Cervelo Soloist Red AXS Bike

The Cervelo Soloist Red AXS Bike is Cervelo's top-spec race build, pairing a full carbon frame and fork with SRAM's Red AXS E1 groupset and Reserve carbon wheels for a complete bike that weighs in at 6.86 kg. This isn't a bike built around pro-tour marketing. Cervelo's pitch for the current Soloist is aimed at the rider who logs highway miles to make a Saturday start line, shows up for the Tuesday night fast ride, or gets a lap in before work — the kind of racer who gets into the break and makes their own luck. The Soloist has carried that identity for years, and this build is the sharpest expression of it yet.

Aero performance is the Soloist's core engineering focus. Cervelo redesigned the frame with a deeper head tube, deeper fork legs, and a bottom bracket junction that shields the rear wheel from airflow, cutting 8.6 watts of drag compared to the outgoing Soloist. Riders who use the included Cervelo WB003 aero bottles and cages pick up another 4.3 watts. It's a road bike built to reward sustained speed — chasing back onto a group, holding a breakaway, or simply riding faster for the same effort on a long solo ride.

The drivetrain is SRAM's Red AXS E1, the brand's flagship 12-speed electronic groupset, running a 48/35 chainring pairing against a 10-33 cassette with hydraulic disc brakes and SRAM Paceline X centerlock rotors. The crankset integrates a power meter as standard, so structured training and race-day pacing come built in rather than bolted on later. Power gets to the road through Reserve's 42TA front and 49TA rear carbon wheels, laced to DT Swiss 240 Dicut hubs and built tubeless-compatible. These wheels come out of Reserve's Turbulent Aero program, which uses real-world wind data rather than pure wind-tunnel numbers to shape rims for stability in the crosswinds and gusts riders actually encounter on the road, not just in a controlled test environment.

Cervelo carries the aero-first approach through the rest of the build. The HB18 is a one-piece carbon handlebar and stem, cutting the cable clutter and drag of a traditional stem-and-bar setup, mounted to an SP27 carbon seatpost designed to flex slightly for road comfort without giving up stiffness under power. A Fizik Arione R1 Light saddle and Vittoria Corsa Pro TLR G2.0 tubeless tires in 700x29 round out the build — a tire width that balances low rolling resistance with enough volume to handle rough pavement and long days in the saddle. Integrated mounts for a computer or accessories up front and a rear accessory mount keep the aero lines clean without sacrificing practicality.

At $11,000, this is a bike for the rider who has already decided what they want from a race machine and isn't looking for compromises. The Cervelo Soloist Red AXS Bike suits someone racing regularly, training with a power meter as a matter of course, and who wants every watt they can get without switching to a time trial bike. It's not a do-everything endurance frame — it's a purpose-built road racer, and it rides like one.