2003 Cervélo P3

zerogravitas

Retro Guru
Having very much enjoyed Blackbike's thread on building up his TT frame I thought I would share my current journey to a similar goal. I know, I know, "you already have two unfinished project threads" I hear you shout - well, this one is already a rideable bike so it doesn't count. ;)

Here I plan to explore a bit of the history of the brand and the frame, alongside documenting my restoration and upgrade efforts. Then there will be experimentation with getting my riding position dialled in and of course my experiences riding some TTs!

Most of my other vintage builds just have the goal of being beautiful bikes that ride well, with fitting components. So it is fun to have a project that will have a very clear focus on speed with measurable results! It will of course be as beautiful as I can make it.

I have dabbled with TTs on my road bikes in the past but always wanted a full TT machine. Speed is addictive and the world of TTs is appealing in both the obsessive level you can take every element and also in it's accessibility. With a young family I have no time for road racing or crits, but there are plenty of TTs I can ride, competing to better myself over time.

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Here is the bike; a Cervélo P3 from 2003. Cervélo are of course a massive name in road cycling these days, with Visma riding their frames in the Grand Tours and every other dentist being perched on an R5 or S5 with too many spacers. ;) I am a fan, but particularly of their earlier days when Gerard Vroomen and Phil White built the company up, breaking into the triathlon scene in a big way with many innovative ideas in geometry and frame design. My much upgraded Soloist Carbon from 2008 (Team CSC era) is still my main fast road bike, a frame that was hugely influential on the move to aero optimised road frame design through the 2000s-2010s.

I was lucky enough to be given the P3 in the guise you see above by my fantastic neighbour Jason. He raced it for many years in Singapore and Hong Kong, before moving to the UK. It's over 20 years old as I write, but is still stiff, aerodynamic, and with excellent geometry for me and plenty of potential to make a very fast bike. One of the challenges I love in rebuilds and restorations is trying to make the best version of something I can; with some well chosen upgrades, a little restorative work I am confident this chunky old thing will fly.

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As I began I had a few choices; I stuck with the 10 speed Ultegra group to begin test rides; it is reliable, works well and has a good enough spread of gears to suit most terrain I'll encounter locally. I stripped the rear derailleur down and rebuilt it as it was a bit sticky but now its smooth and works well.

The Bontrager tubular wheels have come off and I've swapped in my old FFWD F6Rs, a clincher wheelset with a more modern D shaped aero rim profile that I loved on my road bike. Eventually I would like a disc wheel for the rear but that will be after I have some more proper riding under my belt.

I swapped these Shimano pedals for my favoured Look Keos.

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The cockpit is one of the biggest areas for improvement - the old round section basebar and relatively wide armrest position will all be upgraded in time. For now though, it is perfect to get used to riding in the aero position and to start playing around with extension positions.

The final big change I had to make was to the post/saddle: Jason is a tall rider at about 6'3" - I am 6ft so had to bring the post down a good distance. The P3 has a long top tube, and this is a 58cm frame so I am running the seatpost clamp flipped into the forward position. Jason's old saddle is an ITM Adamo split nose which was pretty tired but decent enough to try out to see if I liked the style.

After the initial tweaks I was ready to take it out for some test rides, with the bike now looking like this....

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More coming soon.
 
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Having the "dentists' bike" reputation has always seemed a bit unfair on Cervelo, especially the steel and aluminium models. The steel Prodigy and Superprodigy models seem to have a bit of a cult following, which is understandable. I've only ever seen one Prodigy (in Singapore, coincidentally), but it was a 51" so way too small for me.

This one brings back fond memories of triathlon days -- it'll be interesting to see how this build goes.
 
I would love a Prodigy! They are very interesting frames, USA made I think.

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The Super was one of the very last steel frames in the peloton I think?


The original P2 that started the ball rolling for them around 1997 is also a fantastic looking machine. The fully profiled seattube/mast looks stunning.

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You can see the immediate ancestry of the P3 here, the same NACA tube profiles, just without the rear wheel wrap.
 
I would love a Prodigy! They are very interesting frames, USA made I think.

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The Super was one of the very last steel frames in the peloton I think?


The original P2 that started the ball rolling for them around 1997 is also a fantastic looking machine. The fully profiled seattube/mast looks stunning.

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You can see the immediate ancestry of the P3 here, the same NACA tube profiles, just without the rear wheel wrap.
The P2 was a competitor of the Trek Hilo , also there was the Cervelo Soloist. The Superprodigy was TIG welded but not sure what tubing was used , a prodigy was also existing in titanium according toi my memory.
 
So with a couple of hundred kms on this bike in the setup above, I played around with the saddle height and fore/aft position. I changed the old ITM Adamo for a slightly newer ITM Attack. I liked the split nose design for comfort in the aero position, but found the Adamo nose 'arms' a bit wide and prone to chafing my thighs on longer rides. The Attack is narrower overall and definitely suits me better.

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It is also more aero as it doesn't have a tri style transiiton hook on the back. Fractions of a watt saved right there. :p

This experimentation period also gave me some time to test different extension positions to see what I found comfortable. I moved the extensions forward by about 25mm and could possibly still go further, although I am going to change the whole cockpit and see how I get on with S shape extensions first.

With all this tinkering and testing, I thought I should ride a proper event to see how it performs in anger, so a couple of weeks ago I headed up the road after work to one of the BMCC (Bicester) evening TT series. Four laps round an RAF glider field perimeter track for a 10. This one was a 2up event, so I teamed up with Cam, one of my regular clubmates and we gave it a crack. Despite both not being on top form and having never ridden 2up TTs before we were chuffed to manage 24:19, 6th overall and the top TT bike team. Beaten by some very fast roadbike pairs and the amazing Lizzie Jordan (Paralympian gold winner!) and her tandem partner!

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Even though I am well used to riding in fast groups on my road bikes I found handling changeover was difficult whilst making hard efforts on the tt bike, really easy to surge away as you come onto the front as these pictures illustrate! Sorry Cam. ;)

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It was so so much fun... at least after the fact. 😵 I now have some great photos/data to work on position and pacing ready for the next. If I have time I would like to ride one or two more solo events before the season ends.

Swapping out the bar is one of the next tasks and trying a slightly lower position with the stem flipped downward. Comparing myself to the other TT riders one of the biggest areas I can see for aero improvement is getting my elbows tighter in. My new bar allows for a lot more adjustment inward so I'm looking forward to seeing how this affects things.
 
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