Photo Credit: Kevin Scott Batchelor
So, you've decided to get a road bike, but you're having trouble choosing between a razor-sharp aero machine or a feather-light climbing bike.
If you're a Trek fan, this means you're likely comparing the Trek Madone vs the Trek Emonda. Lucky for you, in 2024 Trek made it easy by ditching the Emonda name, smooshing it together with the Madone to create one mega-light, aero, climbing super bike. That was easy - blog done. Get a Madone.
But, maybe you're considering the benefits of some of Trek's older models and might be curious if there was a good reason the brand made 2 different options for 8 years, and there is.
Fun Fact:
Madone - Domane - Emonda
All models use the same 6 letters jumbled in a different order. That's called an anagram.
TL:DR
Skip the details, get to the point.
If you're in a hurry, here's the quick version:
Madone = Aerodynamic Specialist
Best for riders looking for maximum aerodynamic advantages, less concerned with a little added weight, and enjoy riding one of the most cutting edge, super-bikes on the market. Maybe you like having people ask you about your bike.
[button]Shop Trek Madone Road Bikes[/button]
Emonda = Lightweight Climber
Best for riders looking for a versatile, lightweight climbing bike. The more traditional tube shapes and lightweight design float up climbs and will look great for years to come. You don't need to be flashy, but you want a modern take on a classy bike that performs incredibly well.
[button]Shop Trek Emonda[/button]
Longer Version: Is the Madone or Emonda better for you?
Are you looking to buy new or used?
This question will help you tremendously, since the Emonda is no longer. If you're looking to buy new, the Madone is your choice and you get "the best of both worlds". You'll get a less blatantly aerodynamic bike compared to prior generation Madone's, but a much lighter weight and better all-around bike that climbs better. Modern road race bikes have also widened their tire clearance, so although the Madone is a full-fledged road race machine, it still allows up to 32mm tires for added comfort and control. We break it down below when talking about the new Gen 8 Madone, but the neat thing Trek did with the latest Madone design was looking at an accessory every rider will have on their bike anyway, the water bottle, and designing it into the aerodynamics of the bike. Engineers have spent countless hours perfecting an aero frame only to have cyclists slap a round waterbottle on the downtube and seattube - negating most of those aerodynamic gains. Trek slimmed back the frame, then provided bottles and cages designed specifically to replicate the bigger, aerodynamic tube shapes from prior designs which resulted in a lighter package all around. The bottles are easy to grab and the cages will still accept traditional shaped water bottles, so in a pinch, you can throw ol' trusty in there. Obviously, with traditional bottles, you sacrifice a bit of the aero benefits of the Trek provided bottles, but it's nice that you aren't limited to just those.
Prices for a new Madone range from:
$2999.99 - $15,999+ (more if you want to start getting custom with Trek's Project One program)
$2999.99 gets you a Madone SL 5 - Shimano 105 Disc, Alloy Wheels
$15,999 gets you a Madone SLR 9 - SRAM Red AXS, Carbon Wheels, Top Tier Limited Paint
Trek has slimmed down the amount of offerings in each model over the past few years, but you still have a variety of trim level options between the SL 5 and SLR 9. Both the SL (500 series carbon) and SLR (900 series carbon) are available in multiple build kits, so you can narrow in on what matters to you.
If you're looking used, then it's worth looking at the key differences between the Madone and Emonda outlined below:
First off, even if you're buying used, you can usually find the latest Gen 8 Madone at The Pro's Closet and score a great deal.
[button]Shop Used Trek Madone Gen 8[/button]
Comparing models prior to 2024 becomes a balance of lightweight vs aerodynamics.
Madone:
- For the rider looking for extreme aerodynamic advantages. You're riding routes or races that involve less big climbs where the aerodynamic advantages of the Madone will easily outweigh shedding some weight
- For the rider looking for a bike that'll double as a triathlon bike when needed. Not everyone can afford both a tri bike and a road bike, so getting an aerodynamic road bike gives you a more versatile machine. This may also be a great choice for the rider doing draft-legal triathlons that don't allow traditional tri bikes.
