The Takeaway: The brand new S5 looks a lot like the old S5, but naturally, it’s lighter and faster. More crucially for everyday riders, it now has better tire clearance, easier serviceability, and improved fit adjustment, all of which add up to a bike that’s not just faster but also easier to live with.
- Cervélo the S5 will fit a 34mm (measured) tire, which is great for riders who don’t always ride perfectly paved roads.
- Cervélo eliminated the stack-specific bolts needed on the previous S5.
- The new bike saves about 7 watts and sheds 53 grams over the previous generation of S5.
Pros
- It just feels fast
- Generous tire clearance
- Well executed geometry for each frame size
Cons
- Replacements for BBright bottom bracket can be hard to find
- Electronic shifting only
The new Cervélo S5 is here, and it looks very much like the old S5. So much so that it’s been winning bike races under Wout van Aert and Marianne Vos since February without too many people noticing. Just how little has changed with the new bike is partially a testament to how radical and fast the previous S5 was.
The new bike continues with much of the same formula, and the race results speak for themselves. In the Men’s Tour de France the new bike was ridden across the line in Paris by yellow jersey winner Jonas Vingegaard and green jersey winner Wout Van Aert who won two stages aboard the S5. Just a day after the Men’s Tour concluded in Paris Marianne Vos won stage 2 of the Tour de France Femmes and took the yellow jersey on the S5. Vos, who’s considered by many to be the greatest cyclist of all time due to the breadth and scope of her career, wore the yellow jersey through stage 6, where she scored another win on the newly released bike.
This latest iteration of the S5 continues with the same visually radical frame shapings of the prior model. The split Bullmoose-style stem, the seat tube that wraps around the rear wheel, the dow tube cut out for the front wheel, and the fork all hammer home the point that Cervélo engineered this bike to cheat the wind. The new S5 takes full advantage of the UCI’s relaxed regulations surrounding frame design and aerodynamics announced in 2020. The new rules allowed Cervélo to make various frame tubes much deeper, taking one of the fastest aero bikes and making it roughly seven watts faster.
If you compare images of the new and old S5 side-by-side, you can see these changes in the deeper head tube, a taller bottom bracket area, and the larger compensation triangle near the seat post clamp area. If you look even closer, you can spot a subtle change to the trailing edge of the head and down tube.
While deeper tubes make the bike faster against the wind, the added surface area tends to result in more weight. Thankfully the new S5 is a smidge (53 grams) lighter courtesy of a newly redesigned fork and handlebar assembly, which also addresses some key issues that riders had with the previous S5. Still, the S5 is a long way from being a feather-weight bike. My test sample, built with SRAM Force eTap and the new Reserve 52/63 wheelset, weighed 18.2 lbs (without pedals). For reference the R5 we tested last year which was also built with SRAM Force eTap and a lighter set of Reserve wheels was around one and a half pounds lighter in a larger 58cm size.
The new fork, including the “nose cone” steerer tube, is now a single piece. Cervélo also ditched the stack height-specific stem bolts used on the previous S5. There is now just one set of bolts that cover the entire 30mm of stack adjustment, and the S5 ships with a full complement of spacers. Adding or removing spacers is a straightforward process. But like other fully integrated handlebar setups, changing stem lengths or servicing a headset bearing will be a lengthy and costly process.
Another drawback of the simplified front end is that the new S5 is now only compatible with electronic groupsets. I suppose it will not be a huge shock to anyone paying attention to the current trends in high-end road bikes and groupsets, but it’s still a bummer for the riders who enjoy mechanical shifting or might have been looking to swap their old parts onto a new frame.
Typically, aero bikes aren’t known for extra tire clearance, but the S5 surprised me with room for up to 34mm (measured) tire. Cervélo also optimized the frame around the Reserve 52/63 wheels, which are wide both externally, 35mm front and 34mm rear, and internally 25.4mm front and 24.4mm rear. Reserve does not recommend using tires narrower than 28 mm (labeled) on these wheels, and the included 28mm Vitoria Corsa tires inflated to just about 31mm. According to Cervélo and Reserve, this setup saves a little over 5 watts. More importantly for me, the wider tires take some of the edge off of the S5’s ride; as this is an incredibly stiff bike.
Visually the S5 is not for the purists, and I’ve heard some strong opinions about its looks while ride testing the bike. Personally, its looks have grown on me since first appearing in 2018. Brands are going to keep designing complicated, fully integrated cockpit setups, I want to at least praise them when they are creative about it, and there is no denying that the V-stem Cervelo has designed is distinct, as it is not traditional.
The S5 is not a perfect bike, but its downsides start to feel more and more minor the faster you go. It’s a bike that genuinely feels like it starts gathering speed from the moment you clip in and as the rushing of wind intensifies around your ears, whatever concerns I had began to quickly fade into the background. Riding the S5 feels like a cheat code for anyone that cares about speed. It’s a brilliant bike to ride fast. It’s stable without being dull in a corner, it climbs much better than its weight suggests, and riding it downhill feels like achieving maximum warp. It’s a perfect example of why aero bikes dominate the road race category.
