I have only been riding for three years now & all I can say is coming from a Carbon Sirrus X 5.0 this Aethos is a great bump up in Plushness, Cornering , Agility & Pure Stomping Power, Yes I know its not a fair comparison but combined with the Sram Rival AXS its just on another level of enjoyment , This is my do anything Road & Hill Climbing Beast. Kudos Specialized I finally understand the hype of what is the Aethos.

This is a wonderful bike! This has a buttery smooth ride that I have never really ridden before. It is so light that climbing actually is easier than before. I cannot at this time find anything that I don't like. I am a huge steel Bianchi fan but somehow they have created a nice ride that is fun and euphoric. It rides better than my steel machines and seems to be stiffer and faster. Spend the money, Ride the best road made today.

A crazy lightweight climbing machine. My go to personal record bicycle. Amazing handling and it's soft and compliant on beat up roads. spend the $ and never look back. This is the best of the best.

Purchased this bike due to similar geometry to my Crux which I have been riding on the road and gravel for the last year. I wanted a bike as comfortable as the Crux but faster on the road than the Crux. The Aethos is an awesome road bike and I love how comfortable it rides. I look forward to HnH100 and BDB100 in 2024.

Everything you would want on a climbing bike.

Great bike

I’ve rode 7,000 miles on my Aethos Comp upgraded wheels and would highly recommend this bike being very comfortable and lightweight which helps me in the hills. My front derailer had a failure but was under warranty and replaced. Best bike I’ve ever rode I keep up with the Tarmac’s.

This is the absolute best bike I have ever ridden. In 25 years of riding on the road, I’ve had everything from a cheap aluminum bike to a splendid Specialized Tarmac SL to a custom steel frame. The Aethos Comp is the winner all day long. It’s comfortable, fast and just wants to run up the hills. The OEM wheelset is not the best, but it works very well. I had no real problems with it, but did swap to an Alpinist CL set, which made the bike even more amazing. I have no problem with any of the Rival equipment. It’s fast, reliable and fairly light tech. Saving another half a pound is not worth the extra cash. This bike is light snows it is.

After a little over a year and 9000 miles on the Aethos Comp, I can say it's as good as they say it is (full disclosure: I upgraded the stock wheels, which simply don't do the bike justice). The handling, responsiveness, comfort, just the overall 'feel' of the bike in motion, like an extension of my body and mind--I've fallen even more in love with road cycling, after 12 years and tens of thousands of miles.

Great bike.

Love this bike, I did upgrade wheelset to Rovals - big improvement. I ride with A and B club/groups. When you punch it - it just goes, accelerates nicely!

I am 71 years old and been a rider for 30 years this is the smoothist, best handling bike I have ever ridden. Loving it more each time I go for a ride, it's even great on my Wahoo Kickr. I picked this bike because I am into it for the joy of ridding and not racing!

I bought my Aethos in December of 2020, mine is set up with Ultegra Di2. I had my heart set on a Tarmac, but when I rode the Tarmac and then the Aethos, the Aethos just felt better, mainly in terms of compliance on choppy roads. Now I live in Central Asia, where good roads are hard to find. The Aethos is simply outstanding on bad roads - paired with 29mm tires, the carbon seat post and frame soak up the bumps and make for a comfy ride. I can spend all day on this bike and still feel great afterwards, without the arm and ass fatigue I get on other bikes. As expected the Di2 is ultra reliable, the ultimate ride and forget groupset. I did replace the wheels with a lighter set of carbon hoops. I usually struggle to get comfortable in the drops, but the shallow drop bars on this bike are perfect for me - in fast group rides I settle into the drops and stay there, pain free.

If I was reviewing the frame alone, this would be a 5 star review. No question about that. Everything you read about comfort and ride quality is absolutely true. However when you consider the product as a whole it’s definitely not worthy of 5 stars. The wheel set is simply not worthy of this frame and ultimately dulls the experience. Given this bikes price tag its sad to think you'll have to make another significant investment on a new wheel set to unlock anything close to its full potential. I think Specialized have let themselves down here - the Aethos frame deserves better. The SRAM groupset is ok. The eTap is a nice to have but certainly not the be all and end all. The shifting is nice and smooth for the most part although it does sometimes drag its heels when shifting into the bigger cogs on the casette. I’ve also encountered reliability issues where the hydraulic brake pistons get stuck and fail to retract which ultimately leave the bike unrideable. But the frame is excellent.

Awesome ride

Smooth ride

A gift for my wife and she couldn’t be happier. I guess I’ll have to get one now!

I bought the Aethos Etap with some trepidation as I really like my Trek Madone. My Trek it is almost ten years old with about 12,000 miles on it and I was considering an upgrade. Now, after one month and 150 miles I have to say that I love this Aethos. The cycling magazine reviews are spot on. The bike is comfortable, responsive and the SRAM eTap is so well designed. If you are looking for an endurance bike consider the Roubaix. If you want a performance bike this is the bike to consider.

Purchased this about 2 months ago as an upgrade from an Allez. am very happy with the shifting and high-speed stability. She's also not shy about climbing. looking forward to many more rides to come!

This is the bike I was waiting for. I had been riding a Tarmac SL5 since 2016 and had been on the long search to upgrade. I know what I wanted; disc brakes, wider tire clearance, electronic shifting, and a threaded bottom bracket. I wanted a simple no nonsense bike that would deliver day in and day out but I could not find something like this anywhere. Everything was integrated, aero, and a little too racy. Then the Aethos arrived and I was sold. I did a few test rides at my local Specialized store and then pulled the trigger. I am 600 miles in on it at the time of writing this and could not be happier.

