Franck's back surgery - *now* what size Madone?

     I hope your back is good after your surgery. Best wishes to your good health!

     I remember your good fit on a Madone 64 cm. Amazing we sold all those in France!

     So, per your request I have made a CAD sketch to answer your question about a 62 cm Madone with the new requirement for handlebars to be 4 to 5 cm below the saddle. I've attached the sketch. It should be comparable to the previous CAD sketches I made for you on the "Up the Road" blog here:

http://trekroad.typepad.com/trekroad/2008/01/what-size-madon.html

     If you compare the old sketches to the new, you will see the only change from the previous CAD sketches is the 4 cm drop from the saddle to the handlebar, and the resulting change in stem and spacers. As you can see:

     1. The 4 cm from seat to handle bar is achieved! A 17 degree stem pointing up, with about 32 mm of spacers (including the headset parts), can get to the right height.

     2. The required stem is too long! Of course, it may be that after your back surgery you *might* wish to reduce the 772 and 524 mm dimensions (I'm not your doctor, so I can't advise if this is a good idea or not), in which case a 62 cm Madone might work, but you would probably be near the limits of adjustability.

     In the end, although it might be possible to get a (barely) satisfactory fit on a 62 cm Madone, unfortunately I think you can agree that a 64 cm Madone really remains your best fit. Maybe another one can be shipped from the US to France?

Best regards,

Damon

From: franck.fenech

To: Rinard, Damon

Subject: BIKE SIZE urgent answer needed please

BONJOUR DAMON,

     Sorry to bother you I know you must be busy but I need your help on something.

I am a tall guy and I was about to buy a Madone size 64 but unfortunately for me, there are no more 64 available in my country (France), white, black or red.

     Here is my question:

     My saddle height must be 84,5cm and the difference between my saddle and the handle bar must be 4 or 5 maximum because I just had a surgery and I must take care of my back. Before my surgery the difference was supposed to be 8 cm.

     Can you tell me if I can reach 4 or 5 cm with a Madone size 62, how many cone or spacers do I need, do I need to reverse the stem?

     Just in case, could you please tell me too if I can reach 8 cm with a Madone size 62, how many cone or spacers do I need, do I need to reverse the stem?

     I would be more than happy if you could make 2 CAD sketches for me for the 2 questions.

I have checked with my dealer today and there is only one 62 left in stock so I need to be fast in a way to order it quickly.

Many thanks for you precious help

Merci

Have a great day

Franck

=========================

Hello Franck, for some reason my email to you bounced, so I'm hoping you read this blog...

Team 19's Stephanie Woloszczuk follow up

I have to agree with Team 19's Rod Riley in how great it is to see so much enthusiam about riding a bike.  Read below for a letter that Steph sent to Rod.

Rod,

I had a great time at the prom. I attached some pics of me and my friend Alex. Also one with my bike, but it needs the caption, "Who needs a limo when you have a Trek!" This is my last year of high school and am having a great time but will be glad when it is over.

I wanted to thank you for all you have done for us and I really enjoy being on the team. I love the Trek 2.3 and hope someday I will be a much better rider and get a Madone.

Thank you, Steph

Team 19's Stephanie Woloszczuk had a dilemma

Check out this article that appeared in the heraldonline.com.

http://www.heraldonline.com/107/story/460858.html

Stephanie Woloszczuk, a Rock Hill High School senior, faced a dilemma -- compete in the Charleston Low Country bicycle race or go to the prom. Both fell on the same weekend in April.
"I wanted to go to the race," Woloszczuk said.  But she already had a date. With a sigh, Woloszczuk chose the prom. This weekend, Woloszczuk, 18, will compete in another race, the Rock Hill Bicycle Club's 28th annual OMNIUM, a three-day bike race. For the second time in her biking career, Woloszczuk will join more than 500 riders from all over the world to compete for $15,000 in cash and prizes. Woloszczuk said competing in the OMNIUM will help her achieve her goal of becoming a pro racer. "I want to race in the women's Tour de France," she said. 

read more...

cyclingnews.com reviews the 2008 Trek Madone 6.9

James Huang at cyclingnews.com reviews the Trek Madone 6.9.  Several photos accompany the review.

http://www.cyclingnews.com/tech.php?id=tech/2008/reviews/trek_madone6908

Met Life Pro-Am cycling team rides Madones!

Landry's New England based bike shop has a revamped team and website.  Landry's store info can be found at www.landrys.com and the Met Life team site is http://metlifecycling.com/.

