Cervelo Aspero, Black, GRX 810 Limited

[AndersCAAD]

Hi everyone! I'm posting my first bike build to the forum. I've had a lot of fun looking over the builds of other folks here, and now I'm finally contributing myself. I’ve been working on this build for about the past 6 months. I’ve worked at a Cervelo dealer for the past three years and have always wanted an Aspero. For years they we’re always a bit too expensive for me (don’t feel too bad for me, I’ve got two other nice bikes), but after a fleeting love affair with a Cannondale Superx that was one size too small for me, I scraped together enough cash to build this thing. This actually started out as Rival AXS build. But, I had some HED Belgium rims just lying around, so I planned to sell the carbon wheels the bike came with to bring the build into my budget. So I sold those, and then realized that I didn’t really want a Rival AXS build either (and could “save” some more cash), so I sold that too, planning to built it up as a GRX 1x or 2x build. Eventually, after much deliberation, I ended up with a complete bike with custom wheels. This is really the first custom build I’ve done, and I’m pretty pleased with it. Sorry for the lacklustre image quality, but I ran into issues uploading the pictures so I had to compress them.

Frame: Cervelo Aspero, Satin Black, 54cm.

Groupset: Shimano GRX 810 2x (48-31 chainrings, 11-34 cassette), Limited edition silver finish.
- This groupset released about a year ago and I fell in love with it, but it wasn’t really clear to me if it was only available to a limited number of custom frame builders or to the public. I figured I’d have to cobble together a GRX 1x groupset (which was problematic, as some small parts I needed were going to be out of stock for a while). Luckily, the silver groupset showed up on the Shimano ordering page back in February and I pulled the trigger.

Bottom Bracket: Cervelo Bright Connect
- Cervelo’s in-house version of the WheelsMFG BBs. I had to get a new one after selling my Rival Groupset so I figured I’d get a thread-together one.

Stem: Easton EA90
- Ran this stem on my road bike for years, and was going to run a Ritchey stem on this bike, but then realized I had Easton bars and a Ritchey stem on this bike, and an Easton stem and Ritchey bars on my Road bike, so swapped them to be matchy-matchy on both.


Bar: Easton EC90 AX, 42cm.
- The bike came with the EC70 AX bars, but I wanted the 90s for the ergonomic tops. The lighter weight didn't hurt either. I'm just running the stock Cervelo tape for now, but I'll probably replace it with Supacaz when the time comes.

Seatpost: Easton EA70
- Came with the bike, nothing wrong with it. So I’m trying it for now.

Saddle: Prologo Dimension NDR. I
- Might swap this out for a Selle SMP Dynamic I have kicking around, but I’ve heard some folks don’t like those on gravel/cx bikes cause you can’t move around so much. We'll see how much the stock saddle agrees with me. Might also swap this out for a PRO Falcon, whcih I've run in the past and also liked.

Computer Mount: K-edge Duo Mount
- Pretty pumped on this. Living in Canada it get’s dark pretty early for half the year, so I wanted to be able to run a reasonably powerful light and still have it look sleek. I’ve got a Lezyne Lite Drive 1200xl that I’ll run here in the winter. I also wanted to be able to run a GoPro for certain rides or events.

Pedals: Shimano XTR Race
- For years I was a Crankbrothers enthusiast, and ran their pedals on my mountain bike and gravel bike. I loved the mud shedding, but, over time, fell out of love with their eggbeater pedals. I felt like they didn’t provide a great platform for hammering on the pedals when out of the saddle. A lot of the time I felt like I was about to slip. The short cleat lifespan was a bit of a PITA but not the biggest issue. I wanted something that had a bit more of a locked in feeling, and a bit more of a supportive platform. So I went over to Shimano. We’ll see how much I like them. Great impressions so far. I was actually going to get XT’s but the shop was out of stock of XT’s at the time and could only buy XTR’s. I still run Mallet E’s on my mountain bike though.

Cages: Supacaz Alloy, Black
- I initially wanted to run the Silca Ti cages, but the eye-watering price per cage, combined with me worrying about too much silver stuff being on this build meant I ultimately decided on these. I’m pretty stoked about the dollar per gram on these. I bought three, two for inside the triangle and one for the BB mount.

Wheels: HED Belgiums laced to DT swiss 350s.
- I built these wheels up with the help of a co-worker as my first custom wheel build. Sapim polyax brass nipples and Sapim Race spokes. Threw on the blue Muc-Off valves for a bit of flashiness.
- Rims
- These were the first part of this build I actually had. I got em a couple summers ago cause they were a great deal (I paid $110 for the set), but I didn’t really have a plan what to do with them at the time.
- Hubs
- I love DT’s ratchet based system. I’ve had them on three of my bikes now, and never had a single issue. Super dependable and bomber, in my opinion. I also like the ability to easily upgrade engagement, and tool free dissassembly.

Tires: Panaracer Gravel King
- I’m not sure how much I like these. We’ll see how long they last on my bike. I might go over to a Schwable (G-One RS) or, more likely, a Pirelli (Cinturato Gravel H or Adventure).


So there's the build. I you guys have as much fun reading about it as I did building it.

[ellemenohpee]

Great use of the silver GRX. Not a lot of people jumping on that, but I think it works here!

[AndersCAAD]

Thanks. I'm pleased with it!

[thairish]

love the silver contrast

[feynman]

It's perfect.