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- 2 months ago
Tired of uncomfortable, aggressive race geometry but underwhelmed by boring endurance bikes? The game has changed. Join us as we explore the Factor Monza and Specialized Aethos 2, two bikes that epitomize a new philosophy: high performance designed for real-world riders, not just Tour de France pros.
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00:00can you buy a bike with more endurance style geometry and really have as much fun and the
00:06answer is a resounding
00:12for absolutely years the cycling media has been telling us not to go and buy the latest
00:17tour de france pro level bikes why well because an endurance bike or one that's a bit more
00:23orientated towards the everyday rider will be a lot better many of us don't have the pro level
00:30flexibility it takes to get the most out of a race bike there has however been one big issue with
00:37that endurance bikes have been phenomenally underwhelming in fact i think i've had bigger
00:42adrenaline rushes rearranging my sock drawer and that leads me to these two bikes the factor monza
00:48and the specialized ethos too i think that these two bikes epitomize this designed for us not for
00:56lycra clad pros in france i get asked a lot what bike people should go out and buy and whilst
01:03that
01:03varies hugely depending on whether you live in the mountains the hills what type of riding how fast
01:09do you want to ride these two bikes keep on popping up so let's go on a ride and see
01:15if we can work out
01:16whether you really can have your cake and eat it
01:32so what exactly do i mean by designed for us because endurance bikes certainly aren't a new
01:38invention but factor doesn't even call their bike an endurance bike so what exactly are these bikes and
01:44who are they for well endurance bikes seem to be turning more and more into all road bikes they're
01:49getting massive tire clearances and they're even capable of some light gravel that's not the case
01:55with either of these bikes although this specialized ethos 2 can take up to 35 mil tires and the factor
02:01monza can take up to 34 mil tires so they're certainly very generous and on the rather crappy british
02:08roads i mean i like to race on a 30 mil tire now and i like to train on a
02:1332 so it's nice that both
02:14of these bikes can fit them in with room to spare it also helps to future proof them a little
02:20bit and
02:20they both got udh rear dropouts which again whether you agree or not with the technology it does seem
02:26like the bike industry is moving in that direction and therefore it's probably a good idea for if you're
02:31purchasing a new bike to get one with that standard so the key difference between these two bikes and
02:38the bikes that you would find being raced in the world tour is their geometry and i know geometry is
02:43not the most interesting thing in the world but it is the one thing that will probably give you the
02:49most comfort or discomfort when out on a long endurance ride now factor with the monza have used what
02:56they call the performance plus fit and what that basically means is it's a little bit taller and a
03:02little bit shorter other than that everything else is identical so it's got the same length chain stays
03:08it's got the same seat tube angle and it's got the same head tube angle as the factor austro van
03:14a world tour race bike and what that means is that you can have what feels like a race bike
03:21but with a
03:22position that is more suitable for people who aren't doing several hours a week of strength and
03:28conditioning training now i've got all the numbers here so they don't sound big but this one is just
03:34nine millimeters taller and five millimeters shorter than the austro van what that means is that you can
03:41have a fit that you find comfortable without running a load of really ugly spacers under your stem which is
03:47going to affect the handling of your nice new road bike feel free to disagree with me in the comments
03:53i think that this is a really good looking bike especially this blue on a nice sunny day we got
03:58some nice comments earlier from someone with a holdsworth so you can trust him i i would choose the
04:03fact that this is pretty blue as for the specialized they've taken it a little bit more endurance style
04:09geometry so that one is 15 millimeters taller at the front end seven millimeters shorter in reach
04:16it's got a longer wheelbase as well um and that's thanks to some longer chain stays so that does make
04:22it feel a little bit less snappy but still snappier still more race orientated than something like the
04:28roubaix which is their their long-standing endurance bike it's also got a two millimeter lower bottom
04:34bracket and half a degree slacker head tube angle however they have stuck with the same seat tube angle
04:41which i think it plays a very large part in how aggressive a bike feels how far you are over
04:49the
04:49bottom bracket so a steeper seat tube angle imagine it's like that then you're going to be right over
04:55the bottom bracket whereas a slacker seat tube angle you're going to be more over the rear wheel
05:01like on a gravel bike or like on a mountain bike it's really good for stability it's less good for
05:06feeling
05:07racey and putting power down and on that note another interesting point of this factor is that
05:12you can choose either a zero millimeter offset seat post or a 25 millimeter setback option i like that
05:19from factor and that's something that you don't typically get even on race bikes actually and even
05:25then it's only the raciest of race bikes that allow you to select it so it's nice to see that
05:30trickling
05:31down to bikes for us and not just bikes for pros to put the ethos and the monza through their
05:38paces
05:38in this very nice weather that we've been having assos have kindly kicked me out in their 2026
