When a cyclist sees the Trek Madone SLR 9 AXS Gen 8 for the first time, the following thoughts run through their head, usually in this order:"What a beautiful bike.""Damn, that looks really fast.""The owner of this bike is extremely serious about cycling and has a very generous budget for fitness gear."Indeed, almost every conversation I had while out and about on the Madone started and ended with the bike's looks and price tag.
And for good reason.Let's get the obvious out of the way.
This is an expensive and very high-tech bike, retailing at $15,999.
Part of the price tag is the technologythis is a bicycle that rides on the bleeding edge of tech.
And another part is the Project One Icon "Tte de la Course" paint job on the bike; less-flashy options start at $13,499.
(And if $15,999 doesn't break your budget, there's an even fancier Icon "Stellar" paint scheme for an extra $1,000.) That's a pretty penny but not an unusual price point in the world of high-end road bikes.
If you're shopping for, say, a Cervlo S5 or Specialized S-Works Tarmac SL8, you'll see the same price tags.Madone is Trek's performance-oriented road bike, and the Gen 8 is the latest and greatest from the Wisconsin-based bike manufacturer.
It's more aerodynamic than the Gen 7 (with a pair of aero water bottles) and a few hundred grams weightier than Trek's recently discontinued Emonda climbing-focused bike.I put nearly 1,000 miles on the Gen 8 Madone over a two-month period, riding it on the roads around Chicagoland.
Yes, the land around here is pretty flat, but out to the northwest there are some nice rollers, including a couple of short climbs with grades approaching 10 percent.
Those climbs gave me a sense of the Madone's ability on hills.