Have a great race season!

Levi Leipheimer's bike visits the Missouri State Capital

Levi's 2007 US National Championship bike spent a day in Missouri attending "Bike Day".  Trek Outside Sales Rep Jeff Chattin sent us this letter updating us on the day's events:

Bike Day was started by the Missouri Bicycle Federation, The federation is a statewide advocacy group for cycling.

The goal of bike day was to talk to every state legislator and Senator regarding changing laws to improve the quality and safety of cycling in the state.

We also met with the Lt. Gov and several key legislators to present them with plaques for their outstanding work in regard to cycling issues.

The Governor was out of the state so we could not meet with him personally.

The Tour of Missouri was a huge topic of the day. The economic impact study done by the University of Missouri showed the state netting 26 million. More sponsor $ are rolling in for this year’s race so the event will be bigger and badder. It goes without saying, that’s great for cycling in Missouri!

The bike was a huge hit. Levi’s name is big in that building after he won the time trial in last year’s event. The politicians were clamoring to get their photo taken with the bike(especially the one’s who are up for election this year).

The legislature was in session that day and we were taken into the chambers and formally introduced to the house. The bike got introduced as well and got bigger applause than we did.

We then went over to the courthouse and met with the attorney general. He had his photo taken with the bike as well (running for Gov. in 08)

After that the bike was on display in the rotunda with some other really cool antique bikes, including a British folding paratrooper bike from WW 2. I think the Brits beat Gary Fisher on the invention of the mountain bike. You may want to keep that one quiet though.

Anyway, there were cameras flashing all day at Levi’s bike. I made a placard telling the story of the bike and the national championship paint job.

The lesson learned here is that it’s way easier than one would think to walk into this building and get these lawmakers to meet with you. I was very nervous meeting with my rep., at first, but he listened well and I was surprised how much he already knew about cycling and the state of the roads in our county.

The bike with it’s ties to the Tour of Missouri was a great attention getter and wonderful tool to break the ice with these people.

Ester Haywood, State rep. for the 71st district, St. Louis is the person in the photo. She also was the person who introduced us and the bike to the house in session.

The following weekend I took the bike to A&B Cycle for their customer appreciation party. The Specialized rep. was pissed. Need I say more?

Jeff Chattin , Trek Sale Representative

Levi's Stars and Stripes Madone

Levi received a Madone with the Stars and Stripes theme just before the Tour of California.  Unfortunately this paint scheme is not available to the public and will remain a special gift to the US National Champion.  No one was weighing bikes at the ToCA but with the spec shown in this photo I expect it to was less than 15 lbs.  Levi's grown fond of that Bontrager Inform saddle so he swapped the entire seat cap from his Astana team paint bike.  The colors don't match but it performs just fine.

P-One update 2.0

More on the P-One situation.  Trek plans to turn on P-One with the new Madone in late summer. One of the driving factors in this delay is that we have chosen to fill standard Madone back orders before we started offering custom painted Madones.  If we turn on P-One today, it will further delay the delivery of standard bikes that customers have already paid for.

The good news is that Trek's production of Madone bikes has never been higher.  We are shipping more product than ever before.

The new Madone set a new level of what you should expect in a road bike.  Its balanced design incorporates beauty, ride feel, unmatched stability, light weight and second-to-none technology and is worth the wait.

Madone 6.9 hits the scales

Here are some weights for the Madone 6.9 bikes.

http://mattmagee.blogspot.com/2008/01/11708-new-trek-madone-69-now-here.html

Matt Magee

64cm Madone

Here are the facts on 64cm Madone bikes:

• Madone 5.1 bikes in size 64cm sold out very quickly.  Admittedly, Trek underestimated the demand for big bikes.  We won't do that again and plan to expand the line in 2009.  We are not doing another production run of 2008 64cm Madones.
• The 5.1 was replaced with the 4.7, both having similar component spec.  The reason the 5.1 is still on the trekbikes.com site is because we still have 5.1 bikes in smaller sizes in stock.
• 5.5 Madone bikes were originally slated to be OCLV White carbon but have since been upgraded to OCLV Black.  5.5 Madones are still available.
• Trek chooses to manufacture the most common size frames before the less common sizes.  Hence, sizes 47cm and 64cm bikes will always be available after 56cm or 58cm bikes.
• Trek is the only company successfully making a full carbon bike in size 64cm.
• By late summer you will be able to custom build your 64cm bike in Project One.  That means you choose the color and part spec in addition to getting a bike that finally fits your above average height.