Bike Review: Cervelo R3 - The Speedster!

 Our Sponsors, Element Cycles, Redmond

Woo-hoo! With the ghost-of-the-rides-past (or 1-day STP, if you please) laid to rest, it is now time to get back to work - riding bikes and reviewing them for our gracious sponsors, Element Cycles, Redmond. Thanks to Lorraine and Tyler for providing the hardware to roll!

The Speed Machine!

In this edition of "Who wants to ride a bicycle?" we take one of the stallions out to the pastures for a free range ride - the Cervelo R3, an economy class cousin of the fabled RCa that was rumored to be just as fast, nimble and light. And it certainly is, all of the above, and then some more!

The R3 that I was riding came equipped with the Shimano Ultegra groupset, Rotor 3D crankset, 52/36 rings in front and an 11-25 cassette in the back. Rounding off the wheels were Mavic Aksiums instead of the stock R501's. 

The Ride

The first thing, the very very first thing you notice about this bike is that it is light. At around 16.5 lbs. the bike feels quite fragile, frankly, and you cannot but wonder if it will survive a particularly windy descent. The next thing you realize while your mind is working out the previous sentence is just how far you have come in a matter of few pedal strokes. In my previous outings, I have come back impressed with the BMC SLR01, and Pinarello Marvel respectively, but Celerity Cervelo leaves them biting the dust. Acceleration on the bike feels almost effortless, and the stiffness transfers all of your pedal power to the wheels. Of course, the flip side of the stiffness is that you will feel most of the bumps on the road. The frame makes a decent job of damping some low frequency vibrations, but is quite helpless against a concentrated onslaught by their high-frequency brethren. Coming back from a 206 mile ride to Portland, I had more than a few "ouch" moments as I pedaled through some bumpy stretches along the Sammamish River Trail. 

The Geometry

This bike is sleek, starkly beautiful with clean lines and aerodynamic tube structures that Cervelo has imaginatively named Squoval (phone-a-friend if you cannot figure that one out!) The R3 continues the trend of supermodel-thin seatstays that promise to damp those pesky vibrations for you (they do a decent job) combined with the BBright bottom bracket that is stiffer than the British upper lip! The FSA cockpit on my test bike was roomy (see below), roomier than the one on Reliable Roubaix, and it allowed me to get into the drops quite comfortably for longer periods of time.

Roomier cockpit and sleeeeek top tube, at your service Captain!

Almost everything in the construction of this bike screams speed. The seat tube, down tube, chainstays are designed with one thing in mind -- drag minimization. Cervelo claims a reduction air-drag equivalent to efforts of over 7 watts, and an 8% increase in stiffness over previous generation R3. While such comparisons are almost impossible to judge over a test ride without cutting open a bike frame, the overall ride feels quite agile.

Squoval seat tube

Aero fork and down tube

The ride certainly felt faster, even going into the wind. On more than one occasion, my fellow-rider drafting behind me had to call me back as I went further ahead without noticing any change in my normal effort for a particular segment on the trail. The bike corners like the best in the top-of-the-line models, and once again, I was exploring speeds and angles of approach that I can only dream of on the Roubaix. Being an intended recovery ride from the arduous STP, we deliberately put off pushing ourselves on familiar terrain. We were also greeted with the Woodenville Festival at Wilmot Gateway Park which meant dismounting and walking through the crowd each way.

Woodenville Festival - good spirits everywhere ;)

It was after going through the festival the second time that we realized that I had about 15 minutes left before the bike shop closed - as they say about best laid plans, well. I put the bike under the gun and it responded beautifully, allowing me to post a PR (avg. 20.5 mph) on my return segment without intending to.

Overall, the bike did live up to its reputation of being a speedster, albeit suffering a bit on the comfort side. If you are looking for an American Quarter horse for your next ride (or race), then look no further than the Cervelo R3. If however, your goal includes long distance events (longer than 100 miles say), then you would be better off with the Marvel or Roubaix.

Let me know your experience with the R3 in the comments below. And as always - stay safe, have fun, and ride hard!

Roubaix (Red) geometry compared to the R3 (Green)