Geometry
Available in five sizes (48, 51, 54, 56, and 58cm), the S5 undergoes slight changes to its geometry from the previous generation. The changes are so minor that many riders might not even notice. Reach and stack measurements remain entirely unchanged and are what you would expect from a bike meant for racing: Long and low. Head and seat tube angles, wheelbase, and chainstay length dimensions also remain unchanged.
The only geometry changes are a 3mm shorter headtube, a 0.5mm higher bottom bracket on some sizes (48, 51, and 58cm), and finally, a 7mm increase in stand-over height for all sizes. That last one is likely the most notable, especially for riders looking at fitting themselves on the smallest size bike.
To keep handling consistent for all riders, each size now has a size-specific fork. This stands in contrast to the usual recipe of plugging the same fork into almost every frame size. This results in all S5 sizes having the same trail dimension (57mm), whereas other bikes might have a different trail number for every size of the frame. I wish more bike brands were doing this, especially at this price point.
Bike Family
Cervélo offers four complete builds of the S5. Riders preferring Shimano can choose between Dura-Ace at $13,000 or Ultegra at $9,000. For those wanting SRAM, Red and Force build kits are available for $13,000 and $9,000, respectively. Buyers also have a choice in paint schemes between black-on-black or the purple and silver color job of our test bike.
A frameset option, priced at $5,500, is also offered. This includes the frame, fork, stem, handlebar, and seat post. It’s available in the same colors as complete builds and a unique, frame-only Tiger Eye paint (which is red).
All complete bikes ship with the new Reserve 52/63 wheelset. Cervélo also includes a computer mount (with pucks for Garmin and Wahoo computers) and front and rear GoPro attachments.
Ride Impressions
The S5 is a fast bike. It looks fast. It sounds fast while you’re riding (woosh-woosh). It has the stiffness and crackling jumpiness that a good, modern, high-performance race bike should have. From the moment you get on the S5, it’s instantly clear that it's made for speed. Every pedal stroke turns into forward momentum with ruthless efficiency. And once the S5 gathers even the slightest bit of speed, it refuses to give it up.
In terms of straight-line pace, the S5 is simply excellent. It offers the most benefit from its outstanding aerodynamics and power transfer when the topography or your legs allow as much speed as possible. In real-world terms, it meant that I had to change my braking point on several local descents because the S5 was consistently several miles per hour faster than my usual go-to bike (which is decidedly more traditional).
As the terrain turns uphill, the S5 still shines due to its excellent power transfer. On climbs around 5% grade, the bike feels almost as rapid as on flat ground. Once gradients are steeper than 8%, the S5 loses a bit of its pep. This was most noticeable when it came to changes of rhythm, such as responding to an attack or otherwise trying to accelerate on a steeper climb. Swapping to a lighter set of wheels helped make the bike feel more agile on steep ascents, but it also dulled a bit of its speed everywhere else.
Fast descents bring out the S5’s best trait, its precise and direct handling. Even when diving into a corner with too much speed, I could pull the bike out of oversteer and back onto the desired line. The voluminous tires provided massive traction, with the S5 constantly feeling planted and in control no matter how early I tried getting on the power when exiting a corner.
My very minor handling gripe was that the S5 felt a bit twitchy at speeds under 20 mph. Occasionally if making a very low-speed turn (something like turning around in a parking lot) the steering stop built into the headtube would catch me out as well.
Unsurprisingly, the S5 does not prioritize rider comfort. The V-stem and massive fork offer an incredibly rigid front end, while the massive bottom bracket and deep aero seat post do the same at the back of the bike. However, thanks to the improved tire clearance in the frame and the plush stock tire, the S5 never left me beat up, even after day-long adventures that would inevitably include some sections of gravel road.
It wasn’t too long ago that a road bike with clearance for 34mm tires would have been lumped into the all-road category. The S5 is most certainly not an all-road bike. But thanks to the wider tire setup, it has the ride quality and comfort of a bike I’d be happy to ride every day, not just on race days.
Hopefully, the S5 leads the way forward for other aero road bikes in terms of all-day rideability without needing to rely on overly complex frame designs. While I do not doubt that Cervélo and Reserve would have sacrificed wider tire clearance if the data suggested it was faster. I’m happy to see this wasn’t the case. The S5 benefits quite a bit from the larger tires in terms of comfort and grip, both of which are important if the goal is to go fast.
The bottom line is that the S5 is a tool for speed on all but the steepest terrain. Racers looking to climb double-digit grades are better off with bikes like the Cervélo R5. But for most racers, the S5 will be the faster option in virtually all situations. If you care about speed, you’ll be hard-pressed to talk yourself out of this bike.
Test Editor Dan Chabanov got his start in cycling as a New York City bike messenger but quickly found his way into road and cyclocross racing, competing in professional cyclocross races from 2009 to 2019 and winning a Master’s National Championship title in 2018. Prior to joining Bicycling in 2021, Dan worked as part of the race organization for the Red Hook Crit, as a coach with EnduranceWERX, as well as a freelance writer and photographer.
