i left that poll up but i'm about ready to take it own. that poll was in service of this article.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

I would like you to consider two potential contributing factors:

1. The question with its answers is wrongly formulated. In the question there’s “do you prefer A or B or C?” and then the answers are 1) A and 2) B + C. Additionally, leaving an answer option “Why does it matter?” puts aside a percentage of folks normally going with the market flow. And the market flow is “clean bike”, if you look at bike sales.

2. ST demographics probably doesn’t accurately represent the triathlon society. It’s more masculine, older and experienced. You could derive from that the preference for practicality and self-servicing.

Edit: I noticed it now: “Plumb” & hydraulics ;-)

Yeah. I doubt anyone buying a new bike is going to choose exposed cables if they can get hidden cables for a similar price. I don’t care how they voted. Sure, there are always downsides with improvements in performance. An AMG Mercedes is much harder to work on than a Honda SI. But if prices were similar, who in their right mind would choose the Honda??? I have a pretty sweet titanium road bike. But I can’t stand seeing those cables flopping in the wind. I say it’s just another reason to buy a couple more tools!

The Specialized Aethos is an incredibly popular bike, and reportedly its popularity is driven in some small part by being a very high end setup, with exposed hoses.

That’s cool for beginners. Though I wouldn’t recommend one buy a $9000 bike. For everybody else that races and wants to go fast, it will be the tarmac.

FWIW, in my reporting the more serious and experienced of a cyclist you were the more likely you opted for the aethos if you paid your own money for the bike. but it's kind of moot between these two models as they are both in the "hydraulics out" category. the tarmac, the cervelo soloist and R5 and a number of bikes - even the cannondale systemsix with completely hidden hydraulics - are still in the hydraulics out category because the hydraulics don't pass through the stem.

the point of the exercise - the poll and the article that emerged from it - is to advocate against hydraulic lines that pass through the stem. it's perfectly fine to hide the hydraulic lines as well as you can. just don't pass them through the stem. the poll is one of 2 polls on this subject (shown in the article) that demonstrate that it's not accurate for product managers to assume that everyone would take a clean cockpit at the expense of the inability to (fairly easily) change the stem.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

Admittedly, I don't personally know a lot of Aethos owners, but I know a few. To a man, they're all very experienced, very talented masters racers. I've never seen a beginner cyclist on one, and I suspect that's because the beginners are likely too susceptible to marketing.

If I were in the market for a pure road bike, the Aethos would be at the top of my list. I'm not in that market, rather I'm looking to buy the Aethos of gravel bikes, a Crux.

For me, I wouldn't want the hoses through the stem, or even through the bars if possible, and darn sure don't want them running through the headset.

Fair points. I suppose I’m obviously in favor of them hiding cables. This goes way back to a super OCD obsession with not being able to see anything unnecessary in building hot rods and race cars. I like my engineering and design work to be clean. If the wind can see it on a bicycle, it’s not ideal in my eyes.

How a company goes about doing that technically while saving weight is one priority.
How they go about doing it to save the owner time and hassle with maintenance is another.

I don’t mind if I have to spend a few extra minutes once a year to reap the rewards of a clean looking system ON ANY KIND OF ROAD BIKE. Especially for a triathlon/TT bike where aero is easily king.

just to be clear, i don't mind clean looking cockpits. i like clean cockpits. the problem is the lack of adjustability in many of today's cockpits. one-piece bar-stems that come in 1 stem size. even those one-piece systems that come in various sizes, you buy the bike and if you at some point feel the need to change the cockpit, good luck. but more to the point: hydraulics that run through the stem rather than under it. if you can make a clean cockpit that allows me to change the stem - just like in the old days - i'm all for it.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

I hear ya. I suppose we just have to wait for drive by wire type systems that have the master relocated to the caliper itself and operated wirelessly by a servo…. Then we could forget about this silly conversation and worry about our safety instead. Ha