Back to the blog! Now in Little Rock, Arkansas!

OK guys. Bringing the blog back to life. I noticed that the blog continues to get a decent amount of traffic, mainly for the Cervelo pictures and reviews. Thanks to everyone who has stopped by! Much has happened. I have now moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, with my family for work, and continue to ride as much and as often as I can. Still riding the Cervelo, still very happy with the bike. BUT, there have been upgrades... now riding full Campagnolo Record 10 speed, with the Red Ultra levers (a marketing ploy, but cool!). Also finally broke down and built up a new set of wheels: Campagnolo Record hubs on DT Swiss rims. Smooth as buttah. So, back to blogging! It's great to talk about cycling again!

Cervelo R3 follow-up review... 2000 kms later

My Cervelo, just back and still dirty after 65km this morning. Bellissima.

As some of you will remember, I purchased my Cervelo R3 this summer (August, to be exact) and have now had the opportunity to put about 2000kms on it, so I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to provide my many readers with what could be called a 'long term review'.

Hopefully my review will be slightly less affected by 'new bike syndrome' which, I must admit, did color my initial review...

First the bits I really, really like.

The bottom bracket area. Fantastic rigidity.

1. The rigidity of the bottom bracket area is simply phenomenal. Every single nanojoule of energy (and, not to boast, but I produce several dozen in an all out sprint) goes to the cranks/pedals. Nothing is wasted in frame flex. I stand by the statement I made in my initial post about the bike; I climb at least one tooth harder thanks to this frame.

2. The weight. Or rather, lack thereof. We are talking about a sub-1000 gram frameset. I thought all reasonably light road bikes would feel more or less the same. I was wrong. You actually notice how much lighter (at least in my case) this bike is. It does go up hills easier!

The Funda. Does the job very, very well.

3. The 3t Funda fork. Quite frankly, the Funda did not inspire a great deal of confidence the first time I laid eyes on it. But I have to admit that the steering is very good and, once again, the rigidity is just fine - no lost energy up front. I also wondered if the width of the forks would be an issue on gusty days - sail effect and flighty handling and all that, but absolutely not. Rock solid. The steering is spot on.

Selle San Marco Mantra. Comfy for my bum and all the rest of the goods down there. Happy Pete.

4. The Selle San Marco Mantra seat. Fine, not strictly part of the frame, but hey, I purchased it with the frame, so... Very comfy for my rear end, with no numbness or other ill effects. The seat is graced with an absolutely massive 'prostate hole' which does its job quite well. The red highlights on the nose of the saddle have 'bled' a bit, which does not make me too happy, but if that is the price to pay for a comfy saddle, then so be it.

5. The Campagnolo bits. If you are here, you have probably figured out that I am partial to Campagnolo components. The bike currently has a hodgepodge of Campagnolo Chorus and Record (all 10v) bits. They are sublime. Perfect. Nothing to add there. And the Record Red bits are now on their way to being mounted on this bike. Heheh... what is better than perfect? Nirvana?

Now, the not so great bits...

Short stays.

How short? This short...

5. Short seat stays. I had read about this before purchasing the frame, but did not realise just how short they are. I have to make a conscious effort not to 'hit' the stays with my feet on the pedal upstroke. I guess that this is a result of the fact that the stays flare out quite markedly - it is not a deal breaker, but this is clearly something that riders with big feet (I wear a European 45 shoe) in relatively small sizes (mine is a 54) have to take into consideration. I know, I know, changing them would mean having to completely rework the geometry and handling, but hey, it is something that bothers me a bit.

6. Fork clearance. As I stated above, I love the fork. I do however, dislike the minimal clearance that it provides. I seriously doubt that I would be in a position to mount 25mm clinchers, something that I might like to do in the winter for a wee bit of extra comfort and puncture protection. For a bike that advertises its prowess in winning races like the Paris-Roubaix, I would have hoped for slightly more thought provided to light 'off roading' potential. Heck, they are even introducing bits of rough gravel road at the Giro...

So there you have it. Overall, I am extremely pleased with the R3 and find it to be a frameset that is fantastically above my capabilities as a rider. I can feel it yawning when I (think I) am hammering up a short steep hill. It handles well. It looks great. I get very positive comments at coffee stops (always a good thing).

So, if you have the opportunity, test ride one. I think you will end up owning one.

Cervelo R3... the first ride

Just back from her first ride...

Yup, there she is. Just back from the inaugural ride. So, what's my first impression?

Wow. It's that simple.

I am coming from a seven year old De Rosa Planet, a nice frame in its day, full alu with a carbon fork and upper chainstays. While pretty light when it was produced, the tradeoff was rigidity, or lack thereof. This was noticeable when riding out of the saddle uphill or in a sprint, and unfortunately also made itself felt downhill, where it was quite skittish at speed.

'Squoval' downtube. It's huge.

Not the R3. The massive bottom bracket area does not flex. Not even with all of my (not inconsiderable) weight and (rather minimal) power. It. Does. Not. Budge. Which means that I was able to climb the small hills on my inaugural ride one to two gears higher than normal.

The bottom bracket area. And first grease stain... ugh.

The handling is also excellent. It is much more stable than my old De Rosa on downhills (I have yet to reach massive speeds, only reached about 60 km/h today) and the best thing I can say is that by km 30 in the ride I was no longer conscious that this was on a new bike and my first ride. I was perfectly comfortable riding no-hands, drinking while at speed on downhills, etc.

Having said this, after years on a noodle frame, I did feel the rigidity when riding on Rome's miserable roads. The seat stays may be carefully studied by a super engineering team to be rigid yet vertically compliant (or so the Cervelo marketing spin tells us) but you do feel the road. This is a race bike, so that makes sense. Caveat emptor to potential buyers who want comfort. Look elsewhere for a plush ride.

The components are straight off my old bike. Modifications will be forthcoming (this bike is screaming for carbon Record 10 speed levers, black Record brakes and, if I can sneak them past the wife, a Neutron wheelset). So I have little to report beyond the fact that Campagnolo 10 speed continues to impress with its awesomeness. So let me wow you with a few pics of bike porn... (at least, for me).

Deda Newton stem and bars. Note the Cervelo cap on the stem. Nice touch.

San Marco Mantra saddle. Comfort for my bum and prostate, all in one! Happy Pete!

Tecno Tubo Torino (that's 3T to you) Funda fork. Delicious.

Ahh... Campagnolo Record Titanium. Bellissimo.

Front view. Very Euro Pro, in my humble opinion.

Just to prove that there is silliness in the best families... look at the service sticker on the top tube. Yes, white text on white paint. A wee bit difficult to read. LOL.

So, my overall first impression is that this is really, really great performance package. It is a fabulous race bike, well above my limits at the current time. On the basis of ogling and one flat ride in traffic choked Rome, I strongly recommend this to anyone looking for a high performance frame, one do-it-all bike.

I will do a full, bore you to death review in a few weeks when I have a few more kms under my belt...

A parting beauty shot. Simply gorgeous.

New Cervelo R3...

Hello there... just needed to quickly post the big news... my new frame has now been set up with the components off my De Rosa (the one you see in the header of this site). First ride will be Saturday. I will be posting pics in a few days and providing you with my impressions.

For now, I was just really excited about the new arrival in my stable and felt the need to share the good tidings with everyone out there!

Quick and dirty build list: 2008 Cervelo R3, white. Campagnolo Chorus/Record mix. Deda Newton bars and stem. Selle San Marco Mantra saddle. FSA seatpost. Fulcrum 7 wheels.



Smiley borrowed from wikipedia... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Smiley.svg... thanks to Pumba80!