Cervelo

Aspero Frameset

Cervelo has been taking the top step of grand tours and road racing's most challenging monuments for some time with bikes engineered to excel on both the smoothest of uphill pavements to the brutal farm roads of cycling's old country. With such inspiring feats of strength and speed in the history books, to engineer anything other than a race-oriented frame as its entry into the off-road gravelin scene wouldn't be true to Cervelo's core; thus the Aspero Race Frameset was born. Cervelo's goal is to "change the paradigm of the gravel bike design," and we couldn't agree more with that aim represented in the Aspero. Intended to be the fastest endurance rig available, the Aspero is capable of sending it through hundreds of miles of rough terrain with speed and efficiency comparable to its road racing siblings. In Cervélo's own words: the Aspero is built to haul ass, not cargo.

The Aspero is crafted with modern geometry aimed to combine comfort for the long gravel miles, with progressive fit to help you soar off the front of the pack. Trail is Cervélo's secret weapon in the world of geometry, and it comes into play on the Aspero to provide stability, regardless of the bike's size. Featuring a two-position adjustment to the fork's trail, you can now fit those super cushy 650b tires up to 49mm and straight-speed racing tires in 700c up to 42mm and maintain trail between 58.1 and 58.6mm, respectively. It means that every size of the Aspero provides similar handling characteristics between various tire and wheel sizes, whether gearing up for a full-gas cyclocross race of packing up for a night under the stars.

The Aspero comes equipped with the protection you need when things get rough, muddy, and gritty. Downtube protection helps keep your lower frame free of marring. And with gravel racing tending to cross the ten-hour mark with frequency, the Aspero comes ready to pack on as much water as possible, with three bottle mounts and a Bento mount on the top tube for bringing along the critical nutrition you need on 200+ mile rides. While we typically only see the Bento mount being used in Tri, with the demanding gravel environment, we think it only makes sense to bring Bento to the grit, and we hope to see it take off across the boards. The Aspero utilizes the same bento mount as Cervélo's P5, and is compatible with all Bento's built for the P5.

When it comes to carbon fiber layups, Cervélo is no slouch. Its engineers carefully and meticulously design their layups to maximize stiffness where it's most important, compliance where you need a little comfort, and keep weight at a minimum. This particular model uses a C-level carbon, which uses ultra-high modulus carbon to damp jarring vibrations from mixed conditions, aiming to find a balance of static comfort and dynamic comfort. And as ever prevalent with Cervélo, the Aspero runs with the wide and stiff BBRight bottom bracket that doesn't flex under pressure when you're sprinting for the finish line.