New £13k Specialized audax bike

[thelawnet]

Ok they don't call it that.

But they say it won't make you go faster. It's just more comfortable.

You can save £2,250 by not getting the 'founder's edition', which seems to consist of about £250 worth of upgrades (saddle and integrated handle bar/stem) and a slightly lighter paint job

https://www.specialized.com/gb/en/s-wor ... 2/p/187062

https://www.cyclingnews.com/reviews/spe ... os-review/

Apparently the bottom bracket is very flexy, and it's very light (5.9kg for the £13k version), the idea apparently being that if your wallet is bigger than your thighs, your bike doesn't need to be strengthened in the same places as for an athlete. The puff piece journalism above claims that the UCI weight limit means that frames have to be heavier, which is nonsense as there have been bikes below 6.8kg for years, it's just that this one is a disc brake version, which means it's heavier by default. There are plenty of rim brake frames of a similar weight to this (585g if you ignore the paint, probably closer to 650g in reality).

For something costing £10k+, it looks extremely generic:



The Dura-Ace discs are a bit irritating - I think they are supposed to look more 'road', but they are heavier than the XTR/XT versions, so I'm not sure why they bother with them. There is another option if you want to look even more 'road':

[reohn2]

Fools and their money are soon parted.....

[Bonefishblues]

Jolly nice.

Entirely irrelevant.

[PH]

For something costing £10k+, it looks extremely generic:

Well done for spotting that and for doing Specialized's job for them.
You do realise that's the point of these products don't you? Specialized will not be particularly interested in selling many of them, it's quite likely they'll lose money on the exercise. The name of the game is association, they will be expecting to sell more £2-3k bikes on the back of it.

[peetee]

I find it utterly incredible that people will happily spend that sort of money on something off-the-peg. (Does anybody spend proper money on a suit that isn’t made to measure?)
An upgraded saddle is available at extra cost. How dim do you have to be to see someone else’s choice of saddle as an upgrade?

[Brucey]

For something costing £10k+, it looks extremely generic:

Well done for spotting that and for doing Specialized's job for them.
You do realise that's the point of these products don't you? Specialized will not be particularly interested in selling many of them, it's quite likely they'll lose money on the exercise. The name of the game is association, they will be expecting to sell more £2-3k bikes on the back of it.

I agree, all part of the structure of the 'bait and switch' routine; "of course the £3K bike is a 'bargain', it is not that far removed from the really expensive one"... This psychology works even if the £3K bike is overpriced for what it is.

cheers

[thelawnet]

For something costing £10k+, it looks extremely generic:

Well done for spotting that and for doing Specialized's job for them.
You do realise that's the point of these products don't you? Specialized will not be particularly interested in selling many of them, it's quite likely they'll lose money on the exercise. The name of the game is association, they will be expecting to sell more £2-3k bikes on the back of it.

I agree, all part of the structure of the 'bait and switch' routine; "of course the £3K bike is a 'bargain', it is not that far removed from the really expensive one"... This psychology works even if the £3K bike is overpriced for what it is.

They're all at it - Shimano spends quite a lot of money promoting 105 as '99% of Dura-Ace'. This might seem slightly counterintuitive, but clearly they've done their market research and known the price points that they need to hit and how much consumers in different markets are willing to spend on bikes/groupsets.

This is a slightly different effort from normal in that this does seem to be the 'only-for-dentists' bike, in that normally you'd expect a £10k carbon SLXYZ version, a £4k carbon SLXY and £2k carbon SLX and then a £1k alloy model.

But I suppose the idea is that this is a revolutionary new idea of a 'comfortable bike', and then they release another model next year which the breathless scribes will say is based on the Aethos, but will have a different name.

The only problem is I don't see anything particularly exciting about this - you can see if you release 'the most aero bike ever', and then you make a cheaper one, then people will buy that, but 'the lightest disc bike ever', and then a heavier version, is just, er, well not much of anything.

[NUKe]

It makes no sense at all, other than for somebody who has to spend so much no one else in their Clique will have. This seems to be peak of Boutique cycling. I am guessing its aimed at people who would buy a Rolex, or a Porsche. A status symbol. Most of its buyers will be newbie Cyclists with large disposable incomes that want to make a statement, or at least is my thought on it

[whoof]

Where have you been all your life?

A car for $3 million
https://www.caranddriver.com/bugatti/chiron

A bottle of Whiskey £80k
https://www.masterofmalt.com/whiskies/t ... gIXJvD_BwE

A watch for £72k
https://www.chronext.co.uk/rolex/cosmog ... gL-cvD_BwE

A handbag for £16k
https://www.richdiamonds.com/product/he ... gIVXfD_BwE


Compared to these that bike looks like good value.

[simonineaston]

market forces apply

[The utility cyclist]

If I swap out the alloy wheels from my FACT 9M* Sirrus Pro Ltd (that I consider to be great for gravel or road use) and put my lightweight carbon tubulars on it comes in at 7.25kg including the fake bontrager xxx lite bottle cage.

The frame is a 58/XL, uncut steerer and has 11 speed flat bar setup, SRAM Apex chainset 50/33 + Ultegra 11-32 cassette, Avid 7 brakes, Bontrager X lite stem, Pro Vibe alloy post/Fizik Arione non Kium rails, Pro vibe carbon bar and 'lock on' grips.
Also has normal mudguard mounts, a 40mm tyre fits readily (not measured max with guards as yet), so already has an advantage over the Aethos disc braked setup With normal positioned pannier rack eyelets and no BB flex and is also 68mm std threaded.

The Sirrus frame weighs 1354g, forks 567g, mostly due to the denser/heavier and frankly much more robust carbon modulus.
If you compared like for like regards frame weight, so assuming something around 900g for the f&f of the Aethos thus subtracting 1000g to equate same weight of frame and forks that leaves you with 6.23kg, so 130g heavier for my set up over that of the Aethos says a lot for the spec of the Aethos in all honesty or that the actual given frame/forks weights are absolute pony! In standard set up with alloy wheels (Pro Lite Bortola) and 40mm tubed tyres (latex tubes) my Sirrus still comes in under 8kg and about £12k plus change cheaper

I could shave more weight by spending a few more quid and replacing the 'heavy' bits and still be under £1000 total spend but for me my machine is already more versatile and plenty light enough, still, if people want to buy the Aethos and enjoy what it brings, good for them, do I think it's remotely VfM, not a chance in hell but others may see it differently. it's not a fool and their money, it's people with the means to buy something, why does it matter so much to others how much and on what others spend?

*FACT 9M is the modulus on the downhill MTB world championship gold medal winning frame from 2010 and used on Stumpjumpers etc

[greyingbeard]

£13,000 and it WONT make me go faster !!!!!

[Sid Aluminium]

Hmph. That Specialized appears relatively inexpensive and not all that comfortable. Further, I imagine you can actually buy one, rather than ordering and queueing ~21 months. This doesn't look the least 'generic', either:

http://www.moultonbicycles.co.uk/models ... PYLON.html

[The utility cyclist]

£13,000 and it WONT make me go faster !!!!!

I'd beg to differ, it would if you expend same energy in exactly same situation with your current bike unless that's already a very high end machine, is that extra speed or lowered effort for same speed worth that much, that's only for those buying it to decide.
I think it's a silly amount to spend, but for those that buy it, it probably isn't and it's their money not ours.

[thelawnet]

Hmph. That Specialized appears relatively inexpensive and not all that comfortable. Further, I imagine you can actually buy one, rather than ordering and queueing ~21 months. This doesn't look the least 'generic', either:

http://www.moultonbicycles.co.uk/models ... PYLON.html

that one is more likely to hold its value.