As no one here will remember, I had a crash back in Feb 21 and my Venge assploded in a few places.
I had been chasing Spesh for a year for my crash replacement and they kept offering me an Aethos, despite my telling them that at 180lb, i had no need for an aero bike and wanted an aero bike: Venge or an SL7. Apparently, the S-Works SL7 framesets are already spoken for all the way to 2023 in this part of the world and it was "Aethos or else". In the end, they finally agreed to give me an Aethos in my wife's size - and she happily confiscataed my Dura Ace Di2 groupset and put it on her bike. And I still didnt have a replacement bike.
Complicating things, my body tried to occupy the same space as an auto last December, and the loser was my knee-cap (along with my scapula). That's healing now but I got a long way to go to recovery (have lost 100W in FTP). The silver lining in all this was that I didnt really need a top-end bike. Truth be told, I didint need any replacement bike, as my Factor LS gravel bike (which survived the Dec crash without a scratch except a broken handlebar) is a perfectly cromulent bike for training. But Ma Guadzilla didnt raise her son to be a quitter, so a new bike it was.
Placed the order a couple of months ago, frame came in a few weeks ago and finally got it all built up:
The original plan was to use parts from my spares bin - an Aerofly handlebar and a stem from my Venge, a pair of 11 speed Ultegra Di2 shifters and a 10 speed Ultegra Di2 FD/RD set taken off my TT bike a few years ago. Then I decided that i might as well go all 11 speed, for ease of wheel interchangeability. And then i found that the post mount calipers on the older-gen Di2 shifters i had didnt fit my frame. Yes, i could have just bought new calipers but what did i tell you about Ma Guadzilla? New Ultegra shifters it was. So I still have that stupid old gruppo sitting around but atleast i was able to use my cranks, stem and bars. Wheels are Roval CL50s for the time being - will put the CLX64s from my Venge as soon as i get around to putting a new cassette and changing the tires on it. Also plan to replace the Venge stem with an SL7 stem.
Took her for a 90' ride today - and color me impressed. I had bought this as a beater/training/rain bike but it rides really well. Absorbs road chatter very well, feels very stiff with no give or mush in the BB when you are grinding out some big anaerobic efforts (which admittedly isnt very big right now for me). I couldnt tell that i was riding a Al bike vs a carbon bike, to be honest. Bike weighs in about 600-700gm more than a carbon bike - but i weight in at about 10lb heavier than i should be, so it all balances out.
The timing is perfect - have reached a stage in my rehab/physio where i can now start to add mileage. Time to get those 100W back.