05:43middle age gt s11 collection which is the latest in the swiss brand's famous endurance range let me run
05:51you through it so the jersey is the s11 evo featuring what assos calls air cell aimed at keeping you
05:58cool
05:58when the pace or the temperature rises there's also plenty of trickle down tech off of the ef team
06:04kits such as these raw cut eclipse sleeves which are not only nice and low profile to the maximum
06:10comfort but also more aerodynamic for well i need all the help i can get where i think assos kit
06:17really
06:17excels though is bib shorts and these have the new golden gate 2 insert allowing it to move with your
06:23body
06:24instead of the saddle so if you want your kit to be just as fast and good looking as the
06:29bike that
06:29you ride make sure you check out assos's full range of colors and options using the link down in the
06:35description below right onwards with the video one place that non-professional bikes always seems to
06:42come unstuck is with weight they don't have the top tier components on they've got the less fancy carbon
06:48layups and all of that adds up and results in a much heavier bike however that's not quite the
06:54case here this specialized ethos 2 has a frame weight of 705 grams and the s works ethos 2 has
07:01a frame
07:01weight of 585 grams what that means is complete with shimano otegra di2 groupset the alpinist cl2 wheels
07:10so not the clxs they've got the slightly heavier dt swiss 350 hubs it's got the alpinist one-piece
07:17cockpit and a carbon fiber seat post mirror saddle the complete build weight is 6.73 kilos so under
07:24the uci weight limit no one can complain that that is a heavy bike and on the hills it's very
07:31pleasant
07:32the monza i mean just by looking at it you can tell that this is going to be a heavier
07:36bike and
07:37actually it's probably the one negative of this bike over the ostro van because it's around 250 grams
07:44heavier frame weight what that boils down to is an 1100 gram frame now compared to the ethos
07:50obviously that's a lot heavier it has a lot deeper tube shapes and also it's got some internal frame
07:56storage which i've been really enjoying actually i didn't think that i would like it quite so much
08:01as for the complete build we've got a black ink bar and stem and if you're in the uk at
08:07least to buying
08:07from vice velo for example which is factors authorized dealer then you can get loads of bar
08:13options which is absolutely brilliant this one is 130 mil long it's 38 centimeters across but you can
08:21go for lots of different bar stem combos which is uh very welcome um the black ink wheels they've got
08:27bladed spokes so they're going to be slightly more aerodynamic than the round profile spokes on the uh
08:32on the ethos uh they are hookless wheels so make of that what you will and then of course the
08:39sram
08:39force axs groupset which compared to shimano ultegra i think sram is it's definitely as good it's good
08:49in a different way i find that the shimano road group sets are a little bit snappier the gear changes
08:55are a little bit quicker and it does feel a little bit more direct however with sram i really like
09:03their gear ratios so this one's got a 10 33 tooth cassette on the rear and what that means is
09:09you
09:09can have a slightly smaller chain ring at the front a 48 in this case and it means that you
09:15find
09:15yourself switching between little and big ring less i find that on the roads around me that are a bit
09:21rolling it's just very welcome so how do they perform out on the road well i've ridden the
09:28austro van and the fact that monza does feel every bit as quick as its world tour bigger brother that's
09:35not bad from a package that costs 3 000 pounds less clearly the two bikes are for different purposes
09:41this one is i would be more than happy turning up to to my local criterium on a saturday but
09:48also it
09:49is comfy enough to ride every day the ethos meanwhile i'm not sure i'd want to race it
09:55um it is very nimble um that's despite the the slacker front end um however it is very pleasant to
10:04ride and if you're going on 100 milers don't not too worried about your speed it's very comfortable
10:11that rear end is really very nice and compliant i would change out the tires i'm not a massive fan
10:17of
10:17these specialized turbos i'm not actually a massive fan of these uh good years either i've just changed
10:23these two out and i think you'd you'd get even more performance and pleasantness out of both bikes
10:29so what about that more relaxed geometry well i think it doesn't have any negatives for us in the real
10:38world the pros for years and years have been running super negative stems super long stems try
10:44get as far over the front end as possible we don't need to do that we can't do that our
10:49hip flexors
10:50aren't flexible enough to do that and what both of these bikes mean is that you can get into a
10:55sensible
10:56racy as fast as you like position without having to cut corners they're designed for us
11:02so at the start of this video i asked can you really have your cake and eat it can you
11:07buy
11:07a bike with more endurance style geometry and really have as much fun is it going to be as nimble
11:14is it going to be as exciting and the answer is a resounding yes there are some genuinely excellent
11:21options that you will never see being ridden in the tour de france and i think that's useful to
11:26remember because it's very easy to look at the pros are what's van der poel riding what's pogaccia riding
11:33probably a bike that isn't as suitable for us as it is for them so let me know down in
11:38the comments
11:39whether you'd consider one of these two bikes or another endurance style bike or are you still
11:44going to copy the pros let me know down in the comments below if you like this sort of content
11:47then please make sure you subscribe to the channel give this video a like and we'll see you next time