Direct mount hangler dangler
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Yeah, they’re all TA. But is that where a normal dangler hanger puts the dangler in relation to the axle? And I’ve never noticed it because of the shape of the hanger? I feel like those put the derailer a lot farther back and less low.
DM RDs moved back to improve shifting/wrap. Using a DM RD on an trad hanger needs a B-link, the direct mount hanger eliminates the B link from the RD. Also clears up some room at the dropout.
I remember a bunch of years ago when people started talking about direct mount in mtb. I never fully understood it. Didn’t realize that stuff had come to road. Thnx bro.
And now it’s leaving MTB. Shimano is bonkers.
Review of the Specialized Aethos and the OPEN Min.D. Both are counter-trend bikes, dropping aero performance and aesthetics. I’m interested in this in part because I think aero bikes look absolutely awful, and because I’m generally curious about all the things that brands that mostly sell on racing performance can do once it’s trivially easy to hit the UCI 6.8kg limit.
The limit clearly wasn’t a big deal for these bikes, heck, Specialized even wrote up marketing copy for the Aethos about how much they don’t care about making it a racing bike, which is doubtless helpful for the consumer in understanding how it relates to their other bicycle products. My general sense is that there was a huge race to make ultralight road bikes (that were generally rideable, barring the occasional wheeleset sold for “uphill use only”), but that by the early 2010s hitting the 14.98lb mark was easy enough that it wasn’t a compelling pitch. This is, of course, when the industry suddenly happened to realize that aero optimization was absolutely crucial, which is a funny sort of coincidence.
I don’t doubt the utility of aero optimized frames for elite competition - the few watts saved might make a difference when everyone’s equally well trained (and doped to the gills on gray market “aging supplements”). For me, the pointy stems and absolute mare’s nest of proprietary fork/headset/stem and cable routing seems wildly not worth it.
I suspect I’m not the only person who feels this way, hence these bikes. the Specialized seems like it takes cues from Crumpton and similar custom carbon shops - relatively conservative superficially, with a lot of interesting choices in material and layup. I don’t doubt that it’s a nice ride, but for what they’re asking, why not just go custom?
the OPEN does much the same thing, touting “simplicity” as a feature of the frameset, but it also has a 25mm seat tube and a seatmast clamp that fixes in place with a pair of 2mm bolts, so …
I’m happy bikes like these exist, someone will probably like them a lot, and there’s nothing wrong with thinking really really really hard about how to make an extremely normal road bike. I also hope that Gerard Vroomen keeps making increasingly weird design choices with more and more proprietary parts. I like the idea that there’s someone with a real budget and industry reputation out there turning into an absolute crank.
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These are the best kind of road bike. I doubt most people ride fast enough and have a position optimized enough for the aero to do any good.
On the weight, I heard the argument that they optimize the top models for 6.8kg and lower models can get bent.
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EDIT: Heads up this is a rant, I’ve been thinking about this stuff a lot lately. I have a perfectly good road bike that I adore, but also happen to have an ultegra disc groupset sitting in a box, and finding something to put it on has been really really hard, and not at all fun. buying a road bike right now kind of sucks, and its for a lot of the reasons he talks about I think.
I take some issues with some of this dudes semantics. He doubles down pretty hard on this idea of “purity” of engineering and makes some valid observations about QC for a bonded BSA shell, and yea, Press-Fit is simpler, but he sounds like that stereotypical engineer that sort of doesn’t want to acknowledge the sort of real world. He doesn’t mention the challenges that start at the sales floor and wind up costing the shops and the manufacturers given years of bad experiences with press-fit. Sure it’s on the manufacturers to get it right like he points out but I don’t think we should ding specialized for moving back to something that people were asking for, and has a better track record, is easier to maintain and cheaper to do so, and is holistically a better solution. Creaky bottom brackets cost money in labor credits to the shop, warranty replacement that may or may not be needed because a custy is pissed that it makes noise, etc etc.
I also think that was a weak follow up on the “BuT LoOk aT MoTorCYCles” argument. I don’t know the numbers either, but comparing a mid-level ninja 650 to an S-works isn’t really fair. A top of the line duc goes up to $40k dollars, and Including every 700c department store/amazon/cheapo-fixie in those numbers makes the comparison pointless.
That said, I really like the Open and the Aethos, and I’m really hopeful that there’s more and more bikes that move that way. I wonder if the Allez moves closer to the Aethos, or they do an Aethos DSW or some such. The Allez sprint is rad, but it’s not exactly an entry level bike, and the base allez is excellent for less than $1200, but stays sort of ho-hum. The CAAD13 has sort of delivered performance (talking compliance and stiffness) characteristics that beat the price point or peoples assumptions about an alloy bike and I’m hoping that sort of becomes the answer to this sort of challenging question of price and potential for an enjoyable road bike at a reasonable price.
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In answer to “why not just go custom?” A lot of people just want a bike now and don’t want to wait for a custom. Crumpton’s waitlist can’t be less than a year, Firefly even longer than that. Putting together a custom bike also takes a lot of thought, from who’s going to make it, to parts choice, to paint scheme, to how you want it to ride, etc etc. A lot of people in the market for an Aethos are “here’s my black card, give me the ‘best’ bike” types.
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agreed that some people only want the best thing in the least amount of time.
what seems odd to me is to sell an understated connoisseurs bike (as its being marketed) in these terms- it’s less demonstrably “the best” in that it hasn’t won any grand tours.
i’m guessing that a company as big as specialized can see if something like this will sell.
I want an aluminum aethos
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Basically I want a good basic road bicycle with nice paint and no logos
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yup, i don’t care about ultra aero refinements, electronic doodads, or extreme weight weenie stuff.
i’m putting together a bike like that now- big alu frame, aero rims, and whatever components i can scrounge up
I was considering getting a chinacarbon road disc frame but it seems they no longer cost $300 and are more like $700-800 now 
I keep hearing the siren song.
These two are due to arrive this year and look pretty darn good. They’re doing their own designs and OEM stuff for other folks. Factory looks pretty nice.
what’s pricing like on those?
I have a whole tubeset in the garage I need to put together I should just do that.
Dunno. I might email em though. Group buy? Group buy? Tarck Livery?
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we could do a tarck livery.
They seem pretty responsive on facebook. I’ll ask about pricing. We’re right up on CNY so lead times are probably gonna be kinda rough.
I just got a message from our softgoods maker that they are cancelling the vacation aspect of cny this year.