- For the rider who appreciates head-turning design. The Madone has always pushed design concepts and stood out in a crowd compared to the Emonda's more traditional frame design.
[button]Shop Trek Madone Road Bikes[/button]
Emonda:
- For the rider looking to conquer big climbs. This is ultimately what the Emonda is designed for. When it initially launched, Trek boasted that the Emonda frame was the lightest option on the market at any given price point.
- For the rider looking for a more all-around bike that feels high performance, climbs well, and rides smooth.
- For the rider who appreciates more traditional, timeless frame design. Because the Emonda doesn't focus as heavily on aerodynamics, it allows Trek to maintain a more timeless tube shape. Some riders prefer subtle design that rides well and when compared to the Madone, the Emonda is certainly that.
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Frame Weight comparison between Trek Madone and Trek Emonda:
| Madone SLR | Emonda SLR | Madone SL | Emonda SL | |
|
2023 Frame Weight (56cm) *Fork included |
1,450g | 1,050g | 2,123g | 1,629g |
|
2024 Frame Weight (56cm)(gen 8) |
1,146g | n/a | 1,417g | n/a |
The Gen 8 Madone made an impressive improvement in weight compared to the Gen 7 - over 300g in the SLR frame and an astounding 700g (1.5lbs) in the SL frame. The Gen 8 Madone also compares incredibly well to the outgoing Emonda when comparing weight.
But, in the battle of Madone vs. Emonda, there's another part of the equation - Aerodynamics. Clearly, the Gen 8 Madone is less "aero" looking than the Gen 7, but appearances can be deceiving. What do the numbers say?
Lightening up the Gen 8 Madone meant designing the bike with noticeably less kamtail shapes, which resulted in a significant reduction in frame material. Trek then looked at an accessory that every bike was going to ride with anyway - the water bottles. Engineers have spent countless years of their lives optimizing downtube shapes for ultimate aero gains only to have a significant amount of that effort negated by a traditional round water bottle. So, Trek designed the Gen 8 Madone bottle cages (and included bottles) to replicate the aerodynamic effects of a kamtail shape.
Learn a Little History:
Below is a break down every generation of both the Madone and the Emonda. The Madone has been around considerably longer - 8 generations so far, while the Emonda had just 3. Every generation of these bikes had something good going for them. After learning about them you might discover that the Third Gen Madone might be exactly what you're looking for.
Madone:
The name Madone has become synonymous with Trek. It was launched in 2003 and named after Col de la Madone, which is a famous climb in France where Trek superstar Lance Armstrong did much of his training. It's been the longest running model name in Trek's history and has evolved tremendously over it's 20+ year run, as most road bikes have.
The Very First Gen Madone design featured what we now consider subtle nods to an aero-first design, but in 2003, it was revolutionary. A slightly elongated fork and downtown, as well as a seat tube that gently wrapped around the rear wheel. It boasted external cable routing and traditional seatposts, headsets, and bottom brackets. Ah, simplicity.
[button]Shop Trek Madone Road Bikes[/button]
The Second Gen Madone introduced the seatmast and Trek's unique BB90 bottom bracket standard. Alberto Contador (Discovery Channel) took this Madone and won le Tour de France on it. Boom, we have a star. In 2008 while riding for Astana, Contador would also go on to win the Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a Espana on the 2nd gen Madone. Thanks to Alberto, the Madone was quickly earning a reputation as being one of the highest performance road bikes on the market.
The Third Gen Madone delivered a significant update. This generation is incredibly important to you, the person comparing a Madone to an Emonda, because the Emonda ended up drawing most of it's design cues around this generation. If you looked at a side view of the third gen Madone and first gen Emonda, you'd really have to know your stuff to tell them apart. The third gen Madone also holds a special place in my heart as the first road bike I was drooling over. I grew up in Madison WI - Trek's backyard and at the time, we had the only 2 Trek owned retail stores in the world at the time. When I was first getting into cycling in 2009, the Trek Store in Madison is where I went to feel inspired, gain knowledge, and spend ALL my hard earned cash. The Trek Madone 5.2 at the time was the holy grail - I wanted it bad. It was the background on my laptop for a bit. However, I couldn't swing it and ended up with a much more budget friendly first road bike, the Trek 1.2 - which was great, too.
