How about that debate final evening, huh? Let’s discuss it!
Simply kidding.
No, as a cantankerous previous fusspot I’ve been preoccupied with one factor and one factor solely, and that’s the discharge of the brand new Rivendell singlespeed:
[Photo: Rivendell]
Although the biking media is much extra its actual reverse, the brand new Trek Madone, which is probably the most Madoniest Madone that Trek has ever Madoned:
How far more Madoney is it? EIGHTY FUCKING PERCENT, that’s how a lot!
So should you’re using an previous, out of date Madone–or, heaven show you how to, a motorbike that’s not a Madone in any respect–you’re little question feeling extraordinarily anxious proper now:
However there’s excellent news! After totally skimming the evaluation, I’ve realized one thing mind-blowing, which is that the true purpose the brand new Madone is quicker is mainly simply the water bottles:
Sure, that’s proper, simply put the brand new bottles on the previous bike and the previous bike is quicker:
And sure, the brand new bottle is UCI-legal:
It is because it handed the UCI’s notoriously stringent impression check:
Simply think about how far more precisely Cipollini may have thrown these bottles if solely he’d had entry to Trek’s cutting-edge know-how.
Anyway, you would possibly assume Trek goes to be in hassle when Freds determine that they don’t want the brand new Madone and may get the identical impact with only a new set of water bottles. Hardly! In actual fact, this can be a stroke of promoting genius on their half, as a result of not solely have the found out methods to cost $100 for a single water bottle and cage:
However they’ll most likely promote so lots of them that even when they don’t transfer a single new Madone they’ll nonetheless come out forward. When you’ve ever spent any time in a motorbike store, it takes hours, days, and even weeks of pandering to fickle roadies with a view to get them to purchase a motorbike. Nonetheless, it takes about 9 seconds to promote a water bottle. So it wouldn’t shock me within the least if Trek has designed the brand new Madone solely as a showcase for the brand new bottle and considers any gross sales of the particular bike to be merely a bonus.
That is nice information for the patron, too, as a result of for simply the value of a pair of Trek’s new water bottles it’s also possible to get a complete used Trek to place them on, and it’ll most likely be simply as quick as the brand new Madone:
I ponder how briskly the Roaduno can be with the brand new Trek bottles.
I’ll need to guide a while within the wind tunnel:
Who says you may’t get “sofa-like journey qualities” together with aerodynamics?
