All prices are in CAD
I was ready to order in a heavily discounted Specialized Aethos Comp, but it sold by the time I called.
The reason I wanted the Aethos more than any other current bike is that it's (IMO) a stunning bike that is made for people who want lightweight but don't really care about hi-tech aero bikes. It's a great frameset to start with, and while people have complained that 105 and DT Swiss r470 are heavy for the MSRP, at the sale price, there's very little with Di2 and it would be trivial to add a carbon wheelset later on.
However, until I found that particular sale bike, an hour long conversation/therapy session at the Giant dealership had me pretty much set on a TCR or TCR-like bike, to put some functional distance between my road bike purchase and simply putting a faster wheelset on my gravel bike and turning it into a mediocre endurance bike facsimile.
All that being said, this is still a diverse list, and the fact that I am *not* going to be racing, just doing fast group rides and hunting urban KOMs for fun, means that the vibes to reason ratio is skewed towards vibes, as long as the bike fits.
What these bikes all have in common is:
-Roughly $4k CAD
-full carbon
-105 12spd or 105 Di2, with two exceptions
-in stock at a Canadian dealer
I'm comparing geometries and using my Topstone as reference. I'm going to be test riding some bikes this weekend. A Defy for sure, hopefully a TCR, and someone has offered to let me try their Domane as well. Fingers crossed the shop will let me try a BMC, because I suspect their 56cm will be too big for me.
by East_Requirement7375