Ultegra mechanical just shifts perfectly and my ALR frame is not setup to run internal Di2 cables and I am not a fan of SRAM, so I will keep the mechanical Ultegra. I live in a very flat part of the world and bombing down a mountain and having to worry about melting a rim brake surface is not a concern, so having or not having disc is not in my top 100 must haves on a bike, but since you really can't get a new bike without it, not much I can do there. The only other thing I might change would be the cranks, the Domane came with 170mm, which I should have changed out to 172.5 when I ordered the bike, but I did not, so I will probably make that change in the near future. The Domane does ride like a dream and really eliminates a boatload of crappy road surface beating, so for super long distances, it is really, really nice to have. I have carbon bar and seat post on my ALR, and the fork on the ALR is the same fork that is on the Emonda SLR, so the ride is unbelievable smooth for an aluminum frame.
However, having said all of that, if I only could keep 1, as it stands today, I would keep the ALR. It's just that damn good. I figure I will find that same level of comfort in my Domane soon, as I am very close.
edit: I also just ordered some Aeolus Pro 51 wheels for the Domane, suppose to be here late Nov. I like the 50mm deep wheels.