More than just a race bike that can accept wide tires, the all-new Cervelo Caledonia is designed to fill between the gap that has emerged between the latest crop of wide-tire do everything race bikes and speed orientated gravel bikes. A real best of both worlds approach, Cervelo claims its new ride doesn't fit in any nicely, and that's just the way they like it. Engineered for the modern demands of road riding, read on below for all you need to know about the all-new Cervelo Caledonia road bike.
1. Endurance with a Racing Heritage
Despite being comfort, stability, and endurance focussed, the all-new Caledonia very much has a racing heritage. The spiritual successor to the R3 Mud, a tweaked race machine that under the likes of Fabian Cancellara and Stuart O'Grady would be piloted to monument wins from 2007 through to the early 2010s, the Caledonia is best thought of as the latest iteration of the outgoing C-Series, but in reality, is more like the love child of the Aspero gravel bike and the S5 Aero Bike, making for a true endurance racer that has few rivals save for the latest Specialized Roubaix and the BMC Roadmachine.
2. A Geometry to Suit the Masses
With an easily adjustable stack height and conservative reach figures, the fit of the Caledonia is designed to fit a wide range of riders. Sure the conservative figures aren't intended to mimic hard-nosed race bikes in the Cervelo fleet. Still, with stack figures that can emulate everything from the like of the R3 to the outgoing and upright C-Series, it's ideally suited for the type of rider that will consider a bike such as this.
With a relatively steep (for the segment) trail figure of 58.5mm, that's balanced out by a wheelbase that ranges from 982.2mm to 1047.8 throughout the size range the handling of the new bike is said to be slower than what's found on the R-series of race bikes. However, combined with the lower bottom bracket area, the Caledonia looks to offer stability in spades, especially when combined with the larger tires intended to be used with the new steed, more on that later.
3. Aerodynamics
While the core focus of the Caledonia is long days in the saddle, stability, and comfort, there's no shortage of aerodynamics to be found on the bike. After all, Cervelo more or less pioneered the aero bike market so this should come as no great surprised. From fully integrated cabling on top-end Caledonia 5 models to aero-shaped headset spacers, dropped seat stays, d-shaped seatposts, the result is a bike that looks to be equally as adept at pushing the pace on the flats, as it is traversing hardpack gravel trails and punching over lumpy chipseal tarmac backroads.
4. Integrated Features
As touched on above, to achieve efficiency in the wind, the Caledonia comes with a swathe of integrated features that do everything from shield cables from the wind, to allow riders to run full-length mudguards and still fit a decent sized tyre underneath. The star of the show, however, is the integrated cockpit on top-end Caledonia 5 framesets and builds. Fully integrated into the frame, stem and bars on the Caledonia 5, the new cockpit is comprised of Cervelo's AB09 handlebar and ST31 (Carbon) and ST32 (Alloy) stem. Both of these components work in tandem to feed disc brake and Di2 lines through a proprietary D-Shaped headset.
The stems are available from 70-130mm, while the handlebars are offered from 30cm through to 44cm. Elsewhere the Caledonia, Cervelo has fitted its integrated computer mount, while hidden mounts front and rear allow the use of full-length fenders to be used.
5. Space for Wide Tires
From the showroom floor, all Caledonia models will ship with 30mm wide tires as standard; however, Cervelo has rather conservatively stated the Caledonia will swallow up to 34mm wide tires front and rear. Of course, unofficially, wider tires can be used. However, this is up to the discretion of the rider and how comfortable they are running tighter clearances at the fork crown and between the chainstays. For those wanting to run full-length mudguards, Cervelo states the Caledonia can accept tires up to 31mm wide with fenders fitted.
6. Targetted Stiffness and Considered Weight
While the frameset on the Caledonia is all-new for Cervelo, the stiffness levels were designed to mimic those offered by the Aspero. Despite being a gravel bike, the Aspero, with its tag line of "Haul Ass, Not Cargo" is no pack animal, and given the intended terrain, this bike is likely to traverse, provides an excellent base for the new endurance steed.
With regards to weight, the intended usage of this bike means this it was never meant to be a featherweight climber, however, nor is it outrageously heavy either. Said to tip the scales at 936 grams (Caledonia 5) for a Size Medium painted frame, with the fork weight of 370g, the bike is said to have been engineered to this weight figure to ensure its compliant enough to be raced across the cobbles and provide ample comfort for the average rider.
7. Two-levels of Frameset on Offer
As eluded to throughout this article, two levels of the Caledonia exist, the flagship Caledonia-5 and the standard Caledonia. In terms of differences, the flagship offering is more in line with its top-of-the-line competition and sports entirely internal cable routing, a more svelte frame weight, integrated stem cap and split headset spacers as reported. The Caledonia, on the other hand, is equipped with a round bar, stem and seatpost, exposed cabling and a slightly heavier, albeit more affordable frame and fork weight of 1031g and 432g respectively.
8. Pricing and Availability At the time of publishing the Caledonia and Caledonia 5 look set to be offered in seven different builds, and one frameset only option while sizing offered includes 48, 51, 54, 56, 58, and 61cm options. Check with your local bike shop for availability and pricing.
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