STAR TREK

New tube shapes and carbon lay-up makes the eighth generation of Trek's legendary Madone an aero and climbing bike all rolled into one

- John Whitney

What Trek came up with in the design of their new Madone spelt trouble for their lightweight climbing bike, the Émonda. Just as aerodynamic as the previous iteration of the Madone as well as being as light as the Émonda, this Gen 8 Madone design - an "earth-shattering" do-it-all race bike - has killed it off.

Unity candidate

The Madone's foundations (in the pricier SLR versions at least) are a new OCLV 900 carbon lay-up, using an inflatable mandrel (the form around which the frame is laid up) during the manufacturing process. This improves compaction, squeezing out excess resin and reducing wrinkles inside the tubes. The result, it's claimed, is a tube that's up to 20% stronger than the outgoing 800 series lay-up. It's also lighter. This, together with a new one-piece fork, shaves off a claimed 320g versus the seventh-generation top-ofthe-range Madone. The Émonda name will live on as the Émonda ALR alloy race bike, but will no longer feature in Trek's top-tier road bike line-up.

One of the major evolutions is doing away with the long-standing Kammtail-shaped tubing, replacing it with what Trek call 'Full System Foil'. This is shallower and more structurally efficient (lighter) than Kammtail tubing. This, say Trek, is designed to optimise airflow over the full bike and rider, rather than certain areas of the bike, which don't result in an optimised sum of their parts. There's a degree of proportionality about tubing, too, as the XS and S bikes feature slimmer tubes than larger sizes.

This reduces weight and standardises consistent aero performance throughout the size range.