Originally Posted by giffenf

My Aethos is quite honestly the best bike I’ve ever ridden. I suppose I can’t be unbiased, but really, I’ve never ridden a bike that wants to go as fast as that one does, while at the same time making me want to just ride all day.. It’s white and I nicknamed it White Lightning. It’s a custom build (for somebody else) on a (non-S-Works, i.e., “regular Specialized”) Aethos Pro frame, with the SRAM AXS Force groupset and Boyd Altamont Lite wheelset. I bought it used from The Pro’s Closet, and even used, it was just shy of 9 kilobucks, so yeah, tweren’t cheap, but I don’t have all that many years left to ride, so I thought I’d get myself a nice bike to do it with (I later applied that same logic and that I needed a top-notch mountain bike, then a top-notch gravel bike; I think I’m done now). No regrets whatsoever, and even when I took it into a Specialized dealer recently, they had to look closely before figuring out it was a Specialized, I guess they’re used to seeing the giant logos on the down tube. I don’t think you’d go wrong with one of your own.