Well I've been waiting since August but the warranty repair on my Madone 4.5 is finally closed. Trek finally came through and the broken 2010 4.5 frame was replaced with a brand new 2011 5.9 frame. Picked up the completed bike yesterday.

The bike's sort of a mutant beast though as it's packing all the 4.5 components pretty much. Tiagra brakes with 105 crank, cassette, levers, etc. The FD is 105 and the RD is Ultegra. Oh, and of course it's sporting my heavy but comfy Brooks B17. Sad thing is that winter is here, the snow's already been falling and the roads have salt and sand all over them. The 5.9 won't see sunlight until spring because I've got a winter MB to ride on the snowy/icy days and the LeMond Zurich will be used on the few warm days with snow free roads.

I thought I'd be all excited about getting the bike back but after 4 months of waiting and 4 months of steller service by my Zurich and Schwinn Circuit I'm debating the choice of a new CF bike. Both my steels weigh in right at 20 with heavy Brooks saddles, bottle cages, pedals, and storage bags on. The Trek really does not feel that much lighter. I think the current wheels and tires on the Trek bring the weight up a bit compared to the lighter setups on my other bikes.

Anyway, since I mentioned the problems with the 4.5 several times I'd thought I'd post a thread addressing the final resolution. Basically, the RD failed on a ride in August while under no real load, rotated around, and shattered the seat stay rendering the 4.5 frame kaput. Took some effort by me and the LBS owner to get resolution on the failure of the 4 month old bike. But Trek finally agreed to replace the frame even though the actual failure was of a Shimano component. In the end I paid for about $100 in misc parts, Trek supplied a new and much better frame, and the LBS did the work without charging me any labor. The final resolution seems very fair to me but I wished it had never happened and I really think that 4 months to work this out was ridiculous no matter what the reason was. Good thing I was able to afford picking up a back up bike so that I could keep riding during the delay.

Now to just figure out if I'm keeping it or just going to let my two steel bikes continue to serve my needs admirably. Of course I live surrounded literally by mountains and I think this is the one arena where the Trek will shine once I dump the heavy wheelset. Decisions, decisions...