I re read that -- I remember reading it in 1996 and feeling a bit vindicated by my decision to go with an Aelle machine. It was a special order, (not a custom frame) so I had already weighed the pro's and cons in my mind.

Until I saw this article, I had intended to ride the Aelle bike for a season then dump it for something "better" when I was more financially stable. When I read the comparison to EL-OS, I just stopped worrying about it , --- purely psychological- I thought I had purchased the bargain basement machine, so surely there are some real and tangible performance trade offs, -- but not so according to the test, - just a few oz. of additional weight.

At the time my main thoughts were on stiffness and power transfer anyway

I wound up putting 30k (estimated) on that frameset and rewarded it last year with a full restoration built up with my personal 95/96 dream kit


It just goes to show, when reading these subjective bicycle evaluations, we have to cast a bit of a jaded eye and look at other factors influencing an evaluation, such as wheels, tires, and even groupset level.