Thanks for the post. Interesting. Not much change-although the paint job does a good job of disguising some of that. Glad to see Wout adjusted his position. I'm interested to see him race some TTs.

No massive changes it seems, more like refinements. Have they switched over to giro helmets now ?

Yup. The sponsorship change was announced a month or so back. The Aerohead has been around for quite some time, so maybe they have something new in the works.

It would be interesting to know how many prototypes they have made since the aerohead, knowing how successful it is for so many people, and just decided...we can't do much better...lol

I almost didn't buy an aerohead because of the weight but it's the most comfortable aero helmet i've owned

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DFRU - Detta Family Racing Unit...the kids like it and we all get out and after it...gotta keep the fam involved!

It's an Olympic year so you'll see quite a few new aero helmets pop up right around May, though some of them won't necessarily be great for Tri. Helmet manufacturers don't make much money off aero helmets so there's not as much effort put into them as people might think. The Aerohead was the first TT helmet Giro ever made a profit on and, though triathletes have been the primary consumer, it was really designed to keep their sponsored road teams happy at the time. A lot of that type of design is contracted out these days (though the Aerohead was done in-house).

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Jim Manton / ERO Sports

Wasn't the original Giro aero helmet also the aerohead? Gotta think they made money on that bad boy - there wasn't anything like it in the 80s! Kidding - and I am sure that the market just isn't there for it to be a great moneymaker.

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DFRU - Detta Family Racing Unit...the kids like it and we all get out and after it...gotta keep the fam involved!

We've got a few in store, but not the new one. Who knows how long before that's officially released. Also, no news on if there is a replacement for the x series.....

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Kiwami Racing Team

This thread has kinda worried me about the state of triathlon at the moment. Almost a week after the EC article and the thread opening, there's been less than 10 comments on what I think would be described as one of the highest profile bikes in the sport (of triathlon). And most of those are fairly 'meh'.

Compare/contrast to the past where the rumour there may be a launch of a bike in 6 months gets 150 posts a day with what we want, what we don't want, why it's too expensive (before we see the price), etc.

I'll go a little wider and comment that the above thought isn't isolated to this one issue, it's also related to the way that Torhans shuttered up last month without a single mention on here. My inbox is being bombarded with sales from tri-related companies with what even I as a consumer can see to be unsustainable discounts. Sure, sometimes at this time of year there's some jostling for position to be in people's minds as they get their kit shopping done for Norhtern Hemisphere Spring, but my feel this year it's people needing some $ in to keep the lights on.

Am I just overthinking this, or is anyone else seeing/thinking similar? Perish the thought that we have finally reached the point of maturity where we just spend more time actually training and racing than creating spreadsheets to optimise the next purchase we *need* in order to secure our 86th place.

(And no, this clearly isn't my audition for one of the much coveted front page writers spots).

World record for # of spokes on a front wheel.

Maybe if the new P5 were more revolutionary than evolutionary people would be more excited. The bike really looks like there are only minor tweaks and it doesn’t appear to make use of any of the relaxed UCI rules. If there are only minor aero savings, like the SL8, it will hard to get too many people interested. Honestly it looks like maybe there are some minor weight savings and room for wider tires.

In other news, I talked to someone who has had the new Scottt TT bike on order for some time. I think the shop recently told that thy didn’t expect it anytime soon, so he is looking for alternatives. The bike industry must be a real mess if they can’t get bikes out the door when capacity should be available.

I guess it's good that Cervelo's design language is the same...but it's like not different.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

Yes/no, but there's normally so much discussion on every tiny detail of cable routing, where the junction box is, etc, yet here there seems implied some significant change to the bars and everyone is 'meh, whatever'.

And yes, re other brands. I ordered a Speed Concept in late October. Was told same delivery date of 8 Jan for either stock bike or a Project one. It arrived in the shop on Monday, I hopefully get to pick it up Saturday depending on how much building is needed from the box. Thankfully I'm not racing IMNZ next Saturday, otherwise I'd have been going postal at the delay. By same score, the bike is arriving as the season is finished nationally. I do wonder where the capacity constraint is - parts, frame manufacture, shipping of frames, mechanics to paint frames/build bikes?

