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Shop new & used Trek Madone bikes at TPC - The Pro's Closet. Find reviews, specs, weight info, prices and size charts on various models (SLR 9, 7) and popular years (2018, 2021, etc). Read our Trek Madone Quick-Take Review below.

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Trek Madone Size Chart

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Trek Madone SLR Gen 7 - Weight, Specs, Price

Trek madone 3rd party reviews ,   trek madone size chart, 2022 trek madone review - a tpc rider's quick take.

• Aero masterclass
• Trek engineers locked themselves in a wind tunnel with this bike. Every curve, edge, and component shouts aerodynamics. From the IsoFlow tech to the one-piece aero bar and stem this bike is designed for slicing through air.
• IsoFlow Comfort
• One of the standout features of the Madone is Trek’s IsoFlow technology, which makes for a forgiving ride, especially on longer epics. IsoFlow helps the seatmast flex, soaking up road vibrations. It’s rare for a speed-focused road bike to excel in comfort, yet here we are.
• Integrated everything
• In the Madone, the term "fully integrated" is taken to new heights. From the cables to the cockpit, everything is tucked away, contributing not just to aerodynamics but also to a jaw-dropping aesthetic.
• Speed and beauty come at a cost. The Madone’s premium price could act as a barrier for many. It's a serious investment, and budget-friendly aero options are out there.
• Price: $7,999 (SLR 6)
• Weight woes
• Despite the carbon fiber frame and components, the Madone isn't a featherweight in its category. It's a solid build, but riders focused on climbing might find it a tad on the heavier side.
• Weight: 17lbs (56cm)
• Versatility questions
• While the Madone excels on flat terrain and downhill blasts, it's not the most versatile option for a wide range of riding conditions. Climbers and those who encounter varying terrain may find it limiting.

• Vuelta a España stage 12 Live - Mountain top finish set to shake up GC standings

Trek Madone Gen 8 SL7: First ride review

Trek's new madone supersedes its aero champion and kills off the emonda altogether - so is this one bike to rule them all.

Early Verdict

The new Madone has big shoes to fill by replacing two of the most impressive bikes on the market, but initial impressions indicate it's done just that

Fantastic ride quality and comfort

Rigid in power transfer and handling

Stunningly light

A blisteringly fast bike

The accompanying water bottles may take some getting used to

You can trust Cyclingnews Our experts spend countless hours testing cycling tech and will always share honest, unbiased advice to help you choose. Find out more about how we test.

It’s hard to conjure a bike more iconic to pro cycling than the Trek Madone. The Madone was born out of the glory years of Lance Armstrong’s now-shamed successive Tour de France wins, and named after his key training climb – the Col de la Madone. But the Trek Madone achieved the rare feat of surviving the Texan’s fall from grace and living on independently with its own unique legacy. 

The Madone Gen 8 is arguably the most true-to-nature version of Trek’s flagship racer since its original iteration - combining the aerodynamics of the previous Madone with the lightweight design of the Emonda and doing away with the latter model altogether in the process. It brings Trek’s entire performance road bike line back to basics - the Domane is still there for the comfort-cum-cobble market, but the Madone is now Trek’s one and only flagship racer. In the years before the dedicated aero bike, that was the norm, and Trek claims to have returned to that with no downside.

Trek claims that the new Madone SLR hits a frame weight of 765g and a fork weight of 370g, making it the same weight as the outgoing Emonda. It also manages that while exceeding the aerodynamics performance of the previous aero-focussed SLR - by a slender 0.1 watt at 22mph (and marginally faster all the way up to 40mph).

With its shift back to narrow tubes and lightweight performance, alongside the end of the Emonda, it seems fitting to pull back and take a look at how the Madone evolved to reach this latest and perhaps most complete iteration.

The Trek Madone - from the start and back again

Originally billed as an aerodynamic lightweight racer in 2003, it didn't dazzle in weight terms and aerodynamics was limited to a fin on the seat tube. The bike arguably didn’t disrupt that status quo until its second iteration in 2007, and in 2009 came a sub 900g OCLV masterpiece in the bike’s third and most iterative design. However, it still looked, largely, like a bike.

In 2015 that was no longer the case, as Trek unveiled a new Madone which completely transformed the genre. In (unintentional) sync with the launch of the Specialized Venge Vias, the Madone 9 series was the first road bike to completely conceal its front cabling – making the front of the bike completely clean with the help of integrated Bontrager brakes developed specifically for the Madone. To facilitate that, the headtube of the bike had retractable carbon flaps which would open when the handlebars were moved to an acute enough angle, in order to let the brakes pop out from within the headtube.

This was a truly unhinged design (albeit with actual hinges) which offered a seismic leap in aerodynamic performance and overall speed - I attended the launch in 2015 and assumed I was suffering from jetlag delirium. The weight suffered as a result of the aero design. That was exacerbated by the IsoSpeed decoupler on the seatpost which compensated for the harsh aero tubes. In the era of rim brakes and early aerodynamic advances, though, overall weight being a kilo over the UCI minimum weight limit was nothing compared to the enormous watt savings. 

Since then, the Madone developed an adjustable IsoSpeed and gained disc brakes which negated the carbon flaps, before gradually converging back toward a more all-around bike. The 2022 update of the Madone sided for lighter weight at the expense of the IsoSpeed, providing instead an exhaust-like cantilever chasm in the seat tube known as the IsoFlow - still present in the design of the Madone Gen 8.

Indeed, having already taken a step toward being an all-around racer, the Gen 8 looks like the last generation Madone has been on a diet with thinner tubes, radically reshaped for aerodynamics and comfort, all powered by improved 900 OCLV Carbon – Trek’s proprietary blend of carbon fibre.

On the whole, though, Trek’s goal was clearly to make an irrefutably fast bike, which wins both on the ascents, descents and solo into the wind.

More of everything

“To our knowledge this is one of the if not the fastest road race bike that exists within the professional peloton and in the market,” says Jordan Roessingh, Director of Road bikes at Trek. 

“When you're comparing both attributes [weight and aero] of either previous platform, it's 77 seconds per hour faster than Emonda. So that's an enormous difference in aerodynamic performance compared to the previous Emonda despite the fact it's the same weight.” 

The real sell is that the new Madone nails the Emonda’s weight while matching the previous Madone’s aerodynamics. “When you're comparing to a Madone, it's the exact same aerodynamic performance,” Roessingh says. “But 320g lighter – so an enormous weight saving between those two. So again, we're taking the best of both worlds here and merging them and still achieving the highest performance of both attributes.”

The new tube shapes play a big role in the lower weight, better ride and claimed aero benefits. It’s odd as the cross-sections of the aero tubes look blunt and devoid of aerofoil or Kamm-tail shaping. However, when taken as a whole system, sandwiched between a horizontal cross-section of the front rim profile, aero bottles and the rear bottles, the tubes form a sort of neat holistic aerofoil.

Said with almost a grimace, as it’s become an industry cliche, Trek boasts that the bike has better vertical compliance alongside more lateral stiffness. The central IsoFlow seat tube gap claims an 80% improvement in the Madone’s vertical compliance and a 24% improvement over the IsoFlow-less Emonda.

The new Madone carries over the same splayed integrated bar concept as the Gen 7 - positioning the rider 2cm inward on the hoods compared to the drops for aero gains while sitting on the hoods (which has increasingly become the standard aero position).

