Trek Madone SLR 9 Disc: In-depth review

A bike that impressed in all areas and surpassed all its competitors, read Stu Bower's review of the Trek Madone disc 2019.

We’ve never had it so good. Recent road bikes launched for 2019 really do feel like they have taken giant strides forward. Disc brakes have revolutionised stopping power, and are no longer a hindrance to aerodynamics and weight.

Just look at the likes of the new Specialized S-Works Venge and the Cannondale SystemSix. I’ve tested both bikes recently, and they’re both incredibly fast, light and relatively comfortable to ride – at least as far as super-stiff aero road bikes are concerned.

Trek may not be happy with me mentioning two of its biggest rivals in a review of its own new flagship race bike, the Trek Madone, but it’s necessary in order to put it in context. My point is, the Venge and the SystemSix have set the bar very high, and not only has the Madone reached it, it has sailed clean over it.

One step beyond

I’ve been riding for more than three decades now, and have reviewed hundreds of bikes in my years on different cycling titles. During that time, I’ve written frequently that you ‘can’t have it all’ – it’s not possible to combine all the positive attributes you’d like in one bike. Well, the Madone SLR 9 Disc has made me eat those words.

We have now reached the sixth generation of the Madone, and few would argue that the previous version, launched in 2015, was a great machine but not without its foibles.

Issues around the complexity of the shrouded rim brakes (remember those little flaps on the head tube that opened so the brake didn’t interfere with steering?) and bike fit limitations imposed by the one-piece bar/stem were common gripes levelled at that model.

But it was also widely proclaimed as the new benchmark in comfort-versus-aero, mostly thanks to the inclusion of the IsoSpeed decoupling technology in the seatmast, which Trek borrowed from its endurance-focussed Domane.

Look at the present model and you’ll see a lot has changed, although it might not appear so at first glance (aside from the disc brakes, of course, although unlike Specialized and Cannondale, Trek does offer the new Madone in a rim brake version). Take a look underneath the top tube and you’ll notice something that definitely wasn’t there before.

A redesigned L-shaped version of Trek’s IsoSpeed concept is a brand new feature, bringing adjustable levels of compliance to the seatmast to tune the amount of shock absorption/flex/compliance/comfort – call it what you will – on offer.

Trek claims at the stiffest setting (with the slider all the way back) the new Madone is 21% stiffer than the old, non-adjustable version, for those who like it more racy. With the slider all the way forward, the Madone is 17% more compliant, Trek says, for added comfort. Which brings me nicely to my first test ride. 

In a hurry

So keen was I to get out on the Madone that I forgot to note the setting of the IsoSpeed. I merely went through my usual checks, setting my seat height, tweaking the bar position – which you can at least now do thanks to the neat two-piece bar/stem – and rode straight out of the gate. It took less than 2km for the ‘oh wow’ sensation to kick in.

I was blown away by how well the Madone delivered speed with not a hint of the jarring at the rear that has historically been the trade-off with full aero rigs. The IsoSpeed does its job superbly, turning the solid-looking seat tube into a pillowy, cushioned ride.

When I returned home I was convinced I must have been testing in the softest setting, but to my amazement it was set closer to mid-range.

Switching to the softest setting I subsequently found it to be even a little too squishy. It felt like I’d fitted a 32mm rear tyre and halved the pressure, whereas in reality I was running 90psi in a 25mm.

While that meant even the harshest surfaces were smoothed out – a cattle grid was barely noticeable – there was always palpable movement in the saddle, which I was less keen on.

Having worked my way right through the adjustment range, I found my optimum to be not far off the point where it was set on that very first ride, somewhere close to the mid-point. What’s important to note is that no matter where the adjustment is set, the smoothness of the ride is all that the IsoSpeed alters.

There’s no discernable loss of performance. The Madone SLR 9 Disc still feels every bit the lightning-fast race bike across the range of settings.

I’d even argue pedalling was improved on rough surfaces, aided by being able to stay seated and keep the power on when I might otherwise have had to slightly unweight the saddle to reduce jarring.

There is an element of the rear-end cushioning being so good that it exposes the Madone’s front as being overtly stiff, but that’s necessary to ensure the handling is unfaltering and the solidity of the frame holds true against big pedalling efforts.

Anyway, a little softening of the wrists and elbows and, voila, Mother Nature’s in-built suspension system can take care of a bit of front-end chatter.

All good things

The Madone SLR 9 Disc is without doubt the most comfortable road bike I’ve ever tested. And I’m not just talking about aero road bikes – I mean any road bike. I haven’t even ridden a gravel bike this good at absorbing bumps.

