Cervelo S3 vs R3 Test – A day in the life of a bike shop director
I was lucky enough to go and spend a weekend along with some other dealers in Portugal with Gerard Vroomen and some of his engineers (tough job but someone has to do it!)
Day 1
Arrived at Faro (airport) late afternoon to be greeted by Ed and Richard from Madison (both nice chaps), we take a short trip back to the Robinson resort, which incidentally was a lovely venue. I check in and go to my room, quickly freshen up and go back to a conference room for a weekend briefing. Just before dinner I noticed an amazing sunset and I think to myself Wow! bike ride tomorrow will be amazing - tough job!
Day 2
Up quite early to go down to breakfast in new team kit (2009), supplied the night before. It feels like old times in France except I feel like a fraud in the kit, not having ridden much in the last few months (need a goal, but that’s another post!). I’m thinking that most dealers are like myself though – too busy to ride all the time.
I’d brought my own saddle, pedals and shoes. I own a SLC-SL so I know the seat angle will be the same, so I marked the position with black tape; there’s no point test riding a bike unless it feels fitted how I like it.
Cervelo S3 on test
The first bike to test was an S3 with SRAM Red, Zipp 202′s, 3t finishing kit, rotor cranks. The road exiting the Hotel was like a gravel track riddled with pot holes, perfect for Zipp wheels and expensive tubulars (which are glued on tyres)!
My first thoughts were this is ridiculous, however I turned this into a positive, this could be used to judge the compliance of the bikes being tested (and disprove the web chatter). First impressions were very good, the bike fitted like a glove. I totally agree with Cervelo’s fit/sizing philosophy (please go to their website for an exact explanation).
The bike feels lively straight away, but not twitchy. As I own the older model I was particularly keen to see if it was more compliant at the back-end, Carlos Sastre wanted an S3 with R3 compliance, they couldn’t get that close, but believe me they didn’t do a bad job. It was a really nice compromise, the bike feels stiff in the the BB area, not hugely stiff in the cockpit, well not in the 61cm size anyhow.
This would improve I feel a little in the smaller sizes. I felt the handling was really nice, not too sharp though, I felt very confident straight away on some of the longer winding descents that we had. I really enjoyed my 2 hour ride with this machine, it really feels fast when you get up to speed.
I was advised by the man himself at a show that aerodynamics are more important than weight, however if you want the ultimate bike that’s Aero, light, and pretty compliant this bike should be a serious contender for your dream machine…
Day 3
After a late night in the bar we were early down to breakfast, then straight into some tech seminars regarding their carbon technologies. As they say, there’s no features without some performance benefit, the squoval tube isn’t just for show, the frames are incredibly light but have the best stiffness to weight ratios, they are also still as strong as some of the more heavier bikes on the market, using the correct types of carbon in the correct direction.
Cervelo have their own engineers building the frames and they have the best testers in the world to give rider feed back – the Cervelo test team, so when you buy a Cervelo you are buying the bike that’s ridden in the tour. If you want something better, watch this space R4 @650 grams anyone?
Conclusion
I loved riding both bikes, both are stiff (in the right areas), compliant, and light and to top it off very cool, but not so cool that no one rides them. My favourite bike was the S3, super fast, light and compliant (forget the web chatter rubbish), which could also used for TT’s and Triathlons with the available reversable seat post (£49.99).
The R3 was great, a little bit softer at the back and I felt I couldn’t hold speed as easily on it, and as there’s only a small weight penalty so for me, I choose aero. I didn’t get to ride the RS which was a shame. So I won’t comment on a bike I haven’t ridden.
Hope this is of some interest…
Simon