Strangely, Trek claims the handlebars are less aerodynamic than the Gen 7 iteration, but with a wider cross-section offer a better overall aero performance when air interacts with the bars and then the rider.

In another gravel-like nod to versatility, the new Madone has clearance for 33mm tyres - up from 28mm on the previous Madone. Trek argues that the previous Madone could have handled 30mm or larger in most rim combinations, and for the Gen 8, similarly, 33mm is a conservative estimate. We can believe that given the visible clearance.

Sizing, spec and bottled-up speed

Trek’s aero bottle design is intriguing because this is ground that the bike market had trodden before. Aero water bottles have been commonplace in triathlon and time trial for over a decade, and have crept up into the build of aero road bikes from time to time but never managed to break through.

It’s also intriguing because the Madone is slower than its previous iteration with round bottles. What’s more, without any bottles on the bikes at all, it’s slower - so no ditching your bottles at the base of the climb.

Given the fixation on aero gains, it’s surprising that the claimed 3.7-watt gains with Trek’s RSL water bottles haven’t been adopted across the peloton. In reality, though, aero bottles present a few issues. Typically the aero cages restrict the use of round bottles, while any minor challenge in liberating a bottle is a big issue to a WorldTour rider on a critical climb. Trek claims to have solved both of those problems. 

“These bottle cages are compatible with round bottles” explains Adam Bird, Trek’s Design Engineer for the Madone. “So from a practical perspective, it's something that we expect the pro riders to be trying at the Tour de France – they're actually intending on using aero bottles at the tour. But they need to be able to grab any water bottle from any team or any neutral service and be able to put it in there. So we're balancing the aerodynamic performance with practical performance.”

In terms of breaking through to riders in the WorldTour where in the past the idea may have been dismissed as impractical, Bird argues, "There's a difference in the rider mentality… a lot of the riders now in the peloton are really young. They're very interested in learning about all those slight performance gains that they could potentially find.”

“Ten years ago, we would have shown them this water bottle and they would be like: screw off! There's no way we're gonna practically try them in a peloton. Three Watts? We don't really care about that.”

The proof of concept will be in whether Lidl-Trek riders commit to these bottles throughout the Tour - a piece of minutiae of team tech which I’ll personally be following closely.

The bottles are still not able to be stacked upright, given their angular nature. So don’t pop it on a table ready for a refill.

The change is a bold one given the cycling community’s aversion to change, and for now will be shipped as standard only with SLR – the bottles will be an add-on for lower-tier SL bikes (hence making them comparatively slower than the outgoing Madone SL).

The new Madone is set to go from a 105-equipped SL5 for £3,250.00 ($3,499.99) to a £14,700 ($16,999.99) Madone SLR 9 AXS P1 (Interstellar) with the only deviation in the frame itself being 500 series OCLV in the SL vs new 900 series OCLV in the top-tier SLR. The SLR is also compatible only with electric drivetrains.

Interestingly, the overall offering has shrunk from eight sizes to six.

“We had a lot of sizes that had a lot of overlap,” Roessingh explains. “Many riders could actually ride two different sizes and that created some confusion of just what frame size to ride, as there were some that were like unbelievably close to each other.” In some cases as little as a 4mm difference in stack height.

The fewer sizes are billed as reducing confusion and consolidating the design of each size. The cynic in me naturally assumed that there was perhaps some manufacturing saving at work there, but Roessingh later walked me through some of the logistics of manufacturing on the scale needed for the Madone. Essentially, reducing eight moulds to six may offer substantial savings for a small frame manufacturer, but when selling thousands of frames per year the turnaround of worn moulds means fewer mould sizes doesn’t necessarily mean fewer moulds.

First ride impressions

Trek’s global launch took place near Cebreros in a mountainous corner of the Castile and León region in Spain. Our riding took us directly into the mountains and into open windy plains. 

I was riding the second-tier (Ultegra Di2-equipped) SLR 7, though it was identical to the top-spec SLR 9 as far as the frame design and material. No surprise, then, that there was an immediate sense of speed, power transfer and sharpness riding the Madone.

The previous aero-focussed Madone always excelled in comfort, however, its bulky tubes ultimately gave it the sensation of driving a beefy sports car, while the new SLR not only felt palpably lighter but seemed so much closer to the Emonda in general ride quality. This has the sharp turn of speed and lively handling of a lightweight climber while promising the same speed as an all-out aero machine.

When it comes to all-out speed, it’s very hard to quantify that through a pair of initial test rides. Perhaps the best I could say is that it carried speed well on flat terrain, and at times felt simply blisteringly fast, and was truly a beast on the descents.

It has been too long since I’ve been on a long alpine descent, and despite the relatively shallow inclines, I found myself happily edging toward 80kph. The Madone definitely dared me to take more speed into corners, with a rigid handling character and sat extremely steadily at high speed. 

While I always rated the IsoSpeed system for its abundant comfort, the slight detachment between the front and back of the bike with the 9 series was a bit of a sacrifice for the resulting ride quality. With the IsoFlow system, I didn’t notice any discomfort or bumps on the rear end that I felt needed to be filtered out, and the reward in weight and connection to the road was palpable.

The finishing kit tweaks were probably the most surprising element of my first ride. The squeezed-in handlebar hoods make so much sense. The slight splay in a bar has long been a trend in gravel - offering the wider drops for stability and the narrow for speed. It works very well on the Madone and I was left wondering why we ever bother with hoods that are 42cm apart. 

The bottles, despite my scepticism, were easy to handle and never once a hassle to stow or release from the cage.

Early verdict

While I’ve only had a fleeting ride experience with the Madone, my first impression is this is a bike that really shows the maturity of cycling tech at its best. While it’s common to chase wattage gains from minor frame changes, Trek is right to focus on the bike holistically from an aero perspective, where a saving of 3 watts on the bottles could eclipse huge cost and weight gains if those same aerodynamic margins were sought on the frame.

Meanwhile to hit 7kg (in the top-spec SLR 9) with range-topping aerodynamic and stiffness performance is something we didn’t dream of with a disc brake road bike even five years ago. That comes with the benefits of wider tyres and a better experience across climbing, descending and sprinting, alongside great comfort.

With that in mind, the new Madone is very much the everything race bike, but one that could bridge that considerable gap between the needs of the WorldTour’s best and the normal enthusiasts.

I’m excited to spend more time with it, and where this new direction will take one of the most storied bikes in cycling’s history.

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Peter Stuart has been the editor of Cyclingnews since March 2022, overseeing editorial output across all of Cyclingnews' digital touchpoints.

Before joining Cyclingnews, Peter was the digital editor of Rouleur magazine. Starting life as a freelance feature writer, with bylines in The Times and The Telegraph, he first entered cycling journalism in 2012, joining Cyclist magazine as staff writer. Peter has a background as an international rower, representing Great Britain at Under-23 level and at the Junior Rowing World Championships.

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Trek’s Seventh Generation Madone Blends Radical Design and Performance

Trek's new Madone is made to go fast and win races.

Takeaway: A pure-bred road race bike designed to win at the WorldTour level. With its latest Madone, Trek ditches the IsoSpeed decoupler for the new lighter weight, more aerodynamic, and visually radical IsoFlow seatmast.

• Drops weight and gains efficiency.
• Proven geometry remains unchanged from the gen-6 model.
• Flared bars for reduced drag.
• Three SRAM and three Shimano build kit offerings.

