“Best bike we’ve ever ridden”
- 220 Magazine
That's right, Cervélo and Team CSC designed a bike originally focused on the demands of one specific race. After Cervélo had finished project FM-28, the Soloist Carbon, there was one race left for which Team CSC really wanted something special - Paris-Roubaix. For the world's most grueling test of road bikes, Team CSC wanted a frame that was bulletproof, yet comfortable and light. So we started project FM-41.
Strong and ideal for bad conditions:
- Victory in the world's toughest race, Paris-Roubaix
- Lightest frame ridden by the heaviest rider in that race
- Tire clearance for 27mm special Vittoria tires
Light yet stiff in bottom bracket and torsion:
- Lightest and stiffest frame in the ProTour
- Winner of the TOUR Magazin (Germany) test of ProTour bikes
- The only claimed 900g frame that was actually 900g (VeloNews)
- TopVelo (France) frame of choice for superlight bike project
- Winner of stiffness-to-weight tests (by a mile we may add) performed and published by some of our colleague bike companies
Highlights:
Squoval downtube & chainstays - Optimized for the highest possible stiffness-to-weight ratio (STW), the downtube and chainstays have a Squoval shape.
Multi-shape toptube - The toptube loading case is a lot more complex, hence it is Squoval near the headtube and seattube and oval in the center section.
Oversized bottom bracket area – The increased volume of the bottom bracket area provides great STW. The smooth contours of the BB volume help both for this BB stiffness and also for its strength as the fibers have a much more continuous path to transfer the loads better.
Lay-up optimization - The stiffening plies are added to the sides of the tubes where they have the greatest effect in bending. They are feathered to distribute the loads into the structure. We also add more plies on the bottom of the down tube, the headtube and the toptube to distribute the loads from a potential headtube impact. Finally, we add Kevlar to that same area and downtube to prevent catastrophic failure.
Seatstays - We don't have a catchy marketing name for these seatstays (send in your suggestions), but they are quite simply the most amazing seatstays on any bike – a true testament to the skills of our engineering team. We have always known that the seatstays end up carrying very small loads, an effect that is even more dramatic in combination with the new Squoval chainstays. The seatstays in an R3 are almost unnecessary for the vertical loads, they only provide torsional stiffness. Therefore, we were able to design the R3 seatstays to act as leaf springs in the vertical plane while having a more standard dimension in the lateral plane for torsional rigidity. Thus it combines strength, comfort, torsional stiffness and minimal weight.