Garfield Cat

Its now officially announced

Cervelo C Series bikes - adventure endurance road bikes with disc brakes and a down-tube bash guard - BikeRadar

https://www.cervelo.com/en/bikes/proj...fornia/c5.html

GeoKrpan

Thanks.

NormanF

A cool-looking gravel road/adventure bike. Cervelo C5 with Shimano Dura Ace for $7000. The Shimano Di2 upgrade is available for an extra 2 grand:

GeoKrpan

It would be horrifying to mangle one in a crash.

Wspsux

I wish it could take beefier rubber up front

cs1

Really $7k - $9k! There are a lot better buys for a lot less money.

DirtRoadRunner

Agreed. For $9k one could purchase a sweet $3k gravel bike, a lightweight $3k road bike, and have enough left over for a MTB and accessories. Gravel riding is now an official, commercialized fad when bikes like this are being sold. Some of us still just like to have fun tooling around on dirt roads in a cheap, chipped-up bike.

GeoKrpan

That's a pretty glaring flaw. Makes me think, like 4x4 SUVs and pickups, that most people will never take them offroad.

Seattle Forrest

Similar price and spec to an R5. Which I'm in the market for. Would love to find out how they compare before I pull the trigger.

Not as horrifying as it is to mangle your body in a crash. If that happens the bike is really the least of your worries.

GeoKrpan

My roadie only buddy is lusting after one of these. I told him about the new Motobecane titanium gravel bikes and he was like, meh. It's $2000 cheaper than the Ultegra C Series and comparably equipped except that it has clearance for 700x45 tires. He said that if he got the Motobecane he'd remove the decals. It's not about the bike.

Seattle Forrest

I've been wanting to ride the road to Harts Pass, which is 5,000+ feet of elevation gain in 10 or 15 miles and rough dirt and gravel. My best option has been to rent a MTB in Mazama, but coming from a road background, this is really appealing. Doubt I'd cover enough dirt miles to justify it vs a dedicated road bike, but it's something to think about.

GeoKrpan

Buying the C Series instead of the R5 would be a good move. The limited tire clearance tells me that it is biased toward the road. Carbon looks horrible after sliding over rock.

GeoKrpan

It's pretty steep. How well would 700x28 tires hook up on the climb and what would the descent be like?

Seattle Forrest

I don't know. I think I could get by on 28s, I've done trails with much worse and deeper gravel on 28s although it was slightly uncomfortable.

That's the highest road in my state. I've been to the end many times as a hiker, but never without my car. It's a special place to me and I'd feel very accomplished doing it under my own muscle power.

I've got a Cervelo R3 that needs to be replaced, I got hit doing hill repeats near my home. They let you upgrade through their crash replacement program, you pay the difference.

I share an apartment with my girlfriend, space is limited and having only one bike has been really helpful. Not sure how things will play out but this is very tempting.

DirtRoadRunner

For the record, I'm sure it is an awesome bike and I'd probably love one if I rode it (just like a Santa Cruz Stigmata or a Moots Routt, both of which retail for ~$6-7.5k). I suppose what I really enjoy about gravel riding is that it is (was?) such a chill sport full of friendly folks - unlike road riding/racing where many of the riders can be pompous and so wrapped up in gear/speed that they forget to enjoy the ride. Unfortunately, it appears that gravel riding is on the same path.

GeoKrpan

Thanks. How right you are. My roadie pal cannot relax. It's from many years of racing, club and shop rides where you are fighting to maintain your standing in the hierarchy. It's a rat race. We did a charity ride almost consisting entirely of racers, no yellow jackets, helmet mirrors, or Primal Wear jerseys. A guy came up from behind on a single speed, a fabulous rider to be doing this ride on a SS. My pal panicked and shot off like he was cycling for his life. Oh the disgrace of getting smoked by a guy on a SS. I rode with the guy on the SS until the end of the ride. A great rider and a good sport.

GeoKrpan

Thanks. It's good choice but lotsa' money. There are some great gravel bikes for a fraction of the cost that are good on the road too and have more tire clearance. Scatching up one of those wouldn't be so horrifying.

allroader55

I looked up the geometry of the C5 because all the press and reviews talks about more upright, shorter reach, longer wheelbase, more stable, yada yada. Well I guess that is compared to one of their high end road racing bikes.

