First Look: Cervelo Caledonia

The Canadian version of the "Modern" road bike has arrived

If memory serves us correct, it seems that every new model launched by Cervelo over the last decade has been predicated on the wants and needs of their pro race team riders. Not this time. Although former Paris-Roubaix winner Johan Van Summeren is mentioned in the press release, his appearance is there to draw a distinction between how much his riding experience differs from those of us in pursuit of big, meaty burritos.

Johan Van Summeren enjoyed a big win for Cervelo at the 2011 Paris-Roubaix. His race bike helped lay the foundation for Cervelo’s latest road bike.

According to Cervelo, the new Caledonia shares a few DNA strands from previous models including the R5 road bike…

And then the blueprints got added to with aspects of their Aspero gravel bike…

The combination of influences which led to the unveiling of their new “modern road bike” – the Caledonia. Two versions; the high-end Caledonia 5 and standard Caledonia will be available in a multitude of models in six frame sizes (48, 51, 54, 56, 58, 61 cm). Throughout the range you’ll find a model representing nearly every drivetrain on the market (with the exception of Campagnolo).

Right out of the box there were two things that caught our eye: the super-clean internal hose routing (and lack of excessive cabling which seems to be the new norm on bikes shipped from the factory) that guides the front and rear brake hoses into the belly of the stem, and a handful of plastic bags that contained all the plastic accessories necessary to help accommodate front and rear fenders.

Speaking of fenders, Cervelo told us that the frame is friendly to either 34mm tires w/o fenders and 31mm tires with fenders (which are not included). Owing to the 72 degree head and 73.5 degree seat angles with a 99.5cm wheelbase, it’s obvious that the Caledonia is still intended to be skew on the performance side of things.

Starting with the bare frame, fork, seatpost, stem and handlebar combo that sells for $4300, price points for the wide range of models range from $2900 for a complete bike running a Shimano 105 drivetrain up to $11,000 for a Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 drivetrain/Enve wheel package.

We were able to pull a Caledonia 5 test bike spec’d with a SRAM Red eTap AXS drivetrain and new Zipp 303 wheels. With a $10,000 price point, the fully assembled (sans pedals) bike hit the scale at 17.18 pounds. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to ride the bike in time for the embargo to lift so the First Ride will be posting asap. Until then, here are all the tasty bits on the latest road bike from Cervelo.

PRESS RELEASE

While still focusing on race inspired performance, Cervelo is couching the Caledonia’s design intent as something more akin to a human scale of experience. The 5 model with a SRAM Red eTap drivetrain will sell for $10,000.

“Caledonia doesn’t fit in a box nicely, and we like it that way. It was conceived on our Thursday night rides—routes that often play fast and loose with ‘road ride.’ As we tried to stuff bigger tires into our R5s and streamline our Aspero, a new kind of bike was born.

“This bike is still a race bike—it was designed and will be used as our teams’ Roubaix bike.
Rather than designing multiple versions of the bike with various fit profiles (R5, R3, etc.)
like we’ve done in the past, we were able to design a system that enables a broad range
of fits on a single bike while maintaining the aesthetic cleanliness our riders demand. That
cleanliness is far from just aesthetic, too—you know it’s going to be fast because there’s
nothing interrupting the flow of air over the front end.”

The fire red Caledonia 5 spec’d with a Shimano Ultegra Di2 drivetrain will sell for $6500.

“We continue to refine our internal cable routing solution; this has been an evolution of the S3, and is the latest step in our pursuit of integrated refinement across all fit ranges. Having a clean and refined cockpit that is difficult to use or maintain is no solution at all.

“The system is significantly less complex while also being significantly lighter (200g savings) The D shaped steerer with a unique split ring allows internal brake hose and Di2 cable routing from the existing AB09 bar into the body of the stem and down into the frame.”

CALEDONIA 5 SPECS
• Completely internal electronic cables and hose
routing
• Integrated stem cap & split spacers
• 34mm Tire clearance
• Hidden fender mounts
• Accessory mounts
• 936g frame, 370g fork

CALEDONIA

CALEDONIA SPECS
• Round bar, post, and stem
• Bento mount
• BB Stiffness 222 N/mm
• HT Stiffness 105 Nm/deg
• Hidden fender mounts
• Accessory mounts
• 34mm Tire clearance
• 1031g frame, 432g fork

For more: Cervelo Cycles