Shield your eyes; Trek’s latest Madone 6 Project One bike has just rolled into the office and it’s hard not to be stunned into silence by the sheer presence of the US company’s latest model, which we are testing resplendent in a custom white finish.
Let’s remind ourselves quickly of recent Madone history: the Madone received a major overhaul two years ago following a long and successful stint in its previous guise (and seven Tour victories) and since then has been dominant on the professional stage race calendar in the hands of young Alberto Contador.
In preparation for the 2010 model year, Trek took the Madone back to the drawing board and majorly tweaked it in time for the 2009 Tour de France. While, from a distance, it all looks the same, there have actually been many significant changes. Rather than go into detail on the specifics here, take a read of Richard’s article on the technology in the new Madone 6 frame and fork.
Aside from technological developments, Trek also re-engineered the ‘purchasing model’ involved in getting your hands on the new Madone 6 (and also last year’s Madone, which is now rebadged as the 5 series). Trek’s Project One has been around for years and is the company’s in-house custom frame painting programme, but its services have, until now, been limited to the few who could afford the extra cost. Not any more, as Project One has now been realigned as the central element of buying a Madone.
Essentially, you can’t just pick a Madone 6 off the shelf. Nope, instead you have the pleasure of customising the exact specification of your bike, so you can build it up with the exact components you want, from the groupset right down to the wheels, stem length, bar tape, saddle and everything else. But the really fun part of the process is being able to choose how your new Madone will look – there’s a huge choice of paintjobs with many being further customisable through details such as decal colours. The customisation extends to the colours of the components; bar tape, stem, saddle, tyres and so on. You can read more about the process in this previous article here.
So, obviously, RCUK was keen to get the Madone 6 on test, and luckily Trek UK offered us the chance to go through the Project One process. It’s all simple stuff; a well designed website makes choosing and tailoring every aspect of the bike simplicity itself. While it’s a simple process, such is the raft of changes available that it took us a good few hours of deliberating before we finally settled on our final choice for the RCUK test. The biggest decision was the colour scheme – and from the pictures of the complete bike you have some idea who was in charge of the paintbrush…
This bike isn’t in any way understated. An all-white build with silver decals and lots of white finishing kit. Over the top? Quite possibly, but damn, it looks good. Kit includes a SRAM Red groupset, Bontrager Aeolus 5.0 ACC wheels, Bontrager RXL saddle, stem, bar tape all in white and SRAM white hoods, and Bontrager Race X Lite tyres.
It’s quite a package. But, while it looks good and the changes from the previous Madone sound good, the proof is in the riding. Stay tuned…
