First ride review: The new Cervelo S5 is simpler and faster

Two days after his sponsors Jumbo-Visma’s dominance in the Tour de France and on the day Marianne Vos will wear the Tour de France Femme yellow jersey for the first time, Cervelo has finally and officially announced his new flagship special aero. racing bike, new S5.

Although the entire Jumbo-Visma squad has been racing the new S5 so far this season, with both Van Aert and Vingegaard racing the green and yellow jersey to match the S5 on the Champs lysées, Cervelo has remained silent about the existence of the new frame.

Today, Cervelo confirmed all the details, upgrades and adjustments to the new frame and specifications for the full four bike options.

New secret

Not only is Cervelo’s marketing department silent about its new bike, the bike’s engineers and designers are also making relatively low-key updates. The new S5 is a refinement of the previous iteration with a focus on making an already fast bike more user-friendly than an entirely new design. The adjustments are subtle: a deeper frame section, new forks to simplify the front, and more tire clearance.

Cervelo has focused most of its development updates on the front end of the new S5.

Filter to simplify

Previous iterations of the S5 have remained fast bikes, but some bikes on the market, if any, feature more complex fork, stem, and handlebar arrangements and are time-consuming to work with. In addition to time-consuming internal cable routing, the previous S5 was equipped with a two-piece external steering fork assembly that forms the front nose cone. This requires a specific screw length for each rod stack height. And then there are additional spacers and wedges to adjust the stem height and rotation. And on top of that, the design allows the preload cone to potentially damage the head tube. In short, an overly complex setup might lead some owners to order a break just to adjust the height, reach, and angle of the handlebars.

Thankfully Cervelo has greatly improved the user-friendliness of the front-end for the new S5. The entire fork, including the nose cone, is now just one piece. No more stack-specific bolts, replaced with one bolt length compatible with all 30mm spacer stack adjustments. Handlebar attachment is simplified and allows rotation up to 5° without additional wedges. The improved bar shape now features a perfectly flat blade to the hood transition area for increased comfort. And the potential damage to the head tube has also been fixed.

Unsurprisingly, the internal wiring and hose routing remains, which means replacing a stem pad or headset will still take a lot of time. However, setup and customization is relatively easy. Our test bike S5 arrived fully built with the stem detached from the fork mount. Installing the rods, and adjusting the bars ready to ride took about five minutes (although cutting the seatposts to length due to the disconnected seat tube design took a little longer).

The new rod mounts are now much more complicated but still far from the straightforward regular rods and rods.

The good news is that in reducing the complexity of the S5’s front-end, Cervelo also found a weight savings of 53 grams. That’s not a huge savings when considering the total weight of the new S5 (more on this in a bit), but any sheared weight on this aero platform is a step in the right direction.

Unfortunately, all this ease of use comes at a cost. This new bike is only compatible with electronic gearshift. And anyone with the current S5 hoping to swap their custom stem and handlebar sizes for the new frame will be disappointed to learn the new front end doesn’t fit the old stem and stem.

One thing that remains forward compatible is the previous-generation 25mm offset seatpost of the S5, a part Cervelo will continue to offer. However, Cervelo says it has listened to cyclists around the world, who are said to position the rider further forward, so the S5 now comes with a 15mm offset seatpost, while a 0mm version is expected to be available as well. .

Increase

Somewhat surprising for a new aero frame, Cervelo’s review of the new S5 drops the mention of the first aero upgrade to third on the upgrade list. And to reiterate, that’s unexpected given how radical and fast the S5 is in its design.

That said, Cervelo still delivers some aero upgrades, thanks in large part to UCI’s decision to loosen its frame design regulations in 2020. The new regulations allow Cervelo to deepen the tube profile of what is already the fastest aero bike on the market.

These aero changes are most prominent in the deeper head tube, higher bottom bracket area, new profiled nose on the fork steerer, neater dropouts, and a larger compensation triangle where the seat tube meets the top tube. More subtly, Cervelo has updated the rear end of the truncated tube with what the company describes as a “more aggressive build”.

Deeper, bigger, faster. Cervelo’s aero update for the new S5 is largely a refinement of the previous design, all made possible thanks to an easing of UCI regulations.

To simplify all that, the new S5 has a much deeper and more aggressively shaped tube which Cervelo claims reduces aero drag by 65 grams compared to the previous S5.

All that extra surface area sure looks fast, but one would normally assume a larger frame tube means more weight. The previous S5 was known to be on the heavy side, and while dedicated aero bikes rarely make the best platform for building a true weenie-weight, I’m afraid the new S5 will be even heavier. Thankfully, and despite the larger surface area on many tubes, Cervelo has managed to keep the new S5 slightly lighter than its predecessor (the exact difference remains to be confirmed). It might be lighter, but my 56cm test bike still weighs 8.03kg with the Shimano Ultegra 12-speed Di2 and the new 52/63 wheelset from Reserve, before the pedals.

wider

Regarding the new Reserve wheels, Cervelo increased the clearance to 34 mm (measured tire width) for the new S5. According to the brand, the new frameset is optimized around increased width in the wheels and matching tires, something that is believed to be aerodynamically faster and more comfortable.

The new S5 is equipped with the new 52/63 wheelset from Reserve.

The new wheels, developed under the Turbulent Aero Reserve philosophy of developing and testing wheels based on turbulent and windy conditions in the real world, are said to stop dramatically at greater yaw angles (follow the link for Nerd Alert’s CyclingTips podcast on the topic). Reverse claims them to be 50 grams faster in laminar flow (traditional), and 54 grams faster in turbulent flow than the outgoing Reserve 50/65 combo.

The right or wrong set of wheels and tires can make or break any bike. Based on just two trips so far, the inclusion of Reserve’s new 52/63 with 28mm Vittoria Corsas on the new S5 certainly helps make that happen.

The geometry of the S5 has not changed from the previous generation.

First trip impression

With two little things called Tour de France and Eurobike going on over the last month, I’ve only managed to ride the new S5 twice to date. And thus, a long-term review will follow. Meanwhile, initial impressions suggest that Cervelo has created a very fast racing bike.

Yes, the weight of the S5 remains high. And even the newly simplified front-end still overcomplicates the simple trunk. However, all of that was forgiven on the first trip. The weight and trunk are a direct effect of the improved aerodynamics, and the S5 more than delivers on the average speed and speed sensation I’ve seen to date.

The aero tubes in the S5 and the wild cockpit setup had me expecting a jarring, heavy, sluggish driving feeling. However, I was immediately surprised by how light, agile, and responsive the S5 was.

As a dedicated aero bike with a pre-existing focus on pedaling rigidity, the S5 will never be as fit or comfortable as any other less aero bike on the market. However, the S5 has surprised me with how smooth it rides on rough country roads, most likely thanks in large part to the thicker tire system now provided.

Creation options

Cervelo will offer the new S5 in four complete build options: Shimano Dura-Ace (£12,500 / €12,999), Shimano Ultegra Di2 (£9,199 / €9,699), SRAM Red AXS (£12,999 / €13,499) and SRAM Force AXS ( £9,599 / €10,199). Each build features the new Reserve 52/63 wheelset and is available in a black or sapphire/white color mix. Prices for the United States and Australia are yet to be confirmed.

Cervelo will also offer frameset options for £5,399 / €5,499, including frame, fork, stem, handlebars and seat post. Plus, if you go the frameset route, there’s an extra “Tiger’s Eye” (aka red) colorway.

Expect deeper dives and more comprehensive reviews soon. In the meantime, you will find more information on Cervelo.com