EXCLUSIVE: "The Space Between" teaser

When the Specialized Aethos line of road bikes was released in 2020, an impressive lineup of the most experienced testers at Bicycling—including Matt Phillips and Bill Strickland—thought it just might be (as Phillips said in his review,) “one of the finest road bikes, of any price, I’ve ridden in my long testing career.”

The Aethos fascinated you, too—our stories and videos featuring it were among the most popular of the year. “It’s every bit as high-tech as Specialized’s other top-tier bikes,” one of our reviews said, but “the most exciting thing about the Aethos is that it’s a throwback to the way bikes used to be before design went nuts chasing the aerodynamic holy grail.”

So we commissioned Joseph O'Neil, an artist from our Easton, PA, hometown to turn his own Jet Fuel Aethos into a highly personal (and speedy) work of art.