The fastest bike of the modern era.

CERVELO S5

SHOP S5

SPEED OVER EVERYTHING ELSE.

Honestly, after the 2022 men's and women's Tour de France, what else do we need to say? A bike made for racing won a hell of a lot of races. Riden to 3 men's stage wins, 2 women's stage wins, the "most combative" rider, and green jerseys for men and women. If we go by the old adage, "If it's good enough for them, it's good enough for us." We could probably save a lot of time with our buying decisions and spend more time riding.

But, you don't race in the Tour de France, you say? No personal mechanic to keep your bike in tip-top shape? No personal masseuse to make sure your legs are fresh before every ride? Yea, we feel you. The S5 is more than just a bike built for the pampered euro racers; Cervelo has made sure that it's simple to work on (despite looking like a UFO), they've made sure it's comfortable for all-day rides, and they've made sure it is adjustable for people of all levels of flexibility.

Oh, and we almost forgot to mention, it's currently the fastest bike on the planet. So when you post up on your buddies on your Saturday morning spin, make sure to say thanks for the effort to all the egg-headed engineers at Cervelo who have tirelessly worked to make it possible.

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Learn more.

GEO

WHO IS THIS RIDER?

You want to go fast. Really fast. Maybe not all the time, but most of the time. You're the type of rider who warms up for a Strava segment and goes out on a ride specifically to dethrone your buddy from a segment they snagged last week.

Beyond the straight line speed, you also know that the races are often won in the corners, either by saving energy or from taking that "hot line" through the last corner of a crit because you feel connected to your bike in a way that a version of you 10 years older would shake their head at.

You also know that to go fast, you're going to end up spending a lot of time in the saddle. Because of that, you need a bike that is easy to maintain, comfortable to ride on all types of roads, and fits you.

SPECS

Style: Competitve Road
Price Range: $13,000 - $9,000 Complete / $5,500 Frameset
Frame Material: Carbon Fiber
Frame/Fork Weight: 1,035g / 412g
Complete Weight: 7.57kg / 16.69lbs
Size Range: 48cm - 58cm
Tire Clearance: Up to 700x34mm
Color Options: Black, Saphire/Ice (Blue/silver), Tiger Eye (Orange/Black)

WHAT WE LOVE.

Aerodynamics

We don't have a wind tunnel, but we're pretty comfortable saying that this thing checks all the aero boxes. It feels like flying when you're at speed, and there is mature stability in crosswinds that aero bikes of the past often wholly forgot about.

Stiffness

A bike meant to go fast needs to have a "snap" that gets it up to speed. If you've only seen the S5 online, it's hard to explain the size of the BB area, but when you see it in person, you understand why the back end of the bike feels so good. The massive BB area pairs with the bayonet fork to make a bike that accelerates and corners, unlike any other bike.

User Friendly

The worst thing in the world is when you've got a bike chalked full of proprietary parts with no consideration for maintenance or build - A mechanic's nightmare. The new 2022 S5 puts those fears to bed with well-thought-out integration and cable routing that is easy to work on and easy to maintain while making the most striking aesthetic you can buy.

FEATURES.

Frame Updates

The new 2023 S5 that premiered in the 2022 Tour de France doesn't look much different from its predecessor. So much so that it flew under the radar for months racing in broad daylight in many of the big spring classics of the early season, but the new frame a fork makes significant changes in aerodynamics to help make you even faster

The new shaping is noticeable in 4 key areas; the fork, head tube, chain stays, and BB. It takes advantage of new rules from the UCI (Governing body of professional cycling) that allow for more aggressive shaping of aerodynamic tubes.

Fork: The S5's unique hinged fork helps to smooth air over the frame. The updated fork features a deeper cross section directly in front of the head tube to help make the initial contact with air seamless. When in a crosswind, it helps create a smoother radius that helps keep the frame protected and avoids wind buffeting.

Headtube: The new headtube is the most noticeable change to the S5 and has a deeper airfoil that tapers to a finder point. This added depth works with the additional fork depth to create an airfoil that is all together deeper and allows for smoother airflow and better crosswind performance.

Seatstays: The location of the seatstay attachment to the seat tube has been adjusted lower on the frame to allow for wider tire clearance (up to 34mm measured) and to clean up airflow off the back of the seat post and between the rider's legs. This also tightens the rear triangle and works with the BB to help create added stiffness while cornering and pedaling.

Bottom Bracket: If you told us there was a hidden trapdoor to access storage in the BB area, we'd believe you; this frame area is BEEFY. That added beef adds new stiffness to the frame and also helps to shield the new wider rear tire.

Real-World Aero

If you have ever ridden a bike that is unstable in windy conditions, this will be a welcome addition to the design process at Cervelo.

