For geometry information – please scroll to the end of this post. Thanks.
August 29th
During my busy afternoon of web-surfing I found this picture (and a few others) of the 2011 Cervelo R3. It’s hard to tell too much (for my untrained eye) but I like the colour scheme more than the previous white ones.
Rumour has it that it’s had quite a bit of work done to it for 2011 – No idea if there is any truth in that – perhaps Eurobike this week will tell us more.
For Cervelo fans – this could be the start of the new roll out. I’ve heard the S1 is being discontinued and that there will be a new volume production R5 that may replace the R3SL. Time will tell.
Anyway – hope you like the photo.
Update One: September 7th
Since I found this picture I’ve been looking for more info on the 2011 model year Cervelos. James Huang of Cycling News/Bike Radar has written a story highlighting amongst other things – revised geometry for the R series Cervelos and implies they will have slightly longer headtubes. So far I have been able to get the new geometry details – but I’m still looking.
The news story is here: http://www.cyclingnews.com/features/eurobike-2010-cervelos-updated-road-range
Another picture of the 2011 R3 in white/blue from Jame’s CyclingNews.com story :
Finally, here’s a video of Gerard and Phil on the 2011 bikes with special guests too:
More info – especially geometry as I find it.
Update Two: September 7th
Have just spoken to a Cervelo dealer who measured the length of the headtube on a 58 cm 2011 R3 they’ve just received and it’s 20mm longer than the 2010 bike. This is a great development in my opinion as I thought they were slightly too short. I’m guessing the 56cm frame will be about 170mm now as opposed to 160mm before (fingers crossed as that’s the length I’d like it to be as I ride a 56cm frame).
The big challenge may well be that no one has BBright cranks available for sale yet (in the UK at least)…. If anyone has them in stock in the UK – please correct me and let me know how much they so I can compare it to what you can buy a Dura Ace or SRAM Red crank and standard bottom bracket for. I’m hoping this isn’t going to be a hidden cost – so any helpful information would be appreciated. Thanks!
Update 3: September 10th
A little more geometry news, according to an unverified post on Weightweenies (http://weightweenies.starbike.com/) – the new R3/R5 also have chainstays that have been lengthened from 399m to 405mm – this is in addition to the head tube changes previously mentioned. It looks to me like these changes will mean the geometry will mover closer to that of say a Specialized Tarmac SL3 for example.
The R3 is now in stock at some UK retailers (e.g. http://www.thetristore.com/brands/cervelo.aspx ) – but no geometry charts have been released.
Here in the UK Madison (the UK importer for Cervelo) are listing a Rotor BBright crankset …. but I’ve not found any other BBright products yet.
Update 4: September 12th
No additional news on geometry that I’ve been able to find but I will be looking each day and will update this post whenever I find new information that I think might be of interest/helpful.
I have found a build report on the Cervelo forum for a 2011 R3 ( http://forums.cervelo.com/forums/t/6976.aspx). I’ve put one of the photos in below (thanks to the original poster Mark A)
The interesting thing about this is the difficulty in finding any info on BBright products/technical information. The poster could only find a £400 Rotor crank for the build, so on top of a £2200 frame – another £400 for a compatible crank is not ideal. The BBright website (http://www.bbright.net/faq.aspx) suggests that adapters are available and that SRAM and Campagnolo (in addition to Rotor) are supplying compatible cranks. However two Cervelo dealers that I have spoken to in the last week have both been unable to say where the adapters are or what cranks are available right now. Whilst I applaud Cervelo for engineering what they feel is a much better bottom bracket and crank solution (and they may well be proved right) at the moment supply is not available in the UK at least. I’ve been looking at the SRAM and Campagnolo sites and there is currently no mention of BBright products that I can see (please do correct me if I’m wrong).
Hopefully this is simply a matter of time and that any day now SRAM, Campagnolo prodcuts and adapter kits for Shimano/standard cranks will appear for BBright. As soon as I find evidence of this I will post it.
Not being an insider my concern is that it may not be commercially economic for SRAM, Campagnolo or Shimano to invest appropriately in another bottom bracket standard as Cervelo is relatively speaking a low volume/niche bike manufacturer. I wonder what the return on investment case is? Hopefully it’s a good one and we’ll see lots of options for customers very soon.
I hope someone in Cervelo’s commercial department is focussing on selling this standard to othe companies and working with suppliers to “encourage” them to release good stocks of BBright compatible parts from now and on an ongoing basis. This is probably simply a timing issue where frames have arrived in market slightly before the supply of the bottom brackets/cranksets (Rotor excepted), but as I say I hope someone at Cervelo is focussing on their key partner relationships to get this sorted out soon. In the short term this is going to be a bit frustrating for Cervelo customers as they struggle to get geometry information and component information for frames that are in retailers now. I’m a big fan of Cervelo (it’s my number one choice for my next bike), so I’m looking forward to being able to post more news on how this pans out soon.
As I know a lot of people are watching this topic – I will continue to post information as it comes to hand. Cervelo if you’re reading this – feel free to get in touch to clarify the situation or correct any errors.
Update 5: September 15th
Whilst there is still no official news from Cervelo on geometry or BBriight, these frames are in stock at retailers here in the UK and I’ve been able to find out a little more. I spoke to the good people at The TriStore today (http://www.thetristore.com/) who confirmed that while no official geometry is out (it is imminent) the head tubes have been lengthened as have top tubes – so effectively it is the same reach as before but a little higher up. The Tristore have someone with the UK distributors (http://www.madison.co.uk/) today and expect to be posting updates via Twitter (@thetristore) as soon as they can.
