Specialized Aethos Expert Road bike | Satin Metallic Deep Lake

BREAK THE RULES

What if we used every ounce of experience we’ve gained serving riders over the past 46 years and built a bike made simply for the love of riding? When we set out on this project, we promised ourselves that we would make a bike that elevated the moments when human and machine become one, when we lose ourselves dancing up a climb or carving through a turn. Well, we did it, and in keeping that promise, we broke every design, ride, and race rule along the way. And we’re not sorry.

AETHOS \(AY-THOSS\)

BASED ON THE GREEK WORD “ETHOS” (MEANING “CHARACTER”) THAT’S USED TO DESCRIBE THE GUIDING BELIEFS OR IDEALS THAT CHARACTERIZE A COMMUNITY.

ONE EPIPHANY

An almost out of body test lab experience birthed Aethos. Meditating on the breathing and swaying of a bike under load in the lab, lead engineer Peter Denk had an epiphany when he realized that true performance lies in the shape, not the material. After a few hundred thousand supercomputer simulations, we knew we were right.

“HEY, CARBON! SHAPE UP!”

A frame’s shape is what drives the vast majority of a bike’s performance. Through our obsessive simulation, we learned that tubes with subtle, elongated conical sections - aka our Continuous Curvature Design strategy - deliver the highest stiffness-to-weight ratio ever tested. Turns out the obsessive Germans at the Zedler Institute agree with us.

NO LAZY FIBERS

This discovery of shape driving performance then gave us the opportunity to improve the ride quality delivered by material and layup. We were able to eliminate traditional stiffness layers, reducing the plies necessary to build the bike by 11% compared to a Tarmac SL6. Utilizing longer, unbroken plies, every fiber is structural and reduces weight substantially. This ensures that the only thing along for the ride is you.

RULES? WHAT RULES?

Turns out, this bike may be *illegal in some circles. With Aethos, we chased ride quality, not a number, but we know a light, stiff, and balanced bike is magic at the pedals. The result? The lightest disc road frame ever produced with builds as light as 5.9kg, and all with the telepathic handling, response, and stiffness targets you’ve come to expect from every bike we make \(*Psst…don’t tell the UCI\).

PERFECTION IS IN THE DETAILS

From dropouts to derailleur hangers, no gram was overlooked. The same can be said about the approach of our partners at Roval Components. They’ve been working towards the same North Star of ride quality, and the 1248-gram Alpinist wheels and new Alpinist bar/stem combo were tailormade for Aethos and the ride of your life.

• •

FRAMESET
Frame	Aethos FACT 10R Carbon, Rider First Engineered™, Threaded BB, 12x142mm thru-axle, flat-mount disc
Fork	FACT Carbon, 12x100mm thru-axle, flat-mount disc
DRIVETRAIN
Shift levers	SRAM ED RIV ETAP AXS D1 SJD REAR/RT F20
Front derailleur	SRAM FD RIVAL ETAP AXS D1 BRAZE WEDGE C
Rear derailleur	SRAM RD RIVAL ETAP AXS D1 MAX 36T
Cassete	SRAM CS XG 1250 D1 10-36
Chain	SRAM CN RIVAL D1 12S XXX LINK
Crank set	SRAM PM RIVAL AXS D1 DUB 4835
Chainring	Steel, 30T
Bb set	SRAM DUB BSA 68
BRAKES
Brakes	SRAM Rival 1, hydraulic disc
WHEELS & TIRES
Wheelset	C38 DISC LN XD-R;FS
Inner Tubes	PV STANDARD BULK ROAD 700x20-28, 48mm
Tires	Turbo SW,700x28
HANDLEBAR & SADDLE
Handlebar	Specialized Expert Shallow Drop, alloy, 125mm drop x 75mm reach
Stem	Specialized Pro SL, alloy, 4-bolt
Tape	Supacaz Super Sticky Kush
Saddle	Body Geometry Power Expert
Seatpost	Roval Alpinist Carbon Seatpost

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