2013 Trek Madone 4.5 C

djhowie69

Hi Folks

I've been visiting the forum for a long time, but this is my first post. I've been riding a cheap and cheerful aluminium bike for a number of years, but since I've signed up for a few sportives and charity rides etc this year, I thought I'd treat myself to a new carbon number. Yesterday I collected my 2013 Trek Madone 4.5 C and I managed to brave the elements today and get some snaps of it, so I thought I'd share them. The only change from stock (so far) is the set of "Wheelsmith Race 23's" that it's sporting. I've only managed a short ride on the turbo trainer so I'm looking forward to the spring time so I can get out for a proper ride.

I hope I haven't broken too many of the "Photo Rules"

Cheers
Howie


IMG_3160 by djhowie69, on Flickr


IMG_3167 by djhowie69, on Flickr


IMG_3164 by djhowie69, on Flickr

chigman

Yeah nice bike. I do like the Madone's - very nearly bought one myself. Enjoy

Steve

galatzo

Very nice mate, neat and tidy.
Trek are getting better imo (never really liked them before).
Can you tell us a bit more about the wheel as they look really good on that frame, build, weight, price etc ?
Cheers

limoneboy

Lovely bike, love the 2013 colours apart from the green one ,

photos are class ,well done

RideOnTime

Nice bike and some good pics...

pitchshifter

That's really nice! It looks perfectly set up.

Let us know on how you get on with the wheels, will be interested to know if the brake track stays black.

djhowie69

Hi Guys

Thanks for the comments.

Full details of the wheels can be found here:

http://www.wheelsmith.co.uk/news/63-new-wheelsmith-race23-tweaked

The service was first class. I placed the order around the 10th Dec and was told that they wouldn't be built until January. This was no problem as my bike wasn't due to arrive until then anyway. However, I got an email about a week later to say they were ready, they were sent via UPS and arrived on the 19th Dec.

Regarding the black brake track, I was told that if I used the Swisstop Yellow pads (for carbon rims) then they should stay black, time will tell. Wheelsmith supplied the pads and also the tyres too, at an extra cost obviously.

Cheers
Howie

ba68

Please do let us know how the wheels ride as I am thinking of getting a set myself. Cheers.

johnnymcg259

Yeah........likewise.......nice looking bike.......'proper' could be the word?! :?

Again, I'd like to see what you think o the wheels once you've ridden them (in the rain too!)for a while and subsequently if the rims braking surface stays in tact. I think it might not, but with the carbon brake blocks it might have a better chance?

djhowie69

I will post an update after I've done some mileage on them.

Cheers

dmclite-3.0

Handsome bike that. Very nice.

duckson

Looks great!

Any update on how the wheels are performing and how the brake track is holding up?
How is the braking power with the Swiss stop yellows?

Markjaspi

Looks really smart, particularly the wheels and subtle black / white, like it a lot. There's so many good looking bikes around at the moment

djhowie69

duckson wrote:

Looks great!

Any update on how the wheels are performing and how the brake track is holding up?
How is the braking power with the Swiss stop yellows?

It's still sitting on my turbo trainer at the moment, as I'm still using my winter hack, so can't comment I'm afraid. I'm aiming to get it out in the next couple of weeks. Having said that we still have snow lying on the ground here from the weekend. :evil:

djhowie69

duckson wrote:

Looks great!

Any update on how the wheels are performing and how the brake track is holding up?
How is the braking power with the Swiss stop yellows?

As promised I have an update.

I have been on a couple of rides since Sunday and the wheels are very very smooth.

There appears to be no reduction in braking performance using the yellow swiss tops, in the dry anyway.

After the first ride there was a lot of yellow residue left on the brake track. It did come off, but required a fair bit of elbow grease and some disc brake cleaning fluid :evil: . This was obviously just as a result of the pads being new as I have just returned from my second ride this morning and although there was some evidence of yellow residue it was very very minor compared to the first ride.

