Has anyone compared a Calfee Dragonfly Pro, or even a Parlee against a Cervelo R3 prior to purchasing their current bike? AC

I have not really compared, I have not ridden a parlee but only hear good things..Calfee versus Cervelo I would say depends more on what you are looking for. If I were looking more for a racing bike, light, stiff, fast, aero, then the cervelo.  If I were looking for something a little more distictive, with great riding qualities, more of a piece of art then a race bike, then maybe the calfee.  I think calfee and cervelo share many great qualities, but that is how I would look at it.  I sell cervelo so of course I think they are great, but have always admired calfee.

sam

ac911rn:

Has anyone compared a Calfee Dragonfly Pro, or even a Parlee against a Cervelo R3 prior to purchasing their current bike? AC

 

I owned the Dragonfly Pro and Tetra Pro right before I bought my Cervelos SLC SL, SLC and R3. I can tell you the Calfee bikes like Parlee are just phenomenal bikes and are the most comfortable you can buy. Calfee pioneered the thin seat stay concept back in the 80s before the R3. I would rank my Calfees as one of my all time favorite bikes right up there with my Cervelos. The only down side to the Calfee was the BB was not as stiff as the Cervelo line and handling was not as quick. The Calfee bikes are more comparable to the RS Cervelo bike its not to aggressive and was made for long Centuries. The thinner tubes of the Calfee frame actually are pretty aero since they have a thinner head on profile. Calfee frames are lifetime collectors items and will out live the rider, excellent build quality. If Calfee would just beef  up the BB area and stiffen up the front end I would have kept them. However if you are just a cruiser type looking for max comfort and century type machines get the Calfee or Cervelo RS, build quality of the Calfees are better than the Cervelo since they are a boutique bike builder instead of a mass production built machine. I won more races on my Calfee frames than any other frames I have owned but then I was younger and in better shape then now. Cosmetically you will find the classic shaped tubes of the Calfee frames to look boring after a year or so, at least with Cervelo the different shaped tubes keep the bike looking interesting.

i have several friends that went from trek to parlee and loved the parlee, then they rode the cervelo and SL2... all left the parlee.  the crevelo acclerates better and feels faster.  

 Are Parlee and Calfee related?  I know they're both custom carbon frames that end with ee... but beyond that?

I had the chance to talk with a Calfee representative when I inquired about their Dragonfly Pro. They seem to be repairing a lot of Cervelo and especially Orbea Orca frames. They have seen and studied the inner working of their tubesets. Althought they never bad mouthed these companies, they did say that handmade carbon is still the way to go. I will have to find a way to try all of them before I plunk down the dough. AC

Other than the "ee's," they are different companies.

brianappleby:

 Are Parlee and Calfee related?  I know they're both custom carbon frames that end with ee... but beyond that?

For a while Calfee, Parlee and Trek bought their tubes from a privatly owned US military defense company that made their carbon tubes for the bike companies and then each bike company would design their bikes on their own and assemble the tubes. Calfee and Parlee are different companies but are boutique low volume builders.

Since Calfee makes handmade carbon...what would you expect them to say is best? Just saying they are repairing a lot of "other" frames is bad mouthing them. Calfee are great frames, but info from any marketing rep may not be the best source.

ocracer:

i have several friends that went from trek to parlee and loved the parlee, then they rode the cervelo and SL2... all left the parlee.  the crevelo acclerates better and feels faster.  

Yeah the Cervelos are much better for power, speed, response and handling when compared to the Parlee and Calfee but thats like comparing a Ferrari to a Mercedes SL 550 they are made for different purposes.

ac911rn:

I had the chance to talk with a Calfee representative when I inquired about their Dragonfly Pro. They seem to be repairing a lot of Cervelo and especially Orbea Orca frames. They have seen and studied the inner working of their tubesets. Althought they never bad mouthed these companies, they did say that handmade carbon is still the way to go. I will have to find a way to try all of them before I plunk down the dough. AC

 

Hmm.

I was at Crankworx in Whistler this week. Giant had a big display with (shock - for Crankworx) a couple of their 09 TCR bikes on display, complete with squoval tubing and seat tube profiles to match the rear wheel. So I said to their marketing man: that's pretty nice looking (which it was). The down tube looks very Cervelo with that profile.

To which he replied, after a pause, "yeah, well, it does a bit, but the biggest difference between their bikes and ours is that they start with carbon fibre tubes and we start with a big ball of carbon fibre."

I looked at him, bit my tongue, nodded and moved on. Because IMHO you can start with a ball of CF or a pile of tubes and still end up with a pile of sh!t at the end of the day if you don't know what you're doing in the construction area.

Marketing boys are specialists in coming out with crap which is intended to sound shiny and impressive, but rarely says anything of substance. I wouldn't get too excited about what Calfee says about Cervelo, or what Cervelo says about Calfee for that matter. User feedback and personal experience is what counts.

And just to show that I'm not anti-Giant, I have an old Giant OCR Composite 2 in addition to the Cervelos in the stable.
 

ac911rn:

I had the chance to talk with a Calfee representative when I inquired about their Dragonfly Pro. They seem to be repairing a lot of Cervelo and especially Orbea Orca frames. They have seen and studied the inner working of their tubesets. Althought they never bad mouthed these companies, they did say that handmade carbon is still the way to go. I will have to find a way to try all of them before I plunk down the dough. AC

 

Hmm.

I was at Crankworx in Whistler this week. Giant had a big display with (shock - for Crankworx) a couple of their 09 TCR bikes on display, complete with squoval tubing and seat tube profiles to match the rear wheel. So I said to their marketing man: that's pretty nice looking (which it was). The down tube looks very Cervelo with that profile.

To which he replied, after a pause, "yeah, well, it does a bit, but the biggest difference between their bikes and ours is that they start with carbon fibre tubes and we start with a big ball of carbon fibre."

I looked at him, bit my tongue, nodded and moved on. Because IMHO you can start with a ball of CF or a pile of tubes and still end up with a pile of sh!t at the end of the day if you don't know what you're doing in the construction area.

Marketing boys are specialists in coming out with crap which is intended to sound shiny and impressive, but rarely says anything of substance. I wouldn't get too excited about what Calfee says about Cervelo, or what Cervelo says about Calfee for that matter. User feedback and personal experience is what counts.

And just to show that I'm not anti-Giant, I have an old Giant OCR Composite 2 in addition to the Cervelos in the stable.
 

greg66:

Marketing boys are specialists in coming out with crap which is intended to sound shiny and impressive, but rarely says anything of substance.

 

 That's why they drive those of us in Operations insane!  Always overstating things and making promises we have to try to keep!

LOL!