Trek Madone SLR 9 eTap Gen 7

Trek’s Madone is an iconic bike. First launched in 2003, the Madone has evolved massively over the past two decades. The platform’s most significant technological leap came about in 2014 when Trek debuted the Emonda, its dedicated lightweight bike. The Emonda freed the Madone from having to strictly be a light bike, allowing aerodynamics to become its primary focus.

To deal with the notoriously stiff and uncomfortable ride of early aero bikes, Trek’s engineers incorporated an IsoSpeed decoupler, similar to the one used on the brand’s Domane endurance bike. With IsoSpeed, the bike’s seat tube moved independently from the top tube and seat stays, allowing it to absorb road chatter and small bumps. The resulting sixth-generation Madone was incredibly fast against the wind while also receiving praise for its ride quality. But the downside was the added weight.

With the new seventh-generation Madone, Trek set an ambitious goal of reducing weight without sacrificing the comfort and aerodynamic properties of the old bike. The most obvious place to shed grams was the IsoSpeed system, now replaced by the visually striking IsoFlow.

According to Trek, function drove IsoFlow’s development. Aided by computational fluid dynamics (CFD), Trek sought to overhaul the entire aerodynamic package of the Madone. The result was a new generation of Trek’s Kammtail tube shapes, including a smoother head tube, a down tube better optimized for use with and without bottles, a taller bottom bracket area, and the radically designed seat tube.

The new Madone is bold and will not be mistaken for any other bike. But it definitely won’t please riders who prefer a more traditional aesthetic. Trek deserves props for pushing the design language of a bicycle forward. Though its looks won't please everyone, I’m happy to see something other than a cookie-cutter, dropped-stays, aero-ish, all-around-er that seems so popular amongst bike designers.

The new seat mast set-up is well-designed, offering easy and consistent height adjustment. But the best detail was in the seat clamp, which allowed for fore and aft adjustment independent of saddle tilt. It’s a small detail that makes setting up the bike much easier, as it allows for minor saddle angle tweaks while leaving it clamped in place.

These changes account for roughly half of the aerodynamic improvements of the new bike. Trek claims that the new Madone saves riders 19 watts of pedaling energy at 28 mph, but just half of that savings (9.3 watts) is from improvements to the frame. The remaining watt savings come from changes to the rider position due to the new flared handlebar design. The Madone SLR handlebar measures a traditional width in the drops, but the bar's flare positions the hoods inward by 30mm. This narrower hood location puts the rider in a more aerodynamic position when riding, thus saving watts.

Thankfully for riders that are particular about their contact points, Trek made the new bike compatible with standard 1-⅛” stems so riders can set up their cockpit however they like. However, changing to this would give up a large chunk of the Madone’s claimed aero benefits unless riders choose a narrower-than-normal bar width.

More importantly for pro riders and weight weenies alike, the new frameset is now two-thirds of a pound lighter than its predecessor. Our 56cm test bike came in at 16.2 pounds which is pretty svelt for an aero bike with 51cm deep clincher wheels and disc brakes. A big part of the weight saving comes from the new IsoFlow design. The cantilevered design of the seat tube and IsoFlow allows for engineered flex in the new Madone. This design is how Trek maintains the Madone’s celebrated ride quality.

Trek stuck to its H1.5 geometry as used on the previous generation Madone. It conceived this as a meeting point between Trek’s old racing-focused H1 geometry and its more relaxed H2 angles. The wheelbase on our 56cm bike was only 983mm, nearly a centimeter shorter than the Specialized Tarmac SL7 and Giant’s TCR, and 13 mm shorter than Canyons Ultimate. Combined with a relatively steep 73.5-degree head tube angle and a 58mm trail figure, you get a bike that will dive into corners as hard as you’re willing to push it.

Pricing and Build Options

There is no getting around the fact that as the top-of-the-line road racing bike from Trek, the Madone is not cheap. The move to electronic-only groups on all builds of the Madone does the price no favors as well. While equivalent new models of the Madone only get $200 more expensive for 2023. The entry-level build for the 2023 Madone SLR 6 (with Shimano 105 Di2) comes in at $8,000. That is a $1,100 increase over the 2021 Madone SLR 6 equipped with mechanical-shifting Shimano Ultegra. Top-of-the-range Dura-Ace and Red eTap builds retail for $12,750 and $13,200, respectively.

Trek offers the new Madone in six builds, three with SRAM (Red, Force, and Rival eTap) and three with Shimano (Dura-Ace, Ultegra, and 105 Di2). All of the Madone builds ship with the new integrated cockpit; Dura-Ace and Red-equipped Madones ship with Bontrager Aeolus RSL 51 wheels, while all other builds get the slightly heavier Aeolus Pro 51.

Ride Impressions

The new Madone has an exceptionally smooth ride, lacking the characteristically dead and harsh feel of past aero bikes. But the mellow ride is not without an edge. The Madone does an exceptional job of balancing all-day comfort with the agility and aggression needed to be a top-tier race bike. Under sharp accelerations, especially at speeds under 25 mph, the Madone felt impressively stiff. But accelerations from the high 20s into 30+mph territory felt a bit more muted, which is not inherently a bad trait. A twitchy bike is not helpful when you’re going that fast.

Once the Madone is up to speed, it just wants to stay there. I was impressed with how quickly and easily the bike would get rolling up to 20-22 miles per hour. Combined with the gentle ride quality, it felt like the new Madone would constantly surprise me with how fast I was going. The sensation of speed on this bike is almost sneaky, you get used to what 25mph feels like on a road bike, but on the Madone, the same pace feels calmer and less frantic, at least in a straight line. Throw the Madone into a corner, and it instantly feels sharp and aggressive.

As a racer, I very much enjoyed the Madone’s willingness to corner aggressively, but it did expose one of the bike's faults. The 25mm tires shipped on our test biker are simply too narrow. Trek claims that the Madone can fit tires up to 28mm, but this feels short-sighted. Wheel brands such as Reserve, Enve, and Zipp now design around a 28mm tire as the default width. There is plenty of space in the frame for wider tires, so Trek is likely very conservative in its stock tire choice and maximum tire width recommendation.

Even riding the stock 25mm tires with pressures as low as 65 psi front and 75 psi rear, the narrow rubber still felt like it was missing grip, with the back end stepping out multiple times when exiting a corner. It was also discouraging that a road bike selling for over thirteen thousand dollars does not ship with tubeless compatible tires or the proper bits to easily set up the Bontrager Aeolus RSL 51 wheels as tubeless.

Another thing missing from the bike was a computer mount. Usually, it is not something I would expect a brand to include, but the bars require a Trek-specific part. Given the complete bike’s price tag and Trek’s integrated cockpit, it should come with a computer mount. I sourced a Blendr mount from my local Trek store, but it was not without its issues (it rattled loose during a training crit and fell off). It is possible to entirely avoid this proprietary part by using a standard 1-⅛” stem and handlebar but making this swap would involve cutting hydraulic houses and would not be cheap.

I was also pleased to see Trek continue using the T47 bottom bracket standard on this bike. A threaded bottom bracket shell is a win for mechanics everywhere. However, the latest Madone is now only compatible with electronic shifting. We can argue whether it's bike brands like Trek (releasing electronic-only high-end bikes) or component brands like SRAM and Shimano (no longer developing high-performance mechanical road groupsets) or if consumers are just voting with their dollars. But the result is that we are witnessing the death of mechanical shifting from high-end racing bikes. And that's a little bit sad.

