The Kinesis Aithein is a fast paced British designed racing machine.
*Build Kit options available.
Advanced, Superplastic Formed Super lightweight frame.
Stout and stiff Tapered Headtube with Matching tuned full carbon fork.
Power transfer BB86 bottom bracket.
The Kinesis Aithein is ready to ride fast and take on your local Crit league
• Seat Post: 31.6mm
• Seat Clamp: 34.9mm.
• Front Mech: Braze-on fitting
• BB: ‘BB86′
• Headset: Integrated, 41.8ø upper, 51.8ø lower, for taper head tube. FSA No.42/ACB headset included with frame
• Sizes: 47cm- 50cm – 53cm - 56cm – 59cm
• Colour- Burnt Orange or Anodised black and Sick Green
• Advanced, Superplastic Formed, ‘Anti Gravity’ seat tube, adds immense core stability to the frame, allowing us to lighten the main tubes.
• Super lightweight: 1200g for 56cm frame.
• 330g monocoque carbon, taper 1.5” fork.
• Taper Head tube.
• Wide ‘BB86’ Bottom Bracket shell mates perfectly to the shaped SPF seat tube, ensuring efficient conversion of rider input into maximum power at the wheel.
• Tough anodised frame finish with laser-etched graphics and special decals.
• Weight limit 14st.
Headset -
Both bearings are ‘ACB’, meaning ‘Angular Contact Bearings’. The head-tube seat angle is 45º.
The headset drops into a tapered seat in the head tube and is tensioned using a headset tensioner within the fork steerer. Tensioning the headset centres it on the taper and prevents any play. The larger lower bearing allows a tapered steerer and larger crown. This gives sharper response and helps reduce flex under braking.
BB86: Wide, stable and durable, the BB86 standard bottom-bracket is ideal for the Aithein frame and mates perfectly with the wide ‘AntiGravity’ seat tube. Internal bearing cups are pressed into the bottom-bracket shell and standard external BB bearings set inside these cups, this avoids the metal to metal contact of other BB types. Cranks with 24mm spindle work with this system.
KINESIUM: Developed by Kinesis International, Kinesium is a superb tubing for use in lightweight, high performance frames. Kinesium is enhanced 6000 series Aluminium alloy, which is 25% stronger than 6061 at the same weight level.
SPF: The Aithein uses Kinesis developed ‘SuperPlastic Formed’ tubing technology for it’s unique seat tube. SPF is the modern version of ‘Hydroforming’, it uses far higher temps. to produce complicated shapes in thinner wall tubing than was possible with Hydroforming. The result is lighter weight tubing that can be formed to make the frame perform exactly as we require.
FORK: The Kinesis Aithein uses a specially developed, 330g monocoque carbon, taper 1.5” fork.
ULTRA SMOOTH WELD PROFILE: This frame is joined using Kinesis developed smooth weld technology, giving tough, stress-free welds and clean appearance. The welding technique performed without secondary finishing or sanding, so weld bead and tube are left at full strength.
ANTIGRAVITY SEAT TUBE: The SPF ‘AntiGravity’ seat-tube gives huge ‘core stability’ to the frame, it means the main tubes are under less torsional strain and means we can lighten them. The wide base and special profile of this advanced tube keeps the BB stable and delivers maximum power output at the wheel.
Triathlon Plus
Group test: Kinesis UK Aithein / Trek Emonda ALR6 / BMC Team Machine ALR01
Kinesis UK Aithein with stock 105 build kit and wheel swap to KUK Racelight (set up with tubes on Continental 25mm tyres)
Summary: It’s an unashamedly racing-focused British-designed bike.
Conclusion: The Kinesis Aithein is the bike to choose if you only want one thing from it – to tackle criterium circuit races.
Its performance is super-sharp and offers one of the more affordable entries into racing. We’d go back to it every time we wanted a spirited road ride.
The Bike:
Kinesis is serious about stiffness; it anchors the frame and allows the rest of the tubes to be very light in order to achieve the goal of a responsive yet lightweight race-ready bike.
Power transfer is increased further by a BB86 bottom bracket at the base of this rock-solid seat-tube.
Stout, splayed chainstays compound the overall impression of instant power, while a tapered head-tube allows for a biddable front end.
The most important difference between the Aithein and its rivals is the use of the firm’s own Racelight (tubeless) wheelset. …. shaves a little weight off the total bulk of the bike and spins up more willingly than Shimano wheels.
The Ride:
Make no mistake, the Aithein lives up to its billing as a bike to race on.
