It's a carbon-mad world we live in, but nevertheless we're amidst the 4th straight season of ProTour podium placings for Team CSC on Cervélo's aluminum workhorse, the Soloist Team. Matt Goss led out his Team CSC teammate JJ Haedo to a field sprint victory in front of about a million spectators at the Philadelphia International Championship -- the biggest 1-day race in America. 3 of Team CSC's 7 riders that day chose the Soloist Team over the Soloist Carbon, proving that not only is aluminum still relevant at the highest end of the sport, but to some it's preferable. Elsewhere on our site we offer the Soloist Team as a frameset so you can custom-build it with suitably ProTour-caliber components -- Record, Dura Ace, Force, etc. But here we offer the Soloist Team as a pre-configured complete bike comprised of components like Shimano Ultegra-10, FSA, and Easton in order to provide you with maximum value. At a complete bike cost 30% less than the price of a Soloist Carbon frameset alone, you get a race-ready machine unmatched by any other bike in the $2,000 range. In fact, we don't know of any $3,000 bikes in the marketplace we'd choose over a Soloist Team/Ultegra. Why choose the Soloist Team? It comes down to one simple fact: Engineering. The heart and soul of the Soloist Team is its Smartwall 2 tubeset. If you sawed the Soloist downtube in half and looked down into it, the first thing you'd note would be its airfoil shape. It looks almost identical to the profile of the wind-cheating time trial helmets Giro makes for their marquee riders in the Tour de France. Most importantly, the leading edge of the tube is not round. Rather, it's elliptical. In the end analysis, it's this elliptical leading edge that makes it so aerodynamic. It's impossible to create an elliptical section by starting with a round tube and forming it into shape. Rather, you must extrude the tube into the proper airfoil shape -- a process substantially more difficult, time consuming, and expensive. Cervélo goes to the trouble to extrude their aluminum tubing because they know that "aero" tubes with a round front and a sharp trailing edge (this is the design you see from almost every other manufacturer in the marketplace) offer hardly any aero benefit since the bluntness of the round front deflects the airflow before it reaches the trailing edge. The aero design of the Soloist Team goes beyond the downtube. It has a bulge-butted seat tube and tapered and ovalized top tube to make it even more invisible to the wind. And these tube designs go beyond concerns of aerodynamics -- they increase the frame strength and BB stiffness, they reduce the overall frame weight and add comfort to the ride. It's the secret behind the Soloist Team's "un-aluminum" ride quality and exceptional handling. You should think of the Soloist Team as an aero frame fully suitable for TT's or Tri, but since it has road geometry it's equally ideal for road racing. It comes stock with Cervélo's proprietary Aero Carbon seatpost. The post has a reversible design. When you situate its head to the rear it gives the frame a 73 degree effective seat angle, the standard for road riding. When you position the head to the front it converts the frame to a 76 degree effective seat angle, making it ideal for TT's and Tri. Other details show that despite its fantastic price, the Soloist Team is a vital member of the Cervélo line: Its grey anodized finish is substantially lighter than paint, and unlike paint it's more or less impossible to chip or mar. And it uses the same ICS internal cable stops to give the frame an extra measure of aerodynamics and a clean appearance. Soloist Team/Ultegra Complete Bike Price: $2000.00
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configure/buy Soloist Team/Ultegra Complete Bike
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