Cervelo S3 2010 Frameset

As the inventor of aero road bikes, Cervélo continues to lead the category. Aero road frames are the most difficult frames to design, as they have to be everything in one: aero, light, stiff, comfortable. Cervélo has worked to optimize this balance between the various requirements since its inception 13 years ago.

For the Cervelo S3, the engineers at vroomen.white.design used the R3 seatstay technology, rotated the stays 90 degrees and gave them a proper Cervélo aero shape. This reduces the weight, increases the vertical compliance and improves the aerodynamics. Sounds simple, but the structural design is extremely complex, which is why only Cervélo has such stays. The chainstays were also redesigned to optimize aerodynamics. Finally, the new ICS3 Internal CableStops offers another improvement to Cervelo's cable routing technology.

DESIGN BENEFITS

Razor-thin Aero seatstays - Super-small cross-section for seatstays reduces weight and increases vertical compliance for the rear wheel. Their aero shape and the reduced frontal area also lower aerodynamic resistance. This gives its rider higher performance as lower weight results in better climbing and acceleration, while the lower drag saves you power in maintaining your speed. The vertical compliance assists in providing comfort.

Massive aero chainstays - The chainstays appear big when looking from above, but what the airflow sees is a shape that is optimized to minimize turbulence and thus lower aerodynamic resistance. This turns into a higher level of performance from your frame. Lower resistance means you need to generate fewer Watts for the same speed.

Oversized bottom bracket - Big shape and fluent form aligns the carbon fibers with the complex loads in this area for better lateral stiffness (excellent power transmission).

Stealth aero headtube - Narrowing the section between the bearings reduces the frontal area and thereby the aerodynamic resistance (which is linearly related to the frontal area).

TrueAero Tubing

Cervelo now designs their own specific airfoils, and it has led to significant improvements. It’s one of the reasons why they spend weeks and weeks in the windtunnel each year, not hours (if any) as is customary in the industry.

When you have the most and the best engineers working on aerodynamic improvements and you give them more time to play in the windtunnel sand box than anybody else, you end up with faster bikes.

Smartwall Carbon

Patent-pending technology from Cervelo's carbon materials and manufacturing group, Smartwall™ elaborates on the Squoval tubeshape. With the sides far away from the center plane more important, Cervelo concentrates more material there to increase the benefit.

Strips of High and Ultra-high modulus carbon stiffen the sides of the main tubes to resist lateral bending. These strips are feathered in to properly transfer the loads from the joints into these tubes.

Finally, Cervelo adds Kevlar to the headtube/downtube area for industry-leading impact strength.

frame

TrueAero Smartwall Carbon

Fork

3T Funda Team

Headset

FSA IS2C

Seatpost

Cervélo aero SL

Front Derailleur

Braze-On Required

BB Type

68mm / English

Frame Weight (appr.)

950 grams

geometry

Size	Seat Tube (C-T)	Seat Tube (C-C)	Top Tube Length	Head Tube Length	Chain Stay Length	Seat Tube Angle	Head Tube Angle	Stand Over Height	Wheel Size
48	480-	-	515	100	399	73	72.5	709	700c
51	510	-	530	120	399	73	73	729	700c
54	540	-	545	140	399	73	73	746	700c
56	560	-	565	160	399	73	73	764	700c
58	580	-	580	180	399	73	73	781	700c
61	610	-	592	200	399	73	73	800	700c
-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
48	480-	-	488	100	399	76	72.5	709	700c
51	502	-	502	120	399	76	73	729	700c
54	540	-	516	140	399	76	73	746	700c
56	560	-	535	160	399	76	73	764	700c
58	580	-	549	180	399	76	73	781	700c
61	610	-	560	200	399	76	73	800	700c