I recently purchased a P5. I am coming from riding a P2 and P4. Tend to train on the P2 and more race on the P4. I really, really like my P5. The bike with the components and in particular the 3T Aduro bar are very well engineered. I view it as offering both the practical aspects of a P2 and the more exotic features of a P4. I tend to make changes often with my bikes including riding different wheels, tweaking fit. I ride with different drops depending on the race length. My P4 has a 3T Ventus bar and did not lend itself to make adjustments easily.
I have found the P5 to be far better. But your question is on speed difference and to be honest I have not been able to reach the same speed to watts numbers I did on my P4. But the weather has been terrible here to do good comparisons and I do not have anywhere near enough data. I plan on continuing to tweak and expect to get to achieve better results than the P4 or the P2. My P4 is a 56 and I did remove the dust cover but still can not get as aggressive position as my 54 P5. This fact alone I expect to achieve better results with my P5.
There are a couple of things with my present setup on my P5 that I think might be attributing to the bike not being faster. They are:
1) I am using a GXP Quarq. So I am using the BBright adapter. I am not convinced this is the best solution. When I get some time I do plan on putting the crank that came on the bike with my PT wheel and compare to the Quarq with PT wheel. See if anything is obvious. I am also going to purchase a BB30/BBRight Quarq before end of summer and resolve the issue once and for all.
2) I am using the X-lo bar on the P5. I then have the cups right on the bar. I did leave a little of the steerer tube. I plan to cut off the rest and move to using cup risers. I am thinking that cups directly on the bar causes a performance issue.
3) I have been riding with the same wheels and tires that I race on last year. But I did put tire sealer in the latex tubes before my IM race last fall. I am thinking that maybe this is causing a slow down. I plan replacing tubes with tubes that do not have sealer. I know some have mentioned that sealer does not slow you down but I am not convinced.
4) It is possible that the more aggressive position I ride with on the P5 is actually slower than the P4.
5) Major issue is that my P4 is presently in pieces and I need to build back up and then do a much more direct comparison. I need to make a decision on what drive train I will use.
Also, my P4 was tweaked constantly last year with weekly TT racing. So it got to a point where my fit was dialed in as well as everything else. The P5 has not gone through the same process. Hopefully it will happen but I am having some motivation issues and to help plan on doing more group rides on my road bike.
Ultimately I believe the P4 was a very fast bike especially with low wind. I am not convinced that the P5 is going to be much faster if your position is identical on both bikes and you have a Ventus and Omega on the P4. I purchased the P5 because I had an itch for a new bike and loved the P5, needed to get to a more aggressive position, wanted brakes that work, wanted a bike that could be a daily ride.
I am extremely happy with my purchase. But I did see the new P3 in person and that is a sic bike. But if to do over again I would have purchased the P5. Only thing I would have changed is that I would have purchase the new DA Di2 instead of the older 7970. This is really only driven by the fact it is really difficult to find 7970 parts even used.
I have found the P5 to be far better. But your question is on speed difference and to be honest I have not been able to reach the same speed to watts numbers I did on my P4. But the weather has been terrible here to do good comparisons and I do not have anywhere near enough data. I plan on continuing to tweak and expect to get to achieve better results than the P4 or the P2. My P4 is a 56 and I did remove the dust cover but still can not get as aggressive position as my 54 P5. This fact alone I expect to achieve better results with my P5.
There are a couple of things with my present setup on my P5 that I think might be attributing to the bike not being faster. They are:
1) I am using a GXP Quarq. So I am using the BBright adapter. I am not convinced this is the best solution. When I get some time I do plan on putting the crank that came on the bike with my PT wheel and compare to the Quarq with PT wheel. See if anything is obvious. I am also going to purchase a BB30/BBRight Quarq before end of summer and resolve the issue once and for all.
2) I am using the X-lo bar on the P5. I then have the cups right on the bar. I did leave a little of the steerer tube. I plan to cut off the rest and move to using cup risers. I am thinking that cups directly on the bar causes a performance issue.
3) I have been riding with the same wheels and tires that I race on last year. But I did put tire sealer in the latex tubes before my IM race last fall. I am thinking that maybe this is causing a slow down. I plan replacing tubes with tubes that do not have sealer. I know some have mentioned that sealer does not slow you down but I am not convinced.
4) It is possible that the more aggressive position I ride with on the P5 is actually slower than the P4.
5) Major issue is that my P4 is presently in pieces and I need to build back up and then do a much more direct comparison. I need to make a decision on what drive train I will use.
Also, my P4 was tweaked constantly last year with weekly TT racing. So it got to a point where my fit was dialed in as well as everything else. The P5 has not gone through the same process. Hopefully it will happen but I am having some motivation issues and to help plan on doing more group rides on my road bike.
Ultimately I believe the P4 was a very fast bike especially with low wind. I am not convinced that the P5 is going to be much faster if your position is identical on both bikes and you have a Ventus and Omega on the P4. I purchased the P5 because I had an itch for a new bike and loved the P5, needed to get to a more aggressive position, wanted brakes that work, wanted a bike that could be a daily ride.
I am extremely happy with my purchase. But I did see the new P3 in person and that is a sic bike. But if to do over again I would have purchased the P5. Only thing I would have changed is that I would have purchase the new DA Di2 instead of the older 7970. This is really only driven by the fact it is really difficult to find 7970 parts even used.
Last edited by:
bartturner: May 17, 13 13:36