Making Good..Better

The energy at a large triathlon event is like no other. The athletes, the hard bodies the feeling of competition, and of course the bikes! If your into triathlon you know its all about the bike. Its one of the biggest purchases you will make on your road to the finish line. If you graze the bikes at your next event I am almost willing to guarantee you will see a Cervelo. They have dominated the bike count at Kona by a overwhelming margin. What the reason? They make the fastest and most affordable triathlon bikes on the market. Unlike other bike companies who make tt bikes and market them to triathletes Cervelo, has made an effort to rise to the top and show commitment to the sport of triathlon. With the P3 being a staple in triathlon/tt frame design and the P4 rocking the tt world with a controversially integrated bottle, its no surprise that the release of there newest triathlon bike was one of the most highly anticipated releases in the bike world this year.

In 2009 when Cervelo released the P4 with an integrated water bottle, other bike companies were shaking in there shoes. The P4 was substantially faster then almost anything else on the market. Even though the general public didn't take much of a liking to the integrated bottle it still made the frame faster. Many people converted the bottle to a storage container. But the ice had been broken for frame integration, and this was the beginning of a new realm called 'super bikes".

From the P4 bike manufactures have now progressed to things like nose cones, preparatory handle bars, hidden brakes and of course accommodating electronic shifting. People got the drift that less is more and integration is the way of the future. But Cervelo didn't sweat the new bikes coming out. They did what they always do, they were patient and meticulous in there engineering.

As you watched a new super bike come out from just about every other bike line out there Cervelo did not even speak of anything new in the works. But did the really have to? The P4 was still putting up competitive wind tunnel numbers, even still beating some of the new "super bikes". So when there was talk of Cervelo putting out a new super bike the anticipation was almost unbearable.

Last week Cervelo released the new P5 to a small group of triathlon journalists. In my opinion it was everything it was cracked up to be. They incorporated all the newest technology, fixed prior issues from the P4, and made it look really sweet to!

We can break the major upgrades down into sections.

The prepriatory bottle:
The P5's slogan is "simply fast", they have come up with one of the fastest bikes and they have simplified it for the general public by removing as many of the pesky prepriatory parts as possible. One of them being the water bottle. Although it made for a good aero frame fairing, it was impractical to use. So they kept the fairing but ditched the bottle.

Legality:
A lot of the new super bikes are not UCI legal. Great for triathletes not so much for cyclists. Specialized was the first company to release a two versions of the same bike one being UCI legal and one not. Cervelo followed suit with both a UCI legal and illegal bike. We will get to the differences later.

Storage and Hydration:
After ditching the p4 bottle Cervelo opened up tons of storage options on the P5 including top tube mounts, bottle mounts and handlebar bottle mounts.

Fit:
As you know with tri bikes its all about with fits you in the most aero position. This can be a challange while maintaining all the aero fixin's. The P5 comes with a variety of different extenders and aero spacers to give you a wide variety of fit options and still maintain aero efficiency

Brakes:
With everyone tucking brakes in the smallest of spaces, riders are noticing a reduced amount of stopping power. Cervelo found the solution with there new partner Magura. Again leading the way in innovation the P5 is the first tt bike to feature hydraulic brakes. With a sealed system these are the strongest and easiest brakes on the market. All while maintaining a weight under 500 grams. For the triathletes there is a brake cover, and for those needing to follow the rules there's a separate fork for that.

Di2:
With the breakout of electronic shifting, people have been getting creative with ways to hide the battery. For the P4 a clean way of doing it was in the seat post, or in that pesky bottle. On the P5 with no bottle that is a perfect space for the di2 battery. It opens from the rear wheel well and slides right in.


In conclusion Cervelo came through with an impressive new bike. Taking notice to all the problems on the previous P4. It comes in reasonablely priced at $4500(frameset)-$6500(bike) uci legal and $6500(frameset)-$10000(bike) for the tri specific

To see pictures and geometry charts without breaking copy write laws check out

http://www.slowtwitch.com/News/The_Cervelo_P5_unveiled_2538.html

or the Cervelo launch site.
http://www.p5simplyfaster.com/

http://cervelo.com/en_us/