Cervelo gravel bike

Looks good.

https://www.cervelo.com/en/aspero

OltreForza wrote:Looks good.

https://www.cervelo.com/en/aspero

If you’re looking for a race bike for race day, then yes it looks good.  For a everyday long haul gravel bike it doesn’t look so good.  

ljsmith wrote:

If you’re looking for a race bike for race day, then yes it looks good.  For a everyday long haul gravel bike it doesn’t look so good.  

To be fair, they put that right in their freaking banner.

 

dangle wrote:

To be fair, they put that right in their freaking banner.

 

they sure did.  And that means this bike is a poor choice for 90% of people who don’t earn a living racing.  My point was it looks good for a very small group, for most of us it does not look good.  It’s the first gravel bike marketed with no mention of compliance, but boasts “tour level” stiffness.  I guess if you can afford multiple gravel bikes it would be awesome to have in the stable, but for most people a gravel bike serves multiple purposes.  This is a one trick pony.

ljsmith wrote:

they sure did.  And that means this bike is a poor choice for 90% of people who don’t earn a living racing.  My point was it looks good for a very small group, for most of us it does not look good.  It’s the first gravel bike marketed with no mention of compliance, but boasts “tour level” stiffness.  I guess if you can afford multiple gravel bikes it would be awesome to have in the stable, but for most people a gravel bike serves multiple purposes.  This is a one trick pony.

It seems like it's made for anybody that wants a road bike with tire clearance for gravel. Count me as the 10%. The geometry is pretty similar to my 2016 cx bike other than the BB being a bit lower and I promise you that bike is no one-trick pony.

You may want to look up what Áspero means before saying it's not for rough roads.

ljsmith wrote:
they sure did.  And that means this bike is a poor choice for 90% of people who don’t earn a living racing. 

What? This is just good for those earning a living racing? What about all of those who just want to ride fast after work on non-pavement with buddies, and no plans to bike pack? 

This looks like a great ride.  Remember N+1... Just a bit too expensive for me, as most modern bikes are. 🙁 

eric/fresno, ca.

not everyone wants to go bikepacking and became mosquito food, the bike looks pretty good to me

Not everyone is that annoying dude on youtube (path less pedaled) who freaken whines like a little.......
Many of us come from a road background and want bikes with similar performance but on different terrain. 

OltreForza wrote:Not everyone is that annoying dude on youtube (path less pedaled) who freaken whines like a little.......

eric/fresno, ca.

ljsmith wrote:

they sure did.  And that means this bike is a poor choice for 90% of people who don’t earn a living racing.  My point was it looks good for a very small group, for most of us it does not look good.  It’s the first gravel bike marketed with no mention of compliance, but boasts “tour level” stiffness.  I guess if you can afford multiple gravel bikes it would be awesome to have in the stable, but for most people a gravel bike serves multiple purposes.  This is a one trick pony.

I would think there is a much bigger market for riders that want to ‘rip’ their local gravel roads and hammer gravel races then there are people that want a full bikepacking bike. This bike is geared for that market.  Looks like a winner to me.  

Are this bike and the pro riders at the Dirty Kanza the foretelling of the beginning of the end of the relaxed, casual gravel scene?  Some of the comments here have me believing that.  Is there nothing in between bike packing and a full on race bike?  I believe I know where ljsmith is coming from in his comments about this bike.  Gravel is fun as it's a departure from the full on lycra, speed crowd of road bikes.   It would be disappointing to see gravel bikes and the industry follow the same path as road bikes where every bike is marketed towards the aspiring tour de france rider.  That said, this is just a single bike and I'm glad some are excited about it.  Dentists need something to stoke their passion too.

SilverRubicon wrote:Are this bike and the pro riders at the Dirty Kanza the foretelling of the beginning of the end of the relaxed, casual gravel scene?

I doubt it.

I no longer race, stopped with club criteriums in the 80s. I'm going on my first bike packing trip next week, a short 2 nighter. Mostly, i ride gravel at a leisurely pace, and at age 52, i imagine i will focus on that style for the majority of my time on a bike. I've ridden in organized gravel events, which let's be honest, even if the organizers stress it's a ride, not race, always ends up being a race. hey, someone has to come in last! I usually volunteer.

As long as YOU, and anyone interested in a more leisurely pace (and there are plenty), keeps on keeping on, all forms of it will continue. Diversity of the genre will only strengthen gravel all around. Don't these perceived foretellings of an end turn up all the time in everything? if it's worthy, it'll survive.

eric/fresno, ca.