The Fourth Gen Madone was when the bike really began incorporating fascinating aero-forward design. This was the first Madone to receive a heavy dose of Kamtail Virtual Foil (or KVF) on the downtube and seat tube of the bike. Frame tube shapes also became noticeable thicker. In many riders opinion, this design marked a switch from focusing on an all-around performance road bike to pure performance. The bike became much stiffer and comfort was less of a concern - maybe because this was also when Trek was launching their very first endurance road bike - the Domane. This model also launched Trek's attempts at tucking the brakes out of the way. On the front, the brake caliper is nestled and uniform with the fork and head tube and in the back, Trek placed the brakes under the bottom bracket. At the time, not seeing a brake caliper on a seatstay bridge was radical.
[button]Shop Trek Madone Road Bikes[/button]
The Fifth Gen Madone - Welcome full-on aero. This generation is when Trek got radical with the Madone design - and why not, this is also the time when their road bike family grew even more with the introduction of the lightweight, climbing focused Emonda. Fully integrated cables, elongated tube shapes throughout the bike, and to tuck the front brake away from the wind, a truly unique head tube design with flaps that opened up as the front wheel turned called "vector wings". In the 5th gen design, Trek did attempt to address the stiffer ride that a fully committed aero bike delivered by creating an alternate version of their iso-speed technology into the Madone's seat-tube/top-tube junction. This damping technology was borrowed from their endurance bike - the Domane.
The Sixth Gen Madone - The aero Madone gets more refined. Disc brakes became a much more prevalent technology when this generation was launched, which allowed Trek to move away from the "vector wing" front brake solution - thankfully. While a creative approach to aerodynamics, the vector wings certainly added a somewhat antiquated and clunky appearance to an otherwise sleek superbike. The disc brakes on the 6th gen Madone allowed Trek to slim down the frame itself and streamline the design for a freshly polished look.
The Seventh Gen Madone - Welcome, IsoFlow. Continuing on their quest to keep the Madone both incredibly aerodynamic, comfortable, and trying to shed weight IsoFlow was born. IsoFlow is the hole created where the top tube and seat tube meet. The design was intended to accomplish several things:
- provide the same amount of damping qualities as IsoSpeed, but in a lighter weight package. It accomplishes this due to the outer walls of the IsoFlow flexing beneath the rider.
- channel air through the seat tube with less disruption, delivering a more aerodynamic performance
This generation marked the height of the Madone's long, aero tube shapes and remains a favorite among aero-enthusiasts. Even though Trek doesn't make this design anymore, the good news is The Pro's Closet gets them in relatively frequently - if this is the generation you're after.
[button]Shop Trek Madone Road Bikes[/button]
The Eighth Gen Madone - The Madone loses weight, adios Emonda. This is when Trek took on the challenge of designing a Madone light enough to make the Emonda obsolete, while still maintaining the aerodynamics of it's predecessor. Not surprisingly, Specialized was also working on the same thing (blending their two performance road bikes, the Venge and Tarmac, into one super bike). Cannondale also combined their SuperSix (lightweight) and SystemSix (aero) road bikes into one superbike (the latest Supersix got more aero). Who's to say if this was a result of the post-covid whiplash of brands discovering they had too many bike models to handle, making forecasting more difficult. Or maybe, it was a realization that many of their customers were having a hard time deciding between the two performance bikes, so combining them and removing analysis paralysis made a lot of sense. Either way - I personally think it was a great choice. It'll be interesting to see if any other players follow suite. Will Canyon combine the Aeroad and Ultimate? Will Giant eventually combine the Propel and TCR? Only time will tell - but the trend suggests yes.
Note:
Trek converted their sizing for the Gen 8 Madone to S-M-L style vs. the more traditional cm sizing.
XS: 47cm S: 50cm M: 52-54cm ML: 56cm L: 58cm XL: 60-62cm
[button]Shop Trek Madone Road Bikes[/button]
Emonda:
The Emonda has a much briefer history with just 3 generations, technically. Although, gen 2 mostly just introduced disc brakes to the platform with very minor updates to the rest of the frame.