Is it the fastest too? Well, it’s close. I’d say the new S-Works Venge wins in the pure speed stakes, but only by a tyre width. For some people, speed is everything, but for me I’d plump for being able to go fast and still ride all day long. For that, the new Madone is knocking its rivals out of the park.

It was Keith Bontrager – whose brand Trek now owns – who came up with the adage about bikes: ‘Strong, light, cheap, pick two.’ To that list we might now add stiff, fast, aerodynamic, comfortable and usable in all conditions. With the Madone it really does seem like you can have it all. Except, of course, ‘cheap’.

How much can you get for a kidney these days?

Price

The Trek Madone SLR disc is currently on sale at Evans Cycles for £10,500 available tobuy here.

Spec

The Madone SLR Disc is the latest superbike from Trek, one of the biggest bike brands in the world. And yet its paint options have generated just as much of a buzz as the frame design itself.

According to Trek, half of all the previous-generation Madones it sold were through its Project One custom programme, where customers could spec the components and paint scheme they wanted.

This time around, the route to purchase has been expanded with the Project One Icon option – a more premium level that includes six pre-configured colour schemes that are even flashier, such as the ‘Prismatic Pearl’ paintjob seen here.

Buy the Madone SLR 9 Disc bike from Evans Cycles

Yet Trek’s road product manager, Jordan Roessingh, assures us the Madone’s new exterior is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what has been improved in this sixth iteration of the Wisconsin brand’s aero bike.

‘The fifth Madone we released in 2015 was such a quantum leap in technologies for aero road,’ he says.

‘It had things like the hidden IsoSpeed decoupler to improve comfort, fully hidden cables and integrated proprietary brakes.

‘But inevitably, as we do at the end of the development of any bike, we almost immediately had a sense of what we wanted to improve on with the next iteration.’

Most obviously that included a move to disc brakes. Unlike several of its competitors, Trek is still committed to rim brake design, having released the new Madone in both rim and disc guises.

However, the brand recognises that the market direction towards disc brakes opened some interesting opportunities that it was able to exploit with the SLR Disc.

‘Adding disc mounts on frames, while they do require some structural reinforcement to manage braking loads, is a much simpler problem to solve than the challenges of rim brakes,’ says Roessingh.

‘The inclusion of the integrated front brake on the rim brake Madone was an incredibly challenging design feature, plus we had to reduce the section length of the down tube to fit in the UCI frame boxes.

‘It was handicaps like this that meant we could design the Madone SLR Disc to be faster than its rim brake counterpart.’

It isn’t even that much heavier, either. Trek claims the Madone SLR Disc 9 weighs 7.4kg, just 300g heavier than the rim brake variant.

We use OCLV 700 series carbon throughout the new frame,’ says Roessingh.

‘The material really is the best-performing composite in terms of strength to weight you can get, and is exclusive in the bike industry to Trek. However, it’s unbelievably expensive.’ 

Tuned cushion

The 2015 Madone included a version of Trek’s IsoSpeed decoupler technology, a consideration unheard of on aero bikes at the time.

Instead of moulding the seat tube junction as a single unit, Trek ‘decoupled’ the seat tube, fixing it to the rest of the frame with a pivot axle and cartridge bearings, so it was able to flex much more than a traditional construction.

Now Trek has totally redesigned the feature, shifting to an L-shaped design where a flexible leaf spring-style section is positioned in a groove on the underside of the top tube.

Buy the Madone SLR 9 Disc bike from Evans Cycles

‘We took inspiration from our Domane to make the IsoSpeed unit externally accessible, so it can be adjusted,’ says Roessingh.

‘It can be set to be anything from 17% smoother to 21% rowdier than previously.

‘It also allowed us to create a more consistent feel of compliance across frame sizes because the length of the bending component of the IsoSpeed is no longer proportional to the size of the frame.’

Roessingh says ride quality and rider/bike interaction were the areas where Trek saw the most potential for improvement in this latest bike, so the new Madone has undergone changes to its geometry to make it more versatile and adjustable.

‘The Madone SLR uses our new H1.5 fit. This sits exactly halfway between our old H1 and H2 fits in stack, but we now offer different stem angles to create a wider range of positions from the same frame.

‘As the cockpit is now two-piece, the bar width, tilt and stem length are all easier to change too. A comfortable rider is a fast rider.’

Look out for a full review of the SLR Disc in due course, where we’ll determine if this model’s performance really does match its looks.

Trek Madone SLR 9 Disc Project One Icon, £11,650, trekbikes.com