Here’s a very interesting article from Cervelo’s newsletter. Great picture at the bottom of the article fully built up. Sweet!
Introducing the Soloist Carbon
Team CSC riders always face a conundrum when picking their bike for a race. Do they go with the incredibly lightweight R2.5 or with the very aero Soloist? Some like Jens Voigt swear by the Soloist, which perfectly suits his riding style of long breakaways. Others like Carlos Sastre, the first ever professional cyclist to ride a prototype R2.5, have a preference for the R2.5.
This is obviously a good problem to have, as their competitors usually only have one option and while some may be able to ride something approaching an R2.5, none have a frame as aerodynamic as the Soloist at their disposal. But it will come as no surprise that the team would like to have their cake and eat it too, and thus has been asking us if we could build a frame with the weight of an R2.5 and the aerodynamics of the Soloist. What may come as a surprise is that as early as 2001 we started a project called FM28 (which means it was even longer in the making than the FM29 project, now better known as the P3 Carbon). The goal of FM28 was to create a frame with even better aerodynamics than the Soloist at approximately the weight of the R2.5.
Thanks to the feedback of Team CSC the goals and direction of the FM28 project have somewhat changed over the years, but what has remained is the desire to offer a frame that is too good to be true. Now, at the 2005 Giro d’Italia, we are ready to show this creation to the world. While this is still a prototype and a few details in shape and lay-up will likely still change, we have to test the frame in the real-world condition of professional cycling in order to determine those tweaks, and so we can no longer keep it hidden. And so we introduce the result of project FM28, the Soloist Carbon.
From Toronto to the Tour of Italy, the Soloist Carbon prototype in action
By Gerard Vroomen
The latest Soloist Carbon prototype is still hot off the press, and it was only this Thursday that our senior engineer Kevin Quan did the final stiffness tests here at Cervelo headquarters.
Later the same day, I took a plane to Italy to deliver the frame to the team. Weary of the risks of losing the frame at the stopover in Rome (it wouldn’t be the first time for me), I dressed the frame up in a garment bag in an attempt to classify it as carry-on luggage. Casually swung over my shoulder, it was actually remarkably simple to get on board; it even fit easily through the security scanners. From Rome it was on to Naples , a hike to the rental car lot (the shuttles were stuck in a demonstration) and then a 450km sleep-deprived drive to Reggio di Calabria , where the team is staying for the first few days of the Giro. Luckily Chris Mullington, a documentary maker, is following the Soloist Carbon on its journey from first sketch to final product, so he could do part of the driving.
Arriving at the team hotel with a new prototype is one of my favorite parts of my job, all of a sudden grown men turn into little school boys admiring the latest Superman comic. Usually I visit the mechanics first, as they have one of the toughest jobs on a team and have always been very supportive of us. They immediately jumped on the prototype, examining all the little details, asking questions and discussing the features. With one Belgi an , one Spanish and one Kiwi mechanic, the discussion we had was a nice mix of French, Dutch and English. Within 30 seconds I had two Soloist Carbon orders and the mechanics had drawn straws on who would be the lucky one to build it up.
The rest of the team was still at a press conference but as soon as they arrived, the frame went from hand to hand through the team, from Bjarne Riis to the chiropractor and from the equipment manager to Christian Vandevelde. The latter had a particular interest in the frame, as he had gotten word that he would be the one to try out the prototype. But first it was time for dinner and a good night’s sleep.
8AM the next morning Alejandro started building up the bike, which was 
a good opportunity for me to get feedback. There were some small changes he would like to see, but overall the frame went together without much trouble. The riders were out on their training rides when the bike was finished, so we got to do the first ride ourselves. After everybody had taken a turn for a quick spin, the riders returned and Christian was ready to give it a try. The rest of the team had now switched to their TT bikes, so the pace was quite high, giving Christian a good chance to try the frame. Upon his return, his feedback on the frame was good (very responsive, stiff in the bottom bracket) but the position of the saddle and handlebars was not yet completely dialed in, so the back problems he has been experiencing flared up a bit. In retrospect it might have been better to choose another rider for the test rides, but Christian is very knowledgeable and eloquent when it comes to giving feedback on the bikes he rides so he was a natural pick.
That evening, I had a chance to go see the prologue, an interesting 1.2km sprint. Ivan Basso rode the P3 Carbon, which made it the first time that bike was used in a UCI cycling race (as you can see from the photo, I won’t quit my day-job just yet). He was very happy with his result, as this course didn’t exactly play into his strength. I like dealing with Ivan, he is always very easy-going and makes great sounds to explain how the bike feels. The next morning, he asked me if I had seen his prologue and proceeded to say: “The bike was great, it felt so fast, zzzzooooffffff, perfect.” It’s nice to have a customer like him.
On Sunday, the prototype had been properly adjusted for Christian, and so the Soloist Carbon lined up to the start of Stage 1. The stage itself was fairly uneventful, except for Bettini’s explosion in the last kilometer. I was standing at the 600m mark and it was quite impressive to see how he flew by on what was a 15% climb. Back at the team hotel Christian give us 
some very good feedback. He loved how responsive the bike felt, the way the bike handled, how it climbed and decended. However, his back was still playing up a bit and not knowing if there might be a tiny difference in the way his other bikes and the prototype were set up, the decision was made to switch back to his old bike for the next few stages. At the same time, the mechanics would set up the prototype for Fränk Schleck, the young Luxembourg rider. This will give us the chance to get an additional point of view on the frame, and Fränk is very talented so I think he will be able to give us some good publicity on the prototype as well. And since Andrea Peron also rides a 56cm frame, maybe he too will get a stab at the proto before Giro’s end.
By 8:30 PM, we finally had what we needed and so it was back to Naples for three hours of sleep, and then off to the airport. Now, on Monday afternoon, I am back in the office to giving the engineering staff an update on the feedback we received from Team CSC. When I retire, I’d like to go on a trip to Italy for more than four days.
Soloist Carbon Specifications
While some specifications such as the final weight and stiffness properties are not yet finalized as they depend on how the lay-up is changed after Team CSC’s feedback, the following features are certain to be included:
No compromise - Extremely aerodynamic yet among the lightest frames in the world and with excellent stiffness & compliance properties.
New profile downtube – Our work into improving the downtube and headtube on the P3 Carbon has directly benefited the Soloist Carbon.
Horizontal teardrop-shaped sloping toptube – Since the toptube has a slope to it, the aerodynamics can be improved by giving it the proper airfoil cross section in the direction of the airflow.
Stealth aero headtube – While the headtube may look round at the front, this is an optical illusion. The headtube is ultra thin and only 1mm wider than the P3 Carbon headtube. Although the leading edge is kept straight, the sides neck down in the center section, resulting in a very good airfoil shape around the headtube in combination with a classic side profile.
Oversized bottom bracket area – The increased volume of the bottom bracket area provides even greater bb stiffness so that Jens can continue to power away from the competition. The smooth contours of the BB volume help both for this BB stiffness and also for its strength as the fibers have a much more continuous path to transfer the loads better.
Wolf seatstays – The seatstays have an asymmetric airfoil design from the Wolf family, designed for optimal airflow around a thin frame member interacting with a spinning wheel.
Laterally stiffened chainstays – The chainstays feature a new design to further improve the lateral stiffness at the bottom bracket as well as the torsional stiffness of the frame.
Soloist Carbon Availability
Currently, we have scheduled to start shipping the Soloist Carbon in September 2005
Soloist Carbon Provisional Pricing information
Final pricing is not yet available, but the Soloist Carbon frameset will likely retail in the US$3000-3500 price range.