[button]Shop Trek Emonda Road Bikes[/button]
Gen 1 Emonda: In 2014 the Trek Emonda made its debut just ahead of The Tour de France. Trek claims it's name was influenced but the French word "Emonder", which translates to "to trim or to prune" - a play off the bikes incredibly lightweight design. As mentioned before, it was also an anagram from their popular road bike, the MADONE (and recently launched DOMANE). Impressively, Trek managed to create a fully built Emonda SLR frame spec'd with a SRAM Red drivetrain and a collection of other extremely lightweight components at just 10.25lbs. A bike at this weight is far below UCI limits and it also featured an incredibly limiting rider weight restriction - but a fun party trick non-the-less. As referenced earlier, the first generation Emonda drew massive design cues from the beloved 3rd generation Madone - a bike praised at the time for it's balance of sleek and lightweight design, performance, and comfort.
On a personal note, this Emonda was my first serious road bike. I bought a 2014 Emonda SL 6 and gradually upgraded wheels and components over the 4 years I owned it. The bike rode incredibly and to-date may still be one of my favorite road bikes I've ridden. I share a few photos at the end, if you're interested in seeing my setup.
Gen 2 Emonda: At a time when disc brakes were much more controversial, Trek introduced a Disc option to the Emonda lineup. At the time, many riders (myself included) saw disc brakes as a substantial weight addition, so to add it to a bike specifically designed around being as featherlight as possible seemed like an interesting choice. Of course, as we all know now, any disc brake nay-sayers at the time are now eating their words as rim brake bikes are practically obsolete. Along with disc brakes, the Gen 2 Emonda got minor geometry and carbon layup tweaks, but nothing dramatic.
Gen 3 Emonda: The big overhaul. In 2020 Trek released the "third" generation Emonda, which interestingly borrowed some design cues from the 4th gen Madone (not nearly as replicated as Emonda gen 1 and Madone gen 3, but an interesting pattern). The downtube received an aero treatment with dramatic KVF (kamm-tail virtual foil) shaping, a more aerodynamic fork, and more integrated steerer spacers and cabling. Trek also parted ways with their BB90 press-fit bottom bracket to a threaded T47 design. The Gen 3 Emonda would be the last design for this "all-arounder" lightweight road bike. After Gen 3, the Emonda and Madone blended together. It should be noted that for this generation of Emonda, Trek also introduced what they called their "H1.5 Geometry". Traditionally, most of Trek's road bikes came standard in "H2" geometry - a somewhat neutral posture that you could easily make more aggressive by dropping the stem. On higher end models, you could choose a longer and lower "H1" geometry. For this generation, they designed the Emonda to fit right in the middle of those. I found this positioning to encourage me to size down, as the reach felt quite long for me (I'm mostly legs).
[button]Shop Trek Emonda Road Bikes[/button]
Hopefully this guide helped give some direction on whether the Madone or Emonda is right for you. Or, whether an older generation model calls to you more than a modern one.
[button]Shop Used Trek Road Bikes[/button]
It's also worth noting that Trek has recently made a dramatic redesign to their Endurance road bike, the Domane. They redesigned the seatpost to replicate the effects of their IsoSpeed technology, which allowed them to lighten up the frame tremendously. The Domane now competes in weight with some of the best climbing bikes on the market while offering a more relaxed endurance geometry and 40mm tire clearance. Keep an eye out for a review on the all-new Domane coming soon.
[button]Shop Used Trek Domane Road Bikes[/button]
As always, if you want to learn more or have additional questions about a specific Trek model on our website, our Ride Guides are available 6 days a week to help you find the road bike of your dreams.
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*Every Trek Madone and Emonda image used in this blog were taken from bikes that have been for sale at The Pro's Closet over the 20+ years we've been selling used bikes.
Reminiscing on my 2014 Trek Emonda SL
The Fire Engine red on this bike looked extra good rolling around the desert of Tucson, AZ.
Even with skinny 25's, this bike felt confident in all types of weather. This was the top of Emigration Canyon in SLC, UT.
Thanks for joining me on memory lane.
