The fastest road bike in the world

What about the Ribble Ultra SLR? Also claims to be the fastest road bike.

Untested under the same protocol and significantly heavier.

Yes, but it’s also the fastest bike on a trainer in the world.

You can look it up.

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Good looking sled, checks my ā€œis it red?ā€ box… :sunglasses:

but I’m just not riding a bike called ā€œSimplonā€ā€¦that may be the dumbest name yet.

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The problem with ā€œsuper fast at crazy high yawā€ is that it can mean ā€œsuper uncontrollable at crazy high yawā€. When you are going fast you don’t see high yaw all that often……fortunately. I mean…there is Kona for some….but still.

Joe

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Er, I’m pretty sure it has been through the same tests. It’s probably the most aero optimised frameset out there at the moment.

Uh it’s just named after a Swiss Alpine Pass… not really seeing the issue.
It makes sense that it does really well in high yaw angles, as those deep profiles should do well there personally I prefer Allrounder bikes but if I would be looking for a pure aerobike it definitely would be on the list ( if I had the money).

With the newer UCI rules we should see more Aerobikes like this at least if the industry thinks they can sell them.

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Honestly never heard of it……just sounds like a generic name that an overseas factory would slap on a downtube.

But you’d think if they named it after an alpine pass, they would be making a climbing bike and not an aero one. :man_shrugging:

The industry needs to stop worrying about the UCI and focus on consumer wants / needs. It baffles me that the industry still allows this relatively obscure bureaucracy to determine what bikes they sell to people who will never fall under their umbrella.

Specialized proved with the Aethos that if you build bikes that people want, they will buy it.

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The bike is called the Pride ll. Simplon is the company and has produces bikes since the 60’s. They have a more traditional Model as well.

The Aethos is decidedly a bike that follows all the UCI rules… you can spec it below the eheight limit but that is about it. No brand will produce a race bike that can’t be raced in a lot of competitions. A lot of consumers want smbikes that are ridden by pros or at least look like it even if they would be better served by something else.

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Thanks, having spent the last 30 years in marketing and product development (including in the bike industry) I think I understand the difference between a brand name and a model name. :wink:

The Aethos has been raced once in the pro peloton, IIRC….by Daniel Oss who is a big enough guy that he doesn’t have to worry about the weight limits anyway.

Absolutely….nowhere did I say they should not produce such bikes. It is not an ā€œeither / orā€ scenario. They can produce both.

Yes, and the UCI should stop being uber conservative and allow for more flexibility in the rules rather than being dragged against their will into the future. I wouldn’t have a problem allowing bikes that don’t have a double diamond frame. I’d like rules that allow for some of the goodies triathletes have (integrated bladders, etc.).

Ditto for the weight limit, we have been able to buy <= 6 kg disc brake road bikes for a while now.

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Tour Mag has a strict protocol to make it as equal as possible between bikes. Has the Ribble been reviewed by Tour Mag?

I have a bunch of Specialized products and won’t hesitate to call out any of their products that suck. Their pro mirror saddle, for example, is terrible, IMO. Chafes like a mofo.

Dunno…maybe they should :man_shrugging:

Cmon, don’t trash it without knowing it. You come across as ignorant. Simplon, firstly is a town. And the Simplon Pass is solid and not a remote back-of-the-closet climb. Was included on Stage 14 of this year’s Giro.

For what it’s worth, without 30 years in marketing and product development (including in the bike industry), it would appear Cannondale did just fine slapping a random name of an object from a Connecticut train station on their bikes.

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Unless there’s massive interest, especially in Germany (there isn’t), it would be on Ribble to send them a bike for testing and review purposes.

Jeez….you guys need to lighten up. I made a one-off comment about the name. My apologies for not knowing every town / pass in Switzerland.

Whether the pass is ā€œsolidā€ or not is really immaterial.

You saw the part where I said it was a good looking bike, yes? And that I liked the color way?

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Simplon is a well known pass.

What bike brands have good names?
Trek is stupid, why call a bike ā€œhikeā€?
Specialized in what? They make all sorts of products and the name doesn’t work in the UK as we spell it specialised.
Giant makes no sense. They don’t even make large bikes. (I’m 197cm and they don’t make them big enough for me and I’m not even an official giant.)
Felt kinda sounds a little seedy to me. :joy:

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Wind tunnel testing and field testing are highly correlated.

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As a person who uses English as a secondary language, I perceive the words a little bit differently. For me its not about pure semantics but ā€œfeelā€ of the word. Yes, Trek & Giant from meaning standpoint are strange names,s and you can say the same about Apple. But naming is not only about meaning but also how the name ā€œfeelsā€ and rolls off the tongue. Simplon is, for me, just a not-pleasant word, and sounds like some offensive term for someone with some kind of mental disorder - it’s only emotional response, there is no logic in it. Half of the world uses the word Schmetterling to show the brutality of the German language (personally I like it) - and this is a similar example when you remove semantics and leave just a word. The same I could say about cars named Geely - I just don’t like the word itself.

I have nothing against the brand itself or the bike, just saying the name would be a very big con - it’s the same if the bike has a particular colour you do not like, and it’s an important part of the buying decision.

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