Trek Madone---which one!?!?!?

[VeloVT]

Here's what I would do, and there's absolutely no guarantee that I'd get what I asked for but you never know if you don't try... I would ask your lbs owner-friend if he would be willing to order a 52 pro and a 52 performance *for you to try*, in the 5.2. Say you'll make a commitment to purchase *a bike* from him but not necessarily the one he orders. This doesn't necessarily settle the components and frame question, but the fit question is probably the more important one. He won't have trouble selling the 52's if he can get them in -- it's a pretty common size, for both men and women, and he won't have trouble selling a nice $3k carbon bike (the $8k version would definitely be more likely to sit there). The thing is, if you really want to try the Red OCLV, you'll be able to tell the difference in ride feel even on a bike that's the wrong size, whereas you won't be able to get a sense of the difference ht height makes on overall fit on a frame that's the wrong size. He may not be willing to do it, and he may not be able to physically get them in -- but it's worth asking .

ps are you set on getting a Trek? I guess it's important to know that before making demanding requests ...

hee hee... bike shopping is so much fun...

[Mr. SR500]

Trek tunes the frames to ride about the same regardless of the carbon used. The red/black/white carbon bikes should ride about about the same the higher end will mostly be lighter. This may or may not be a good thing, as they could tune each bike to ride however they wanted, but because they are Trek, they try and get a good balance on all the bikes.

As for Pro/Performance, the Pro is very close to the old geometry, so if you could find a pre-'08 that might help with fit. I'm not sure how close the 5200 and older Madones are, but you could look at the geometry and get an idea. If you run a big stack and an upright stem, the performance fit might be better, but if you have no spacers and a level stem, they Pro is the way to go.

As for 5.2, 5.5, 6.5, depends on budget. The 5.5 gets you Sram, and the 6.5 gets you Dura-Ace, better wheels and carbon, and a few other improvements.

If color is a big issue, Trek just reopened the Project Ones, so you could order the exact bike you wanted. That said P1 only come in Red carbon (Pro, Per, WSD).

http://projectone.trekbikes.com/

Good luck, fun problems to have.