Apologies if this is in the wrong section - first post- getting used to the layout.
I have an old Cervelo Soloist Aluminum (about 20 years old, I think?) in road format, which I love, but I’d like to do the following:
-New compact drop bars
-wider tires (25-28)
-update components (very old, rough ultegra STI, and wheels seen better days)
-new saddle
Complications:
From what I can tell, the steerer is 1 inch, and the stem is only compatible with 25.8MM diameter bars, which seem to be rare, and stuck in deep drop territory from the turn of the century.
Not sure on the tires. I’m running 23s, and the chainstays have extra clearance, but not a ton.
I tried putting in a new saddle, but the seatpost has a funky set screw assembly that protrudes so high above the clamp that the saddles I’ve tried hits it upon flexing, so it seems only compatible with saddles with a high distance between the rail and saddle bottom -no idea how to assess this without buying a ton of them to try.
Is there anyone familiar enough with this bike that can tell me how to overcome the complications above - or whether upgrading even makes sense - should I move it to the trainer, be thankful for the 20 years of great rides, and get a new one?
That’s a great frame, so no need to replace unless you want to.
You almost certainly won’t be able to squeeze 28s in there, 25s are about the max.
Stem spacers to adjust from 1" to 11/8" are readily available. Just add one of these to the stem of your choice.
The seatpost head should work on most saddles. Not much has really changed in terms of saddle rail spacing in the years since that bike came out. Those are/were a tight fit with some saddles, but if you’ve been trying old, used saddles on it my guess is that there’s a good chance the problem is the saddles. Sagging under weight and bottoming out on the post is typically a sign of a worn out saddle.
Welcome to the bike industry’s manufactured-in obsolescence ! (Wait til you have a 10 year old MTB 😖 to see how obsolete things can get - the wheels aren’t even the same diameter any more !).
I don’t have that model, but I have doubts you’ll be able to do all the changes you want - particularly getting wider tyres in. However I’ll stand corrected if someone says different from their own experience.
If it is 1" steerer then if you really want you could get a ‘normal’ 1 1/8 steerer stem with 31.8mm hole for new bars. And use one of these reducer shims.
For the saddle, all I can add from my n=1 experience is that Cobb saddles seem to be ‘tall’ so I expect give some clearance between rail and saddle base (compared to say a retro Flite saddle).
I have an S1. I can fit a 25 tire on the back but not the front. The tire rubs the top of the fork
So I stick with 23s.
I’ve pretty much replaced everything on it over the years. She’d been retired to a take-on-holiday bike so I am running a MTB RD with the 105 53/39 crank so my easiest gear is 39/42. It was one of those covid lockdown boredom projects.
Thanks Fredly/Bob/Dolfan - that’s great info, VERY much appreciated.
So I can get this 1-1/8 adapter (hopefully not a hard thing to install, and no risks?), and a new stem - that takes care of the bars.
Sounds like I can safely run 25s on at least one of the tires. Was hoping for wider, but worth a try.
The saddle still would seem a grey area. I’m currently using a very old arione (approx the same age as the bike) - and it works with marginal contact- but I’ve tried a new arione (no luck) and a new prologo dimension - and both barely allowed any flex before hitting the thumbscrew. I’ll look into the cobb, assuming it’ll work for road specific riding. I was actually reading dan empfield’s article prior to signing up for the forums about finding an ideal road saddle, and found our opinions pretty much in line, so I doubt the prologo would have worked anyway, considering how short it is.
Yeah, I’m the kind of guy that keeps stuff for a long time. Bob, to your point - I didn’t really consider the proprietary sort of odd seatpost/clamp when I bought it, but it’s been such a good bike, it really owes me nothing - it’s been rock solid though races, thousands of kilometers of great rides and pt for two knee replacements, so I could definitely use some more and easier gears on the drivetrain side.
The Arione saddles flex quite a bit, especially as they age… they also make several different versions, and rail clearance varies a fair bit. In general, though, that’s one of the lower clearance saddle you’re going to find. If your original Arione worked for you - and for the clamp on that bike - the current version is the Arione Classic. That should work as well. A lot of the newer saddles (including several version of the Arione and the Prologo) have squared off carbon rails that that seatpost wasn’t designed for (as they didn’t exist at the time) and that can push the height of the top of the clamp up enough to be an issue. The Aluminum Fizik rails on some versions of their saddle can create the same issue.
The 1-11/8 adapter/shim is quite safe, and easy to install, with the caveat that it needs to be the same length as the steer tube clamp portion of the stem. This often means the shim will need to be ground down/cut to length.
Thanks Fredly - terrific info. I’ll go ahead with the headset shim. I assume I can just cut it with a fine blade hacksaw.
I’ll look for the Arione classic, since I know it works, although I’d love a cutout or center channel.
If you ever come across anything that you see in the future with a largish rail to seat clearance that has a cutout and a moderate to long length, can you let me know?
I have a 2006 Soloist Pro, I used to run an Arione on it as well. The trick for the seat post was to loosen the rear tension bolt to raise the nose of the saddle then loosen the front screen wheel all the way. You have to then turn the saddle sideways to get the rail to grab the clamp. Its kinda tricky, other seat posts the bottom clamp would fall out but with this it won’t. Loosening both all the way is key.
I have mine drilled for Di2. The only real decision point I had was whether or not I wanted to drill into the bottom bracket shell. I decided to take the Junction Box A wire out the down tube and back up and in the seat tube. Other then that the routing is pretty clean.
