Originally Posted by
Steve Lai
So I am looking to decide if Sworks or Specialised Aethos should be on my list...as I prefer lighter bikes. All my frames will be heavier than either of the Aethos, so on 1x, I should get to 6kg hopefully. And with the quality & years of engineering knowhow put in by Sworks/Specialised into the design, carbon layout, finite element analysis etc (which they claim)...I should be over the moon.
My big question is will the difference be sufficiently significant that I will go "wow, this is it man"! Or it will be just another bike. And if u blindfold me, I can't tell the difference. Or it takes an expert to tell the difference.
Objectively, there isn't going to be any significant difference between the S-Works and standard frames. What you are paying for there is 114g and an S-Works logo. You could test the effect of that by carrying something weighing 114g on your current bikes. Let's be honest, it's going to be completely lost in the noise.
So it really comes down to the Aethos (whatever spec) vs your other bikes. You already have a pretty light bike and a comfortable bike. So I doubt it's going to be a game-changer for you. But it is another very nice bike. That may be enough for you to justify buying one, but it's hard to make an objective case unless you didn't already have a bunch of decent modern bikes. If you were buying it to replace one or more of your other bikes, that makes it a bit easier to justify.