logical, I forgot to answer your question on the Madone.
The price wasn't the main factor I didn't get a Madone, it was also the polarizing opinion of the BB90 bottom bracket. Many obviously ride them with little to no issue, but then others have negative experiences. With the new Domane, Trek seems to potentially be moving to a T47 threaded bottom bracket, so I decided to wait until that happens on the Madone line, likely in 1-2 years.
But I will say this, for the price I paid for the Cervelo, it was way below a Madone SLR7 price, and only a few hundred more than the "clearance" price of the 2019 SLR6. The official Trek sale price for a 2019 SLR 6 is $1K
more than what I paid, and my local Trek dealer had one gray/silver on clearance for $4100, so 466 less than what I paid.
For that extra $466, I got:
- A paint job I like more (what you see vs the gray/silver color of the SLR6
- I did lose on the ability to have totally hidden cables, which the SLR6 has but the S3 has two exposed brake cables from bar to frame
- S3 is approximately a half pound or more lighter (17lbs 14oz with bottle cage/lights/pedals vs. the listed 18lbs 7oz of a 56cm on Trek's site, likely without pedals but also 4cm larger than what I would have ordered)
- ENVE SES 5.6 wheels which MSRP for 3.5 times the cost of the Aeolus Comp 5 that come with the Trek (and those Aeolus Comps are not full carbon, they're aluminum rims with carbon fairing)
- eTap vs. Mechanical Ultegra
- I did give up wheel clearance, the S3 max is 25c tires and the Madone can accept 28c
I liked the test ride on the S3 more than the Madone, but to be fair I believe the Madone I rode was one size slightly too large (54 vs 52), so even though seat height was adjusted for my test ride, reach was likely a smidge too long. The clearance Madone was a 52, but they'd have to get it from their warehouse and build it, it wasn't in-store.
Also, last night when on a dusk ride near the beaches...fairly strong onshore flow. When I was heading into it, and getting into an aero position, I thought I could feel the benefit of the aero frame (obviously along with the aero position). But then I headed south and that onshore flow started buffeting me from the side...and I could totally feel the drawback of an arrow frame when hit with a 90 degree crosswind.