Tires I can get a 25 in the rear no issues, front I have the Wolf fork a have some issues with 25s rubbing on the bottom of the fork when pressure are lower. I used to run 24mm Paves primarily on that bike. It was my travel bike for the longest. Now I have it as a permanent trainer setup with two seat posts, one with my road saddle and one with my TT saddle.
I have a carbon soloist. One of the best bikes ever made in my opinion. Don’t sell that gem. I use a steerer shim with no issues. You can run any stem and handle bar you want with the shim. I hit 42-43mph on my regular route with no issues. I run 25’s on the front and rear with 19mm internal track wheels with no rubbing. I run 28s on a newer specialized bike, but I prefer 25s. The width of tires are getting ridiculous. 25s GP 5000 run narrow and give a smooth ride. I would try those. The saddle clamp system is not perfect. I run a selle italia saddle with a cut out that works well. My only complaint is the BB flexes a bunch under load, but your aluminum bike fixes that problem. The carbon seat post and fork with low PSI would make your bike the best of all worlds for comfort and power transfer. I recently put all new campy components on mine and it rides like a new bike.
Check out my recent post to the old school cervelo P3SL tread. That bike is aluminum and has the same seat post and I used a steerer shim on there and fit a new zipp stem. I have a thing for the old cervelo bikes. I sold my pimped out Trek SC because my P3 was easier to wrench on and just as fast.
assuming that actually this is your bike: https://vintagecervelo.weebly.com/soloist.html
the steerer is 1"1/8, therefore no problem there at all with shallow drop (aka compact) handlebars
the seatpost assembly works fine with almost any “classic” saddle design (e.g. specialized romin)
frame clearance allows for maximum 25mm tire width on a 17c rim (at least bikes with the 3T fork)
FYI it sounds like the issue is tire height, not width. If you run a wheel with a 20 or 21mm internal width and a 25mm tire, it’ll cause the tire to inflate wider and might fit OK. That also generally makes the tires a little more comfortable and corner better, so wins all around.
Definitely agree - wider tires are pretty much my biggest wish - 23s were fine on my 30 year old bones, but now my 50 year old office worker body would love a bit of a more compliant ride, especially on some of rougher asphalt.
Definitely agree - wider tires are pretty much my biggest wish - 23s were fine on my 30 year old bones, but now my 50 year old office worker body would love a bit of a more compliant ride, especially on some of rougher asphalt.
Thanks Jimbo. Definitely agree- those old school cervelos were made well, and no doubt well ahead of their time technically. I’ve no doubt its still a better bike than I’ll ever be a rider (or ever was!) The only trick will be getting it a bit more modernized in terms of less head-down hammering, and more old man “smell the roses” 30kph backroad spinning.
I’ll take a look at your thread, nice to see you’ve had success with the headset shim that Fredly directed me to.
Definitely agree - wider tires are pretty much my biggest wish - 23s were fine on my 30 year old bones, but now my 50 year old office worker body would love a bit of a more compliant ride, especially on some of rougher asphalt.
Hopefully 25s cram in there.
Get a new bike :). 32s are the way to go =)
The thought has crossed my mind, definitely. 32s must be like riding on pillows compared to 23s.
What I may do is update/shim the headset/bars and 25 tires, and see if it makes a substantial enough difference - if so, I’ll get a new drivetrain and wheels - if not, it’ll live on as a trainer/rain bike, and I’ll start browsing the Canyon/Cervelo sites.
I was riding yesterday, and the fellow i did a few miles with had a rear derailleur with a motor in it. I’m clearly far behind the times.
That’s an option. You have a legendary frame. I have thought about selling my but keep chickening out when overwhelmed by nostalgia.
SRAM wireless would clean up the cabling a bit and give it a new look.
My S1 was replaced by a Madone SLR. I liked the saddle so got another ride one for the S1 (replacing the 20 year old saggy one) and it worked fine.
Don’t sweat the tire width. Once the bike industry has us drunk on the wider-is-better cool aid, they’ll announce amazing performance gains from new-fangled wheels and 23mm tires and frame designs to be yours in exchange for lots of money, ha!
Wow - I have a very similar story. Purchased a Soloist Team (silver and red) frameset from my LBS after I blew up my Cannondale in a crit. That would have been the summer of 2008. Raced and rode the hell out of that Cervelo for the next three years. It initially donned a SRAM Rival group that I had gotten off of Ebay. Then I moved those parts over to my cyclorcross bike, and the frame sat unused for two or three years since I had no real use for it - my carbon fiber roadie was getting the love. I tried to sell it, but didn’t have any takers. I didn’t realize how lucky that was at the time. I eventually got a set of Microshift shifters and derailleurs and turned it into my trainer bike. I would take it out when my main ride was in the shop, but the shifters rattled so loudly, that I couldn’t really stand to ride it outside.
Over the Covid summer of 2020, I decided to revamp the bike. I got a wireless SRM to replace the old wired Campy square taper that I had been running. I got a one position carbon fiber seatpost, a 105 11 speed groupset, new cockpit, and saddle, plus some carbon clinchers from an acquaintance. Everything was from Ebay/Facebook Marketplace, with the exception of the cockpit, so it was really cheap. Then I took it out to ride…
One of the things that you think when you get a budget bike is that it is transitory, and once you get enough to afford a nice bike, you will get it and feel the difference. By the time the revamp was done, I had tens of thousands of miles on some pretty excellent bikes. I expected to feel some drop off on the aluminum Soloist. Well, that didn’t really happen. It is just a really solid frameset. Get some decent parts on there, and it is absolutely fantastic.