The new Colnago V3Rs carries on where the V2-R aero bike left off, with a more aero monocoque frame design and features that are bang on trend with the latest crop of aero bikes.
That includes kammtail truncated aerofoil sections to the bike’s tubes and the dropped seatstays that are becoming the norm on aero bikes, reducing their profile exposed to the airflow.
Colnago has also reworked the V3Rs’s geometry with a shorter head tube, a longer fork, lowered bottom bracket and more balanced handling across its size range.
Kammtail tube sections and lowered seatstays aid the V3Rs's aerodynamics
Colnago says that the V3Rs is lighter than its predecessors, with a claimed weight of 790g for a size 50s, while still being stiffer due to use of a new carbon fibre. It claims a 12% increase in rear triangle stiffness and 6% increase around the head tube, along with better vertical compliance for a smoother ride.
Likewise, the fork has been redesigned to make it lighter at 390g uncut, with 50g shaved off that when cut down for the 50s bike size. Plus, as with the rear triangle, there’s room for larger tyres up to 28mm.
There's cockpit integration with the disc brake bike getting enclosed cable runs into the frame
Colnago has also gone for an integrated cockpit on the disc brake version of the V3Rs with enclosed cable runs from the bars. There’s a short run of cable that appears from the underside of the bar tops, before disappearing into the stem, head tube and the inside of the frame, and re-emerging at the points of action. This leads to a really clean looking cockpit and removes the drag generated by round external cables.
The seatpost clamp is now fully integrated, smaller and lighter than in the V2-R or the C64 too. As you’d expect, there’s a kammtail carbon seatpost.
We loved the ride quality and pin-sharp handling of Colnago’s previous generation V2-R, which earned it a place on our Editor’s Choice list of the best products we tested in 2017, so we can’t wait to ride the new V3Rs.
And if you want to see the new Colnago V3Rs in the flesh, we reckon it’s a dead cert for this year’s Colnago Owners’ Day that's happening next month.
The V3Rs is offered by Colnago as a frameset only in eight of its idiosyncratic sizes from 42s to 58s, corresponding to a top tube from 501mm up to 593mm and in direct mount rim brake and disc brake options.
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Paul started writing for Cycling Weekly in 2015, covering cycling tech, new bikes and product testing. Since then, he’s reviewed hundreds of bikes and thousands of other pieces of cycling equipment for the magazine and the Cycling Weekly website.
He’s been cycling for a lot longer than that though and his travels by bike have taken him all around Europe and to California. He’s been riding gravel since before gravel bikes existed too, riding a cyclocross bike through the Chilterns and along the South Downs.
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