Cervélo Caledonia 5

Race or explore on all roads, especially your local sectors

Race or explore on all roads, especially your local sectors

We all have a Caledonia that we ride. Now, I don’t mean the new bike from Cervélo. I mean the street from which the bike gets its name. Caledonia Road is not far from where I live in Toronto. It’s not that remarkable a street. At the south end, it has some nice old houses. As you head up the busy thoroughfare, you hit big-box hardware stores, warehouses, outlets and potholes. Lots of potholes. The Toronto headquarters of Cervélo is off Caledonia, at the north end. The employees of the company have torn down the road many times on their office rides. Caledonia, which is part of the final run-in, sees some intense racing, all for bragging rights. A road like Caledonia – maybe not the nicest looking or the nicest to ride, but a place where you lay it down – is no doubt in your neighbourhood, too.

When I took the Caledonia on Caledonia, the road treated me to its signature gouges and cracks. The bike’s tires, 28c Vittoria Corsa treads that measured 29-mm wide on the Zipp 303 S wheels, did a pretty good job of mellowing the hits. The real test of the bike came later on rough country roads and gravel – long concessions with stones smaller than golf balls, but bigger than marbles. Of course I got rattled, but not battered. Cervélo took what it had learned from designing its endurance C Series as well as its gravel racer, the Áspero, and worked compliance and vibration dampening into the frame. In contrast to the C Series, I found it easy to get into a fit and position that maximized my pedalling power on the Caledonia. The steering doesn’t have the edge that a full-on road racer has. That’s by design. Cervélo slowed down the steering so it would perform well in races such as Paris-roubaix.

While the Caledonia is built to race, it also has handy features for those who don’t have numbers pinned to their jerseys. The bike comes with a kit that includes a head-unit mount and mounts for fender stays. The frame itself has bolt holes for securing full fenders. On the second-tier Caledonia frame – called simply Caledonia, while the top-end frame is the Caledonia 5 – there are mounts on the top tube for a bento-style bag. The Caledonia 5 could handle some light bikepacking with its clearance for 34-mm tires, but it doesn’t come with any extra mounts.

Cervélo named this bike after a humble Toronto road not only as a nod to the company’s weeknight rides, but also as an homage to Cervélo’s Canadian roots. The organization is moving to the United States. The Caledonia is the last bike wholly designed in Canada. I get a kick out of the bike’s name because the road is just around the corner. But more important, I like how the name is also a gesture in mythmaking. Paris-roubaix, where this bike is meant to race, has its own myths and legends. It’s sorted on that front. But why not elevate the local? We all have a Caledonia. Why not celebrate it?

“Of course I got rattled, but not battered”