They've rounded out the transition and trailing edge a bit on the agile compared to the t1500, but the air still hits a a flat surface. Literally every serious aero bike has an airfoil(-ish) leading edge. I don't know what kind of bar setup they had but for a supposed aero bike the Noah Fast tested pretty shit in tour protocol and has a more rectangular than triangular downtube. The Falcn has a standard kamm-tail (closer to D shaped tbh) downtube.

And tour tested the SL8 with integrated aerobars 1 watt faster than the SL7 with a separate bar and stem. According to spesh themselves the new integrated bar is 3-4 watts faster (consistent with comparisons between one-piece and two-piece cockpits from various third party tests). Therefore it's an entirely logical inferrence that the SL7 frame is faster than the sl8.

The Agile has a different profile than the T1500. Besides, to give color to the absurdity of judging a bikes aero-ness by its pictures. The Noah Fast Disc in 2019 with its rectangular downtube tested at 213W. The Madone Disc back then was at 212w. The Sl7 was at 210w. Are you really claiming that you can judge 3w in Tour's test by eye? We also don't have a clear picture, like a cutaway showing the profile of the tube, so you are doing that via these angled pictures of the bike.

I would also be cautious re: the inference that the SL7 with a rider and the one piece Roval bars would be faster than the the SL8 set up the same way. You cant just add up these numbers that way and guess. Its also worth noting that Tour, despite having done the test you mentioned called the SL8 with its round-ish downtube as the best bike they have ever tested. They know the limitations of their testing protocol and how it applies to the real world and ran with the following byline: "The new Specialized Tarmac SL8 shows no weaknesses in the exclusive S-Works version and almost logically earns the best TOUR rating in history."

As far as I care to judge, until someone sticks these bikes in wind tunnel with a control frame, its not obviously aero or not aero.

The only thing with the 52 is you may struggle with standover with 700c wheels and larger tires. Also may struggle even more if you use a top tube bag.

Otherwise, I would get the 52 for the longer front center unless you really need the lower stack of the 49. I am a couple of CM taller (169cm) and run a 685mm saddle height (just measured straight from the BB, not an X, Y measurement) and I would get the 52 for myself as I care more about on the bike handling and can get on and off without stand over being an issue.

Unfortunately youre then stuck in sram's proprietary cassetes, chains, small front shift range, etc.

You aren't though. The only thing is Sram chains are needed for Sram cassettes. You can definitely use non-Sram 16t gap 12 speed chainrings just fine. People are using Shimano and Campagnolo 12 spd cassettes with AXS as well.

Sram Force chains also are really cheap to run because they last a long time.

Chains, cassettes and chainrings are a place where the big brands have a huge leg up right now.

Advantage of erx/eds is not only the price, but customization. You can set number of gears, you can set up each gear individually. If, for some reason, you want to change cassette from 12 speed to 10 or 11, or vice versa, you just unscrew old components, install new, and do a few clicks in the app to tune your gear. With big brands you need to buy a new shifters and derailleurs.
So if erx/eds will be reliable as shimano/sram, and cost the same as 105/rival, it still be a good choice.

I believe competition is great and that without Ltwoo and Wheeltop the Apex and GX AXS wouldnt exist. If wheeltop could have retained the removable battery, an 1x13 electronic group using the Ekar cassettes would have been amazing. I have doubts though about how usable this product will be though after the lawyers had a go.

We also dont know if the drop bar levers can work with MTB RD, right? Could be a great mullet option.

I have high hopes that this will be more functional than the Ltwoo groups, but the lack of removable battery is an issue for me.  When I moved to an electronic group i didnt think about it, but its been THE factor in me going Sram for my last few builds. Its just way easier to keep a spare battery or two than worry about charging. Well worth spending an extra 10-20min on more fiddley FD setup.

Electronic groupsets have been a game changer for all the bike builds and reviews I do. Especially with SRAM eTap. Literally cuts my bike building time from 3 days down to same day in some cases. During Christmas 2022 you could find SRAM Force D1 mini-groups (Levers, Calipers, Both Derailleurs, Centerline CLX-R Rotors, Batteries, and Charger) for $900 USD.

You can still get the $900 kit here: https://www.universalcycles.com/shopping/product_details.php?id=113939

Man I'd love to put this on my 2004 CAAD4 just to be that guy. I use this bike in crits so I don't want to drop 1000 on shifty bits, but $600... maybe

The cheapest AXS setup is either getting Rival levers on sale (target <$300 for left and right + brakes) or the Apex AXS exchange lever ($107-$112 list price) + Apex / S300 brake calipers ($39.99/ ea list) and brake bolts ($5.59 / set list) + Flat mount adapter ($19.99 ea) + a Rival Axs 36 / XPLR RD (seem to be plenty of new ones sub $200) + Battery set. Should be really close to $600 for all the hoses + shifty bits. Might be less.

