Wheels For Trek Madone 5.0… Shoes and Pedals

Brett Gunter has asked for our advice on wheels, pedals and shoes. He has a Trek Madone and wants to upgrade his wheels, he wants lighter and stiffer wheels for climbing and he is a big lad, so the wheels have to be good. He likes Campagnolo pedals, but doesn’t want to spend that much money so we give him some alternatives

Question: Hello Samuel,
I have some Questions about what kind of wheelset I should purchase. I ride a 07′ trek madone 5.0, and I love it, but I want to upgrade to some lighter and if possible stiffer wheels. My bike is all stock. I like to climb. I’m 6’1″ 180lbs. Also I’m in the market for cycling shoes and pedals, I like the campy design but I don’t know if I want to spend that much.
Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Trek Madone 5.0

Hi Brett,
The Trek Madone 5.0 is very nice, but not quite as nice as the new Madone 5.1 and better. I guess you have Bontrager Race Wheelsystem on your bike as they are standard stock items for the Madone 5.0. You could be using some wheels with a bit more stiffness and with less weight.

There are many to choose from and here at Bike Cycling Reviews we have looked at many in previous reviews. We would suggest that it would be best for you to stick to an alloy rim as otherwise you would have to change brake blocks for carbon.

Mavic are amongst the best made wheels around, check out their web-site, or the Shimano Ultegra wheels would be great. Mavic should be your first port of call as they are strong, which is important, 180 lbs isn’t so heavy, but at over 6 foot you probably have a good power out put, so stiffness is very important.

Mavic Ksyrium

Look

You say you are also interested in a new set of shoes and pedals and that you like the look of the Campagnolo pedals, well you don’t have to buy the titanium Record pedals, you could go for the cheaper Centaur pedals.

Personally I would consider the Look pedals; they were the first and are still one of the best and easiest to set up. The Look Keo classic and Sprint are both great pedals, light and the float is adjustable and the best thing for you is that they are both inexpensive.

As to the shoes, we have tried many here in the Bike Cycling Reviews office and we would probably go for SIDI or DMT, very similar and of great quality, if you can afford carbon soled shoes these are the best and the most stiff and solid. If you don’t want to spend that much the plastic soled shoes are nearly as good and some people actually prefer them to the carbon for comfort.

Plastic & Carbon