Cervélo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cervélo Cycles is a Canadian manufacturer of racing bicycles which started operations in 1995 and is currently located in Toronto. Its founders, Phil White and Gérard Vroomen act as 'co-CEOs' and continue to run the company.
Originally dedicated to developing time trial bicycles, since of 2002, Cervélo has also been providing bicycles for the professional road cycling team, Denmark's Team CSC. Cervélo products combine high-end parts and materials such as carbon fibre with CAD and computational fluid dynamics design along with a high research and development budget. The company does extensive low-speed wind tunnel testing on their frames at the San Diego Air and Space Technology Center, in California. Cervélo designs, but does not manufacture, all of its carbon fiber frames. Cervélo relies on a subcontractor in China to manufacture their bicycles.
The most distinctive features of Cervélo bicycles are their compact frames and very narrow aerodynamically shaped down tubes that has a NACA compliant aerodynamic profile. Currently, Cervélo produces three lightweight road bikes: the R3, R3 SL and RS; three aerodynamic road bikes: the Soloist Carbon, Soloist Team, and SLC-SL; three time trial/triathlon bicycles: the P2 SL, P2 Carbon, and P3 Carbon; and a track bicycle: the P3C Track.
Cervélo's marketing has been approached with three strategies. First, their sponsorship of elite level athletes, most notably Team CSC, has led to widespread recognition of the brand. In advertising, they have focused their efforts on educating consumers about the aerodynamics and the research and design that goes into their bicycles.