Ultimately this Madone, like the versions that have come before, was conceived and designed to meet the needs of World Tour professionals. Everything about the bike, from how it rides, to how much it costs, reflects that niche design requirement. Aside from a small pool of professional racers, very few people will likely make the most of this bike’s capabilities. It’s analogous to the way most drivers will not benefit from driving a Formula One car. It’s a pure-bred race bike designed to win at the highest level. If that’s what you’re looking to do—or you just want to own a bike with that ability—then the Madone should be on your shortlist.

Test Editor Dan Chabanov got his start in cycling as a New York City bike messenger but quickly found his way into road and cyclocross racing, competing in professional cyclocross races from 2009 to 2019 and winning a Master’s National Championship title in 2018. Prior to joining Bicycling in 2021, Dan worked as part of the race organization for the Red Hook Crit, as a coach with EnduranceWERX, as well as a freelance writer and photographer. 

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Meet the new Trek Madone

Our fastest road bike ever. Period.

The holy grail of road bike engineering is a perfect balance of aerodynamics, light weight and comfort. With the seventh generation of the Trek Madone, the mad scientists at Trek’s laboratories may have finally found the sweet spot for what we can proudly, and unequivocally, call our fastest road bike ever.

The secret is hiding in plain sight. Each frame is sculpted with IsoFlow technology, which splits the seat tube, creating a funnel beneath the seat mast that smooths and accelerates air through the frame while also creating flex near the saddle to smooth out those bumps in the road, so you can ride even farther. 

IsoFlow is both eye-catching and revolutionary. You can see it at work already for the Trek-Segafredo men’s and women’s teams at some of the biggest races of the year, including the Tour de France. If you love speed, you’re going to love this bike.

The full bike and a good look at IsoFlow.

A cockpit built for speed.

Trek engineers didn’t stop at IsoFlow to improve the Madone’s aerodynamics. Painstaking research went into the frame, cockpit and rider position to make sure that riders got every ounce of free speed possible. The result? The new Madone is 19 watts faster than the previous generation at 45 kilometers an hour. That’s a savings of approximately 60 seconds per hour. 

A split seat post helps eat bumps in the road.

A more comfortable position means longer games of "tag."

Power, comfort and control

Riders are now placed in an even more ergonomic riding position compared to the previous Madone, thanks to an overhauled cockpit that features a shorter reach and hoods that are 3 centimeters narrower than the drops. Combined with IsoFlow, riders can expect to feel faster late into their long efforts.

Climb or descend like the best.

Lighter than ever

It may not beat the mountain-eating Émonda , but the new Madone has always been plenty snappy on steep gradients, and it’s even more so now. The new Madone is around 300 grams lighter than the previous version, again thanks to IsoFlow, as well as our best and lightest OCLV Carbon. Take on your hometown’s killer climb (you know the one) without fear.

No detail overlooked.

Coming to a peloton near you.

You want a lighter, faster, more comfortable road bike? Well here it is. The Madone compromises nothing to give you the ultimate ride. There’s simply nothing like it. 

Our fastest road bike ever

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Trek Madone long-term review: Hyper-aero, surprisingly comfy

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The Madone is the oldest model name in the current Trek road lineup, with the first dating back to 2003. That nameplate has worn several hats in that time, but it’s always represented the best that road bike Trek had to offer. The latest generation is no different, offering cutting-edge aerodynamics, an incredible level of integration, and a level of comfort that is unmatched by its competitors.

But what’s it like to live with a Madone over the long haul? CyclingTips US technical editor James Huang sought to answer just that, spending nearly two full years of quality time on a workhorse Madone 9.5 model. The honeymoon ended long ago, and there have been some rocky moments since then. But for the most part, it’s been a pretty solid relationship.

Aero performance without compromise?

The science of bicycle aerodynamics has greatly matured in recent years, and it seems like every major industry player has cracked the code on how best to reduce drag. While it could easily be argued that aero road bikes from different brands are looking increasingly derivative, it could just as easily be argued that it’s because there just aren’t many ways known to do it well without sacrificing other performance metrics, such as chassis rigidity and weight, and staying within the stringent UCI technical guidelines for frame design.

As a result, the never-ending fight to save watts is increasingly a matter of splitting hairs, but even independent third-party tests have confirmed that Trek’s latest Madone is one of the absolute best in this regard. It’s fast when pointed straight into still air, but also posts enviably low drag numbers at a wide range of wind angles, meaning that it also maintains that aerodynamic edge in more realistic outdoor conditions.

Trek was one of the earliest proponents of the flat-backed, Kamm-tail tube profiles that are now so common; its original Speed Concept time trial/triathlon bike debuted the concept almost 10 years ago, at the 2009 Tour de France. It’s not surprising that Trek has continued to refine the idea, incorporating the philosophy fully in this latest Madone. While the down tube, seat tube, head tube, seatstays, and fork blades all look conventionally deep in profile, a closer look reveals that they all have clipped tails, with the theory being that the truncated shapes maintain the aerodynamic efficiency of full airfoil sections, but with the weight and stiffness advantages that come from the rounder cross-sections.

Details matter as always, and Trek has complemented the frame’s basic shape with similarly well thought-out ancillary components. The front and rear rim brake calipers are nicely integrated into the surrounding structures, and Trek has gone the extra step of partnering with TRP to create dedicated units specifically for the Madone. They blend in so well, in fact, that were they painted to match, they’d almost be invisible at first glance.

Up front is a proprietary one-piece carbon fiber cockpit; the steerer clamp is matched with profiled headset spacers for a cohesive surface contour. Save for very brief appearances at both derailleurs and the rear brake, cable routing is fully internal from tip to tail, running inside the flattened bar tops, through the bulbous molded carbon-fiber stem, and down the sides of the unique square-profile steerer tube before making their way inside the frame. On the down tube, just aft of the head tube, is a small hatch with either a holder for a Shimano Di2 junction box or a barrel adjuster for a cable-actuated front derailleur. It’s very slick.

Overall, the layout is strikingly clean, and it makes other aero bikes with exposed cabling look comparatively unfinished and cluttered.

Other examples of integration include proprietary bolt-on accessory mounts for computers and front and rear lights, a pocket in the non-driveside chainstay for a wireless speed and cadence sensor, and Trek’s now-commonplace BB90 press-fit bottom bracket shell , whereby the crankset bearings are pressed into seats that are molded directly into the shell; no separate cups are required. A chain keeper is mounted to the base of the seat tube, too.

Such deep-section tubing would normally produce an unyieldingly stiff ride quality, but it’s here where the Madone shines brightest.

Trek has incorporated its ingenious IsoSpeed “decoupler” into the Madone, which places a pivoting axle at the seat cluster to promote movement on rougher roads. Even adding a pivot axle and a pair of cartridge bearings isn’t going to make a deep-section seat tube flex much under load, however, so Trek has instead developed a rather brilliant tube-within-a-tube design. That aero-profile extended seatmast necks down at the seat cluster to a much smaller, round-profile seat tube that is hidden inside the seat tube. In this way, the main frame can still be shaped to cheat the wind, but the ride quality is akin to a more traditionally shaped frame.

As on the previous three generations of Trek’s flagship road racer, this latest Madone features a clever semi-integrated seatmast design that requires no cutting. Although it looks cool (and omits many of the hassles of full-length integrated seatmasts), it’s also what makes the IsoSpeed concept possible since more traditional designs with overlapping frame-plus-seatpost layouts would make that area too stiff.