Typical wind tunnel testing allows the engineers to test the bike in crosswinds by turning the bike so that one side of the bike is presented to the wind. The angle that the bike is turned is referred to as yaw. This is a critical component of creating a bike or wheels that are stable while riding, but it doesn't go far enough.

Cervelo's new approach to testing goes a step further by moving outside of the wind tunnel to real roads and measuring how the bike interacts with other objects while pedaling. The wind buffeting around other riders in your group creates turbulence that slows down the wind interacting with you. This means that there can be significant oscillations in how the airflow interacts with you and your equipment. By testing in these real-world conditions, Cervelo was able to use that data to create new wheels, with their partner company Reserve, that are faster in ideal conditions while riding solo and more stable while managing turbulence created from your surroundings and other riders. Win, win

Integrated & Adjustable

The word "integration" send a chill down the spine of mechanics worldwide. While fancy integrated parts look fantastic or can help make a bike with better performance, that integration often comes at the cost of adjustability and maintenance. The new version of the Cervelo S5 works to simplify the building and fit its front end and cockpit.

The bike comes with every piece needed to achieve any fit without cutting any carbon. Additionally, every assembly bolt has now been standardized to a single length so that you won't need to dig through your spare parts like a bag of legos to make a small change.

The shape of the handlebar has also been tweaked to allow for a perfectly flat transition from the hood to the handlebar, and a new 2-bolt connection from the stem to the handlebar will enable you to infinitely adjust the tilt of the handlebar from +5° to -5°.

The S5 will also ship with a more modern 15mm setback Seatpost that accommodates a wider fit range and will keep backward compatibility with 25mm setback posts for riders who need the extra space

Tire Clearance

Up to 34mm tires -- It seems like only yesterday (if you're old like the guy writing this...) that bikes shipped with 23mm tires for race bikes. Not only did bikes ship with 23mm tires, but the frames didn't allow for riders to go up in size; there just wasn't enough space.

Larger tires have tons of benefits. Most notably, the added air volume of the tires improves the ride quality by allowing you to run much lower pressures without the risk of pinch flats. Second, the wider tire also changes the shape of the contact patch to the ground, reducing the front-to-back length and therefore lowering the rolling resistance of the tire and adding more grip while cornering thanks to a wider contact patch on the ground. On top of the change in the shape of the contact patch, the lower tire pressure helps soak up road vibration and keeps the tire in better contact with the road, improving traction.

The new S5 ships from the factory with 28mm tires. Yup, you heard that right, an "aero bike" ships from the factory with 28mm tires. What a world we live in.

Geometry

	48	51	54	56	58
Reach	367mm	376mm	384mm	392mm	401mm
Stack	496mm	519mm	542mm	565mm	588mm
Head Tube Angle	71°	72°	73°	73.5°	73.5°
Front Center	579mm	580mm	581mm	588mm	604mm
BB Drop	72.5mm	72.5mm	70mm	70mm	67.5mm
HT Length	69mm	87mm	109mm	130mm	157mm
Top Tube Length	520mm	535mm	550mm	565mm	581mm
Seat Tube Angle	73°	73°	73°	73°	73°
Standover Height	715mm	736mm	754mm	782mm	813mm
Trail	56.1mm	56.1mm	56.2mm	56.2mm	56.2mm
Wheel Size	700C	700C	700C	700C	700C
Fork Offset	58mm	52mm	46mm	43mm	43mm
Wheelbase	973mm	974mm	975mm	982mm	999mm
Chainstay Length	405mm	405mm	405mm	405mm	405mm

Geometry Comparison

The S5's geometry had an incredible partner to copy -- Cervelo's incredible R5. The S5, however, gives a small nudge toward more agility and features slightly less trail (Think of "trail" as the bike's desire to keep the front wheel going in a straight line). Outside of that tiny tweak, you can rest assured that you'll run out of talent well before the S5 - if you don't like that, you can ask Marianne Vos and Wout van Aert.

1. Cervelo S5 (56cm)

2. Cervelo R5 (56cm)

3. Cannondale SystemSix (56cm)

4. Giant Propel (ML)

Size: 56CM	S5	R5	SystemSix	Propel
Reach	392mm	398mm	392mm	398mm
Stack	565mm	572mm	560mm	562mm
Head Tube Angle	73.5°	73°	73°	73°
Front Center	588mm	594mm	593mm	n/a
BB Drop	70mm	69.5mm	72mm	65mm
HT Length	130mm	163mm	149mm	165mm
Top Tube Length	565mm	564mm	560mm	570mm
Seat Tube Angle	73°	73°	73.9°	73°
Standover Height	782mm	778mm	798mm	807mm
Trail	56.2mm	57.3mm	57mm	57mm
Wheel Size	700C	700C	700C	700C
Fork Offset	43mm	45.5mm	45mm	45mm
Wheelbase	982mm	994mm	987mm	997mm
Chainstay Length	405mm	410mm	405mm	405mm