More aero probably. Doesn’t make sense to go „lighter“, as they can‘t go much lighter in Racing anyway.
I am completely expecting a „Venge-successor“ still.
There are times in product development when it is not until well into product use that issues arise…and what was once seen as acceptable in testing and smaller production does hold up in either larger production or over the long-term. This is likely what happened with PF BB’s. Minute differences in tolerance (be it the frame, BB or both), which are OJ for awhile, eventually become a problem on larger than expected scale. it isn’t really a question of getting tolerances “right”, but that the original tolerances led to long-term problems and necessary adjusted tolerances were not feasible / reasonable.
With the revised UCI regulations for frame designs just released, this is now entirely possible.
But on the other hand, this is only 25% of the frame weight and not the whole bike weight. So in the end you probably aren’t going to see a 25% weight reduction. Though customers of the Aethos will probably be looking for more lightweight components than those of the SL7 but those component choices could be made independent of frame choice.
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Saving 25% on the frame.
The frame is 10-12% of the bike here (620g on a 6.2kg bike)
The bike is between 7-9% of system weight (in case of a male rider, over 55kg, 2 bottles of water, clothing, computer spares).
So 25% saving on your frame is
0.25 (times)0.1(times)0.08 saving.
Which is a whopping 0.002 or .2%.
I myself am a victim of buying light stuff, and marginal gains, but it is really unimportant if you think about it. 
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Bike prices are ridiculous. A little confused by the reviews and sponsored riders praising the Aethos for having all the hallmarks of a race bike without being a race bike. Kind off boring looking to I’l take my £10.000 and pay the likes of Mr Battaglin a visit.
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This actually makes me sad.
This bike has one purpose some people are clearly missing here.
It’s simply designed to make the company money. They realized that materialist fat 40 year old cyclists would be stupid enough to think that, saving 200g would make any meaningful difference to their insignificant results.
After years of spewing aero gains, it’s back to the weight weenies.
Please for the love of God people, stop buying these overpriced marketing experiments. Every time Specialized releases a bike someone posts a thread on it. Do these people work for Specialized? What is the love affair with this brand? You are literally facilitating this stupidity. I am by replying to it…
If you’ve got $14K spare to buy yet another bike, maybe you could pay it forward, maybe not buy the overpriced bike and spend the $14K helping someone starving, needing an operation, hell, almost anything would be preferable…
Sorry for the rant, it just grinds my gears, pun intended.
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Similar threads have popped up about Treks, too…it is what bike geeks do - talk about bikes.
There is nothing different about the Aethos than any other new model introduction. There is ridiculously over-priced option for those who want it / can afford it and there are lower-cost versions available too.
Pretty clear that there is a segment of the market that this bike covers that was previously untapped…Specialized just beat everyone to the punch. They zagged while the industry was zigging.
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Then, like a Trek bb90 bottom bracket, the glove doesn’t fit.
Sorry, couldn’t resist 
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Not entirely playing devil’s advocate, isn’t that the ultimate purpose of every bike that every bike company sells?
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Thank you!
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Damn autocorrect!!!
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Wow, what a mess of a post.
Firstly, the sole reason companies make products is to make money. Making money doesn’t necessarily mean the same as being greedy, but rather running a business. Specialized is good at running a business (which means good at creating jobs, good at paying taxes etc.).
If people are willing to spend money on a product that gives them joy, who are you to judge them?
Do you need your bike really? I mean more than a starving person needs food or an ill person might need surgery? If the answer to that is “no”, then please start with yourself.
Just because people spend (arguably a lot of) money on hobbies, in this case high end bikes, doesn’t mean that they don’t donate or help others. Also, would they, if they didn’t have the expensive hobby (and cycling really is just one of many) really donate more? Maybe, maybe not. All of this is really pointless and doesn’t belong on a cycling forum.
Also, where does the notion come from that everyone who buys expensive bikes is also fat and lazy and old and weak and whatever? 200g on a frame is a hobby, not a necassity , nor a relevant performance gain, absolutely. But people should do with their money what ever gives them joy without harming others. And I think, high-end bikes tick both boxes.
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Darn it @mcneese.chad I finally read this review from your first post:
why did you post it??!! Another James Huang review that just added to the list of bikes I must ride before buying the next one
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LOL, curse me 
That, and his darn Moots one make me want to spend stoopid money on bikes. He really does a great job and I like his take most of the time. So many good bike and so little $$$ 
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You aren’t reading a review, you’re reading an ad disguised as a review. Take most cycling media content with a grain of salt, as almost all of it is there to sell you something.
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so that must be the reason I keep thinking about Moots Routt RSL I’m just mad he never did a follow up on the Domane SLR in H1.5 geometry that he threatened to order… and now it sounds like the Aethos is the new hotness 
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No it isn’t…see above.
You can call it lazy journalism if you want, but it isn’t paid for and it isn’t an ad.
Those are just the facts.
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But you also don’t bite the hand that feeds you.
I saw big Specialized ads on the homepages of some of those reviewers plus the Specialized reviews on YouTube have quite high click numbers compared to other videos of the same maker (my guess would be the articles do also quite well). That generates the income for them. Like others already mentioned: There is a monetary incentive for the reviewers not to piss Specialized off to stay in the pool of people who get exclusive access to products (even if it’s no directly paid ad).
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Where are these facts you speak of? Nothing you’ve posted is fact based at all.
The fact is that every damn one of these bikes gets a glowing review every single time, and it were ever lambasted then you’d probably see that outlet being denied early access to these bikes.
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Can we just get back to bike talk, please?
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