It makes little sense to report a traditional frame-only weight here since there is so much integration on the Madone and so many proprietary parts that must be included for it to function. Instead, it’d be more telling to describe the “module,” including the frame, fork, headset, headset cover, seatmast head, cable hardware, front and rear brake calipers, and bottom bracket. Actual weight for that configuration is 2.27kg (5.00lb).

A different approach toward bike reviews

It’s commonplace for us here at CyclingTips to test bikes for several weeks — or sometimes, several months — before sharing our impressions. The current Madone iteration had already been around for a couple of seasons by the time I took delivery of my review sample, and since I was unlikely to add much to the existing conversation, I decided to take a different approach. Savvy readers may notice that the Madone model pictured here is thoroughly out of date, but that’s because I’ve been evaluating it for the past two years .

Piling on miles quickly is obviously one way to get to know a bike, but there’s no substitute for simply living with the thing over an extended period of time: winter, spring, summer, fall, repeat.

For this unique ultra-extended test, I went with a workhorse Madone 9.5 model, built around Trek’s second-tier 600 Series carbon frame and its standard H2 semi-upright geometry. The bike arrived with Shimano’s now-previous-generation Dura-Ace mechanical groupset, Bontrager aluminum/carbon aero clincher wheels, and Bontrager finishing kit, with a total weight of 7.26kg (16.00lb, without pedals). Nearly every component was traded in and out over those two years, but that’s just as well; I was mainly trying to get thoroughly acquainted with the frameset.

And let’s just say that after two laps around the sun, I got to know the thing quite well.

For more information on current Madone models, visit Trek .

A sleek shape, a comfy ride, and lots of integration

Having already spent several months on a flagship model prior to starting this review, I was already familiar with most of the Madone’s salient performance traits, and am happy to report that most of them carry forth on this more affordable version.

Aerodynamic efficiency is always a dubious thing to evaluate from the saddle, but the Madone indeed feels fast on the road, especially when fitted with matching aero wheels. The bike accelerates just like non-aero bikes of similar weight and stiffness from a standstill, but it’s when you’re moving at higher speeds that you notice how much easier it is to do so. Scoff at the concept of aero gains all you wish, but the effect is real — and tangible, in this case.

More striking is the bike’s surprisingly comfortable ride. Most carbon fiber aero road bikes do a decent job of filtering out high-frequency road buzz, but kick back hard on bigger impacts. However, the Madone’s pivoting seatmast even manages to quell those handily. Whereas you’d normally brace for impact when approaching ugly-looking bumps on more traditional aero road bikes, you quickly learn on the Madone that you can simply stay seated and pedal through.

IsoSpeed is now featured on Trek’s Madone, Domane, and Domane SLR road platforms, and it’s perhaps worth noting how the ride quality differs between the three. Whereas the original Domane — with its rear-only IsoSpeed design — offered a pillowy ride out back, the fully rigid front end was comparatively harsh, and the feel was markedly unbalanced as a result. Trek corrected this on the Domane SLR with its new Front IsoSpeed device and newly adjustable rear IsoSpeed design, and the ride quality is decidedly more cohesive as a result.

Like the original Domane, the Madone features IsoSpeed only at the rear end, but it doesn’t suffer from the same mismatched feel. Whereas the first-generation Domane (and current second-tier ones) are plush out back, but very firm up front, the Madone’s stock IsoSpeed tuning is firmer to begin with, and feels more balanced overall. It strikes a pleasant balance between bump isolation, road feel, and efficiency with no noticeable saddle movement during normal pedaling. A plush endurance machine the Madone is most certainly not, but it’s still a striking improvement over the vast majority of aero bikes on the road.

If you want an even smoother ride, bear in mind that Trek officially approves the Madone for use with tires up to 28mm-wide (and rims up to 30mm-wide). Two years ago, Trek equipped the Madone 9.5 with 23mm-wide tires on 17.5mm-wide rims; today, the Madone 9.5 comes with 25c tires, which actually measure closer to 27mm when mounted to 19.5mm-wide rims. Especially in that configuration, the Madone is far more comfortable to ride than you’d expect based on appearances alone.

Such clearance would be meaningless without brakes that can handle the extra width, but the Madone’s proprietary calipers are up to the task. Integrated set screws individually adjust each arm’s position and spring tension, and handy quick-release levers are incorporated into the design as well for fast wheel changes. The direct-mount, center-pull design is also impressively rigid and yields excellent lever feel.

I found the calipers easy to control, but overall power is a bit lacking as compared to standard Shimano direct-mount calipers. Most of this difference was eventually sourced back to the stock TRP pads, however, which seemed overly hard and lacking in initial bite. Switching to SwissStop’s purple BXP compound helped tremendously, as did installing a set of HED Jet 6 Black aluminum/carbon clinchers with their aggressively textured sidewalls.

As I’ve come to expect from the Madone family, handling was unflappably capable. Years of refinement have produced a geometry that simply goes where you want it to, when you want it to, with no drama or objection, and with minimal input required of the rider at either the bars or hips. It’s not overly twitchy or stable, but rather as middle-of-the-road as could be for a high-end, everyday road racer; basically the embodiment of neutral handling.

While some might classify that sort of quiet competence as boring, I’d say it’s the perfect scenario for day-to-day riding.

Some will find the fit to be much more polarizing, however.

All of Trek’s aero road bikes wear the same “Madone” label, but there are essentially two different bikes on tap here. Not long ago, Trek offered many of its Madone models in two fit variants: the aggressive H1 version with its pro-friendly long-and-low rider positioning, and the masses-friendly H2 fit, with its taller head tube and slightly shorter top tube. These days, however, the only way to get the H1 fit is to go with a bare Madone 9 Race Shop Limited frameset and build it up from there; every complete Madone is now offered solely in the H2 version.

For my preferred 52cm size, the difference in reach is only 3mm: 379mm vs. 382mm, which basically just takes into account the head tube extension and still offers plenty of room to stretch out. The difference in stack, however, is a much more substantial 552mm vs. 523mm, for a whopping 29mm gain. For the sake of comparison, it’s not far off from what Specialized does with its Tarmac vs. the Roubaix families of road bikes.

Whether that’s a good or bad thing will depend on your personal setup, but Trek has obviously opted to favor the majority of the bell curve here. Truth be told, I was perfectly happy height-wise on the H2 setup just by removing all of the headset spacers. But that said, riders interested in the Madone who want or need a more aggressive position will either need to remove all the headset spacers or start from scratch.

Compounding the fit issue is the aero carbon fiber integrated cockpit. The effective stock stem length on my 52cm sample size was a stubby 90mm, and I definitely needed to go longer; other sizes are equipped with similarly short cockpits as well. Trek supplied me with a longer cockpit per my request, but the internally routed cabling doesn’t make the change remotely quick or easy.

I’ve noticed several Trek Factory Racing team riders opting for more conventional stems and bars for various reasons. However, I would encourage most Madone buyers to invest the time to get the properly sized one-piece cockpit installed because it’s very good once you get the right size. The flattened tops have more rounded edges than many other designs I’ve used, so they’re surprisingly comfortable to hold on long climbs (although I would recommend against leaving them bare as Trek supplies from the factory). And while I would have preferred a bit more wrist clearance when sprinting, the variable-radius drops offer a wide range of comfy hand positions. The monocoque design is also impressively stiff without being overly so, and as long as you’re running one of the supported brands, the slick Blendr bolt-on computer and light/camera mounts make for an ultra-clean setup.

