Recently I was lucky enough to get my hands on a new (to me) bike through working at Trek. Out at headquarters they were selling off some of the previous teams' bikes for really amazing prices, so I decided to go out and take a look at what they had. I figured they would either be too much or definitely not in my size. But when I got there, I was wrong on both accounts.
I was there early and spotted a few bikes I was hoping to grab and thinking of possible builds for them. I saw some raw frames that hadn't been touched, but knew I didn't have the money to build up a complete bike, so I opted for the slightly used ones. What I ended up with was a 2012 Madone 6 Series from the Bontrager Livestrong Pro Cycling Team that had been ridden by Ian Boswell, currently a Team Sky rider. Pretty rad if you ask me.
I was initially hesitant to get a used pro bike, but for the deal I got, I couldn't pass it up as it was far and away the nicest bike I could imagine ever clipping into. The bike was built up with a complete drive-train of Sram Red. Basically all that was missing were wheels a chain and cassette. The latter two I could easily pick up at the shop, while the wheels were a little more elusive. That will have it's own post later.
After grabbing the bike to ensure it was mine for the taking, I checked the crank size and saw that they were enormous, 177.5mm! I had never seen any that large in person, so I started to try to figure out what to do next. I looked over at the table near me and saw some boxes of Sram Red cranks sitting out for sale. Used as well. So I grabbed up a 170mm and bought those as well.
Finally, I had everything I needed to make a bike whole. I headed back to the shop, built up the bike with my current wheel set and threw on a new chain, got it dialed in and was ready to roll.
My first ride on it I was just looking to get in some fun miles and feel it out. Right away I could tell the stem was a bit too long as I didn't want to push my seat any further forward on the bike either. But for the ride, I didn't mind being a bit stretched out over the bars.
The bike was smooth, fast and extremely responsive to every pedal stroke. I have ridden some nice bikes before, but knowing this one was now mine, I was super stoked every time I put the pedal down to feel how quickly it took off.
I went for about 30 miles just cruising around, not working overly hard but just feeling the bike out. It climbed amazingly, cornered better than I imagined, while being super rigid I also felt comfortable romping through some tougher, bumpier roads.
Overall this bike is an amazing piece of engineering. With it's extremely with BB90 bottom bracket for supreme power transfer to the stiffness of the frame, it is surely the fastest frame I have ever ridden. And being that it is a 6 series, I know a 7 series would be lighter, but not quite as stiff. A win in my opinion.
I can't wait to keep putting more miles on it!
-Dave
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