Hello! Me again, coming to you from the server room of Escape. Looks like my audition as a tech writer went well enough that the tech editors have let me contribute again. So here I am, back with more tech and more writing than ever before.
Let’s talk about bikes. More specifically, let’s talk about two Specialized road bike models and how they compare, based on my personal experience having bought both in recent years.
Setting the scene
I’ve been in a loving relationship with my Aethos for a bit over two years. In that time we’ve spent close to 20,000 km together, taken a trip to France, completed one of Australia’s hardest fondos, visited Adelaide twice, and been on hundreds of other rides together.
I’m a big fan of the Aethos’ nod to simpler bike design, how nice it is to ride, and how my frame is just slightly pink with essentially no branding in sight.
A wise old bicycle poet once submitted that your bikes are a reflection of where you are in your life. The Aethos came to me at a time when I found myself with the ability to spend more time on the bike just for the enjoyment of doing so. With a bit of a nod to more traditional bike design and a riding vibe that continued on from an SL4 Tarmac I once loved, it’s been a near-perfect companion.
However, more time on the bike inevitably leads to more fitness. More fitness leads to the possibility of challenging oneself. Challenges lead to seeking improvements when you fall short of your goals.
Here’s an excerpt from my wrap-up of the aforementioned fondo, a major goal for last year:
What to say about Peaks? It was gruelling. I enjoyed myself up Tawonga, and the top of Hotham was stunning. The rest of the ride was all hard. Dropped on descents, anxious in the bunches, panic at the “rest” stops, force-feeding all the carbs and force-drinking all the fluids. Did anyone mention the heat? I don’t think I’ve ever had such a long-lasting mental battle.
I was well over my 10-hour goal and a part of my brain has been toying with how to close that gap ever since. Three main motivators for a bike change emerged:
Descending – I’ve had a tumultuous journey with descending and I’m not happy with where I arrived on the Aethos. I’ll delve into this further below but the Aethos never allowed me to rebuild confidence in descending after living with a speed-wobble-prone Cannondale SuperSix (previous generation).
Better, faster, stronger – I spent a long time saying that I didn’t need a more performance-oriented bike as I never ride at the speed where it’s important. More recently I’ve challenged myself to join a few faster-paced bunch rides and have surprisingly been able to hold on. It seems I can ride faster, bumping up into the realm of aero being important.
Ronan is everything – I feel very privileged to work alongside a bunch of people I really respect in the industry and Ronan Mc Laughlin is no exception. I’m a pro-cycling fan and there’s no ignoring the optimisations that are contributing to ever-increasing racing speeds. Since the launch of Ronan’s Performance Process podcast I’ve been fascinated to learn more about all the bits and pieces that are helping with these improvements, and how they can be applied.
Hearing about the Sail Effect and statements such as “slower riders have more time to benefit from aero optimisations” really caught my attention. It was difficult to ignore simple changes that could add up to reasonable benefits. I bought an aero helmet and then felt silly wearing it on my very non-aero bike.
I appreciate that the Tarmac isn’t a fully aero-optimised bike but with Dave Rome’s glowing SL8 review bouncing around in my head, and plenty of positive anecdotes from other SL8 owners, I was quite inspired to make a return to the Tarmac platform. Knowing the SL8 had some influences from the Aethos really helped as well. Eventually, I found a deal on Facebook Marketplace that was too good to pass up and here we are.
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