With respect to crankset compatibility – the R3 will be supplied from Cervelo with adapters for standard cranksets from Shimano, SRAM and Campagnolo – so if you have an existing groupset – you can build your bike now using these adapters, which is good news. They have spoken to the Campagnolo distributor today who has told them that BBright products are on their way and will be in the UK in October. I spoke to another SRAM dealer who said the same for SRAM availability. So this is a positive development.
The guys at The Tristore were keen to stress that whilst you could use existing cranks one of the key benefits of the new R3 is the new BBright standard – so using the adapter kit is a suboptimal solution compared to a full BBright crankset. Right now there are Rotor BBright cranks available and in stock in the UK. If you’re interested in the R3 and you contact The Tristore and mentioning this blog they will be happy to discuss special pricing on the Rotor Cranks with any R3 as an encouragement to help you get the best out of a new R3.
You can expect to see more news either via Cervelo or via UK dealers (not to mention this blog post which will continue to be updated as news comes through) over the next few days. To me it does still look like these bikes have hit the dealers too early – but that’s the way it is and it should sort itself out within the next 6-8 weeks for Campagnolo/SRAM specific BBRight stock as well.
Thanks in particular to The Tristore for helping out with information
Update 6 September 21st
Cervelo are at Interbike well at least for the demo day and there is a good article on both the R5 and R3 on Velonews with more information.
The link is below but here for me are some of the key passages:
“The new R5 closely mimics the R5ca. For 2011 it replaces the current R3sl. Bastie said that bottom bracket stiffness in the R5 is 100-percent higher than in the R3sl it’s replacing, and the head tube is 40-percent stiffer. Even with the improved rigidity, the 2011 R5 weighs the same as a current R3sl.
One step below the R5, the new R3 also adopts the design updates, but internal differences in structure and materials keep its cost lower. It too boasts the same structural rigidity improvements yet weighs the same as a current R3.
In both the new models, geometry and fit are subtly altered for 2011. Bastie says that the new geometry is based on an amalgamation of the current R3 and RS frame dimensions. He said that current R3 fit tends to be longer and lower than most people like, especially in the larger frame sizes. The new bikes have their fit adjusted so that stack (head tube height compared to bottom bracket height) and reach (horizontal distance from bottom bracket to head tube) increase more proportionally as frame size increases. But he was clear to point out that frame sizing doesn’t change. “If you ride a 58cm R3 now, you’ll fit the exact same frame size in a 2011 R3,” he said. The changes are subtle, meant primarily to raise the bars on the larger frame sizes and bring them into line with more riders’ fit needs.
Happily for those of us who can’t afford the R5ca frame module, the new bikes show incredible promise. The R5 and the R3 differ little in appearance from the R5ca and look to deliver huge chunks of performance at a fraction of the price.
I took a 2011 R3 for a quick spin around the asphalt adjacent to the Outdoor Demo grounds. It was amazingly stiff under power, yet comfortable and stable at speed. I don’t have experience with previous Cervélo models, but this one felt fantastic. Especially considering that it brings expensive design down to a more earthly price, it’s certain to be a bright star among the many new bikes for 2011.”
Full article here:
Whilst I’ve not managed to find full geometry information yet, I have got the following chart which alludes to the 2011 geometry/sizing information. I know it’s not enormously helpful but it’s all I can share with you so far. I have asked Cervelo for more information but they haven’t shared this yet.
I hope to have more info in the next few days and will keep updating this page for those who are interested as soon as new information comes available. Some new (to me) pictures below – some dealers have these shots up now on their websites – but to save you from going to find them …. here you go….
Update 7: September 24th
Gerard Vroomen (Cervelo co-founder) has personally posted on the Cervelo Forums (http://forums.cervelo.com/) in Mark A’s 2011 R3 thread (Update 4 above) about BBright and here’s his post copied directly from the thread.
To give you a quick overview of the crank options:
1) The Shimano BBright cups start shipping to distributors worldwide tomorrow (September 24). So expect a week or two to get them at the store. They can also be ordered from Rotor.
2) Campagnolo will have their cups available by the end of October through Campagnolo, and Cervelo will also offer them to its distributors and retailers
3) The SRAM, ROTOR and FSA cranks will be available directly from those manufacturers.
4) I just checked and the ROTOR BBright crank does have a manual, but it may not be online yet. I expect it to be in the next few days.
So as you can see, between now and the end of October, the number of options will increase dramatically and then all there is left to do is to enjoy the benefits.
It’s great to see Gerard writing about this directly.
Update 8: September 29th – Geometry for 2011 R3/R5
The good people at Cervelo have now sent me the size chart/geometry for the new R3/R5 and I have added this below, along with 2010 data so you can see the difference. Personally I’m delighed to see these changes as I’m now much more confident an R3/R5 wll fit me well – something I couldn’t say about the previous geometry. From what I’ve read on the internet, it seems that Cervelo had a lot of customers and potential customers in the same boat and have now adjusted the bikes accordingly. As you’ll have seen by the graph earlier in the post they’ve made the stack and reach more consistent across the sizes. When you look at the new geometry it’s really interesting to see how many of the dimensions change acoss the sizes now including headtube angle and fork offset. My sincere thanks to Cervelo for sharing this information and I hope you find it helpful.
The 2011 Geometry is below in the viewer – it’s easier to see if you click the view fullscreen tab then you can zoom it suit using the zoom buttons in the bottom left corner of the viewer.
The 2010 R3 Geometry is below – in case you want to compare the old sizing to the new.
Thanks for reading
