Skyline516

P1010621 by Skyline516, on Flickr
Nashbar Al-2
A couple of upgrades planned for the winter:
New Crank (Shimano 105 Compact), new wheels (probably Easton EA50)
Also, I'm planning on painting it myself in a black with deep purple
I can't go more advanced than that since I can only work during the summer

zitter

borrowing some wheels from my friend for the season, these things are pretty awesome, i'll eventually buy a pair i think



saddle is temporary, still waiting on a good replacement for my broken antares

X-LinkedRider

Nice ride but you better be flipping that stem

kindablue

Or just riding where the stem is comfortable...

Hermes

2012 Cervelo R5

I decided to pull the trigger on a new bike. My racing has evolved to hill climbs and timed events for both track and road. So my objective was to get a great climbing road bike. I liked my Cervelo R3 and opted for the latest version of Cervelo's R series and purchased a 2012 R5 VWD. The R5 carries the features of their $9,800 R5ca but is heavier. The R5ca is 689 gm for the 54 cm frame and my R5 is 880 gm for the 58 cm frame.

Here is the frame and rider before the build. Frame = 880 gm and the Rider = 75,278 gm I thought the 880 gm was an amazing weight for a 58 cm frame and 75,278 gm was not bad for a 6 foot rider.





The 2012 R5 frames feature taller head tubes. Cervelo claims that is what customers want. It will be okay for me but some racers may prefer more seat to bar drop. Cervelo recommends using a stem with more negative angle to lower the handlebar.

Here is the completed bike with Williams System 19 wheels, a D/A 12/27 cassette and Conti 4000s tires with 100 gm tubes. The bike without Arundel carbon water bottle cages weighed in at 14.8 pounds and with the cages 15 pounds. For hill climbs, I plan to use my Bontrager Race XXX lite carbon clinchers.



I opted for the Quarq power meter with a SRAM compact crank set (50/34) and black SRAM red chain rings. With the black rings the crank set seems to disappear into the frame. The pedals are the Dura Ace carbon. Considering our hilly terrain and my preference to spin faster, I like the compact crank set.





Cervelo features the BBright asymmetrical design which is supposed to be stiffer.



The seat post is a micro adjusting 3T and the saddle is a white with gray trim Alliante with carbon rails.



The handle bar is a Ritchey carbon and with matching Ritchey stem. You can see in this shot there is more handlebar drop available but not much.





Compared to other bikes I looked at, it has a pretty skinny profile but not as aero as the Cervelo S5.



I looked at a number of wheel set options and selected the Williams System 19s. First, Williams is a sponsor so we get a deal and I like to support our sponsors. Second, I own a set of System 30s that I have beat to death and they are still true and needed no maintenance. I wanted the same wheel build with a lighter rim. I think the 19 mm black rim with the red accent looks very cool and they remind me of wheels that Induran would have used. The claimed weight of the wheels is 1440 gm and weighed 1500 gm on my scale with rim tape. The wheels came with rim tape and I did not want to take it off to weigh the wheels so I am giving Williams a close enough on the claimed weight.

So how does the bike perform? To sum it up, it is much stiffer than my R3 both laterally and vertically. In fact there is zero flex when I accelerate out of the saddle. At lower speeds the ride is much stiffer than my R3 but as the speed increases the R5 becomes more stable and comfortable. There is more road feel with the R5 and descending is spectacular. My R3 descended okay but not great. Climbing is very nice both in and out of the saddle. Where I notice improvement over the R3 is out of the saddle climbing steep switchbacks.

I picked up the bike on Wednesday and rode Friday, Saturday and Sunday for a total of 130 miles that included a ride to the coast over Skyline and back (lots of climbing). I felt great on the bike and the ride was perfect for me.

Cervelo did a great job refining the older R3 to improve handling and road feel.

zitter

beautiful bike, but you're 6ft and ride a 58? even with cervelo's tall headtubes?

waterrockets 

With a goal of climbing, I would choose a longer bike myself. I'm ridining 60cms these days, but with 140mm stem. For a climbing bike, I'd pretty much have to move up to a 62cm because I like that longer reach.

jeebusaurousrex

Pretty bikes are pretty.

milliron

Nice setup!

Veloro is the best place to do business.

Kind of Blued

Nice Cervelo! I found that interesting, the bit on their website about headtubes. They say a taller headtube with a -17 degree stem makes for a stiffer front end than a shorter headtube and a -6 degree stem.

Hida Yanra

Road, TT, Track Mass-start, Pursuit... it's all here.



I've got the road bike built & it's had a bunch of miles so far, waiting on some extra-haute parts to finalize the TT/track bike.
Toby has been a camera hog, so all the more recent photos have been of him.

X-LinkedRider

Ride Ubu Ride, Good Dog!

kindablue

Hermes, what model of bars are those? And do they come in Al?

Hida Yanra

It is probably true, but a bit of a bummer for those of us who already use -17 stems on normal length HTs.
I ride a (proportionally) long stem at -17 with no spacers on my cervelo road bike... and were I to wish to, could go lower... but I'm not the part of the bell curve that Cervelo is designing for.

thirdgenbird

deda newton pista (-23)

Hida Yanra

were I to wish to - but I don't.
Some amateurish testing I've done tells me that the gains from going lower don't offset the losses.
I've got an adjustable 120 stem courtesy of Nate - but going much lower makes me lose more wattage than I save - so I'll stay where I am.

Hermes

Thanks for the Kudos!

They are the Super Logic Evolution https://www.ritcheylogic.com/dyn_prodfamily.php?k=307294 I looked at the Ritchey website and it is not obvious by glancing if there is an equivalent AL bar. I would call Ritchey and ask customer service. FYI, Cervelo ships the R5 with 3T bars and stem so if you are in the market for a new bar check out 3T as well. IMO, the AL bars are very nice and a lot less money than the carbon.

I think Cervelo's theory is that most people prefer the stem flat or down versus rising AND do not have the flexibility or desire to ride in a more aero position hence the taller head tube. There may be design advantages as well. I am going to lower my stem a little and go for a different headset cup. The old design was okay with me.

Hida Yanra

Yep - I think so.
Also, very nice bike

Nate552

That's what I have on my Litespeed Archon (size Small with a tiny headtube of 11 cm).

But regardless of Gerard's obsession with spacers and 2 ft tall headtubes, that's a nice bike Hermes, ride the heck out of it.

Fat Boy

Are we ever going to learn how it fared in the tunnel? Can you compare it to an S2/3, AR1, Noah, etc.?

YMCA

SalsaPodio, what's up with the seat angled so far down?
Looks like a sure fire way to an upper body massage visit.
I say level it out and relax a bit.

BTW - I gave FordFaster some chit about this as well.

Of course, to each his own. You should see me out riding. Looks like I'm riding my daughters bike. Saddle is so low, you'd think I was a confused Freddy, until I rode away smoothly at full power of course.

SalsaPodio

camera angle

Nate552

It did pretty well, actually as fast as some of the badly designed TT bikes out there. It's hard to compare it the other aero bikes without running them in the same tunnel with identical set ups, same sizes, etc. I've never seen those bikes ran in the tunnel (we mostly deal with TT bikes obviously). It quickly gets maddening when you try to normalize saddle height, bar height, etc between 2 frames. But, if I HAD to guess, based on the velonews article, when all the bikes had a set of 404's on them, it'd be right there with the S3. (I tested mine with 303s, not 404's so I'm guessing a bit) .
https://www.cervelo.com/r/Velo_News_2011-04.pdf

mzeffex 

RedLeg

^.....nice!