Our Kinesis marketing man, Bruce Dalton, spent most of the winter on a 4S Disc and he’s racing an Aithein this season. Given his knowledge of both of those bikes, we sent him off to Mallorca with a new Aithein Disc to see how this bike performed on some big Spanish climbs, as we know lots of people are wondering how the bikes compare to each other. Here are his thoughts:
After some 600km on the new Aithein Disc I think it’s about time I shared some of my thoughts on how it rides.
The bike I had to try was the bright blue model built with Dura ace 9000 group set, Praxis cranks, flat mount TRP brakes and frankly bonkers fast Reynolds Aero 46 wheels.
The Aithein Disc took all that we loved about the super fast lightweight Aithein and added the predictability of disc brakes.
I had the luxury of testing my new ride out on the roads of Mallorca at the end of February, with similar conditions to British mid-summer and pretty nice roads to boot. I know the Island well, so I was able to put it through its paces. Cornering fast.
Testing it back to back against my normal 4S Disc feels like I’ve just added another 5kph to my speed. It has the inherent spring to its step I’d come to love from my rim brake Aithein. For the disc version we’ve switched to internal cabling and this has meant a new downtube to accommodate them. Also we've slackened the head angle a degree, which adds a touch of extra smoothness and stability to the steering. This allows the Aithein Disc to feel more poised at tempo.
The combination of disc brakes and the new head angle means that the Aithein disc is really fast down hills. To help the ride further including descended we increased the clearance for bigger tyres. Bigger tyres give higher grip levels and only marginally more rolling resistance over 45kph.
I threw on a pair of sticky and fast 28mm tyres whilst I was testing. This combination gave me the confidence and grip to throw the bike around the corners, brake later and ride generally more like a hooligan! Riding down the biggest descent on the island I was able to brake some 50-100 metres later into every corner slowing down with ease from 80kph to 40kph without breaking a sweat leaving my riding companions to chase harder back onto my wheel. Free speed you say, thank you kindly.
The bigger tyres also gave more comfort too. I’ve always been amazed at how comfortable the rim brake Aithein is for such a focused race bike. But the new Aithein Disc is more comfortable again - whilst still being quick and a hoot to ride. If I could race this bike I would, I’ve ridden both bikes in near identical set up. I prefer the discs. Simple as. I love how stiff the bike remains, I like a stiff frame and supple tyres, a true road connection. There is no budging when you drop into the 11t and give it the beans, unswerving loyalty to power delivery.
The Aithein Disc is simply fast and fun.