Best Aero Bike Choice ?

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Kayrehn
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by Kayrehn

Any online snippets of the Tour magazine test results?

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Kayrehn
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by Kayrehn

Any online snippets of the Tour magazine test results to decide the issue?

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by MrHeng

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martinSL
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by martinSL

bigskyTi wrote:Litespeed C1R

Love mine and will stack it head to head against anything on that list.


+1 here. Super stiff but it's a race machine.
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nagge
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by nagge

Earlier Tour test
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elburrito99
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by elburrito99

martinSL wrote:
bigskyTi wrote:Litespeed C1R

Love mine and will stack it head to head against anything on that list.


+1 here. Super stiff but it's a race machine.


Agreed. I had a C1R built up this year and have been blown away by its performance (about 2k miles on it so far). It feels especially good at speeds over 20-25mph. Very stiff, aero, and fast.

A friend from my cycling group has a buddy with a C1 (a step down from the C1R) who just did a demo day with some very high end $5k+ bikes and felt his Litespeed C1 was better than the bikes he tested.

Rob1519
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by Rob1519

The Cervelo S2 is still a great aero bike

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TrekUk
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by TrekUk

the madone is certainly an aero bike, if anyone says the 2013 madone 5,6 or 7 isnt an aero frame they should lay off the crack.

Madone 5 series is my weapon of choice and was miles more comfortable to ride than a foil which was awful! not a fan of specialized but thats just me.

Surprised to see the madone not on the list considering its history, regardless of what lance was upto.
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pk1
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by pk1

seems like you're facing much the same question as me, so here's what i'm considering and my thoughts

specialized venge probably s-works DA - generally seems to be rated as the most aero of my options but harsh riding and a bit heavy, quite expensive

trek madone 7.9 - uncertain aero qualities, though tour test suggests not far off the others. the lightest of the 3 by some way and a bit cheaper. seems to be very well compliant where it matters but stiff where that matters. in principle the best of all worlds...

bmc tmr01 - tour test suggests not as aero as the venge, not much better than madone. much like the venge seems to be a bit heavy and harsh to ride. even more expensive

for lack of any definitive aero test results i guess the biggest thing i'm caught on is the harsh ride of the more aero frames. yes its a race bike so comfort isn't everything but we have rough chip seal roads around here and you need to keep the wheels smoothly on the ground to go fast, not to mention not feeling beat up after a few hours of racing.

giant propel could also be an option but somehow that doesn't really grab me

others:
Foil - seems to me only semi-aero much like the madone so i might as well have the comfort of the madone
S5 - a bit too pure aero for me, ugly and compromises on weight, handling etc

Cni2i
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by Cni2i

That word "best" is just so subjective. I can just go by my experience, and I have a blast every time I'm riding my SW Venge. I've tried a fellow cyclist's Foil, and didn't quite feel right with it, albeit a short ride and obviously wasn't fit perfectly right for me. Looks are so subjective too....but I am not feeling the looks of the S5 at all. The S5 may be more aero than the Venge, but I wanted a bike that not only cuts through the wind well, but can also climb and sprint as well. Again, IMO, I think the Venge is the best all-arounder in this category.

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by NGMN

TrekUk wrote:the madone is certainly an aero bike, if anyone says the 2013 madone 5,6 or 7 isnt an aero frame they should lay off the crack.


I was suggesting earlier in the thread that on the aero bike spectrum, there are certainly bikes that are more aero. Even Trek's own data shows that its not really on par with the bikes that don't use 50mm wide downtubes.

Like I said, its a good thing that we have bikes on a spectrum of "aeroness," as we can choose our tradeoffs of aero/weight/stiffness/etc. The Madone fills a part of that spectrum.

pk1
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by pk1

actually trek's data (at least what they put in the "whitepaper") claims that the madone is slightly more aero than the venge.
only bested by the s5 at low yaw angles but thats really distorted by testing the s5 with its stock training wheels - i expect if they had tested the s5 with wheels comparable to those on the madone and venge it would have thrashed them.

certainly though trek are taking a somewhat different focus to the pure aero machines like the s5 and to a lesser extent venge & tmr01

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by MarkGiardini

Felt AR. Very nice. Had one and loved it.
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NGMN
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by NGMN

pk1 wrote:actually trek's data (at least what they put in the "whitepaper") claims that the madone is slightly more aero than the venge.
only bested by the s5 at low yaw angles but thats really distorted by testing the s5 with its stock training wheels - i expect if they had tested the s5 with wheels comparable to those on the madone and venge it would have thrashed them.


Yeah, I guess, I should have said their data showed one thing but a somewhat informed person knew what it really meant...

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pk1
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by pk1

this might be of some use - includes foil, venge and s5
http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/10/bikes-and-tech/reviews/from-the-pages-of-velo-velolabs-aero-revisited_256023/1

for what its worth, they agree with everyone that the s5 is the best aero but loses out badly on ride quality. the foil is their winner despite being only 3rd most aero (behind venge also) it scores for ride quality (despite also being quite harsh riding)

i have to say, if the claims giant are making are even half true the propel has to be a contender too. 10W faster than venge and foil, even 5w over the s5! all that while being lighter. haven't seen any other testing yet though and few real world ride reports...

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