Cervélo R3 disc

[jelledb]

Hi everyone, I've got another bike to add to my stable. My "old" Wilier GTR road bike is well over 5 years old now and has more than 25 000 kms on the counter. A good reason for an update I guess ! I started my hunt for a new frame. As I'm really "disc-brake-minded" it had to be a disc frame. I'm also not the "aero-frame-kinda-guy" and really like the classic looks of the Cannondale Supersixes, Giant TCR advanceds and Cervelo R series. The Canyon Ultimate was removed from this list after a horror story with an ultimate of my brother (I'll better spare you the details). I found an amazing deal on a 2018-colorscheme Cervélo R3 disc which I couldn't resist. The R3 ticks all boxes for me: lightweight!, mid-price range and up-to-date with latest disc standards (flat mount and Thru-Axles).

All my bikes are equiped with Ultegra Di2 but this time I wanted to try out something new. It should still be electronic shifting. So this was basically a Campy vs Sram debate. I discarded my Campagnolo idea (entirely by it's quite high price point for EPS disc brake groupsets). So long story short Sram Red Etap HRD it was!

The wheelset was donated from my Argon18 gravel bike which goes back into winter modus at the moment. It is a Prime RP-38 disc wheelset which is reasonably light and is tubeless ready as well.

The powermeter I took of my Wilier GTR. This is an Rotor 3d24 with a Power2max NG Eco spider on it which has served me very well the last couple of months. Unfortunately I ordered these with 4-bolt hole patterns to accept Shimano asymmetrical chainrings so I couldn't go all Sram (Red chainrings) with this build. I decided that a fresh pair of Dura Ace 9000 chainrings would match the silver of the etap rear mech. I'll leave the judgement to you guys but I do think this matches quite nicely .

Enough talking, let the pictures talk



and ... the final weight is :



Some remarks of this build:

• I had to put a homemade centerlock disc spacer to move the disc brake rotor a bit outboard. The Sram Etap HRD rotors hitted the spokes and it is still realy a tight fit as you can see here. I've ordered a 160mm rotor to move the caliper a bit upwards (should give more clearance plus give extra stopping power).
  
• The pressfit process of the bottom bracket realy took the crap out of me. It was actually the first time I pressed a BB in a carbon sleeve (previous ones were metal sleeves). I used assembly paste (which doesn't make the process any easier I think). The 24mm spindle of the Rotor crank is also on the wider side (I think a tiny bit wider than the Shimano Hollowtech ones). It required gentle tapping with a platic hammer to get it in place. But all in all the cranks are spinning really smooth. Happy days!!
  
• On of the rivnuts of my bottle cage mount were not properly fixed in the frame. I managed to get the bottle cage screw loosened and installed a bottle cage on it and I think this was just enough to let the rivnut expand against the inside of the frame.
• The RAT-axles may seem a bit daunting at first sight but once you're getting the hang of the mechanism I personally think they're even better than standard thru-axles.
  
  Last but not least here is my speclist:
  • Frameset : Cervelo R3 disc in size 54
  • Groupset : Sram Red Etap HRD
  • Cassette: Sram PG-1130
  • Chain: Sram PC-1170
  • Crankset : Rotor 3d24 with Power2max NG eco spider and Dura Ace 9000 (53-39) rings
  • Wheels: Prime RP-38 disc with Schwalbe Pro One tubeless 28mm
  • Saddle: Pro Stealth 142mm
  • Bottlecages: Tune Wasserträger
  • Bottombracket : C-bear BBright for hollowtechII
  • Stem: Fizik Cyrano R1 stem (120mm)
  • Handlebars: Fizik Cyrano R3 snake handlebar (40cm)
  • Pedals: Speedplay Zero CroMoly
  • Disc rotors: Shimano SM-RT99 (140mm, will install a 160 in front)
  
  Weight comes in at 7.68kg (pretty happy with this result, could go down with a nice set of tubulars, better cassette, lighter pedals)

[siim]

Nice build! Quarq or some other non-shimano-chainrings PM crank would be even nicer of course but I understand you use what you have.

How do you like the waterbottles? I'm considering same cages to replace Fabric cageless solution. And by the way, as you can see from my build thread, I had similar issue with bottle cage mount rivnut. I had it fixed in a LBS.

