TREK MAD ONES L6 DISC
Suspension in an aero frame? Trek makes it work with the Madone
When Trek launched the latest Madone SLR, the top-level frame in the range, it achieved the impossible by taking an advanced aerodynamic race bike and instilling within it the comfort levels of an endurance bike. It’s an impressive achievement that came with a similarly incredible cost. With the new Madone, Trek also wanted to bring this race bike into the disc-brake era (the bike is significantly more aerodynamic than the rim-brake version), to refine the aerodynamics of the bike more fully and improve the IsoSpeed suspension in the frame. To do all of that Trek built a rolling road within its Madison, Wisconsin HQ test lab, where it could mimic all manner of road surfaces to finetune improvements to the Madone. It went so far as to take a silicone mould of a section of the infamous Arenberg cobbles of Paris-Roubaix and then cast it into a rolling surface on its enormous treadmill.
IsoSpeed technology, with its clever design that allows for a large amount of free movement in both the seat tube and the seat mast (lots of competitors rely on just ‘flex’ from a long-extended seatpost), first appeared on Trek’s endurance bike, the Domane. It was initially brought to the Madone in 2015, but the latest generation takes things even further. The IsoSpeed pivot sits where you’d usually expect a seatpost clamp to be. On the Madone, however, the flex action happens underneath the top tube. The mechanism running from the seat mast under the top tube flexes freely allowing the seat mast and tube to move freely too. It’s also adjustable and allows the bike to be 17 per cent more compliant and 21 per cent stiffer than the previous Madone, according to Trek.
“Revolutionary” is how we described the SLR design: faster, flowing, comfortable, light – everything we’d desire in a road bike and beyond expectations for an ‘aero’ model. Jordan Roessingh, Trek’s product director, says that IsoSpeed allows a rider to keep power high over rough terrain, while reducing fatigue.
“The benefit of IsoSpeed tends to be on the rider input side of the equation ,and it lets a rider maintain power in two ways. Firstly, it allows a rider to keep producing power, even over rougher terrain. While IsoSpeed isn’t the same as a suspended MTB, the effect on the rider is analogous - you can stay locked into your power position over rough road surfaces and continue to produce power
when you might otherwise be getting bucked around. IsoSpeed also significantly reduces fatigue induced by rough surfaces. Without IsoSpeed, our riders likely wouldn’t race the Madone at the Tour of Flanders. The real benefit of the Madone is that you can uniquely get both aerodynamics, and a super-smooth ride. There is no other bike on the planet that offers this.”
Revolution usually comes at a price, and that was the case with the top-end SLR models, but Trek realised that it needed to get the Madone out to a wider audience. The technology and complexity of the chassis, however, isn’t cheap to produce; the IsoSpeed system, for instance, encompasses a bushed pivot system and an elastomer damper within, making for a complex assembly process and lots of dedicated parts to manufacture.
“Our goal with the new Madone SL models was to put the best performance within reach for more riders without compromising on what makes the Madone SLR so good,” says Jordan.
That means using Trek’s more modest 500 series OCLV carbon. Although modest in relation to the latest 700 series, back in 2014 the 500 series was Trek’s lightest carbon material. It adds around 100g in weight – to put that in perspective, that’s a family bag of crisps for more than a £1000 saving on the complete bike cost.
The frameset weighs in at 1225g, impressive for a bike this aerodynamic and with a mechanism such as IsoSpeed. Elsewhere in the spec it means a standard Bontrager bar and stem, although you can upgrade to the Bontrager aero bar and stem later if you wish.
The beauty of the Madone is just how ‘normal’ it feels. The bike doesn’t bob with its suspension design, it just feels fast and smooth with it. The adjustability allows you to further tune the ride, and Trek says its team riders have left the system as it came, only letting out the IsoSpeed to most compliant when it comes to the cobbled classics.
“RE VOLUTIONARY” IS HOW WE DESCRIBED T HE SLR DESIGN: FAS T ER , FLOWING, COMFORTABLE, LIGHT E V ERY T HING WE’D DESIRE IN A ROAD BIK E