2021 Specialized S-Works Aethos

Now what the UCI and stages races need to allow are bikes like this for a single hill climb stages. I’d love to see the polka dot competitors on mental hill climb bikes ala British HC championships.

5 to 10 minute climbs watching the best in the world on stupid sub 5kg bikes.

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My reaction to this announcement?

I am whelmed.

That’s it.

Just…

Meh…

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I note this above, I think, but weight is the one metric we can all understand and “feel”. Pick it up and you can tell it is light. Regardless of performance benefits, the first thing we all do is lift a bike.

And 99.9999% of us don’t need to worry about UCI weight limits…but bike companies continue to let that determine their bike designs. It is just kinda dumb.

They did the same thing with the Shiv Tri bike when they said “screw the UCI aero rules…the people who are gonna buy this don’t need to worry about them”.

Honestly, I’m surprised it has taken them (or anyone) to do this. From a marketing perspective, it is a great move.

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This is one gorgeous bike imo :astonished:
I’d totally buy it if I was a dentist
(sidenote: I didn’t realise dentists earned that much cash, before I saw all of the memes :laughing:)

I know…I’m not talking about the complete bike. The frame itself (S-Works version) is 585g, which is only a couple of hundred grams less than an S-Works frame.

  • That’s not really what they did. They decided to make two different bike.
  1. The Shiv as the Triathlon specific bike with no holds barred design for Tri’s.
  2. The Shiv TT for UCI compliant aero TT road racing.

That is true with the first generation pair of bikes from years ago, and is true when they started with the revamp of the Shiv (Tri) and the Shiv TT shortly after.


Ironically, Spesh is doing the comical pendulum swing we see in the bike industry. Push hard in small and large steps towards one direction (aero is everything) only to realize there is more to it than that (aero isn’t everything?).

My original 2015 Trek Emonda SLR rim brake bike is the pure expression of a road bike, that was touted as the lightest production bike at the time. They followed in 2018 with the disc brake model, also claimed lowest weight disc bike at that time IIRC.

Trek has made the same move as Spesh, in making the 3rd gen Emonda a light, aero bike like the Tarmac redo. Each chasing the other in aero goodness. So it will be interesting to see if this Aethos leads others to make a “retro” bike focused on the pure experience.

This high price puts it in competition with the high end and potentially custom Ti and Steel bikes from the boutique builders (Moots, Strong, etc.) as a premium bike. Maybe the tech will trickle down at some point. I suspect they will evaluate the reception to this bike, but as long as they can work with layups to cut price and maintain the essence of ride quality (without adding too much weight), I think there is a small case to be made for bikes like this.

But that said, the road market seems an extra tough one right now, so I wonder how much appetite there is for a halo bike like this?

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Every time I mention the new Domane is on my short list for a new bike, the first reaction is something like “dude that bike is heavy” starting here:

:rofl: and repeated at my LBS (they love the Madone). I’m 10lbs heavier than the (faster) 2017 edition of bbarrera, and thats the only weight I care about dropping.

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for the weight weenies out there:

I remember seeing this a while back. Totally bespoke 3.9 kg bike.
Claimed frame weight: 631 g..
now I wonder if you could get the Aethos below 4 kg with (obviously hyper expensive) off-the-shelf stuff.

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Sure…and they are doing the same thing here. Aethos for those that want a super-light bike straight out of the box and Tarmac for those that want a “racing” bike.

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OK, I think I under your angle now. :smiley:

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I wonder how big the market is for this? I’d think the majority of people who would speed this much on a bike will be racing in some shape or form.

Guess the bean counters have already worked out it will sell, and tbh it is a beutiful classic looking bike.

After reading every review I could find, and reading how lovely this bike is, I cannot remove from my head that this is almost all the things that Emonda should be :slight_smile: It was like this but went into all bike in one trend. Honestly after reviews I think it would be a perfect bike type of a bike I want :slight_smile: (And I ride Emonda ALR which I really like).

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I don’t think so. Most guys I see riding around here with 10k+ bikes are middle aged men with beer bellies. They have a 10k+ bike because they also have a 100k+ car.

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AND because they are dentist…

:joy:

Normal people ride on 7k bikes!

:rofl:

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Yeah, actually thats a very good point. Maybe it should be even more expensive then!

or they develop a special edition roof rack for Porsches to transport the thing.

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I had the 2015 SLR 8, with Dura-Ace. It was amazing and such a fun bike to ride in all conditions.

I swapped it for the 2018 SLR 6 Disc, with Ultegra to save a bit of cash on the upgrade. Now on Aeolus XXX 6 wheels, it’s the same basic ride quality of the 2015, with the Zoom-Zoom wheels that absolutely rip through wind, and disc control with soft touch on the levers. It’s about my perfect bike, and not something I see ditching anytime soon.

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Hmmm aethos expert is on the same price level as Tarmac SL7 Expert. Both Di2, both the same wheels so in my country only 7k usd :wink:

  • You must be in a market other than the US. We don’t seem to have an Expert level model.

Would have to check the rules but I don’t think there is anything stopping people from racing it in non-UCI events.

I have never seen anyone weighing bikes, or even checking anything at cat 3 nonTT races.

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