It’s been shown over and over that an aero frame saves like 10 watts. Any other savings is in the cockpit and deep 65mm wheels that are often fitted to full aero bikes. Those items can be fitted to one’s old bike.
But maybe the heart just wants a new bike…
I ride a Colnago C59. I’ve really enjoyed Colnagos but I’d never buy another. Ernesto Colnago retired and sold out to some UAE private equity group. All the new designs are not from Colnago and the new owners have embraced Rolex pricing. If you have to ask how much it costs, it’s not for you. And that’s not for me!
This was the exact list of bikes I was looking at 4-5 months ago. I priced out a nice spec Winspace and the cost was more than I expected. Between the System Six, SL8, and Foil I quickly narrowed it down to the System Six and Foil based on aero tests. I found the best deal on a System Six (and the paint job matches my teams colors) so that’s what I went with, but the Foil is equal in my eyes. Yes the S6 is an “old” design, but it’s still very relevant and within a couple of watts of the best “new” aero bikes. Even the wheels are a modern 32mm wide, and very aero.
I won’t dispute 10 watts difference though I would like to read some of that test data. That said I think the passion /placebo effect is a real thing. I really love the aggressive look of many aero bikes, mine included (Orca Aero) and there may be something to feeling fast. I absolutely feel it is noticeably faster than my round tube Ti bike but maybe it’s mostly in my mind. Either way I will take it.
Truth be told I’m partial to the parlee by the looks and also since they’re local to me in Massachusetts. Pricing on their site says it starts at $4500 with wrenchscience hocking them for $5500. I thought I’ve seen builds for $7-8 but I couldn’t tell you where or how long ago. Wrenchscience.com will put one together at a premium and depending on the spec they seems to think they can build one at around 15-16 lbs. but it’ll run around $10k more or less depending on said spec. I’d probably buy the frame then collect parts over time as a faux payment plan rather than buy outright. Also fun to shop parts and hunt sales. I’m guessing if you reached out to them they’d provide whatever info you’d be looking for especially since they’re willing, even eager, to offer custom paint which they do quite well.
The Giant I just mention since I thought it was overlooked in the aero convo of manufacturers that make dedicated aero frames and agreed that it does little to move the passions.
I think there’s more to aero than this, I feel exactly the same way but some of it is stiffness, responsiveness and geometry. My round tubed Ti bike is very happy cruising along at steady speeds, I’ve got some reasonable TT times on it. But on a surgey group ride or race where you’re needing to accelerate a lot and taking corners at speed it’s much harder work than my race bike. Not all Ti bikes are created equal of course, mine is a relatively low end one mainly for winter riding, could well be that a high end custom Ti frame with racier geometry is much snappier.
I should have added some information for context but for my comparison my Ti bike is a custom build. My mandate to the builder was for a “point and shoot race bike” and I think he got it right. The biggest difference is wind resistance. I set all my bikes up as closely as possible so body position and fit are as close as possible. What I refrained from is comparing to my other round tube bike which is for gravel and on pavement with road tires it is way slower.
I have 2 aero bikes I love, but my tests of my 2012 trek madone 6 series against 2015 cervelo s series was in conclusive. I can readily see a difference between aero and non aero wheels. So I conclude the aero frame has little benefit. And if my body produces 80% of aero drag, frame manufacturers claims of 5 or 10 watts every year or 2 would add up to negative aero drag for newest frame
Sorry for the delay.
Looking at Strava my all time PB on my non aero bike was 24.31.
Since swapping to my aero bike I have never been above 24 minutes with my slowest being 23.53 and fastest being 23.43. So I would say 2.7 to 3 % ish.
The non aero bike had loads of aero parts though. Caad12 so fairly slim, 50 mm carbon wheels with perfectly matched 25 mm tyres. Cervelo s5 handlebars with intergrated garmin mount and cables (a nightmare to internally run mechanical shifting). Tririg omega front brake. No lights as they weren’t required then. Aero chainrings, waxed chain etc. Bottle cages removed. Same suit, tyres, helmet, shoes and pedals when swapping.
Wheels did go up to 60 mm though but are disc.
For how cheap my bike was it was a worthy swap for the money as I love electronic shifting and the look of aero frames.
I’m a pretty hardcore aero geek….and in 2022, I went from a Canton Aeroad to a Giant TCR….about as polar opposite as you can get. Exposed cables, HUGE non-aero downtube, etc.
Still hanging with the same groups, still taking my turns at the front and still performing as always. And the TCR is the best riding carbon bike I have ever had.
Now, my choice was somewhat driven by COVID scarcity (and wanting to support my LBS), but I don’t regret the choice.
All that said, my next frame will almost certainly be an aero frame because I am still an aero geek.
The latest Gen Supersix Evo has aero test very well for an all around bike. The tour tests or the Cyclingnews test confirm that. At best, you are going to get a couple watts by moving to a “more” aero frame. You are NEVER going to notice this.
I’m a very aero leaning rider too but have put major miles on non aero round tube bikes as well. My biggest takeaway from all this is ride what you like. I do believe an aero bike is faster. How much is where the debate can really begin, but who cares? Back to ride what you like. If you feel fast maybe you’ll ride like it. Controversial as this line of thinking may be, it is only one persons opinion.
Random observations: I went from a 2023 Canyon Ultimate with deep aero wheels to a 2024 Canyon Aeroad with similarly deep wheels - on my loop that I have done hundreds of times in all sorts of conditions, my times on the downhills and undulating stuff is consistently several seconds faster on the Aeroad. The first month I had the bike I kept getting strava prs on random segements. It happened so many times that I can’t think its simply ‘new bike legs’.
I think all the new ‘aero’ bikes are so nice that you shouldn’t worry about what is faster, we are talkin a couple of watts here and there. You should get the bike that you can’t stop looking at. My bike has a spot in the living room
I had a beauty yesterday set a PB on one of my favorite segments. The thing is this was on my new Domane complete with a full stack of spacers, 40mm wheels and 34mm tyres.
Last 2 years of rides were on a gen 3 Supersix with 28-30mm tyres and 50mm rims. So I’m not sure how much effect aero has on my local pretty poor roads.
I have 70 times over this and beat my previous best by 6 seconds.
Just to note these are Strava estimated watts, I had a higher ftp previously.
You set a PB because you put out +100w more than your previous efforts. You can’t really read anything into whether the bike helped or hurt your time because of the massive watt variation.
It is impossible to draw any sort of meaningful conclusion based on a handful of times and broad bike descriptions without any other context like power or weather conditions.
Well that is even more reason why you can’t draw anything conclusive about the bike and your PR. You have nothing quantitative to base it on (other than your time).
Iv got 70+ times going back 4-5 years. Weather plays a part but all my good times are when it has a tail wind, which is when I usually head this way sound. Also coming off my worst 2 months of training in 3 years.
My 2nd best time was on a mason definition alloy endurance bike with 50mm wheels so honestly on solo rides around my area aero doesn’t make a vast difference.
