My New Trek Madone 6 Series

2011 Trek Madone 6 Series (50 cm)

There it is! Look at how light it is, it's like 17 pounds. Maybe less. The statistics:

• Frame: Madone 6 Series OCLV2 50cm H1 fit
• Fork: I'm not sure but there is a Bontrager and XXX on it
• Components: Sram Rival with a 39-53 crank and 23-11 cassette
• Wheels: Bontrager Race (I think) they were $300 less than the wheels Trek recomended
• Pedals: Look (I think)
• Saddle: Affinity RL
• That little white thing between the handle bars and the fork stem: 120mm (I'm pretty sure)
• Handlebars: aluminum
• Computer: the cheapest DuoTrap compatible
• Bottle Cages: Bontrager carbon (c'mon I had to get carbon cages too)

It flies! I mean Friday I did 46 miles at an average pace of 18.5 miles and hour and it was not flat. Tuesday night, after running a workout on the track I did a little over 25 miles in an hour and a half that is a 16.9 mph average that was very aerobic. I am noticing that I am going up hills in bigger gear ratios than ever before. I'm going up hills in 3rd and 4th gear. That might not sound impressive, but thats a solid 15-18 mph. Of course, when the hill get steep enough, I still have to get off the pedals in first gear. 

Why did I spend all that money on a bicycle, when I already had two? I have wanted a fast carbon bicycle for a long time. Why? Because going a little faster and getting uphill a little easier is thrilling to me and when I am on the bike, I usually spend a lot of time on the bike and those extra five pounds is a huge amount of weight to take off the bike. Especially considering the rotational moment of inertia and air resistance of my new wheels versus my old wheels. Plus, after being unemployed for so long I am have strong fear of being unemployed again and having a physical thing that I could either spend hours on or sell is valuable to me. In other words, if I have money I'll just pay down my debt, but if I have something physical I have some collateral that I will not sell, but I could if I had to.

Top speed so far is 46.5 mph and I was in top gear pedaling at the bottom of a steep hill. I'd like to take it over 50, but it might be hard to find that kind of hill around here.