[jelledb]

Nice build! Quarq or some other non-shimano-chainrings PM crank would be even nicer of course but I understand you use what you have.

How do you like the waterbottles? I'm considering same cages to replace Fabric cageless solution. And by the way, as you can see from my build thread, I had similar issue with bottle cage mount rivnut. I had it fixed in a LBS.

Yeah maybe maybe I'll add an Sram Red Quarq crank or a Sram s900 with P2M spider. I'd also would love a nice pair of tubulars (FFWD ones ). But that will be thoughts for next summer .

Well I love the bottle cages. They're ridiculously light and they "feel" kinda fragile. But they hold my bottles very well. Haven't really heard of too much faillures with those ones so let's hope they're worth their money.

Yeah those rivnuts must be a manufacturing fault or something. I managed to install the cages tight on the frame, so hope I managed to clamp them against the inside tubing. I only saw the long M5 bolts and screw nut trick afterwards.

[wingguy]

The pressfit process of the bottom bracket realy took the crap out of me. It was actually the first time I pressed a BB in a carbon sleeve (previous ones were metal sleeves). I used assembly paste (which doesn't make the process any easier I think).

You used what exactly?

You could also use something like Rotor's own 4-bolt chainrings which would match the rest of the chainset instead of buying a whole new PM. Unless you want an excuse to buy a whole new PM anyway

[jelledb]

The pressfit process of the bottom bracket realy took the crap out of me. It was actually the first time I pressed a BB in a carbon sleeve (previous ones were metal sleeves). I used assembly paste (which doesn't make the process any easier I think).

You used what exactly?

You could also use something like Rotor's own 4-bolt chainrings which would match the rest of the chainset instead of buying a whole new PM. Unless you want an excuse to buy a whole new PM anyway

Well. I "borrowed" a bit of assembly paste of my dad's toolkit. It's called Amazone assembly paste. Cannot find it online but it's supplied with agricultural spare parts. It does the trick. Used it on cassette body and centerlock discs and it dries out a bit after a while.

Yes I know that Rotor has their own rings. But I do love shifting with Shimano chainrings (even with a Sram drivetrain). There is more chance that I'll ultimately swap for a "real Sram PM" and for now ride my Dura Ace rings (have purchased them to match the Etap silver and have high end chainrings for my groupset). However, thanks for pointing the Rotor chainrings. Will definetely consider them when my CX rings need replacement.

Rode 4 hours on the Flemisch roads (muur van Geraardsbergen and other famous Flemish climbs) and this bike is an absolute charm to ride. Never experienced such a responsive frame before.

[wingguy]

The pressfit process of the bottom bracket realy took the crap out of me. It was actually the first time I pressed a BB in a carbon sleeve (previous ones were metal sleeves). I used assembly paste (which doesn't make the process any easier I think).

You used what exactly?

You could also use something like Rotor's own 4-bolt chainrings which would match the rest of the chainset instead of buying a whole new PM. Unless you want an excuse to buy a whole new PM anyway

Well. I "borrowed" a bit of assembly paste of my dad's toolkit. It's called Amazone assembly paste. Cannot find it online but it's supplied with agricultural spare parts. It does the trick. Used it on cassette body and centerlock discs and it dries out a bit after a while.

What is it, though?

For installing a BB in a carbon PF shell you should be using primer and a Locktite retaining compound like 641. If you've got something like a grease, anti seize paste or carbon assembly paste it's definitely not the right thing to keep it working properly in the long term.

[siim]

Why should one use primer and retaining compound? Does Cervelo recommend this? Or some BB manufacturer? My experience is that C-Bear specifically recommends anti seize and that's what I used in my Cervelo R3 Disc BB installation. More specifically, Shimano Anti Seize. So far, so good - not a single creak has come from BB.

[jelledb]

Why should one use primer and retaining compound? Does Cervelo recommend this? Or some BB manufacturer? My experience is that C-Bear specifically recommends anti seize and that's what I used in my Cervelo R3 Disc BB installation. More specifically, Shimano Anti Seize. So far, so good - not a single creak has come from BB.

Same here. Also followed C-Bear's advice. Didn't experience any creacking yet. Honnestly, I'm not a huge pressfit fan. The idea of using force to install and remove the cups in a direction the frame wasn't realy designed for makes me shiver .