Rather than welding or bonding a permanent front derailleur tab to the frame, Cervelo uses a bolt-on mount that attaches to threaded inserts in the seat tube area. The Front Derailleur Mount provides the braze-on style interface that modern front derailleurs require, positioning the cage at the correct height and angle relative to the chainrings. This modular approach means you can remove the mount entirely if you convert to a 1x drivetrain, leaving clean mounting points for an optional blanking plate instead of a vestigial tab that serves no purpose on a single-ring setup.

The mount is machined from 6000 series aluminum with a black anodized finish that matches the frame hardware and resists corrosion from road spray and sweat. Two bolts secure it to the frame's threaded inserts, and the derailleur then clamps to the mount using its standard braze-on fitting. Proper torque on both the mount bolts and the derailleur clamp bolt matters here since shifting precision depends on the whole assembly staying put under pedaling loads. A loose mount shifts position gradually over time, and once alignment drifts, you're chasing trim adjustments that never quite dial in no matter how carefully you set the limit screws.

If your original mount got damaged in a crash, stripped its threads from overtorque, or simply went missing when you bought a used frame, this OEM replacement restores proper front shifting capability. Cervelo uses different mount geometries across their frame families, so verify compatibility before ordering. The FDM-0E0 version fits the S3 from 2019, P5 Disc, P-Series, Áspero, Caledonia, and Caledonia-5 models. The FDM-2017 version fits R-Series frames from 2017 onward. Using the wrong mount puts the derailleur cage in the wrong position relative to the chainrings, and no amount of limit screw adjustment fixes geometry that's fundamentally off from the start.