I mean, FWIW, Cervelo has always been a dedicated road company. Not they release a gravel bike. What would you expect from them? It’s not a 3T Exploro with their aero frame, fitting 700x44 and 650x2.1” tires. It’s a little less. It gives you that happy medium bike. But saying this bike only markets to the 10% of people wanting aggressive road geo for gravel... I must disagree. I think they’re doing a solid job job here with this bike. It has the clearance for gravel but still a pretty good road machine. With working in a shop over the years, 90% of people are wanting to find a bike to do both. People don’t want to buy a gravel bike and have a road bike sit in the basement. So many people are selling road bikes to get the mixed terrain machine. And to be honest, it’s a smart decision. A road bike with gravel clearance? Solid decision for Cervelo. But IMO I feel that 10% of people are the ones that want a leisure, more relaxed geo kind of gravel bike.  One that you can bolt every bag and rack to for the long gravel hall. Sure we like the N+1 idea, but not everybody can or wants to go blow money on multiple bikes. So they buy a quiver killer to do it all. 

thefuzzycow wrote:. But IMO I feel that 10% of people are the ones that want a leisure, more relaxed geo kind of gravel bike.  One that you can bolt every bag and rack to for the long gravel hall. Sure we like the N+1 idea, but not everybody can or wants to go blow money on multiple bikes. So they buy a quiver killer to do it all. 

Im not sure what kind of shop you work in, but if you really believe 90% of the gravel market is high end carbon bikes with road geometry and stiffness you are really out of touch.  Sales numbers will not back that up.  Maybe at a race you’ll see a lot of bikes like that, but on any given trail or gravel road on a given day you’d be lucky to even see a carbon bike.  Are you going to tell me that most people walk into your shop saying “I’m looking for the twitchiest stiffest gravel bike you have.”  Not likely.  More likely it’s you and a group of friends who like bikes like that so you assume everyone else does also.  The majority of cyclists do not race or go on group rides and value comfort and versatility.  When I’m out riding I see mostly steel frame bikes with bags and mounts all over.  It’s pretty rare to see any racy carbon bikes.  I see more titanium bikes than carbon on gravel.

ljsmith wrote:

Im not sure what kind of shop you work in, but if you really believe 90% of the gravel market is high end carbon bikes with road geometry and stiffness you are really out of touch.  Sales numbers will not back that up.  Maybe at a race you’ll see a lot of bikes like that, but on any given trail or gravel road on a given day you’d be lucky to even see a carbon bike.  Are you going to tell me that most people walk into your shop saying “I’m looking for the twitchiest stiffest gravel bike you have.”  Not likely.  More likely it’s you and a group of friends who like bikes like that so you assume everyone else does also.  The majority of cyclists do not race or go on group rides and value comfort and versatility.  When I’m out riding I see mostly steel frame bikes with bags and mounts all over.  It’s pretty rare to see any racy carbon bikes.  I see more titanium bikes than carbon on gravel.

LJ, I never specified that they’re all about stiff, carbon only bikes. I simply stated that a good chunk of customers are looking for that one bike to cover all bases or at least most. But I do agree with you. Not everybody is looking for carbon. Of course not. And region/location plays a part in that. Terrain differences as well. It all plays a part. Which comes down to what the customer is looking to get out of the bike. Customers around me in the Midwest seem to want to trade in their dedicated road bikes for something with ore clearance and versatility. That’s all! And for bagged up gravel rigs, I’d go steel or Ti as well. Not carbon. I just don’t see carbon frame bikes as endurance gravel machines. Again, I agree. My point of the above post is simply my opinion as I like what Cervelo came out with. They’re a racy road brand and they broke the mold to create the Aspero. 

Cheers!

Also be very useable for CX, so there’s a little more versatility. 

GSPChilliwack wrote:Also be very useable for CX, so there’s a little more versatility. 

true! You could get away with it but it does have a lower BB than other CX bikes. So unless you’re hopping barriers, it’ll work! 

A lot of gravel bikes have more touring bike geometry, which makes sense for a long haul but also makes for a relatively poor handling road or cross machine, for my taste.

Talabardio wrote:A lot of gravel bikes have more touring bike geometry, which makes sense for a long haul but also makes for a relatively poor handling road or cross machine, for my taste.

Yes—I’ve raced cross on a Raleigh Willard for a few seasons now, so I’m switching to a Trek Boone. It’ll be less “gravel-friendly” perhaps, but I enjoy something a little livelier and don’t mind taking a beating. Haha.