I anticipated all of these fit issues right from the start, but what I didn’t anticipate was the difference in stiffness between the H1 and H2 frames.

Trek builds the top-end, H1-fit Team Issue frames with its premier 700-Series carbon fiber blend; the H2-fit versions get the lesser 600-Series mix instead (and are also made in Asia, not Wisconsin). The modest increase in weight isn’t a big deal, but the softer feel is harder to ignore.

I’ve never found Madones of any generation to be unusually rigid, but I’ve usually been happy to accept that given their balanced ride qualities. The 600-Series frame squirts forward with pedaling pressure well enough, but front triangle torsional rigidity is particularly lacking as compared to the stouter-feeling 700-Series Madone. The chassis feels a little soft when climbing or sprinting out of the saddle, and is especially distracting when hitting bumps in mid-corner, where the sudden out-of-plane twisting can knock you off-line and disrupt your rhythm through a series of turns. No matter how much time I spent on the Madone 9.5, that sudden wiggle was something I never grew accustomed to, and it ultimately sapped my confidence on fast downhills.

After the honeymoon period

It’s relatively easy to gauge a bike’s overall personality after just a handful of rides, but long-term issues often only rear their ugly heads over time.

Trek does its best to make the internal routing setup more liveable, including cleverly split headset spacers that allow for bar height alterations without having to re-run all of the cabling, and built-in adjustments on the brake calipers that can accommodate a reasonably wide range of cable tensions. As with many internally routed bikes, there’s also a big port at the underside of the bottom bracket to help guide everything through. Indeed, just changing inner cables is only mildly anger-inducing.

It’s usually better to replace both the cables and housing at the same time, however, and there’s no point in sugarcoating the process — it’s a royal pain in the ass. Trek thankfully provides guidelines and tutorials for the process, including detailed housing lengths, but there’s still a lot of fishing and disassembly involved. Whereas a reasonably experienced home mechanic could do a complete cable and housing replacement on an externally routed bike in the time it takes to watch a single episode of Game of Thrones (new bar tape included), it’s best to set aside a half day or so here.

Repeated rides in wet weather revealed a few more chinks in the armor.

Cable exit points are reasonably well sealed, but the slot for the semi-integrated seatmast topper is basically open to the elements. Water spraying off of the rear wheel easily gets in, but at least can drain out through the holes in the bottom of the bottom bracket shell. That said, any associated dirt or mud isn’t likely to flow out as well (and yes, I mostly stuck to asphalt for this one).

That’s a good thing in terms of the bottom bracket bearings, which on some frames can corrode from within. There’s an internal plastic sleeve that does a decent job of shielding the Japanese NSK cartridges from that sort of water exposure, but they’re not wholly immune to weather. And from the outside, the supplemental bearing shields — don’t you dare call them “seals” — do little to protect the bearings from road spray. And unlike a more conventional design that uses separate press-in or threaded cups, the molded carbon-fiber structure doesn’t provide as much flexibility for updating those seal designs.

It’s predominantly dry here in Colorado, so this Madone didn’t see nearly as much foul weather as it would have under someone who would ride it day-in and day-out in a wetter climate such as the U.K. Perhaps as a result, my bike stayed pleasantly creak-free during its stay in the Rocky Mountains. But nevertheless, periodic inspections of my bottom bracket bearings revealed a surprising amount of grime behind those plastic shields, and if dust and dirt can weasel their way in there, so can water.

As it turns out, it doesn’t take much online sleuthing to find heaps of Madone owners reporting premature bearing wear. Sure, the cartridges are relatively inexpensive and easy to replace if you have the correct tools, but even that reveals a more critical downside to the BB90 design.

BB90 is extremely efficient from an engineering standpoint since it eliminates every redundant part from the assembly. But since the bearing seats are molded directly into the carbon fiber structure, it’s the frame itself that gradually wears with every bearing removal and installation. Eventually, the bearing seat dimensions will change to the point where a bearing no longer fits tightly, which leads to creaking and even faster bearing wear. Trek’s solutions include oversized bottom bracket bearings for a tighter fit, as well as a factory repair of the bearing seats to restore their original dimensions.

Trek has been using BB90 (and its BB95 analogue) on a huge portion of its higher-end bikes for over a decade now, and these problems aren’t exactly ubiquitous. But when they do arise, neither of those “solutions” are particularly palatable for those affected. Without question, the design is extremely elegant and does save weight, but as with most press-fit bottom bracket systems, I’m left to question whether the performance gains made on paper are worth the real-world costs.

Where the Madone goes from here

I once welcomed with (relatively) open arms the engineering advantages that the BB90 press-fit bottom bracket shell design promised. That was back in 2007, when it first debuted. But the long-term ramifications after a decade of accumulated owner data are impossible to ignore. It’s time for this design to either go away, or at least get a major update in the form of more durable (metal?) bearing seats and/or compatibility with modern oversized cranksets. The new T47 threaded fitment seems like it could be an excellent alternative, and the wide-format version of that would retain much of the current Madone’s existing frame design, too.

I’d also like to see Trek re-introduce the once-plentiful range of H1 and H2 fit options. Trek clearly doesn’t feel it has the demand to support offering H1 and H2 variants of the Madone as it did before — and indeed, the road market has softened to the point where it probably isn’t economically viable — but that doesn’t mean that I don’t miss having the choice. For me, it seems that an H2-fit Madone built with the stiffer 700-Series carbon blend would have been ideal, but alas, such a combination doesn’t exist. At the very least, Trek needs to bolster the front end of the 600-Series frames to lessen the performance gap.

And will we see a disc-brake version soon? That seems inevitable, but it’s anyone’s guess when that might happen.

Popular on Velo

Trek Madone SLR 7 Gen 7 review - very fast and very expensive

The latest Madone may have a hole through the seat tube but we couldn't find any in its performance

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The Trek Madone is an absolute speed weapon. The deep-section tubes with the radical-looking cutout help, as does the newly designed handlebar, which is narrow and provides good wrist support for the ‘aero-hoods’ position. And then there are the 51mm deep Bontrager Aeolus Pro wheels. The handling is incredibly fast, responding to the smallest shift in weight and the tiniest tweaks of the bars, and ride quality is so impressive that it’s almost possible to overlook things like the narrow tires and ungenerous clearance - but you can’t ignore the price. If you have the budget and want a WorldTour-level race machine with exceptional handling and ride feel, this is the bike.

Super smooth ride

Light for an aero bike

Striking aesthetics

Limited adjustability

No power meter

You can trust Cycling Weekly. Our team of experts put in hard miles testing cycling tech and will always share honest, unbiased advice to help you choose. Find out more about how we test.

• Construction

Value and conclusion

For this latest Gen 7 version of the Madone, Trek’s aero bike, the US brand removed the IsoSpeed Decoupler of the previous Gen 6 model and left, in its place, a big hole.

OK, it’s not the crude, reductionist approach it sounds like.

The old bike’s micro-adjustable suspension system at the top tube/seat tube juncture added weight and was mostly redundant since Trek discovered most riders would ‘set and forget’.

And by radically reengineering the frame Trek claims to have saved 300g, and says the new bike is almost 20 watts faster than its predecessor, which equates to 60 seconds per hour when ridden at 45kph. It looks radical, too - always a good thing for a new bike.

