About the Madone

[OakLeaf]

What do you mean when you say rough country roads? Chip-seal? Gravel? Potholes? I'm not heavy and I don't carry any luggage on my road bike, but FWIW I've had no problems with my 20-spoke radial front wheel or the 24-spoke x2 rear. I ride lots of chip-seal and frost heaves, try to avoid gravel and potholes but there's no avoiding them completely here. My wheels needed truing at about 3000 miles and they weren't that far out then, just a minor touch-up.

[Misandal]

I have this year's Madone 4.7 WSD, which is the TCT carbon. The ride is awesome! I came off a Giant TCR to the Madone, and the Madone has a much better ride IMO. It's responsive without being twitchy. I'm very pleased with it. I am a lightweight but the roads on my training grounds are old chipseal and the Madone smooths them right out.

As for cranks, I ride a triple because I do a lot of riding in the mountains. Like a previous poster said, it shifts like butter. The new Ultegra is much better than previous versions. Mine came with a double but the shop swapped it for me. On the Giant I had a compact double and I missed the bigger big ring for fast descents - it seemed like I ran out of gears before everybody else. With the triple, I've got the best of both worlds - a bigger big ring and smaller small ring.

As for wheels, mine came with the Bontrager Race wheels. I've got over 1300 miles on them so far and they've been great. No complaints at all, no need for truing.

[rij73]

My $.02 FWIW

I haven't ridden those bikes... But the $660 difference between them is for Ultegra SL over regular Ultegra and also the lighter carbon. As you're already spending a lot, if you can afford that little bit more for the significantly lighter bike, I would go for it if I were in your position.

[arielmoon]

I have had my 5.1 for a few weeks now and I love it. I didnt try the 5.2 cause the 5.1 was on sale and significantly less. I didnt want to be tempted by the other bike...lol

Anyway, I left everything stock for now and the shifting on the triple is very smooth.

[Chile Pepper]

This is great--it sounds like I win no matter how I go! Good news on the tires. If I don't have to replace them right away, that makes the 5.2 more feasible. I'm still confused as to the double versus triple. I was surprised to see that 50X12 has a higher ratio (is that what it's called?) than 52X11. That bodes well for the compact double. I currently use my 52x13 a lot, and I was afraid of losing that range of options with the compact.

[Chile Pepper]

I did it! I bought the Madone! I wound up going with the 5.1, in a 52 cm frame and a compact double crankset. I was surprised to find that the store had a WSD in a 51 cm, but it was a 2007--and with DA instead of Ultegra, so it was really expensive ($6k). I think they would have come down on the price a bit, and it sure was pretty, but in the end I just couldn't justify spending that much money. I kept thinking about how I ride and where I ride, and it seemed best to keep my extravagance in check.

I won't be able to ride it until the weekend, since I have to change the cleats on my shoes. (My old pedals are the original Looks; these are Keo classics. I would have preferred the sprints, but the red really clashed with the yellow accent on the bike.) I can't wait!

[sbctwin]

Congratulations on the new bike. I hope pictures are forthcoming. I like to drool....