Make no mistake, I’m a big fan of eBikes – I’ve got my eye on one myself, so I can commute to work during the late spring, summer, and fall months. I’ve got a long ride into work, though – 38 miles one way, so I’ll need I’d want that e-assist to help keep the trip under 90 minutes each way… which means I’m going to need some high-speed help.
Trek is over-promising and under-delivering with their new Domane+ LT eBike. This is from Trek’s product literature, from an email I received recently:
Of all the things that make rides great, it’s the company you keep that matters most—and the all-new Domane+ LT lets you keep company with anyone. (Yeah, even pros.)
That obviously piqued my interest. I’m well above average, as are all of the people I ride with, so the idea of “keeping up with the pros” is always interesting… The bike has a max assist speed of 20-mph before the electric motor kicks off, and a beautiful bike falls from the pedestal. That quickly.
Uh, no. That bike won’t let an average cyclist keep company with me, and I’m far from a pro – I’m not even a part of the A Group (I’m a B Grouper). Hell, I’m twice as old as your average pro.
Here’s an analysis of one of our Tuesday night rides – not even our fastest, just a little above average for our ride:
If you look under speed, our average speed for the ride was 22.5-mph with a max of 35.8-mph. With the Domane+ LT eBike, a rider would have been able to beat me up two hills (out of six – we were over the 20-mph cutoff on the rest). The whole rest of the ride, the e-assist would be useless because we were over the cutoff the whole time (with the exception of stop signs). In other words, you’re carrying around an extra 14 pounds of bike weight to beat a 50-year-old B Grouper up two hills.
Good luck with that. The Trek marketers are way over-promising on the Domane+ LT. To keep up with us, not including sprints (35+ mph), you’d need the Domane + HP. With the HP you’d almost be able to keep up with our A Group… also not professional cyclists. But hey, 28-1/2-mph is nothing to shake a $10,000 stick at, either.
Let me be very clear, I love Trek bikes:
But the Trek marketing team needs to step away from the bong. They’re over-promising on the Domane+ LT, though. If you’re an E Grouper and want to keep up with the C Group, that’s the bike for you. If you’re a C, D, or E Grouper and want to keep up with me, better go with the + HP or a Specialized Creo.
If you want to keep up with the pros?
EPO and/or HGH.
Fit Recovery 
Splendid! Good point about the performance. I guess you’ve already sussed that this bike is aimed at commuters and not for the club cyclist. Certainly not when they are on a club cycle. I guess the marketing team haven’t caught up yet. Seems pretty obvious to me anyway: if you are out for a cycle to get fit (and have the craic with your mates) then you want to… em… cycle. Otherwise just take the car, or get the bus…
Or a moped (scooter)! Right?!
Is that 20mph limit mandated by US law? It’s way less than what the bike is capable of. Bypass the limiter and they will (allegedly) cruise at double that speed.
Out here all eBikes must be limited to only 25kph (~15mph) which even for city commuting is low.
Not at all, both the Spec Turbo Creo and the Trek Domane+ HP top out at 28.5-mph.