DAVID'S S-WORKS AETHOS FLAT BAR

This week we’re proud to be featuring another S-Works project, this one built around the S-Works Aethos frameset for David.

David came to us looking for a lightweight bike that would feel at home on a longer road ride as well as more casual riding and cruising around Greenwich. When it comes to lightness, there really is no better frame on the market currently than the Aethos, a frame that boasts one of the best stiffness to weight ratios currently on the market, and weighs in at just 1.2lbs.

We’re fortunate enough to have worked with David before on a custom Signature bike, a Parlee Chebacco. This was built specifically with the rough roads of Maine in mind, with a beefier build and larger tires. For this bike, it was the streets of Greenwich that David had in mind, creating a slightly more road-focussed bike, with 700Cx32mm tires rather than his Parlee’s 700Cx45mm set up.

Possibly the most eye-catching part of the bike is the paint scheme. For this David also wanted to go custom, for a paint scheme inspired by Porsche paint colours. For this, we worked with long time collaborator Ron Jones of Pro Bike Design in nearby Watertown to paint-match Porsche’s Gentian Blue for the frame, and Racing Yellow for the logos and accents. The result is a minimal yet striking frame with a mirror finish, the two rich colours complimenting each other perfectly.

For the drivetrain, we opted to work with SRAM components, their unique “ecosystem” allowing for a remarkable number of mix and match combinations across MTB, Gravel and Road offerings. Road shifters can be used on an MTB drivetrain, and vice versa. This allowed us to perfectly tailor the bike for its desired purpose of a light, comfortable bike for town and road cycling. We used a combination SRAM AXS Red and XX1 Eagle group on this bike, to achieve an excellent gear range in a featherweight package.

It's interesting to compare this S-Works with last week's much racier bike, the Tarmac SL8 built for Michael. But ultimately, both of these bikes are built solely to carry out their intended purpose. The result of this build, with flat bars and less aggressive positioning, is a bike that carries out it's intended function perfectly.

We’re looking forward to seeing David riding the bike around Greenwich, and hope it’s one that sees a great deal of saddle time in the years to come!