Check out the Trek Madone 6 Series, the road.cc Superbike of the Year from 2012

We’re busy compiling the road.cc Recommends annual awards, where we recognise the best bikes, components, accessories and clothes that we’ve reviewed over the past year – we’ll be publishing them from 13th January 2025, folks – and that got us thinking back to our first-ever Superbike of the Year, the outstanding Trek Madone 6 Series custom build from 2012.

Our first Bikes of the Year Top 10 covered bikes we reviewed in 2011, but we introduced the Superbike category 12 months later to separate the really expensive models. Of the complete bikes included in our Superbike Shootout, the cheapest was the £5,800 Bianchi Oltre XR. That amount of cash would still buy you an extremely good bike today, although the threshold for what we now call our Money-No-Object category has gone up considerably. That’s inflation for you.

Trek introduced the first version of the Madone way back in 2003, named after the Col de la Madone near Menton, France, and Monaco. This climb was used as a fitness test by a certain Lance Armstrong. Whatever became of him?

Trek announced major redesigns to the Madone in 2007, 2009 and 2012. The £6,725 Madone (fourth generation) that we reviewed in 2012 was an absolute stunner, and we’re talking about a 6 Series Madone here, rather than the top-end 7 Series.

The biggest new feature of this iteration of the Trek Madone was the aero tubing called KVF, standing for Kammtail Virtual Foil. This was first introduced on Trek’s Speed Concept time trial bike.

Of course, aerodynamics has been a huge consideration in bike racing since… well, forever, really. But before 2012, the Madone had mostly been focused on light weight and stiffness. Granted, the 2003 Madone Gen 1 was designed with an aero fin on the down tube and seat tube, but it had long been superseded. The 2012 redesign marked the start of a new era for the Madone, and aero efficiency has been a big part of the story ever since then.

The KVF tube profile was – and remains; Trek still uses KVF – an airfoil shape with the tail chopped off square. That’s hardly a revolutionary concept, but in 2012 aerodynamics hadn’t taken over the cycling world to the degree it has today. The idea, of course, was that the airflow would behave as if the tail was actually there to minimise drag. The advantages of cutting the tail off were that it used less material and reduced weight; it worked well in crosswinds; and it allowed Trek to stay within the UCI's equipment rules.

You could see the KVF profiling most clearly on the down tube – the sides curved around and then the rear edge was cut off flat. Trek used similar shaping on the head tube, seat tube, seatstays and the upper portion of the fork blades.

Trek had also been busy adding a large aero head tube and a new front brake to reduce drag. This was before the widespread introduction of disc brakes on road bikes; we’re talking about a rim brake here. The key feature was that it was designed to work with the fork for improved aero efficiency.

One arm of the Bontrager Speed Limit brake was attached via a central bolt, while the other fixed directly to the fork leg. This saved weight and allowed the two arms to sit flush against the fork crown.

The rear brake? Rather than fixing it to the seatstays, Trek put it just behind the bottom bracket. Again, that wasn’t unique – many brands put a rim brake down there over the years, particularly on time trial bikes – but it was still unusual. As well as being more hidden from the wind, Trek said that this positioning allowed it to remove the brake bridge between the seatstays, cleaning up the airflow in that area. Plus, with the braking forces removed, those seatstays could be made with less material to reduce weight. A barrel adjuster on the head tube allowed you to adjust the pad position on the fly.

All that tech: very interesting, but how did the Trek Madone 6 Series ride? Short answer: superbly

For a start, it was very light, the £6,725 Project One version we reviewed – equipped with a Shimano Dura-Ace 7900 groupset – weighing in at just 6.78kg. It flew forward when you upped your power, and the frame was every bit as stiff and solid as previous generations.

The Trek Madone 6 Series was also a highly comfortable bike, the back end soaking up vibrations and bumps from rough roads. Plus, this was at a time when Trek was offering the Madone in two different geometries, H1 and H2, so you could pick the ride position that worked best for you.

We described this Trek Madone as “an absolute triumph”.

“It's light, it's very, very fast, and it's way more comfortable than you have a right to expect of a high-performance bike,” we said… hence that road.cc Superbike of the Year award.

The Madone has continued to evolve – massively – with the introduction of Vector Wings (flaps at the bottom of the head tube; remember them?), IsoSpeed decoupling, adjustable top tube Isospeed, disc brakes, IsoFlow, new grades of carbon fibre… 

Most recently, Trek has merged the Madone and the Émonda into a single platform (above). Or, put another way, the slimmed-down Madone has moved into the lightweight Émonda's space.

> Trek unveils radically updated, lightweight Madone and ditches the Émonda. Here’s why we think it's the biggest bike launch of the year so far

Times move on, of course, but that Trek Madone 6 Series we reviewed in 2012… A fabulous bike.

Check out loads more Bikes at Bedtime here.