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If I had tonnes of cash I’d buy one. I’d also be interested in a less extravagant Ultegra Di2 model, but then it’d be competing with a Cervelo Caledonia 5.
I’m not sure how much I’d trust my 95kg on a ~500g odd frame down a broken tarmac UK descent.
It is also rated for 120kg so you can have a few more pies yet.
I’m sure I’ll see plenty of these down here in Surrey. In a recent group of six ride, in another group of six, five were riding S-works road bikes. Nice but really I don’t see the advantage (slightly over weight “fun” rider here) over a bike half the price except to be riding the “best” of a brand.
Building in aero means adding weight and, quite often, the complexities of integration. Front end, hiding hoses and Di2 wires is very problematic for later adjustment of the bars / stem, it’s a pain for packing the bike up for travelling and upgrades are often proprietary, it ties you into forever using one type of bar from that one brand. Makes it difficult selling the bike on as well.
For a pro, this stuff doesn’t matter, they have teams of mechanics to deal with all that crap.
For an amateur, maybe flying abroad a couple of times a year, it’s a total pain. Makes getting spares very difficult, packing/rebuilding the bike is made more difficult.
Something like this, with a USP of being ultralight while also using normal components (bar and stem are standard) is easy all round.
Except, and maybe I'm stereotyping here, do the sort of highrollers in this price bracket not just pay a shop mechanic to service their bikes, ease of maintenance doesn't really matter, as for flying abroad, I'm sure they can remove wheels and cram an aerobike into their fancy bike box without too much effort, nobody on a ten grand whip should be dealing with Bowden cables anymore should they?
This video sort of explained it to me, "the best bike from 2012, manufactured in 2020".
But I really don't believe it's really aimed at people who spanner their own bikes, especially as the £13k version comes with more fancy (complex) integrated bars...
Out with one this morning, didn't actually feel that much lighter than my Orca...
Headtube badge is pretty cool, you can see it glinting in the sun from several hundred metres away.
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50444642241_98410c077b.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50444642241_98410c077b.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2jRBYF4 ]Specialized Aethos[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/ ]Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50444822317_49fd932f02.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50444822317_49fd932f02.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2jRCUcP ]Specialized Aethos[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/ ]Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50444822417_5c658d4c3d.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50444822417_5c658d4c3d.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2jRCUex ]Specialized Aethos[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/ ]Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50444642216_a92809e97f.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50444642216_a92809e97f.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2jRBYEC ]Specialized Aethos[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/ ]Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50443949448_85e466be89.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50443949448_85e466be89.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2jRyqJm ]Luke on his Specialized Aethos[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/ ]Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr
[url= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50444642346_374496cc30.jp g" target="_blank">https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50444642346_374496cc30.jp g"/> [/img][/url][url= https://flic.kr/p/2jRBYGS ]Luke on his Specialized Aethos[/url] by [url= https://www.flickr.com/photos/brf/ ]Ben Freeman[/url], on Flickr
Big question Ben, if it was your money would you buy it? Money no object......looks amazing. It does look like 2012 called and asked for its bike back, but I still like it.
I’d agree that most folks who buy this bike won’t be doing their own spannering. When it needs to go to the lbs for a repair I’d imagine the winter dogma would be used! (Reminder to buy a lucky dip for tonight’s lottery!!)
Gutted about the price to be honest, its just at the price point where Mrs W would be chopping my bits of if I bought it. Agreed budget is £6.5, I’d probably get to £8k at a push with enough wining and dining. Over 10k and its John bobbit time.
if it was your money would you buy it?
I'd probably get a top end Tarmac myself, I like going fast and lovely though it is, probably not very aero. Be good for hilly places eg if I lived in the Lakes / Dales....
You can read Lukes review of it: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/bike-review-specialized-s-works-aethos-what-s-it-like-to-ride-a-13-000-pair-of-wheels-wdnhjn0vw
The eagle eyed will spot that he reviewed the £13k version but was actually riding the £10.75k (paupers) edition.
One of the bikes I’m tempted by is the new Tarmac, but only the Pro with AXS. S Works is again out of budget.
Previous bike was an Aeroad, also tempted by another as I’m similar to you in the like riding fast.
That head tube length definitely looks like the cake run is being targeted
Also just seen that the rims are officially tubeless compatible and they haven’t been able to stop themselves from using a proprietary brake adapter - so not even bang up to date spec-wise and Spec being Spec with proprietary parts
I'll never spend that much on a road bike but, if I did, I wouldn't care in the slightest how good a race bike it is- it's totally irrelevant to me. Even if I did some races,having a perfect race bike might just raise me up a few places from The Middle to The Middle, at the cost of being worse all the rest of the time. Plain stupid.
Just like with mountain bikes, there's no reason your daily bike shouldn't be race-bike quality, as long as it's not-race-bike usable
Or so says I, anyway.
I think it's less ugly than some of the other road bikes on sale at the moment !
Completely out of my price range but fair play if it makes you happy riding bikes. I'd have a Sarto or something proper custom if I was in the market.
Ease of maintenance is either what the developers like or about appealing outside of the current norms I'd say.
It's different and will appeal to those wanting the next new/best thing IMO
Poor man's versions just announced...
https://road.cc/content/tech-news/specialized-aethos-pro-and-expert-announced-278159
Affordable options seem perfect to me, with that weight and ride quality they could better many manufacturers top tier frames...would happily replace an older Sworks Tarmac with pro/expert level and be confident it'd be an upgrade- and threaded BB still being a major selling point, yay.
You mean the making a wad of money ethos?
Talking to someone from work the other day - he pointed out that the real reason for buying these is to get the salary sacrifice and drop your tax band.
So when people say "but a Chinese open mould equivalent would be a quarter the price and just as good" they are missing the point completely.
Affordable options
I think the more accurate description would be "less extortionate", meh, potato/potAto and all that...
and threaded BB still being a major selling point, yay.
Well I suppose it's a positive, I mean almost a decade to come back to the original solution that everyone else already knew worked better? Do they really deserve congratulations for that?
Kinda makes you wonder, if the same engineering department that's just turned out a sub 600g frame, took several years to work out that BSA BBs were better than PF all along... How much do you really trust their "leaving out the wasted carbon" claims?
Feel a bit gutted for my friend with the Aethos on demo for three weeks, his son got CV-19, so they've all had to isolate at home for the last two weeks and he hasn't ridden it since our last outing....
Can you get the Aethos Pro as a frameset only?
Not in the UK.