It’s not a bespoke, limited edition or in anyway custom made bike. Pretty self explanatory. It’s a run of the mill race bike no different than Specialized, Cannondale or whatever brand you prefer to compare.
Understood. I guess I am fixating on this:
It reads to me as you were implying Trek don’t make quality bikes on par with the other brands we see out there. Feel free to correct me or expand on that.
That’s not quite true. Per the dealer page, the Interstellar color ($17k) has roughly 50+ day lead time for most sizes, while the other colors ($13.5k) are around 7 days and what I consider “regular production”.
This is more of a limited edition or even maybe a “Project One Lite” (my wording, nothing close to official) due to the limited run color aspect here. They have had similar special color offerings like this for years in various models and price upcharges.
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It’s on par with the ones I’ve listed, and pretty much any of the others you see in the pro peleton.
It’s very true. The bike is a bog standard bike. It doesn’t matter if they paint it gold, the bike is just a carbon production frame.
Are there bike manufacturers that don’t do this or layup custom carbon frames on demand for someone buying from the general public? I wouldn’t even be surprised if the frames the pros use are coming from the same assembly line. It is the same frame with custom kit.
Sure. Even BMC used to do it, but not sure they still do. There are a ton of smaller bespoke builders in steel, aluminum, carbon, you name it.
As far as I’m aware almost all of them are. Pro bikes aren’t really a benchmark of boutique bikes though? Really high end bikes are pretty far beyond what pros ride for work. It’s like comparing a BMW to a Bugatti.
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Thanks for expanding on that. I see your point now.
While still emphasizing this:
I still think you can justify premium prices for bikes that are not bespoke. These are some of the fastest/most efficient road bikes in the world which would have taken a significant amount of R&D. And I think there are consumers that would value that as much, if not more, than having a bespoke bike that may not have the R&D behind it to make it fast or efficient.
I think the friction is how we price premium.
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Also rather mysterious: the SL frameset lists for $3800, while the SL5 complete bike (105 mechanical) lists for $3500. Doesn’t seem like any fancy paint on the frameset, identical carbon spec…wtf?
At these prices, I see no appeal. $3800 for an SL and $6k for the SLR frame sets are boutique prices, and as someone said above, it’s a f**** Trek. They make solid bikes and I respect the R&D that’s gone into this, but at least to me Trek does not have the exotic je ne sais quois of something like a Colnago or Pinarello or Factor. I recognize this is a distinction without a difference-the Madone likely has more engineering behind it than anything from these brands–but these are recreational toys for most of us so appeal to the heart is as well as the head is important. I feel none of that for this bike.
Bike industry: OMG, people are not buying bike like they did 3 years ago, not sure what can be done. We are in trouble.
Trek: Make a new bike, price it out of range of mostly everyone, except your local dentist.
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am I the only one that pulls up a bike page and sorts “Price: Low to High” so I can ignore the ridiculous prices of high-end bikes? With Trek my policy is to ignore any SLR, vaguely recall a few years ago those used to start around $7000. Now its $8000 and why is the SLR 6 gen 8 completely missing from the Madone lineup on the website? Its like Spec Tarmac SL8 and Expert and above only (where is the Comp model?!).
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on related note, the LBS had 4 riders out on Wed ride. Two on gen6 Madones. One of the LBS guys is just starting out and lets just say he isn’t the most coordinated (watching him sprint is a treat), apparently he looked back and went down with a fairly well controlled slid out. Ok, maybe his coordination isn’t so bad. However in the process he ripped his seat+post off the gen6 Madone 
While standing there, I said “what is it with Trek and seat posts?” (having suffered with Domane gen1 seat mast for 5 years). The other LBS kid looked up and said “not a week goes by and I’m tightening that darn top isotube bolt on my gen6 Madone.” Yup, you and at least 5 other guys on Wed night rides. The gen6 riders shall forever be “mad-one(s)” in my mind 
Thankfully IsoFlow on the gen7/gen8 has removed that problem.
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I was at a launch event last night. The new one looks great, I had expected that I’d prefer the gen 7 Madone but I don’t feel that way any more. Kinda makes my Emonda look old now.
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Is there really anything exotic about Colnago, Pinarello, or Factor? I get that some folks want a less common bike, but these bikes are all rolling out of the same/similar factories in Asia as the higher volume brands. Pinarello and Colnago are a classic example of paying a premium for Italian cycling nostalgia if that’s your thing, but far from exotic or special (in my opinion). Not saying they are bad bikes, just expensive for what they are. In my mind, exotic is the low volume custom Ti or bespoke carbon builders.
But yeah, I think it’s madness that anyone would spend that kind of $ on a “production” frame. I did a project 1 build back when the program first started. It wasn’t much more than a stock frame back then and actually saved me $ because I could specify the size I needed for the integrated cockpit. Project 1 was a cheap way to get a “semi-custom” bike when it was first launched and you didn’t have to buy a top end frame to get it. Last time I checked, Project 1 was only available on the most expensive frames and was quite a premium on top of the frame cost. Paint work is labor intensive, so I get it, just wish it was a more reasonable option like it used to be. I assume a big part of why it became so expensive is that Trek stopped making their nicer frames in the USA around that time and probably had to justify the entire cost of the USA paint shop via project 1 revenue.
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Sure, as I said Trek vs. Colnago/Pinarello is a distinction without a difference. But I expect the latter to charge a premium because they have positioned themselves as luxury Italian brands. Trek seems to be trying to charge Pinarello prices, which seems nuts.
FWIW all my bikes are bang-for-buck custom builds, so I’m clearly not the market for any of this stuff.
Pinarello Dogma F frameset: $13k
Madone SLR 8 frameset: $8k
($AUD)
I don’t get why when TREK does it it’s “overpriced” but when Pinarello or Colnago do it, it’s ok because they “position themselves as luxury Italian brands”. TREK have probably innovated more in the last decade than either of the Italians, Pinarello has literally made the same bike over and over which in its last generation was prone to snapping, at least Colnago has their cool lugged frames but does anyone even remember their dud of a “concept” aero bike? If it wasn’t for Pog that V4RS wouldn’t be doing a thing
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At the dentist last week I asked him about this. He said he doesn’t ride, doesn’t know any colleagues that do and never heard of the reference that dentist buy the most expensive bikes, lol.
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I know 2 dentist that ride
Both have the newest stuff
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I think it’s just an extension of Porsche being a dentist car meme. Still funny even if untrue
You clearly talked to the hygienist and not the actual Dentist
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