In our 2023 Race Bike of the Year grouptest we awarded the Madone 'best aero bike' against competition that included the Cervélo S5, the Canyon Aeroad and the Giant Propel.

However, over $9K / £10K for an Ultegra bike has to be unchartered territory - so how does it compare overall to the best road bikes ?

Trek Madone 7 Gen 7: construction

Let’s peer a bit more closely into that hole or, to give it its real name, IsoFlow. The aerodynamic explanation for it is: “It’s a way to direct some high energy flow into a low energy region of the bike.” What that means is that the seat tube area creates a disproportionate amount of drag and the hole helps to dissipate this by adding what Trek calls a “jet of fast moving air.”

It turns out that only half of the claimed watt saving comes from the IsoFlow hole. Trek has entered the integrated cockpit wars (along with Colnago, Canyon, Cervélo et al) with a completely new and very slick-looking design but it’s neither adjustable nor V-shaped: according to Trek it saves watts by changing rider position rather than via the aerodynamic properties of the cockpit itself.

A standard 42cm bar becomes 39cm at the hoods and 42cm at the drops and there’s a backsweep so that a flat-forearms aero position on the hoods becomes very aero indeed.

There are 14 different combinations available and, since the backsweep gives the bar a shorter reach, it’s important to get the right one - if you’re like those of us who rode this bike, you’ll need a longer stem. You can change this at point of purchase at no extra cost, Trek told us, or the 1 1/8in steerer is compatible with a non-integrated stem and bar (though the frame is electronic groupset only).

The same goes for the seatmast. The cutout in the seat tube leaves less room for a long seatpost and less adjustability (around 6cm minimum to maximum) so if you are long-legged but prefer a smaller frame you may need the tall version that comes with the size 56 upwards (as I ideally would have done). There are also two offsets available.

Our size 54 with a standard short mast could only manage a maximum saddle height of 74cm and the reach felt very short with the 90mm stem cockpit it comes with.

The latest geometry is called H1.5 (halfway between the old H1 race and H2 endurance). The reduced reach combined with the shorter reach of the swept-back bar works very well for that super aero hoods position, but it does feel surprisingly short. The kamm-tailed rear of the stem is much closer to your knees than you’d expect.

The new SLR bikes are all made from Trek’s 800 OCLV carbon - from the 105-equipped SLR 6 up to the flagship SLR 9 - and are impressively light, especially compared with other aero bikes such as the Cervelo S5. Trek says this is its lightest ever disc Madone.

There’s clearance for 28mm tires max, which is tight by modern standards. This model comes with Bontrager Aeolus Pro 51 tubeless-ready wheels, set up with Bontrager R3 Hard-Case Lite 25mm tires and inner tubes - again, surprisingly narrow.

Despite the fact that the fit wasn’t optimal - I could have done with the size up - the ride quality of the Madone is absolutely incredible. That’s the first thing that strikes you, or rather doesn’t strike you.

Aero bikes used to supply a harsher ride simply because deep, bladed tubing doesn’t flex like round tubing. This was undoubtedly the reason why Trek bolted the IsoSpeed decoupler onto the Madone two iterations ago. So you might expect that with its suspension system gone, the latest bike might have gone backwards in comfort. Not a bit of it.

It feels like a coiled carbon spring - full of potential energy and floating over bad road surfaces seemingly without any effect on its speed. And this is on 25mm tires that aren’t even the best (at this price they really ought to be).

The handling is also exactly right. The shortish 90mm stem section of the cockpit could have made it a little twitchy, but thanks to the sweeping shape I found my weight sufficiently over the front wheel in the hoods position, and steering was fast but balanced on descents and tight corners.

So it passes ‘comfortable’ and ‘fast’ with flying colors (actually Deep Smoke for this one).

At 7.5kg it’s light for an aero bike - or any disc brake bike - and it leaps up hills as if it weighs even less. I was so impressed with its performance that I kept forgetting Trek also has the Emonda climbing bike. The next Emonda has its work cut out (pun intended).

Finally, stability in crosswinds. There’s one particular gateway on my test loop where any bike not designed for big yaw angles will be gusted and the Trek was indeed blown sideways slightly - but not alarmingly considering the deep wheels and frame tubes.

This bike is incredibly good but it’s also incredibly expensive. It’s a full $1,000 / £1,000 more than the equivalent outgoing Gen 6 Madone SLR 7, and you’d have to look hard to find a more expensive Ultegra Di2-equipped bike from the other mainstream brands. 

The Canyon Aeroad CFR with Dura-Ace costs $8,999 / £8,799, while the Cervelo S5 with SRAM Force AXS costs $9,000 / £9,200. The Giant Propel Advanced SL1 also with SRAM Force costs $8,000 / £8,999.

You might also reasonably expect a power meter at this price - those three bikes all come with them - but it’s just the regular Ultegra crankset here.

So the price is stratospheric but compared with the current aero bikes I’ve ridden so far including the Colnago V4RS , Canyon Aeroad SLX , Cervelo S5, Tarmac SL7 and Pinarello Dogma F, the ride quality is superior.

• Frame: 800 Series OCLV carbon
• Fork: KVF carbon, tapered steerer
• Groupset: Shimano Ultegra Di2
• Wheels : Bontrager Aeolus Pro 51
• Tires : Bontrager R3 Hard-Case Lite 25mm
• Cockpit: Madone integrated
• Seatpost : Madone aero internal
• Saddle: Bontrager Aeolus Elite
• Weight: 7.5kg
• Contact: www.trekbikes.com

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Simon Smythe is a hugely experienced cycling tech writer, who has been writing for Cycling Weekly since 2003. Until recently he was our senior tech writer. In his cycling career Simon has mostly focused on time trialling with a national medal, a few open wins and his club's 30-mile record in his palmares. These days he spends most of his time testing road bikes, or on a tandem doing the school run with his younger son.

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• Rider Notes

2011 Trek Madone 4.5

A carbon frame aero bike with upper mid-range components and rim brakes.

For This Bike

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A bike with lower gearing will be easier to ride up steep hills, while a higher top end means it will pedal faster down hills.

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I've made it here to Liege to chase a little bike race around France, but before I begin Trek was kind enough to invite me to their new Madone launch. And I'm glad they did. Besides having a lot of fun, I've had the opportunity to meet many of the people behind Trek and the innovative products they produce. Back in

Read Review

Jun 2012 · Caley Fretz

We give our first impressions of the all-new Trek Madone and an expanded Domane line

Aug 2010 · R BA

No, not the new 6 Series SSL, but still a (2009) Tour winner

Mar 2010 · Lennard Zinn

Two-time world pursuit champion Taylor Phinney is Trek-Livestrong’s marquee rider.

Jan 2010 · James Huang

A racier and brawnier feel for the new Madone

Jan 2009 · Mat Brett

Lightweight, stiff and comfortable with superb ride quality

First added 29 June

Last updated 29 June

Not listed for 2,618 days

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New Trek Madone breaks cover at Dauphiné… or is it an Emonda?

First Published Jun 2, 2024

Lidl-Trek riders at the Critérium du Dauphiné are racing a new Trek road bike that retains the IsoFlow technology and the cantilever seatpost design of the existing model, but comes with shallower tubes, presumably to reduce weight.