It still has more aggressive head tube position and longer reach angle than Litespeed T5, GT Grade, Trek Domane, and Scott Gravel Addict. I think the bike is still not quite there as a gravel bike. It's kind of a CX position with a long wheel base from the slope head angle. Not something I would be interested in, and for that price, it definitely isn't a gravel bike.

Garfield Cat

As many know, the 2 founders of Cervelo, one of the two teamed up with a former BMC executive to start up another company. So I think maybe the C5 and the Unbeaten Path are worth the time to compare price and performance.

Overall, I think the Unbeaten Path would be my choice.

https://up.opencycle.com/i/s/v-635801...t-geometry.png

DirtRoadRunner

Concur, the UP looks much more versatile due to the larger tire clearance. However, the geometry is still pretty aggressive - looks great for going fast an quick handling, but that short of a bike may not be ideal on high-speeds on loose, gravelly surfaces, and the rather significant drop between the saddle and handlebars may make true off-road riding awkward. When riding singletrack on a road-oriented bike it is much easier to ride in the drops instead of the hoods (better control), but this also puts your weight kind of far down, and with the bars as low as shown on the UP, it could make it really easy to go over the handlebars. That could be avoided with a stack of spacers, but that would hurt the aesthetics of an otherwise awesome-looking bike.

My personal preference is a bike with a longer-wheelbase and higher bars for mixed-terrain riding, due to stability. Something like the UP bike may be great if you are an elite rider with excellent bike handling skills, thereby being able to take advantage of the aggressive geometry and fat tires, but I don't think it would be the best choice for recreational riding.

09box

$9k is a little out of my price realm. I could have a whole stable of bikes for that amount of coin.

chaadster

Holy cow! That's a sweet bike! I hadn't seen/heard of them before, so thanks for posting! It's way oitside my price range for now, and really way more bike than I need for where I live, but man, it's really cool in its design.

Garfield Cat

That last part: "elite rider with excellent bike handling skills". I figure both these bikes all built up amounts to a lot of $$$$. It makes me want to get those bike handling skills; you know, "up my game". Heck, I'm paying for it.

Another thought: its like the hybrids, C5 is not like the UP.

chaadster

This is a concept that has been causing me some distress, as I've been unable to reconcile my kind of "gravel riding" with what has emerged as the dominant paradigm for the genre. Specifically, as a roadie whose local dirt roads are amenable to a roadie approach, the whole "adventure bike" thing just isn't appealing. All I need, really, is room to mount a larger tire to handle the irregular, but mostly hardpack, dirt surface, and to provide the necessary float when I run across the freshly graded and loose road.

I don't really have gravel surfaces specifically, even if I were inclined to dip off road. SoEast Michigan has lots of sand, areas of clay, but nothing much like the gravel fire roads I've ridden in places like Tennessee and California. On top of that, riding the dirt roads here also involves lots of pavement time, either getting to the dirt roads or connect them up, so pavement performance is important for a "gravel bike" to have for me.

So where does someone like me, or more importantly, a "gravel bike" such as would suit me fit in the gravel scene? I don't want or need a tall, lazy handling "adventure" bike with a bash guard or designed to carry 15 different luggage bags; I want a fast road bike with bigger tires, and maybe a little extra wheelbase and frame mass to improve climbing traction on loose stuff and reduce road chatter. That's about it.

The UK scene is full of bikes that make sense to me, their "winter trainer" and "audax" bikes, to which the UP seems more closely related in terms of traditional road geometry and fit, if really more extreme in many other ways, like the thru-axles, which add a level of stability only really of benefit if going single tracking.

Anyway, those are just some thoughts I've been having as I sit on the fringes of the "gravel biking" thing.

Henry III

For that price I could go buy a Wrangler, some camping gear and built a bike for that price and have one heck of a good time. I'm sorry but this is a bit absurd and Di2 just sounds weird on a gravel bike. Heck you can buy a handbuilt Desalvo steel frame for $1500 or $2500 for the Ti version. Does a gravel bike really need Dura Ace also? *walks away and shakes head*