“The Cervélo R3 SL is quite possibly the fastest bike that we have ever tested”
- Cycling Plus
“Quite possibly the most perfect bike to ever grace tarmac”
- Men’s Health
It’s amazing how many frames claim to be the world’s lightest. Sometimes it’s the weight without paint, or in size 43, or without derailleur hanger, sometimes the claim is simply completely made up. At the same time, the one manufacturer that actually produces the lightest production frame according to independent magazine tests never makes that claim. Why don’t we? Because to us weight is not the primary goal; and because frankly we think the “lightest” claim has been so overdone that it’s got to stop.
To start with the first issue, we don’t focus on weight during the design process. We focus on stiffness, strength, comfort, and safety. Those are the frame characteristics that really matter, and we know that thanks to our superior engineering team, we can design the frames with the best combination of these features. And we know that if we do that correctly, we can achieve all these goals and still make an extremely light frame – even the lightest. But an up-front focus on the weight leads designers to water down the other – much more important – requirements.
So here it is, we have taken the R3 platform – a frame that already offered an incredible stiffness-to-weight ratio, and made it even lighter without sacrificing any of our standards regarding strength and stiffness. That makes the R3 SL the ultimate frame for next year’s Paris-Roubaix, as well as any epic rides you may have in mind. And it is naturally the perfect platform to build a superlight no-holds-barred bike around, undercutting the UCI weight limit even more easily than our other frames.
Highlights
Squoval™ tube shapes – With state-of-the-art Finite Element Analysis software and Cervélo-developed custom software tools, we can more effectively evaluate tube shapes and how they should change throughout the frame. This research led to innovations such as the Squoval™ cross section, as well as the multi-shaped toptube and multi-shaped asymmetrical seattube.
R3 Seatstays – Through testing and analysis (in particular with our custom developed software tools), every last gram was squeezed out of the R3 seatstays without sacrificing any strength. It passes the highest impact, fatigue and road vibration test levels in the industry as well as the “Cancellara-test” on the cobblestones of Paris-Roubaix.
Oversized bottom bracket area – The increased volume of the bottom bracket area provides a great STW. The smooth contours of the BB volume also help to transfer the loads better.
Front boomerang construction – Monocoque frames typically have a weight penalty, while frames with lugs can have lower impact strength, as each lug joint is a potential separation point. Cervélo’s patent pending boomerang design allows continuous fibers to run from toptube to headtube to downtube, thereby greatly enhancing the frontal impact strength without encountering the lay-up control problems of a full monocoque design.
Further lay-up optimization – With eight engineers working on carbon fiber projects, Cervélo has a wealth of in-house knowledge about how to increase the performance of carbon frames. The R3 SL is the latest iteration of our lay-up optimization, allowing us to further increase the STW.
Upgrades from R3
Lighter frame - The R3 may have been the lightest frame of the ProTour in 2006, the R3 SL is even lighter.
Wolf SL fork – The R3 SL comes standard with the Wolf SL fork, one of the lightest forks but more importantly, one of the strongest at any weight.