Trek's Madone doesn't share a single part with the bike that Lance Armstrong rode to seven Tour de France wins. Yes, the new Madone signals more than just a makeover and fresh lick of paint, as the designers have really gone back to the drawing board and started with a clean sheet of paper.
And the results are quite impressive. Many of the key elements on display are changes being rapidly adopted by more and more brands. There's the semi-integrated seat post, oversize head tube with a 1.5” lower diameter and a 90mm bottom bracket shell in which the bearings fit directly. All the tubing between these junctions is more oversized than ever seen before on a Trek, and there's some funky sculpting and profiling on display in an effort to deliver the desired balance of stiffness and ride comfort.
Gone are the different grades of OCLV carbon previously designated as 55, 120 and 120GSM. Instead, OCLV Carbon Red, Black and White are the labels now applied to the differing grades of carbon, used in the three different frames available.. Size specific seat, lug and top tubes mean larger diameter top tubes on larger frames.
Trek claim frame weights in the region of 250g lighter than the old design. 11 models will be available, and in three flavours. For the racers there's the Pro Fit, sharing the geometry of the original Madone. Performance Fit has a 30mm taller head tube. Two WSD Fits are available for the girls.
At £2,300, the 5.2 pictured here is built with a full complement of Shimano Ultegra SL and represents the entry level Pro Fit offering. Bontrager supply all the contact points plus the wheels and tyres.
A full report on how the Madone rides very soon...
www.trekbikes.com
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