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Only the contrast with the one-piece Roval Alpinist carbon cockpit and the Roval C38 gravel wheels will awaken interest amongst keener eyes. So what makes this concept so special? The keyword is reduction. Instead of constructing the frame in the usual manner with reinforcements but also increased weight in key areas like the bottom bracket and down tube, the Aethos frame is constructed more homogeneously. Nonetheless, there are no sacrifices in stiffness where it matters.

Size 49 52 54 56 58 61 Weight 6. But really, the showstopper is that Specialized have managed to deliver all that at a weight of just 6. Though it would have been even lighter with the series Roval CLX Alpinist wheels, Specialized fitted our test bike with the robust and heavier C38 wheels due to their tubeless compatibility.

Nonetheless, the Aethos is g lighter than the next heaviest bike in this group test — the Wilier Filante. Step on the pedals and the Aethos is willing and light-footed like no other bike in the group test and can be brought up to speed immediately in any situation.

In the test field, there is no other bike that better combines the essence of cycling with the most modern technologies of the 21st century. The Specialized S-Work Aethos points the way ahead! Our test crew unanimously says no! This enabled us to implement a Performance Road Geometry that perfectly combines a responsive front-end with a short wheelbase, and this delivers instantaneous response and optimal power transfer.

Last, but certainly not least, the Venge houses some exciting new features. The new cockpit, developed in partnership with our World Tour teams, features a stem with a higher stiffness than anything we've ever tested, new bars that are faster, lighter, stiffer, and feature a textured pattern on the tops for extra grip and control. Next up is tire clearance—it has no problem clearing 32mm-wide tires.

And, finally, we've put our Shimano A-Junction in the seatpost, making it easy to charge, check battery levels, and for team mechanics to make adjustments. Every tube shape, trailing edge, and design cue was influenced by hours of testing in our Win Tunnel, CFD, 3D-printed prototypes, and real-world rider feedback.

You know what they say—when the grams go away, speed comes out to play. Benefitting from the lightest EVO frame we've ever created and the most aggressive iteration of our Progressive XC Geometry to date, the S-Works Epic EVO made a few calls and assembled a dream team supporting cast to offer a 'capability-to-weight' ratio that skips impressive and jumps straight to flat-out mindblowing.

While the Epic EVO sees a seemingly modest millimeter increase in suspension travel up front over its Epic stablemate and just millimeters out back, we've worked overtime to make sure it's been implemented in a way that'll have you saying 'Whoa! Meticulously engineered to retain as much of the Epic's standard-setting efficiency as possible, the EVO's new suspension kinematics work in concert with Rx XC Tune customized suspension front and rear to ensure you're able to make the absolute most out of every inch of travel on tap, while still offering increased anti-squat characteristics for improved pedaling efficiency.

It's also more versatile than ever thanks to a new flip chip-equipped rear end that allows riders to adjust headtube angle and bottom bracket height to easily customize Epic EVO's handling characteristics.

For the S-Works Epic EVO we also made sure that every last component to have the honor of gracing its FACT 12m carbon frame was just as dedicated to finding the ultimate balance of lightness, efficiency and hard-charging capability. For years Peter's been chasing rainbows—some years successfully, others just out of reach.

With the Sagan Collection S-Works Venge Replica frame, we've taken the undertones of the Underexposed collection and the loud-side of the Overexposed collection and combined them into one. Our engineers wrote an optimization algorithm and utilized a supercomputer to help create new airfoil shapes with different weights, surface areas, and structural targets.

Armed with this library of shapes, we could plug them into the different parts of the bike and test a variety of configurations to determine the fastest setup in the Win Tunnel. And we can't forget the 32mm-wide tire clearance for further compliance.

This means we saved g in the frame, 25g in the fork, g in the cockpit, 25g in the seatpost, and 63g in small parts—making it the fastest option when you need to go up, down, and all around. It's earned glowing reviews the world over for its bump-eating prowess and effortless control. How do you raise the bar on an S-Works Stumpjumper? By directly connecting all three mounting points of the rear-end and shock to the frame, we've increased both stiffness and performance over bumps.

End result? Total control. And, did we mention the wireless Reverb AXS dropper post? Top-shelf RockShox suspension. Wireless dropper post. Specialized S-Works Tarmac Frameset. In other words, we innovate or die. And for this exact reason, the new S-Works Tarmac breaks all the traditions of race bike design to create the fastest bike for all conditions. XTR Race disc brakes pack power in a remarkably light package and a full speed XTR drivetrain boasts lightning-quick shifts, even under the most demanding race conditions.

The S-Works Epic Hardtail is the lightest production frame to date. Impressive, yes, but it's much more than that. We've also created the most capable and comfortable cross-country machine ever, because you're not fast if you're being pummeled by the trail. It's a game changer. While 3-D tailoring an overlap probably sounds like overkill, the extra time and labor spent doing it allows us to eliminate extraneous composite plies that were adding weight, but not improving strength.

Gold 1. Green 3. Grey 7. Pink 2. Purple 2. Red 7. White 6. Yellow 1. Specialized Unisex 31 Womens 1. Disc The XS is 5 millimeters longer, and my XL test bike is stretched out by 20mm. The bottom bracket dropped 9mm, which took a few rides to get accustomed to. With a little attention paid to one of the fundamentals of mountain bike riding—pedal placement and ratcheting—pedal strikes stopped being an issue. Head angle was relaxed to The seat angle kicks up to The mm chainstays are 5 millimeters shorter than the previous Epic, and Specialized claims the rear triangle is 20 grams lighter and 15 percent stiffer, as well.

The sensation of efficient power transfer is unmistakable, especially when standing up out of the saddle. In yet another example of how the S-Works Epic is aimed exclusively at the high-performance crowd, the carbon XX1 crankset is outfitted with a Quarq power meter.

The bike rolls on the new, insanely light Roval Control SL wheels. At 1, grams for the set, these things are silly light and felt wicked fast and lively underneath me. The rims have an internal width of 29mm, with a 4mm-wide flat section on top of the edge of the rim intended to help prevent pinch flats.

The Epic is available in three complete builds and one frameset. It was immediately apparent that the Epic is a pure race bike, with no concessions made to soften any edges for the casual rider. Using suspension settings appropriate for this 6-foot-2, pound tester to race on, I found the bike neither soft nor supple. I found it to be sharp, precise, and extremely efficient, a capital R race bike.

It felt solid and planted when pedaling hard over chunky terrain, yet lively and spunky like a hardtail when out of the saddle.