I have only covered 120km so as you would expect the black braking surface is completely in tact.

Rod11

Very nice indeed, that's one of my favourite bike paint schemes.

RideOnTime

Another peek. Yer, tis nice.

limoneboy

Quick one , still lovely , were did you get the stand from ? , could do with one to stop my misses complaining about the marks on wall of the tyres.

djhowie69

limoneboy wrote:

Quick one , still lovely , were did you get the stand from ? , could do with one to stop my misses complaining about the marks on wall of the tyres.

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... yId_242557

djhowie69

Update on the black brake track, as promised. I've now covered 700km since late March. As I mentioned above using the swisstop yellow pads was resulting in some unsightly yellow marks on the rim. This was proving difficult to remove, however it would come off with some serious elbow grease. For this reason I had already decided that I was going to switch back to the black pads which would obviously result in the brake track turning silver. Yesterday I took part in the etape caledonia sportive and still had the yellow pads on. During the main climb the rain came on quite heavy and there was quite a lot of grime on the road. On the descent there was sections which required some heavy braking. I'm not sure if it was a combination of the wet and grime, but by the end the black has worn through to silver in places. I've now changed the pads back to black so the brake track will probably be fully silver after my next ride, which doesn't really bother me to be honest.

Moral of the story is, if you absolutely must have a black brake track, it looks like you should go for carbon rims or mavics with the exalith coating.

RideOnTime

don't wear away those rims with all that scrubbing.

dolan_driver

That is a smart looking bike. The wheels-tyres combination look good. None of that coloured-tyre nonsense! The Trek is quickly becoming very desirable again, especially when they look this good.

DD.

Liamrf

Bought a 4.5 a month ago and after 750 miles am massively impressed - upgraded wheels to a set of Mavic Kysrium Elite's and it flies (wasn't a slouch on the stock wheels to be honest, but the Mavics take it up a level).

Awesome bike.

Paul 8v

Just out of interest, how much of a difference in weight and performance were the new wheels compared to the old ones? I have a Domane 4.3 which seems to have a very similar set of wheels (I think yours are 1 model up) and I was looking at either of the two wheel smiths as a possible upgrade (Either the same as yours or the deep sections)

djhowie69

Hello mate.

Being honest with you, I never used the bike with the stock rims so can't really comment. I sold them onto a mate without using them. I can say that I'm very impressed with the wheelsmith race 23's and i wouldnt hesitate to recommend them. I regualarly ride with another guy who also has the race 23's and he is also very happy with them. At the price they represent great value. They are very very smooth.

Paul 8v

Ah no problems, I may have to check them out. They seem to be a pretty good deal compared to a lot of the factory built wheels.

Mlopes

Fellows,

I saw the pictures of the bike and it´s awesome. I can´t find this color anywhere!! I searched in many websites and stores but I can only find the red and white model.

Anybody know where I can find the black/white one?

Thanks for your help!

Rod11

The red and white is the US version of the bike. If you go on the Trek website then change the country to UK you'll find it.

Mlopes

Thanks Jack... I did check the UK site and there it is.

So I guess I wont find it in any US store.. It´s a pity since this model is the most beautiful one I´ve seen on 4.5´s

djhowie69

Mlopes wrote:

Thanks Jack... I did check the UK site and there it is.

So I guess I wont find it in any US store.. It´s a pity since this model is the most beautiful one I´ve seen on 4.5´s

Hi Mate. I must admit I was a bit unsure when I saw the pictures on the Trek website, however when I saw the bike in flesh, it looked much better, even more so when I swapped the wheels out, IMHO.

You will need to get the 5.9 if you want a similar colour scheme. I saw one of these in the flesh a few weeks back for the first time and I was blown away. It looks a lot more chunkier than my 4.5. Go on, you know you want to.

I couldn't justify the extra cost and even if I could, I would go down the project one route where you can make it completely bespoke.