Photo by Jay Prasuhn
That's right: the handlebar accounted for 30 percent. As a leading-edge piece of equipment, it was being neglected. Cervelo decided to do something about it.
"We felt 30 percent was such a big number, we thought we could do better," Henderson says. "With our aerodynamics experience and materials experience, why not? Why couldn't we just make our own bar, something that would make for a faster bike?"
The result is the first Cervelo aero road bar. Cervelo says the full-carbon bar, with a shallow 128mm drop and built-in aero nosecover is 21.3 watts faster than a standard bar. It has a slight rear sweep, and a beveled turn of the bar from hoods to tops for inner wrist clearance when in the drops. Cables are routed internally, porting out the rear underside of the bar top.
"We had some wild prototypes that we felt ultimately compromised utility," said Cervelo lead engineer Graham Shrive, who quarterbacked the bar project. "We wanted it to be faster, but we didn't want to give up comfort and ease of use."
"We've done extensive testing, and have yet to find an aero road bar that has beaten us in the tunnel," Shrive said.
The bar's design also considered the frame's geometry, and was made in concert with the frame. "It becomes a bar that delivers a predicable steering experience, instead of having to adjust the ride with the stem, creating an all-bar/no stem setup that wrecks handling," Shrive said.
More: Review: Garmin 1000
Geometry
The new S5 becomes an aero road bike that leans now more toward a race bike than "just" an an aero road bike. The stack drops on all bikes; the 56cm frame gets 15mm lower in the headtube, and the 54cm frame gets 13mm lower. One could get even lower by subbing out the stock volcano bearing cap for a flatter version.
Cervelo also increased the headtube's size, using a 1 1/8" upper bearing and a larger, stiffer 1 3/8" lower race. The result is a bike with a claimed 35 percent increase in headtube stiffness, and a 17 percent increase in fork lateral stiffness.
"Fit was modified in response to athletes, both our ProTour team riders and customers," Henderson says.
While vertical stiffness was never a question, lateral stiffness was a weakness of the early S5. With the larger lower bearing and downtube/chainstay/seatstay alterations in the frame, it's lateral stiffness get a big upgrade, noticed best on punchy climbs or during city limit sign sprints.
"To bring our aero road bike to the same level of stiffness as our R5, it was a real challenge," Shrive says.
Our Ride
We joined as collection of fellow cycling media to test the S5 in Tucson, Arizona. Hosted out of Garmin-Sharp rider (and reigning Tour of Utah champ) Tom Danielson's home on Tucson's east side, we were treated to gorgeous rides, both up Mount Lemmon as well as through the loops of Saguaro National Park East.
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