Bike Setup: neuvation c38 tubulars, tufo hi-tpi's, selle italia slr kit carbino, zero gravity 0g-ti, zipp sl bars, ritchey 4-axis stem, sram red cassette and chain, bontrager xxx lite cage.
Summary: Great bike. Have put many miles on it in 6 months. very fast and stiff. great for an everyday racer. could have used a dura ace crank.
Strengths: lightweight. fast. stiff.
Weaknesses: bontrager wheels and crank.
Similar Products Used: older madone, litespeed ghisallo.
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Bike Setup: 2008 Trek Madone 5.5 Pro Sram Force groupset except for the Bontrager Cranks. Bontrager bars and stem, Fizik Yellow Handlebar tape Fizik Arione seat and Mavic SL3 wheels with Michelin Pro 2 Race tires, until I wear them out and put the Pro 3 race on
Summary: I have the 2008 5.5 Pro. I just love this bike It really gets up to speed fast and has a good feel to it. I probably ordered the pro fit because I like the yellow color I did try the perfomance to but could not tell much difference. It seems to be comfortable on long rides It climbs faster than my old Windsor Falkirk. This bike seems to hanldle great at speed I have only had it up to 45mph so far, yes that was downhill but I have had it to 37 on flat ground I am very happy with the Sram Force It shifts great and quick the brakes work really good. I did not like the bontrager wheels at all and only put about 200 miles on them before I put my Mavic SL3's on, and the bontrager seat had to go. I replaced that with a Fizik Arione After over 1000 miles so far I like this bike a lot
Strengths: Frameset, Sram Force group set, bontrager crank is ok
Weaknesses: Bontrager wheelset, seat, Paint job is far from flawless
Similar Products Used: Felt F2, Specialized Tarmac and Roubaix
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Bike Setup: SRAM Red shifters, Dura Ace cranks, Fizik Aliante saddle, my old standard wheels so far...maybe Mavic Ksyrium SL or Premiums coming soon, Speedplay Zero Ti => 16.5 lbs for a 58 cm, less with my race wheels!
Summary: I had and was pretty happy with my '06 Madone with DA 9spd, until a truck forced me to upgrade. The comfort hype is real!! What a comfortable riding bike, all day comfort, yet is still light, stiff with precise steering, oh and stable at speed. In ony 250 miles, I have put it to the test of my 2x/week group ride and the rough Mt. Hamilton decent. Its a yellow bump sucker upper! Wow!
Strengths: Surprisingly comfortable, stable, stiff enough, light enough, with neutral handling.
Very few tools needed to work on this bike's H'set, BB. Nice lines too. Lifetime warranty on frame. SRAM shifting is the snappiest, Force brakes are surprisingly good and light= keepers!
Weaknesses: Made of plastic and not Titanium. No color choices.
Similar Products Used: 2006 Trek Madone 5.2, Canondale Super Six
McMahon Ti frame.
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Bike Setup: Have since got my own 5.2 until the next deal comes around, went this way because it's the same frame and comes with a decent component set (so I can get some $$ on ebay for them) and I put a DA grouppo on with some X lite wheels. Had the Pro for a month as a lend and gotta say I preferred the performance model. I'm 175 6'1
Summary: I was lucky to be given one for the summer race season. Initially wasn't overjoyed with the frame but came to love the frameset within 500 k's. 2008 model is bloody fantastic EXCEPT for the following - wheelset, crankset, cassette.
Strengths: Frame is light and strong, offers great feedback when cornering hard, little flex when the sprint power in unleashed. Gives good confidence at high speed.
Weaknesses: Race Lite wheels are worth nothing more than scrap, sell them off if you can or better still give them to your competition. They WILL fail.
The Bontrager compact crankset is just OK, had some issues with chain suck and shifting under mild load. The SRAM cassette that you get is also junk, shifting issues that can't be tuned out and noisy.
Similar Products Used: Had many carbons includes 06 Specialized, 07 r3 Cervelo, BH G2, 07 Giant TCR C to name a few.
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Summary: This is my 2nd carbon bike, the first being a 2006 Trek 5200. I am new to road cycling, just 3 years old as a roadie. I'm 43. My 5200 was going fine, and I was offered the chance to try a 2008 5.2 after a club race, I was struck by how stiff it felt - the difference from my 5200 was apparent.
I the test rode two bikes - a Scott Addict Ultegra SL and the 2008 Madone 5.2, the stiffness in the 5.2 was apparent, it meant that to me accelerating and climbing felt more postive on the trek compared to the Scott.
So I bought a 5.5 (ordered a 5.2 but it was damaged by the assembling mechanic, so I upgraded to a 5.5)
I've now ridden nearly 1000kms on the Trek 5.5 - I am a poor descender, but this bike has made it easier for me - the very stiff front end tracks beautifully and has given me mmore confidence on descents, climbing is great also, stiff so every pedal stroke seems to be directed into driving you up the hill, not into frame flex.
I didn't like the Bontrager saddle and have replaced it with a fizik arione, and I changed the chainrings for 53x39 (I have the performance fit - comes with compact chainrings).
The seatcap is easy to adjust, everything well thought out an woks well. Internal cabling is attractive.
A pleasure to ride, no negatives yet...
Strengths: Climbing, descending and sprinting
Weaknesses: None yet
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