Built & Ridden: Trek Emonda SL Frameset

I finished the Emonda build yesterday afternoon and took it out for a windy 20 mile shakedown ride. The bottom bracket is stiff. Surprisingly stiff in a good way. As for stability, I feel this frame is more stable than my previous one, which was an open mold Chinese Flyxii FR-303. It rode well, but was just a bit twitchy at higher speeds. It has some toe overlap, but I'm used to that with this frame size. For the record, I wear size 43 Sidi Wire shoes and it scuffed it during a track stand about 18mm in from the toe.  One thing I am not used to is having a huge top tube to seat stay junction.  I have fairly large legs, so my inner thigh will easily press against the junction, but not while pedaling.

 
I'm not sure what's going on in the top tube, but when I pull the rear brake I can hear the cable rub.  I decided to pull the line and put a sheath over the cable to prevent any possible damage to the frame.  The strangest thing about the build is the minimal clearance at the front brake. I'm using older carbon over aluminum TRP brakes and running Continental Grand Prix 4000 S 25c tires that are still pretty new. When I fitted the front wheel and spun it, the little nubs rubbed the bottom of the brake caliper. This could totally be because of the brakes, but I did not have the same clearance issue with the Flyxii or on a Colnago CLX.  Maybe I'll just have to save up for some EE Brakes.

As for weight, it's nearly identical to my previous build on the Flyxii. As shown here, it is set up the same. The frames both have tapered head tubes and forks, but differ in bottom brackets and seat mast/post setup. The differences are a Thomson Masterpiece seatpost and Woodman collar to the Emonda seatmast, different brand headset and spacers, standard to BB90 bottom bracket, and different brand cables and housing. The Flyxii was 15.96 pounds (7239 grams), and the Emonda is 16.01 pounds (7262 grams). Please take note that this weight is with the bike set up to ride, as shown, with bottle cages, Garmin Edge 200 & Bar Fly mount, under-seat tube and tool bundle, and mini pump, but no water bottle. I haven't weighed it without the full riding gear attached.

For size reference, I'm about 5'-8" (172 cm) tall.  The bike is set up with a 10 cm -10 degree stem with a saddle to bar drop around 5.5 cm (I might drop another 5 mm).  The saddle height is about 69 cm from the center of the bottom bracket spindle to the top of the saddle, along the seat tube.  The direct distance from the nose of the saddle to the top center of the handle bar is about 50 cm.