I'm 182cm. I currently have an ICAN A22 (54cm) that I find too aggresive. I had a fit done and was told everything looks good, but I could maybe use a 5mm stem spacer. I'm never really that comfortable on it and my lower back bothers me. I find I'm always on the very back of the handle bars, it feels too long and low.

Can you say more about the lower back pain? Is it something that comes with time on the bike or is it something that shows up in the first 10-20min of riding? What is your handlebar configuration right now?

I am a little surprised by your fitter being OK with your fit, I am guessing your bike is simply too small. Trek would start you on a 58cm on their Emonda and probably size you down to a 56 if you wanted a "race" fit. The A22 is the same length as the 58cm Emonda but 27mm lower.

I was thinking about find a more enduro like frame and have been looking at the Elves Eglath (53cm). This will approximately raise the handle bars about 20mm and the ETT is also ~20mm shorter. Would this be considered a significant change in geometry, or would it be barely noticable? Thanks for any input.

This would be pretty significant change in fit. For most people its a bigger change than their race vs. endurance / gravel fit.

I am seeing a 10mm increase to stack and a 15mm reduction in reach with the Elves frame. However the seat tube angle is steeper which is why you lose the additional 5mm on TT length. This might end up being a problem as it would be close to 8mm of additional setback you would likely need at the seat clamp. Elves doesnt list a setback on their site, so I am not sure you would be able to get the right saddle position. You might want to consider sizing up on the Elves but then stack then might be too high.

If you can, the easy thing would be to raise the bars on your existing by 20mm or so and see if the pain goes away. If you can flip the stem that might be worth trying. If you cant and you have a trainer I suggest cutting some foam and taping it to the ramps of your bars to simulate a higher hand height and seeing if that helps. Adding padding to the ramps is a pretty good way to see if you will be comfortable on the hoods if you were to add in spacers to reduce the height given a similar frame reach. My guess would be that you should try raising the bars before going for a shorter fit.

Looks amazing. This is a textbook light weight build, focusing weight savings on the 2 places where you are likely to see the most gains other than the frame in terms of rims and cranks.

Light Bicycle's pro series rims are the seriously nice. IMO build quality wise up there or better than anyone. I've built and owned a few sets and they are really nice. Very clean bladder removal and patching. Build true with even tensions too.

The Elilee crank looks great, how do you like it? I am torn between it and the SkyPivot. Big difference seems to be the bonded spindle in the Elilee vs. a swapable one on the SkyPivot and a few grams.

If you do end up swapping chains, I recommend getting the Force AXS one to match your cassette. It's one of the most durable road chains you can get, and regularly hits the $30-$35 (USD) price point. I got 10,000+ mostly gravel miles from each of mine before they hit the 0.5% indicator on my Pedros chain tool, though i waxed my chains.

I was perusing the UCI approved frame list today and I think we have the first UCI approved version of this frame: the BAAS Novel Aero. https://baascycling.nl/

The pricing seems pretty fair for fully built bikes and hopefully it means these frames will get more attention via racing and the exposure that it brings. However, it just feels wrong that they would name an open mold bike "Novel Aero." Nothing novel about it.

Vitus bikes have been available on firesale in the US from Planet Cyclery. The prices and stock changes pretty quick but the ZX1-Evo could be a good choice if you are looking for a complete bike: https://planetcyclery.com/vitus-zx1-evo-cr-etap-rival-axs-carbon-bike.

I am not much of crit racer as endurance riding is much more my thing, but I personally would start by playing with fit. To the extent you can, I would play with longer more forward positions vs. drop. Being able to do a really hard like 150% of FTP effort for a few minutes from the aero hoods position, keeping those elbows tucked in will make a much bigger difference than aero tubes. I would balance that with being able to get a sustain a 20-30 sec max effort in a relatively aero position.

The advanced thing would be measure your weight balance on your current bike using a couple of bathroom scales and a wall in your drops or whatever position you would use to chase or hold a wheel when things get spicy. I would try to keep expected the weight balance at the wheels between 60% Rear and 55% Rear. Its hard depending on size, but testing on myself good balance meant it was less work to shift my weight in and out of corners helping me keep the power down and my body in an aero position. Between your desired fit and balance, you should start to rule out some frames.

Lastly worth noting that BB height may impact your ability to pedal through corners. Ideally you want the lowest BB you can run without making pedal contact as that will minimize your frontal area of you and the bike. My rule of thumb is 80mm is the max drop for 165s, 75mm for 170s and so on, assuming you are using Look or Shimano style road pedals and shoes with standard length axles. The A9 and SC49 have a relatively high BB which could be good if you run longer cranks.

I had it in my head for a while that I could develop a better race bike for shorter riders and spent a lot of time on it during the pandemic and had a Ti prototype made before concluding that it wasn't for me. Those were important things I learned doing testing and iterating on designs that I think matter in this context.