Is this the end of the Aero arms race?

Have road bikes reached peak aero? And if they have, where will future advantages be found?

- Joe Baker

It will come as no surprise to anyone to read that huge leaps forward have been made in aerodynamics throughout the bike industry over the last 15 years or so. But like all good things, at some point they must come to an end.

'Aero' has been the buzzword for those who design and build road bikes for over a decade, but after an initial divergence that saw bike manufacturers offer an aero bike alongside a climbing bike at the top of their ranges, we're now seeing a subtle shift back to a singular headline all-round race bike one that remains 'slippery' through the air but also keeps weight at a minimum and doesn't compromise ride feel. This begs the question, is the road bike aero arms race coming to an end?

Leading aerodynamics expert Simon Smart told us that he definitely thinks the aero boom is over. After a long stint in the Formula One industry, Smart saw a gap in the cycling market in 2007 when he set up Drag2Zero. His company focused on offering aero fitting in a wind tunnel, predominantly to time triallists, and also developed hardware alongside it.

At first it wasn't an easy process to educate the market. "There was a resistance to aero products," Smart told us, "because back then you were paying more for a compromise.

"Not only did you have to convince people that aerodynamics mattered, but on top of that you had to convince them. to make a choice [between aero and lightweight]."

Over the last 15 years, and led by the aerodynamic expertise in the UK, much of the low hanging fruit has been picked, with cables hidden, bars narrowed and frame tube shapes engineered to make bikes faster. Smart admitted that after the release of the Scott Foil RC, a bike he was heavily involved in developing, he "took a long time wondering what we would do differently next".