Carbon aero road bike Trek Madone SL 6 AXS black: Full System Foil tubes, Elite 50 wheels, Rival AXS, 8.11 kg

Trek Madone SL 6 AXS black: made for riding into the wind

With its Full System Foil tubes, Bontrager Aeolus Elite 50 carbon wheels and SRAM Rival AXS 2x12 drivetrain, the Trek Madone SL 6 AXS Gen 8 weighs 8.11 kg in size ML. Its aerodynamic profile, developed across the whole bike including its bottles, really comes into its own as the speed or the wind picks up. The Gloss Dark Star/Matte Deep Smoke paintwork plays on two dark shades, a deep gloss black and a matte smoked grey, for an understated, racy look.

Technical specifications

Who is it for?

For the strong rider who often trains alone on the roads of the plain, for the cyclist who regularly takes turns on the front of the group, or for the short-distance triathlete who wants a fast road bike that also works on club rides. It is aimed at riders for whom the flat counts as much as the climbs.

The LVR workshop view

OCLV carbon, Trek's signature. Since 1992, Trek has compacted its carbon plies under heat and pressure to drive out micro-voids, and the series number reflects the refinement of the layup. On this Madone SL, OCLV 500 gives a painted frame of 1,054 g in ML, plus a 363 g fork: around 270 g more than the SLR frameset, for a far more affordable bike. The frame is still covered by Trek's lifetime warranty.

Put simply: on the scales, the gap between OCLV 500 and OCLV 900 is roughly a full bottle. The SL 6 AXS keeps the Full System Foil silhouette, the IsoFlow and the tyre clearance of the SLR models; what an SLR adds is mainly a few grams saved and a one-piece bar and stem.

The Gen 8 is as aero as the old Madone while being much lighter, and Trek measures a saving of 77 seconds per hour over the Émonda at 200 W. For an amateur riding alone, this translates into a little less fatigue at the same speed, especially on long straights.

When the tramontane blows along the road to Vendres or across the Capestang plain, the 50 mm rims and the profiled frame limit the loss of speed into the wind; in crosswinds, they simply call for firm hands on the bar. The threaded T47 bottom bracket stays silent under effort and is easy to remove in the workshop.

Which Madone should you choose?

Our take: the SL 6 AXS has the same aero frame as the SLR 7 AXS; the latter saves 890 g thanks to OCLV 900 carbon and lighter components. On the flat, the aero difference between the two remains small.

Your questions

Why buy from LVR Cycles? As a Trek retailer in Béziers, we fine-tune your aero position during a bike fit, then service your Madone in our workshop.

Please note that the specifications may be changed without prior notice by the manufacturer, based on the availability of components and other factors.