With the Aethos being disc braked, probably not.
Interestingly they are not on specialized website but one of the biggest web stores has it as a preoreder. The spec is identical as Tarmac Sl7 expert:
They have had Sl7 on the website just before the premiere.
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Conspiracy theory: Specialized, who just invested in Zwift, will roll out this bike on Zwift at a very low Sweat Point price. Then people will buy it on Zwift so that they can get a PR on Alp Du Zwift. After riding a bunch on Zwift, people will want to buy it in real life because a) people like to match their Avatars or possibly want to imitate their avatars (just based on how much weight doping goes on and how many riders have thick heads of hair with no bald patches) and b) if the bike helps you get KOMs and jerseys on Zwift, it must work in real life. Thusly, Specialized just sold thousands of these so that they can sit on Wahoo Kickrs around the country.
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On a serious note, I think the frame only 200g lighter than the SL7? Iāll take the SL7 IMO.
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Also, these hyperlight builds are probably quite compromised in terms of durability. For example, the superlight wheels that Rides of Japan (Youtube) owns seem to have very finicky bearings.
But it seems to be possible to build ~6 kg bikes that are āmore mainstreamā with reliable everyday components ā if you have the necessary cash, that is. Canyon has had a ~6 kg disc brake bike in its line-up for a while now, too. If memory serves, it costs as much as the āentry-levelā (
) Aethos. And if you have $14k lying around, 3T will sell you a 5.8ā6.2 kg full-on aero bike.
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Same here.
On the one hand, āonlyā is actually a savings of ~25 % weight, which is a lot. On the other hand, in terms of absolute weight, you are absolutely right. Aero > weight in almost all circumstances. But nevertheless, I think it is nice to pressure the UCI to relax its rules regarding bikes, including the weight limit.
Here, @Power13, I have to disagree with you: most road bikes are built to conform with UCI rules and regs, tube shapes, frame shape ā and weight. The UCI was the reason disc brakes werenāt adopted more quickly, for example. If you look at all the creativity that goes into designing bikes for triathletes, I think weād be better off if the UCI werenāt so super conservative when it comes to bikes and lets manufacturers innovate. Why should farings and other aerydnamic devices be forbidden? And it seems quite clear that most manufacturers design their frames to just reach the UCI weight limit, but do not push further.
I was just thinkingā¦ Maybe specialized can send Buchmann on another Everesting try on this thing as marketing stunt 
I think a lot of the savings comes from other components though. The seat post is like 50g lighter, the stem another 75-100g depending on which stem you use, and another 50g for the fork. So with those, itās a good 350g-400g lighter. Maybe not a ton, but a guy on WeightWeenies got his under 6kg (5.88) with pedals and a power meter at a size 58. A good bit lighter than all of the tiny SL7s Iāve seen (size 49/52).
Iām actually liking it more than I thought I would. It would be nice to have a fun bike too ride with no goal in mind to be fast. And for how I ride, I think Iād actually be faster. I donāt really care how fast I go on flats or descents, I really only try to be fast going up climbs, and with the local climbs having pitches above 10-15%, with some over 20%, its sounds like a good fit. That said, itās way too expensive for me.
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If I was looking to spend $13k on a road bike Iād go full custom carbon. The only reason to spend that much on a stock offering is for getting something aero i.e. a top spec venge or tarmac. Otherwise for round tubes and ride quality why not get custom geo and cosmetics from Bastion, Parlee, or any of the other boutique brands out their that could provide something truly unique for that kind of money.
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no way I can justify spending approx 13k on this
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Specialized continuing to take the piss out of customers with their pricing (and I say that as a Bianchi owner ffs!)
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My old bike (currently rebuilding with clinchers and off the shelf non-dremelled parts) was a kilo lighter and half the price. I just worked loads of overtime back then as I donāt earn half of what a dentist does!
Iām mainly recovered from weight weenieism now, and am a performance weenie instead
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[quote=āPasque, post:29, topic:44257ā]
for the weight weenies out there:
3.9kg Berk Road Bike | Insane Lightweight Tech from Slovenia[/quote]
Featuring my old 46g front derailleur 
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Yeah, and mine only works 2.5 days/wk. I wish I had known this back when I was choosing a profession.
So Iām not trying to call out anyone specifically, but I just read through this thread and am baffled by the bias against folx who have higher paying jobs buying expensive bikes, and the implication that they are not fit or canāt ride fast or whatever. Iām not a dentist but why are they specifically being called out? This seems super toxic and tbh its confusing because most in this community seem to be very aware of possible biases and negative cultural stereotyping.
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Anecdotally, it seems to often be the case that people who drop massive amounts on halo bikes/the latest S-Works/Dogma/Colnago etc are unfit and/or overweight. Specifically dentists seem to be the archetypal example that people give, although Iāve never personally ridden with one.
Iāve ridden with a Dr whoās fast as hell though!
Jealousy Iām guessing at not being able to afford the higher priced bikes themselves. So they ridicule and make fun. Agree this (and the WeightWeenies) thread are pretty harsh on people that like the bike and can afford to buy it. Seems a little petty.
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Thanks professor.
I think we are saying the same thing, but form different anglesā¦bike companies were adhering to UCI limits for consumer bikes when they didnāt need to. The overwhelming majority of bike consumers donāt need to worry about the UCI design restrictionsā¦be it aerodynamic designs, disc brakes or weight limits.
But yet suppliers continued to let themselves be boxed in byt hose design limitations. It was really stoopid. Specialized was the first company to break the mold with the Shiv Tri, realizing that triathletes didnāt need to adhere to UCI aero designs. The Aethos line takes it one step further by developing a road bike without weight restrictions.
As for the pricing question, yes the Founderās Edition is insaneā¦but they also offer an Expert with Ultergra Di2 and DT r470 wheels for $5200 and the 10R frameset is $3200. Those donāt seem too out of line with other similarly specād options on the market.
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