Originally Posted by
bpcyclist
Really glad you posted these. I saw them first a couple years ago and Raoul and the Maven are the main reason I never added carbon clinchers to my rim-brake BMC. He scared the **** out of me. We are very hilly here. That said, I do a lot of riding on fairly flat surfaces, too, and so would like a bike that is fairly zippy on the flats as well. I do think disc it will probably be. I was looking last year at an R3, but I am now confused by Cervelo's line. Do they even make an R3 anymore? What is this R-Series thing? The R2 frame is supposed to be very similar to an R3, but can I get one with disc brakes? I don't think so, yet. And why are aero frames generally substantially more expensive than a traditional road frame? Is it worth it? I've never even ridden one.
If you live/ride in a hilly area, you'll definitely benefit from disc brakes...more stopping power, less fade, and you won't cook your (carbon) wheels. I also wouldn't recommend going the aero route. As you noticed, they are more expensive (I think it's just down to the fact that they are new/trendy so they can charge more), heavier, and I'm still not buying the fact that aero trumps weight, for the general rider, while climbing. That said, I'd love to have an aero bike as a second bike, but wouldn't choose one as my only bike.
As far the the whole "R-Series" instead of R-3 thing goes...I'm not sure why they changed it. The only difference that I can see is that they added a Force Axes option, and a new color. As CarloM mentioned, I'd look for 2019, or '18 on closeout. It's the exact same bike
I ended up getting a good deal on a '19 with standard Ultegra, and just converted it to Di2 myself...worked out being A LOT cheaper than simply buying the Di2 model.