Trek Madone 9 Test Ride

Trek Madone 9-Series Test Ride

I rode the Trek Madone Race Shop Limited edition road bicycle for a demonstration ride. The new Madone is impressive. The glowing reviews that this new bicycle has received since its formal introduction in July were not hyped at all. The ride was comfortable, fast and responsive. I genuinely felt bad handing it back at the end of the demo ride.

The very first thing that I noticed is the smoothness of the ride. I felt very little of the road buzz and the bumps were toned down. This is a bike that I could ride for hours without complaint. The handling was excellent and precise. This Madone did not feel as overly responsive, or twitchy, as my 2010 Madone. So the steering should be predictable and not dramatic with small adjustments making big changes in direction. Braking was smooth and easy. Just a slight pull on the brake handles was necessary to bring the speed down.

I got out of the saddle twice and sprinted with the bike. It was very quick and got up to speed with little resistance. Some bikes feel like they have anchors behind them. Not this bike. It was so easy to get up to speed that I was able to do a semi-sprint while seated.

I have ridden a Project One Trek Madone 6.5 since 2010 and have enjoyed it. Soon after Trek redesigned the Madone frame to be more aerodynamic in 2013. Like most aerodynamic bicycles, the shape of the aero tubing made for a harsher ride. With this new Madone, the Trek engineers have taken out some of the harshness and they have added an IsoSpeed Decoupler to separate the seatstays and top tube from the seat tube allowing the seat tube to flex more and making the seat tube more vertically compliant. This feature was carried over from the Trek Domane.

I like the clean look of the front end of the bike. The cabling is internally routed through the integrated handlebar/stem. This handlebar is required with the frame as well as the integrated brake calipers.

Today most bike manufacturers that supply bicycles to the pro tour have some top-end models that fill various roles in a multi-stage tour. There is the aero race bike, the light climbing bike, the time trial bike and the endurance/comfort race bike. The new Madone 9-Series fills the aero race bike slot for the Trek Factory Racing Team. As with most sports, what the pros use on the weekends, customers seek out on Monday. Along with the Viper Red Trek Madone Race Shop Limited frame, I had the Shimano Di2 groupset, Bontrager Aeolus 5 D3 wheels, and Bontrager Paradigm XXX Carbon saddle. Trek lists this configuration at $12,999. I would like to thank the Jeff Byers and the folks at Trek Bikes of Ventura for allowing me to demo the Madone.