As everyone who watches the Tour de France now knows, Cervelo has a new addition to their line, the S5. While select members of the Garmin-Cervelo team had the opportunity to ride the S5 on the roads of France, I got my opportunity on the picturesque hills above Malibu. While Specialized and Scott recently launched their first offerings in the aero-road category, the S5 is Cervelo’s second-go-round. The Cervelo S3, along with Felt’s AR series, helped to pave the way in making the aero-road bike more than just a niche item, but rather something that most of the major bike brands have added to their line-or will be shortly. 

In contrast to the S3 only being available in one, $4,500 frame option, the S5 frameset is coming in three different carbon options, all from the same mold: the S5 ($3,000), S5 Team ($3,800), and the S5 VWD ($5,900). All three models are available as a frameset or complete bike with multiple build options. My test ride for the day was the S5 Team with SRAM Red components, 3T handlebar and stem, along with Mavic Cosmic wheels.

The S5 takes the World Championship winning S3 and redesigns it from the ground up. Starting up front, the non-tapered 1-1/8 inch headtube is lengthened to 179mm in a size 56, compared to the S3’s 160mm length. This is good for riders looking for a higher handlebar height without wanting to ruin the bike's sleek look with a few centimeters of spacers under the stem. Riders wanting a lower handlebar height will have to use a stem with adequate drop to find their ideal position. Just behind the stem on the top tube, the internally routed cables enter the frame in a clean, uncluttered design. 

One of the biggest advancements in the bike's aerodynamics is what Cervelo calls the “dropped downtube”. The downtube comes all the way to below the fork's crown, where frame and fork blend together like a jigsaw puzzle—allowing optimal airflow over the rest of the bike. Further down the downtube, there are two options for water bottle cage placement. The lowest position gives the best aerodynamics, but also limits you to one bottle since a second cage on the seat tube won’t fit.

The S5’s seat tube takes a much more dramatic approach to aerodynamics than the S3, the Specialized Venge, or Scott Foil—borrowing the rear wheel fairing design from Cervelo’s premium time trial bike, the P4. The wheel tucks right up to the seat tube to reduce the amount of wind turbulence coming off of it. 

As with Cervelo’s R-series bikes, the S5 employs their own BBright bottom bracket system. The 79mm wide shell allows for larger diameter, thinner frame tubes to be used to increase stiffness without adding weight. 

With the enhancements the front-end and the seat tube, Cervelo claims that the S5 takes 8 fewer watts to maintain a speed of 25mph in comparison to the S3. This may not sound groundbreaking, but remember, this is an 8 watt reduction from a bike that is already one of, if not the most aerodynamic road bike on the market. 

Before ever even turning the pedals, I had a sour taste in my mouth just from trying to get saddle height adjusted correctly. The aero seatpost is nearly impossible to make micro height adjustments with since it sticks in the seat tube, needing a lot of force to get it to budge (which no doubt could be helped with carbon paste). When the seatpost is pulled out entirely, the seatclamp wedge falls free—usually down the seat tube, making a standard adjustment very frustrating. Once I finally got the fit dialed, it was time to tackle the hills of Malibu. 

Out on the road, things got much better as the ride headed up one of the many canyon climbs in the area. At just over 40 miles the ride wasn't much in length, but it had 4,000-feet of climbing, including the first climb of the day—a 10-mile ascent from Malibu’s pristine beaches to the mountain's peak. On the long climb up to the ridge, the mid-15 pound S5’s ability in the hills was better than anticipated thanks to a laterally stiff bottom bracket and torsionally stiff rear stays. When accelerating out of the saddle, the S5 felt snappy, and dare I say quick, when jumping on the pedals. 

Descending the unfamiliar twisty canyon roads while trying to see who could got to the bottom the quickest was a good test of the bikes handling—and our fortitude. While the descent and bike were new to me, the frame's geometry was not. The S5 sees the same geometry as their mountain goat R5 model that we tested in our July 2011 issue, but can also be read here. The race-inspired angles have been dialed in over the years from working with such pro teams as CSC, Cervelo TestTeam and now Garmin-Cervelo. 

The biggest drawback of the aero-road bikes that are currently on the market is their harsh rides as a consequence of tube shapes that are less than ideal for vertical compliance. After just one 40-mile ride on the S5 I don’t feel comfortable saying it’s heads above the others in its category in ride quality—that remains to be seen until after a full test. What can be said though is the seatstays and chainstays on the S5 have been refined from the S3’s design in order to achieve better compliance. 

Thanks to Thor Hushovd, the S5 is already a proven winner on the roads of France, and in my opinion, it’s one step closer to bridging the divide between a traditional road bike and the aero-road bike. The increase in frame stiffness, improved aerodynamics and potential advancements in ride comfort, without an increase in weight, takes the S5 from the niche category and makes it an all-rounder that does everything well. We appreciate the fact that Cervelo has multiple price-levels of the S5, opening the door for more people to get on board. 

Visit Cervelo for more information.