Some of those have more drag than a standard BB. I used a hawk racing BB (& pulleys) on my plasma.

IMO ceramic BB's & pulleys aren't worth it. ymmv

The oversized pulleys only benefit you to a max of 1.5w due to reduced mechanical friction. For all 3 ceramic/oversized you're in for ~ $1k I'd guess and at most 3w faster and a 50/50 or greater chance you're adding drag.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

This is probably #1 on the list of upgrades I will never make unless it is virtually euthanized to me for free.

Several years ago, I did a tri that had a 3 lap bike course with a turnaround halfway down a steep descent. Being able to tuck until the last second and then brake hard gained me a lot of time on a lot of other people...

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"I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 10, and I don't know why!"

Did you have rim or disc brakes?

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Pink? Maybe. Maybe not. You decide.

Rim. This was about 13 years ago, so the only disc brakes there would have been on the handful of mountain bikes.

ETA: But the type of brake didn't matter. You had to have decent brakes, and you had to use them, just to be able to stay on the course. And if you had good brakes, and knew how to use them, that gave you an advantage over the people who didn't have good brakes and/or didn't have good braking skills...

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"I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 10, and I don't know why!"

What perfect timing - I have the same bike and am considering exactly the same thing as I look to get back into it at IMC2021 after 5 years of 'soft pedaling' and building a great DadBod following the birth of our son in 2015 (I faked my way around the Whistler 70.3 course in 2018 in support of a friend who was doing his first 70.3 but have otherwise pretty well just jogged occasionally behind a running stroller lol).

I love the 'simplicity' of the Plasma and really don't like the integrated hydration up front on most of the current top bikes (give me a round bottle BTA any day)...and while I know weight isnt a consideration on many tri courses, it's hilly out here in the PNW and the Plasma builds up nice and light in my experience.

This being said, I do have my eye on the P5 for the clean lines and few watts it sounds like I'd gain...I still have / love the Cervelo SLC-SL as my road bike so I appreciate keeping great gear working for the long haul as well as supporting what was a Canadian icon:-) Now to see if it will fit (I ride a large Plasma)...

Thanks to everyone for their input here - couldn't have come at a better time.

Stay safe and have fun!