Our January 2020 review of the original Cervelo Aspero Gravel bike is favorable if you want a fast stable gravel race bike. Its low bottom bracket height, short chainstays, and relatively low trail figure make it a road bike with 40mm tire clearance. It is not an adventure/bikepacking gravel bike, nor is it an ideal machine for the most technical terrain with off-cambers or tight switchbacks. That said, Visma star Wout Van Aert famously won Heusden-Zolder in December 2023 on an Aspero instead of his R5 CX cyclocross bike, so the bike certainly has Palmares!
More Tire Clearance
Something we all want for gravel racing is more tire clearance, whether it be for lower rolling resistance on chunky courses or more mud clearance or both. Cervelo accomplished this to provide a maximum 45mm tire while sticking with ISO specifications of minimum 4mm frame-to-tire clearance at all interfaces. With a 42mm tire there is good mud clearance too. That is all thanks to increasing the chainstay length by a half centimeter and some carbon engineering.
Other Changes
Another change is headtube internal cable routing, something we examined with detail in the Trek Boone and also the Fezzari (Ari) Shafer. Cervelo cleaned up the routing without running the control lines through the stem or steerer. This, plus some modification of tube shapes, yields a claimed 3 watt aerodynamic drag savings, something that is good for marketing, though every little bit helps. Cervelo claims improved ride quality – does that mean smoother beyond the wider tires you can fit? Given that we feel the original Aspero is a stiff ride, a ride on the new version will be a test of that.
A T47 threaded bottom bracket replaces the BBRight, and a SRAM UDH holds the rear mechanism.
Esthetically the bike is similar. Aspects of geometry aside from the chainstay length seem the same when comparing the frame geometry specifications. Importantly, the new Aspero keeps the adjustable 2-position fork offset of its predecessor.
Availability and Pricing
The official price list shows the Aspero frameset is USD 2500, so the complete build with Shimano GRX 610 1X for USD 3200 gets you rolling right away for just $700 more. The top-end Aspero SRAM AXS Xplr 1 is USD 5500.
We hope to be on a new Cervelo Aspero soon to give you a first ride impression followed by a long term review.
Press Release
The official press release reveals 45mm maximum tire clearance. The geometry revealed has approximately 63mm of trail or a slacker 68.6 mm of trail depending on whether the fork “flip-chip” is set for 51mm or 46mm fork off-set. The trail is calculated with a 45mm tire and the the 72 degree headtube angle. The chainstays are 42.5cm with a 76mm bottom bracket drop on the 54cm and 56cm frames.
6 models plus a frameset will be available.
More Info: Cervelo.com
