So why is it only Specialized and apparently this Chinese clone (which on inspection isn’t even a clone) are apparently able to produce such a lightweight frameset with no restrictive rider weight limit? The S-Works Aethos in particular is exceptionally light for a bike that isn’t unduly fragile.

Specialized claims that much of the Aethos design strength was due to their specific choice of tube profiles, which this clone hasn’t even closely copied.

What is really moronic here is the idea that this “clone” is the exact same Aethos S-Works frameset, as you appeared to be suggesting earlier in the thread. It might ride well enough and it looks vaguely like an Aethos, but that’s about all you can claim. You don’t even know if it will go the distance at such a light weight. Like I noticed they bottled out on the ultra-thin Aethos fork profile. Why would they do that if they are in fact producing the real thing?