It's Here...The 2008 Trek Madone 6.9!

(This review originally appeared at mattmagee.blogspot.com on Thursday, January 17th, 2008)

What an amazing machine!

Wednesday at the Beaverton store we received our first Trek Madone 6.9; the top bike in Trek's road series and what would have been the team-issue bike had the Trek sponsored Astana Pro Cycling Team not signed a deal for components with SRAM. None-the-less, this impressive bicycle is still drool-worthy.

Of course, the first thing we had to do was take it over to the scale and see what it weighed in at. The model we received was a 56 cm , "performance" geometry bike featuring the Trek OCLV Red fuselage, Bontrager Race XXX Lite carbon clincher wheels wrapped in Race X Lite 700x23 tires, and Bontrager Race XXX Lite carbon stem and handlebar. The component spec was mostly Shimano Dura Ace with a Bontrager Race X Lite carbon compact crankset and SRAM OG 1070 cassette with a 12-26 tooth count. As built (including the geek-tastic, but required wheel reflectors) the bike weighed in at 15.03 pounds - just above the 14.96 lbs allowed by the UCI in a sanctioned road race.

The "new and improved" Trek Madone 6.9 Performance

So of course, my ever-analytical mind went to work. My colleagues in Tennessee will remember that I had guessed that this bike would be "UCI Illegal" out-of-the-box with a full Dura Ace or SRAM Red component group on it. Since we haven't received a 6.9 Pro yet - I broke out my trusty notepad and calculator and went to work changing the bike to be built as a true pro-level bike. I substituted a Shimano Dura Ace double crankset and cassette, exchanged the carbon clincher wheels and tires with their tubular siblings, and made the arbitrary call to trade out the carbon stem for it's lighter Race X Lite 2024 Aluminum counterpart (alloy stems - and occasionally handlebars - are still preferred parts in the pro ranks for their efficient stiffness, usually lighter weight, and crash-resistance). These changes cut a lot of fat off the bike. Granted, some of these changes were reasonable for the average rider; however it could be argued that the change to tubular wheels (a large source of the weight savings) is a luxury that should be reserved for the pros who rarely have to pull off to the side of the road to change their own flats.

So, what were the numbers? Well, the UCI weight limit is 6.8 kilograms. Our sans-pedals bike comes in about 3 grams over that number. With the above changes, we drop down to 6.1 kilos (13.42 lbs); enough to add pedals and bottle cages and still have to find other ways to weigh-down the bike in order to be legal to pull up to the start line of the Tour of California. We can currently only speculate just how light the SRAM Red bikes will be with their significantly lighter OG 1090 cassette and shift/brake levers. On paper, these items are more than 100 grams lighter than their Dura Ace counterparts which is enough to drop below the 6 kilo mark without pedals! Enough for me to opt for my preferred wheels: the Bontrager Aeolus 5.0 and still keep the bike under 16 lbs. ready to ride.

With the continuing reviews of this bike's great stiffness and comfort qualities; it appears that Trek has delivered a bike that is; as advertised, a best-in-class road-racing machine. Where will we go from here?

Now, get out and ride!