I love this bike! I bought it for some longer rides I had planned and man has it lived up to the billing. Light weight, responsive, and comfortable ride. It was everything I was looking for!

Brought a big joy to the end of my working days and my weekends. This bike rocks, climbs nicely, handles superbly, stiff but accommodating, fast, shifts like a charm, an overall very well put together package

I've been in the market for a new bike and lucked up with this Specialized Aethos! I purchased my first bike last April (specialized sirrus 1.0), and later upgraded to the Specialized Roubaix Sport after realizing how much fun and versatility I was missing out on by not having a road bike. After a few months of riding the Roubaix and feeling like it wasn't quite the right fit and style for me, I was ready to upgrade to eTap and the specialized Aethos has not disappointed me! With a beautiful frame, excellent handling, smooth-riding, easy climbing, and effortless shifting, I am so glad I made this purchase and I think I've found my forever bike!

I've been a Specialized rider since 2004. I ride as a daily commute.... not to race, but to get to where I'm going as fast as possible. I am not experienced enough to review the specifics, however, I love cycling and appreciate the artwork involved in designing bicycles. This is the most beautiful bike I have ever seen, touched, rode, and I can't get enough of it.. I stare at it for hours and my boyfriend thinks I'm mad. Very happy with this bike.

It's tough to find a good road bike this year (again due to supply issues), but I lucked out completely with the Aethos Comp!! I spent six months test riding bikes, looking to move to disc from my caliper road bikes. I was about to give up, every time I found one I liked that was < 5k, it was unavailable again. I was about to give up, then the Aehos Comp arrived. They have better availability than most (nice job with your supply chain Specialized), and I thought maybe I'd be compromising by getting one. Wrong there. The frame is stiff when/where it needs to be, and compliant enough for longer rides. Not quite ""endurance"" geometry, but certainly you won't have your teeth falling out going over some rough stuff. The fact that the cockpit is non-proprietary is a huge plus, makes it much more straight forward to size right. What about the Rival AXS? I wasn't considering an electric drivetrain at first, but this one convinced me. Sure, it's a bit heavier than the other Sram models, and not as sexy as the Shimano Di2. But it's a worker, pure and simple. Precise shifts, straight forward customizing. I have over 1k miles on it, no mis-shifts and still working like day 1. The Aethos models do use a custom thru axle that is minimalistic. You need to be careful when threading it. After replacing the tires, I had it a little off and two rides later I was going crazy trying to figure out a creaking that I was sure was the BB. Actually tore apart the BB/crank/seat/seatpost/pedals and was about to give up, Re-threaded the axle, creaking gone. Also, I run tubeless all the time, the rims on the Comp are tubeless compatible, but it comes with tubes and turbo tires. One unfortunate event with a large rock snake bit both tires (group ride, no warning given, hit it full on). I immediately went tubeless to avoid this. Best thing I learned from this? The DT Swiss rims on the Comp are bomb-proof, wheels had no damage and stayed true.

This bike is light, fast, comfortable and, most importantly - fun! I love it.

Love the choice I made with the Aethos, and really glad the timing of the Rival eTap release brought one down into my sub-5k price range. I was coming off a 10 year old Fuji Roubaix 1 (SRAM Rival) with a fairly racy geometry. I was originally looking at a Trek Domane or Specialized Roubaix thinking I wanted the relaxed fit, but when I demo'd a Domane it felt like an over compensation and was a bit too upright. I got super lucky and found an Aethos in my size about an hour away and the fit is amazing. Not as relaxed as the Domane/Roubaix but less racy than my old bike. I was using all spacers and flipped the stem up on the old bike to avoid locking out my elbows, and the Aethos so far feels great stock without any stem adjustment and with one spacer left to swap if needed. Took it out for a maiden voyage this AM and the electronic shifting is incredible coming from mechanical. The press and hold for continuous shifting is amazing for situations like turning a corner right into a climb. The ride is super smooth on the stock 26mm tires (compared to my old 23s) - although I will probably look at going to tubeless 28s before too long to smooth it out even more. All in all I think Specialized hit the nail on the head with this bike. The ""riding should be about fun"" concept is perfect for a rider like me. I don't aim to go super fast all the time. I don't race. I ride because I enjoy it, I go fast when I feel like it, but mostly I'm looking for long comfortable rides at a semi-decent clip. The Aethos just felt smooth without needing any of the gimics of IsoSpeed or Future Shock. It tackles hills and descents fine - always felt super responsive and in control at high speeds.

I've had this bike less than a week and I'm head over heels. This bike is FAST. I'm a pretty big guy (6'2"" 185lbs) so I was looking for a light bike that could help improve my climbing. This bike did not disappoint. I am crushing PRs already in my first week on it and it's just a dream to ride. The Rival groupset is very responsive. The saddle is surprisingly very comfortable. I'm picky about my saddle and fully expected to change this one out but after 60 miles of riding it felt great. I'll be sticking with it for the foreseeable future. The bike handles incredibly well. The only issue I've had is I wish I could gear down a little more for descents, but I'll take it. Having the extra 36 option on the rear cassette has been really helpful for the steeper grades. I could not be more happy with my purchase. At this price point, this is a steal.

I don't even know how to start this. The bike just feels incredible. Super nimble, but with such confidence that you always feel like you know what the bike wants to do. It's wicked fast, both in climbing with the lightweight setup (under 8kg with the Rival groupset) and ripping down hills at high speed. The SRAM hoods are super comfortable and the saddle is great for long rides without wearing you out. Overall, the perfect bike!