Anyone riding a new Madone?

[uber]

With all the exotic bikes people love to ride here, is there any love for the new Trek Madone?

[echappist]

With all the exotic bikes people love to ride here, is there any love for the new Trek Madone?

how new are we talking about?

the stuff from 2016 and prior to the 2019 edition (when they launched the disc brake version) was veritably good. Then when they launched the disc brake version, they made the rim brake version less aero, just so that they could tout how the disc brake version is even faster than the rim brake version. Rather cynical and pointless...

[Dave]

The huge lettering on the new madone sure is ugly. I'm just now looking into the value of several of Trek's current prebuilt bikes. I think you can build one from the frame up for less.

The top line Bontrager wheels seem to be over priced -$2400.

$12,000 for a bike that weighs more than my $3000 Colnago with campy 12?

[Jcgill]

The top line Bontrager wheels seem to be over priced.

I agree, i am always baffled at how much OEM wheels go for, specialized and giant wheels look nice too, but not when they cost nearly as much as zipp/enve/Reynolds!

[slambers3]

I agree, i am always baffled at how much OEM wheels go for, specialized and giant wheels look nice too, but not when they cost nearly as much as zipp/enve/Reynolds!

It costs more to make high end stuff in the US (supposedly the Aeolus xxx wheels are made in Waterloo). They are very nice wheels, if you’ve seen them in person and ridden them.

[Dired]

With all the exotic bikes people love to ride here, is there any love for the new Trek Madone?Looked at the madone when picking up my Domane. The cable integration and stem spacers are awesome, overall a beautiful bike. I really like what trek is doing with the bontrager line, the xxx def rivals the best third party brands out there.

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[John H.]

I don't have one- But several people that I ride with do.
They universally like them. The bike is fast, handles well and takes fat tires.
Only knock is that it is heavier than some similar bikes.

Supposedly they are coming out with an SL version of it-

[uber]

I really appreciate all the responses. I am looking for an aero bike that is not uncomfortable and fits my longer leg geo. it seems to get some good reviews and I thought it was pretty comfortable on a test ride. Thanks again.

[Kyle h]

I really appreciate all the responses. I am looking for an aero bike that is not uncomfortable and fits my longer leg geo. it seems to get some good reviews and I thought it was pretty comfortable on a test ride. Thanks again.

I had an RSL and it was, honestly, probably the best all around Carbon bike I’ve ever ridden or owned. I sold it because I thought I was done with bikes (obviously turned out not to be true) and have been searching for another. I had the previous rim brake version and the IsoCoupler does a great job of making a super stiff frame actually rideable on crappy Western PA roads. To say I loved that bike would be an understatement. Aside from being a little porky and time consuming to build initially, it did everything very, very well. I’ll probably pick up a disc slr in the near future.

[nooneline]

With all the exotic bikes people love to ride here, is there any love for the new Trek Madone?

a bunch of my teammates have it and i've ridden both rim and disc models. it is a very cool bike. the rim brake version was one of the more clever ways to do full-integration (proprietary parts and 100% hidden cable) than I've seen in aero bikes. The isospeed decoupler is extremely comfortable, and the version with the adjustable one is neat.

the disc version is, frankly, on the heavy side; the rim brake version's brakes aren't as good as standard calipers but they weren't as bad as i expected them to be. i expected maintenance to be a big pain in the ass but it's actually quite a bit easier - hidden cables means a harder set-up but a lot less maintenance overall.

i wish that Trek didn't use their H2 geometry on so many of their models because it doesn't work for me, but i'm a bit of a goldilocks on that end. if i had one, it would probably make travel a bit difficult because of the seatpost and the stem - it would be a lot harder (or impossible) to partially disassemble to pack into my bag. which, frankly, is one of the reasons i didn't get one.

The damn thing is super fast. When I'm in training kit (training helmet, box-section wheels, standard kit), it makes training with my teammates a little uncomfortable because the whole package (bike, wheels) is tangibly faster - especially if they're wearing a skinsuit and a ballista!