The difference is not 1-2w, but much more. (How much depends on what you’re comparing to.) And if you’re talking about a rider going 400w, it’s more, because their speed is higher. Meanwhile 300g of frame weight is worth less than half a percent (to a rider of any ability level) even on the Angliru. The top riders go up it at 18km/h meaning the gen 7 madone is likely marginally faster even at a slightly higher weight.
However your post is a great example of the fallacies that many customers probably base their purchasing decisions on.
I am trying to buy a gen 7 slr right now and the isoflow is the biggest misgiving I have. Maybe it contributes to ride quality, but aside from that, Ronan McLaughlin’s review mentioned that it allows road spray to hit one’s water bottles, which I can see being a pita. So if they carry that on just as a stylistic element, that will be annoying.
I actually don’t know how the gen 7 could have been a commercial failure. It’s sold out in most configs and most sizes (unlike Gen 6 was when gen 7 rolled out). The sku reduction is hitting me twice because they also got rid of my size (62cm) and the replacement size is marginally less great for me (requires an additional 1cm of spacers, and tall bikes are already hard enough to make look decent as it is).
Since when does Tour put a bottle on the DT? Maybe I’m wrong, but the lack of a bottle is my beef with their test.
I hadn’t seen the deep red color yet. That looks amazing in that rich color. Also big props to the smaller logo - way more tasteful. This bike with the right paint is much more to my taste than the over the top aero Madone or boring/poorly detailed Emonda.
I think they’d releasing two bottles- the full aero ones and some more normal flat side round ones like Cannondale has. I can buy into the flat sided bottles.
Edit: looks like I’m wrong. Now I just want to know how they determine frame size and exposed seat post for the seat post stiffness test.
TBC I was referencing what other posters in this thread have been reporting. I had a hard time getting what I wanted too but, I’m a 56 so I’d imagine that’s the most or 2nd most popular size…
Hole or not, bottles get absolutely douched in the rain especially with these new drop seatstay bikes that have a 5mm wide seat tube. This is someone just looking for some way to criticize the design, remember all the talk about how the seatpost would be breaking at the wedge?
Here its slang for getting wet. It’s going to be an issue on any bike, even my old very non aero emonda would get the bottles wet. Slightly more of an issue with the hole, but not to the point of me wanting to throw the bike in the trash.
You use the questionably legal triangle shaped water bottle that trek makes for it. You aren’t swapping out bottles so there isn’t much of an issue. Most speed concept users are also not limited to the UCI rules.
What was stopping you from running aero bottles before with any other bike? They’ve been available for a while. I bought a pair for my TT bike and they both ejected on bumps. Even before they ejected they sucked as bottles, with small capacity, fiddly nozzles, hard to squeeze, can’t stand upright on table or in cup holder.
I’m not a fan of the look, but I have to agree with you. If they’re getting rid of the Emonda and going all in on the hole, they have to have evidence that it sells bikes.