Your purchase decision comes down to whether you’re looking for the most direct, responsive bike …or a bike that blends this urgency with a smattering of manners.
Out of the saddle sprints reveal a peppy acceleration as a result of the über-stiff frameset and lighter wheelset.
Precision from the front end is consistently very good, and a measure of vibe-reducing compliance is provided by the tapered carbon forks.
Special mention also goes to the effective Tektro brakes; they have plenty of bite and consistency.
Article
“Using aluminium, Kinesis has achieved the quality of a carbon frame while offering something distinctive”
We kept strictly to the lightweight aluminium theme…The result is an impressively light (7.2kg), fast bike.
To my mind, it has the properties you want from a performance bike, in that it responds tangibly to every increase in effort, climbs well and has sharp handling; an all-day cruiser it is not.
While it would be wrong to describe the ride as harsh, the stiffness of the frame are borne out on the road.
In the Aithein, Kinesis has proved that it can achieve the quality of more expensive carbon frames while simultaneously being distinctive — in what can be a somewhat identikit sector of the market.
…the Aithein is what it is — a hot-hatch — right down to its ‘sick green’ and ‘sweet orange’ colourways.
It’s designed to be light and quick, pure and simple, and that is exactly what it is.
Road Cycling Weekly - Article
CYCLIST magazine
In the world of top-end bikes, aluminium is a rare beast. The Kinesis makes for a refreshing change.
Kinesis has been perfecting its frame manufacturing for 12 years now, and the Aithein is its most advanced alu frame to date.
The welds on the Aithein look fantastic. The smoothness is achieved, Kinesis claims, with no secondary reworking such as filing or sanding, which means that the strength of the welds is not compromised in an attempt to make them look neat. What’s more, the overall aesthetic of the frame is surprisingly slim and elegant for aluminium.
The Aithein’s pedalling platform is solid and delivers plenty of punch
The Aithein frame tips the scales at a scant 1,193g in a 56cm size. Its own monocoque carbon tapered fork is also svelte at just 330g.
The finished item weighed in at a little over 7.5kg (16lb), which is comparable with many carbon offerings of a higher value.
Kinesis has managed to build extra comfort into the design of the Aithein, even though it’s not obvious how it has done it.
There are no curved stays or flattened tube profiles, so I can only assume it has something to do with the thinness of the metal helping to absorb the worst of the road buzz.
It became apparent that the Aithein’s got a racier side than I first suspected. The Aithein’s pedalling platform is solid laterally and delivers plenty of punch on demand, and together with the stiffness of Shimano’s latest generation Ultegra 6800 chainset, you’ll never be left feeling short-changed in terms of power transfer.
Kinesis has always had a finger on value. As such the Aithein build is one of the least expensive bikes I’ve reviewed for Cyclist yet it’s a long, long way off the bottom of the heap in terms of ride quality. Its performance is rewarding on many levels and certainly belies its price tag
CYCLIST - Article
Bikes ETC
The ride
The first reaction upon setting off on the Aithein is how comfortable it is – it absorbs road vibrations in a way we didn’t expect it to.
The Aithein has a feeling of versatility: we’d happily race on it but also ride an event such as the Fred Whitton on it (well, as happily as we could, given the distance, gradient and elevation).
It’s light, yes, and could be built significantly lighter for just a tad more money.
(it)…will give as good as it gets, but won’t encourage any rash decisions from the rider. If you’re riding longer races and sportives, that’s a very good thing.
Spec the Aithein how you want it and you’ll have a great companion for everything from racing to riding as far as your legs will carry you.
…due to the slightly longer wheelbase than other models on test – makes it good for longer rides over mixed terrain where you can almost run on autopilot.
At £650 for the frame and a 330g tapered carbon fork, it weighs just a few hundred grams more than the lightest carbon frames and is on a par with carbon at a similar price point.
Our back-of-an-inner-tube-box calculations suggest Ultegra, light wheels (such as the Cero AR30 wheelset that won our group test last issue) and decent tyres and finishing kit would come in at less than £2,000 if you shopped around.
Even with relatively cheap bars and an overstuffed saddle, the bike came in at a svelte 7.75kg.
Wheels
On our build, the money that had been saved on the finishing kit went straight into the wheels. Reynolds Stratus Pro retail at £650, weigh 1,445g for the pair and feature 21mm external, 17mm internal tubeless-ready rims.
If you’re a self-funded racer, these are exactly the kind of wheels we’d recommend – light, wide and fast to accelerate.
BIKES ETC - Article