Well, we're saying it's a new Madone because that's what it says on the top tube sticker and it's clearly an evolution of the seventh gen Madone that broke cover at the Dauphiné two years ago. There is a 'but', though. That top tube sticker might say 'Madone' but look carefully and you'll see that underneath it says 'Emonda'.

What's that all about then? Whatever it is, it's definitely a new top end race bike from Trek.

Then, a new picture emerged a few days ago, leaked on the Weight Weenies forum.

> New Trek road bike with 'IsoFlow' seat tube hole leaked — so, is it a new Émonda or revamped Madone?

Now Lidl-Trek riders are racing the new bike, which says Madone on the top tube, at the Dauphiné, which starts today in Saint-Pourçain-sur-Sioule, France – making it the eighth generation. Well, if you believe the sticker. Look closer at the shot below and you'll see there's another word underneath it.

We first spotted the seventh-generation Madone SLR here at the Dauphiné two years ago, although it wasn’t officially launched to the public until a month later. 

> Trek releases radical Madone SLR, its “fastest road race bike ever”

The standout feature of that bike was its IsoFlow technology, which involves an interrupted seat tube. It’s one of those things that’s way easier to communicate via a picture than through words so…

Trek claims that IsoFlow provides dramatic aerodynamic improvements – it “smooths air as it moves over the bike and accelerates it through the frame for even more free speed”, according to the US brand – while reducing weight and adding compliance. The cantilever upper seat tube/seatpost design is intended to flex over bumps to smooth the ride.

Like most of the cycling world, we thought Trek would likely extend IsoFlow to its lightweight Émonda platform next. Why? Mainly because the Émonda hasn’t been updated in over three years whereas the Madone got its radical new shaping in 2022. However, it looks like we missed the mark there and Lidl-Trek’s bike is, in fact, the eighth-generation Madone.

Or is it? As mentioned, underneath that top tube sticker it says Emonda. There's a few possible reasons for that and we'll go into those later, but first let's take things at face value and assume we're dealing with a new Madone.

Although similar to the seventh-generation model (above) in some ways, particularly regarding the IsoFlow technology at the heart of things, the new bike features shallower tubes across the board. The head tube and down tube are far, far shallower than those of the seventh-gen Madone, and the same goes for the fork legs. 

The lower section of the seat tube wrapped around the leading edge of the front wheel on the previous Madone. That’s no longer a feature here – at least not to the same extent as previously – and the deep seatstays have been replaced by decidedly skinny ones.

What is Trek up to with this design? That’s harder to say because this new bike has yet to be launched and the company has released precisely zero information about it.

Over recent years, Trek has offered the Madone as its aero road bike and the Émonda as the lightweight alternative. However, several brands have moved away from that two-pronged attack (and some, like Pinarello, never went there in the first place). 

Specialized, for example, has been down the ‘one bike to rule them all’ route with its Tarmac SL7 and SL8 – bikes designed to be both lightweight and aero. It claimed a 56cm frame weight of just 685g in its lightest colourway, and a fork weight of 358g.

The seventh-generation Trek Madone SLR was launched with a frame weight of just under 1,000g, and a fork weight of just over 400g.

Trek clearly thought a little extra weight was a price worth paying for the aero gains, but we’d imagine that the tubes of the new Madone have been slimmed down to save grams. That’s speculation, of course, but it’s usually the way of things.

Will Trek have sacrificed aero performance to save weight? Who knows what it will claim when this bike is released? Trek will doubtless have a good story to tell and a white paper’s worth of justifications for the changes.

One final question: where does this leave the Émonda? One final answer: we don’t know. It could be that Trek is putting all its eggs into one basket with the Madone in the same way that Specialized has with its Tarmac, having shelved the aero Venge.

Maybe Trek is merging its lightweight tech and its aero tech into a single platform. 

Or maybe this actually is a new Émonda and Trek doesn't want pesky journalists spoiling an eve of Tour launch by finding the new bike first at the Dauphiné. I mean, it wouldn't be the first time that's happened.

We've been putting this story together, and all our other tech coverage from the Dauphiné, on the road in France and even as I've been writing this my thoughts on what this bike is have been changing. At para one I was fairly sure it was a new Madone, but by this point I'm thinking Émonda. It's a lot easier to put a name sticker on a bike than it is to put a name on under the clear coat and then slap a sticker on top of that. And if you are going to cover something up with a sticker, why not cover it up properly, eh?

Maybe it's an elaborate double bluff. Perhaps Trek will be merging the two platforms, or maybe it's part of a clever teaser campaign for a new Emonda? What we can say for certain is that whether it's a Madone, an Émonda, or both combined, it's definitely a new top end race bike from Trek.

Hopefully, everything will be revealed when Trek officially launches the eighth-generation Madone, or the (checks notes) fourth generation Émonda, although we don't know when that'll be. It's a good bet, though, that any new bike from a major brand that we see raced at this time of year will get a full release ahead of the Tour de France, and that's at the end of this month.

What do you think Trek's new road bike will be called? Let us know in the comments below!

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Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.

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15 comments.

Hi, anybody knows what is the brand or model of aero bottle and bottle cage present in the new madone above? It have a great design.

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Victor Luzardo wrote: Hi, anybody knows what is the brand or model of aero bottle and bottle cage present in the new madone above? It have a great design.

It will almost certainly be Trek's own-brand Bontrager, though it's not one they sell at the moment - maybe a new design to be released at the same time as the new bike?

Loadsa options. My personal fave is Daemon. But also Damone, Nodame, Noamed, Medona, Demona, Monade, Modane, Daneom, Moaden, Meadon, Dameno, Modena... 

Nah, if they were going to call it "daemon", they wouldn't have taken to the Dauphiné, it would just have been launched quietly in the background...

You missed Nomade 

and madeon, and oedamn...

Trek are playing a great game with the Madone/Emonda sticker. It's getting some of us a bit fizzy about a bike that, to be honest, we'd never buy anyway. 

I personally think Trek needs to move away from Madone or any other anagram name made from it. Madone still links Trek to LA and that's a tie they should sever. 

I've always read Madone as "Mad-one". Just needs some rock-shox and a dropper post...

road.cc wrote: Or maybe this actually is a new Émonda and Trek doesn't want pesky journalists spoiling an eve of Tour launch by finding the new bike first at the Dauphiné.

If they didn't want journalists spotting it, surely they wouldn't bring it to the Dauphiné? Bringing it is part of a well-rehearsed cycle of hype before launch.

road.cc wrote: It's a lot easier to put a name sticker on a bike than it is to put a name on under the clear coat and then slap a sticker on top of that. And if you are going to cover something up with a sticker, why not cover it up properly, eh?"

It looks to me like the sticker itself has been printed with both words to sow confusion / build hype, no?

I'm guessing underneath is a new play on the same letters - Daemon?

On one of the pictures it is clear to see that the 'Madone' marking is a sticker on top of the painting, whereas all the other decals are part of the paint job. Could it be they are covering up the real model name?

Agreed, I think a temporary sticker is insufficient proof that it's not an Emonda, and it would be very unsual for Trek to have such a short model life for the Madone 7.

That said Trek are on a drive to drastically reduce SKUs across the business, and I was also completely wrong when I thought Spesh wouldn't drop the Venge...

It is about time that they ditched the Madone name, seeing as it dates back to their sponsorship of a certain cheating Texan. It was named after his favourite training climb, and came out roughly when Trek was screwing over Greg LeMond for expressing his doubts about their golden boy.

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