March 17, 2005 – As we go to press with this edition there is lots to write about. This past weekend Bobby Julich won the Paris-Nice using his Cervelo P3 SL and Soloist, which are also Gerard’s picks of the month in this issue. We are a few days away from heading down to Oceanside, California to begin our new partnership with Ironman North America.

Our P3 Carbon news continues as we work on the first delivery of this exciting new model. Testing results and other technical news will delight those of you who have already got one on order. As well there’s an update on the Bayonne.

Cervélo’s prime apparel person Heather Travis is also on hand with her apparel pick of the month from Cervélo’s new 2005 Apparel line.

All in all this éNews is not a long read, but certainly an interesting one! Hope you enjoy it and if you’ve got any questions or comments, by all means please let us know at info@cervelo.com.

P3 Carbon With the P3 Carbon now in production the past few months have been spent testing and perfecting in a few major areas. First we changed the bottom bracket area due to some aerodynamic concerns, resulting in a new shape that has a much cleaner transition of the airflow from the frame onto the rear wheel. Obviously this is a rather major change to make since it involves a rework of the mould, but our development schedule was set up to allow for such a change so this has not affected the promised delivery date.

Next up was the optimization of the lay-up. With all the production and prototype frames we have tested over the years, both from Cervelo and from other companies, we have an extensive library of test data. Coupled with that is feedback from (professional) riders on the pros and cons of these frames. Having this data is invaluable as it helps us to know what levels of stiffness we want to create in areas such as the bottom bracket and the headtube to ensure that in the end you, as well as the pros from CSC and our pro triathletes, will like the way the bike rides.

Phil has been at the factory assisting in the manufacture of prototypes that then underwent a battery of tests for stiffness and durability. The results are then distributed to our engineering team, and together we come up with a set of lay-up changes to get the test results closer to our goal. Once we get close, the prototypes are also tested on the road. In true car-industry fashion, there was even a spy shot that circulated across the Internet. Next time we’ll have to disguise the frame with fake spoilers.

After a dozen or so iterations the stiffness and fatigue properties are the way we like them. The set of tests that we do internally covers all uses of the frame much more extensively than any standardized test, but to show independent confirmation of our tests we usually send the final design to the German test lab EFBe as well. Again, thanks to our internal tests there is no real need for this and there is no suspense for us, as we already know the frame will pass, but for consumers it is nice to know that an impartial lab has tested the frame as well.

EFBe has changed its test methodology since we first started testing with them, so we now test our frames at their highest standard, which is the TP Top Performance test of 100,000 cycles at 1300N. While more than half of the frames tested by EFBe does not pass that test, we like to design our bike to a higher standard than the rest of the industry. Therefore, we asked EFBe to subject the test frame to three consecutive Top Performance tests, for a total of 300,000 cycles at 1300N. As we expected, the P3 Carbon passed without any problem, making it arguably the more durable frame on the market today.

With all the pre-production testing finished, we have moved into production in the first size, the 56cm, and soon the 54cm and then the other sizes will follow. The first frames are still on schedule to be available in April.

For your chance to win a P3 Carbon, drop by our booth at the OceanSide Half or check out one of the upcoming issues of éNews.