Scott has been a disaster in this recently. Another example - they launched those uber Syncros all-carbon wheels on Spring 2023, and a year after, there has been zero availability even for people who ordered those (not me at that price), with delivery now quoted autumn 2024 (!). How much has this been related to the news that their parent company recently made a $176M loan to Scott "to boost the working capital", remains to be seen.

Cervelo have had issues too, with people not being able to get warranty S5 replacements for 6+ months due to "no stock', however, as far as I've heard, they had some operational manufacturing plant issues (fire or smthg), which could explain some of this.

The new P5... well, if not for the EC article, that would have been hiding in plain sight. Perhaps that speaks to how aero the machine has already been so far. I suspect (with no info behind this) that Cervelo has tweaked the "new" one to be more efficient for the uber high pro speeds, but let's see the marketing materials first on the official launch, which was rumored to be around the TdF time.

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Need more W/CdA.

I’m struggling with your comment, because it is very interesting but also kind of… is the “industry” you’re referring to operating exclusively in the market for high end triathlon bikes?

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"FTP is a bit 2015, don't you think?" - Gustav Iden

Or maybe the audience for the deep tech stuff has moved elsewhere and the audience on ST today is different ?

Speaking as someone who has been looking to buy a P5 for a long time now and finally going next week to pick one this got me a bit worried at first. But then again, release in TDF time and when will consumers be able to get it the year after maybe??
And how big will the improvement be, looking at the S5 it is a handfull of watts at max.

Curious to see what others think of it, the rear section does look really good, front end bit strange with the dropping steer. Also looks like they're going back to the old P5 riser post instead of the adjustable one....

IMO you hit several nails on the head. The industry is struggling (still), having trouble meeting demand for certain products while being overstocked in other categories. If you track prices on pinkbike.com you can see even the high end used market is struggling. Especially mtn bikes, almost makes me want to go back into mtn bike racing, almost.

The new bike market the high end bikes are very expensive and inventory levels still haven't normed to pre-pandemic equivalents. If I was going to start racing again no way would I buy new. My guess is costs have risen as fast if not slightly faster than new bike prices and or there are cost increases that are coming and that is baked into the prices (labor, increased shipping rates etc)

Recently was helping an athlete who wanted a new to them "kill the competition aero bike". Found a P5disc w/PM and 808's for <$5500k USD. Why would you buy new when you can get a race ready rocket for 2016-2018 prices?

I suspect the peak posting period on ST was around the peak participation period in triathlon. My guess is the current posts on ST track participation in the sport and I suspect they track the white male 45-65 AG's most closely. Us dudes are aging out/forced out by injury/moved on to other endurance activities such as gravel or just gotten more social focused and less performance focused. We've gone from training to staying in shape.

To marcag's point I've also noticed an uptick in posts on FB in regards to specific topics. Specific races, bike fitting, aerodynamics. Maybe people are looking for more tailored and less broad based places to go for that info. Although I have found that info on FB to be less accurate, less knowledgeable, more guessing. You get what you pay for I guess.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

so should we expect a S5 refresh too for 2024? or am I dreaming.
I wish Cervelo work more on the compliance part since it's already a quick bike but I've heard long rides are painful.
This is the only reason I'm considering the SW SL8.

Hi Guillermo,

it is already there!!! New 2023/2024 model has more tyre clearance and tubes are according to the new UCI rules.

2023 Cervélo S5 Force eTap AXS reviewBikeRadarhttps://www.bikeradar.com › reviews › bikes › road-bikes

Having listened to the Escape Collective podcasts on "How did the bike industry get into such deep trouble?", I question how the industry makes or sells anything at all.

That was painful to listen to!

I picked up a used Speedmax last Fall, got it 'same day'!

Did they go back to the EX 11 handlebars? This seems odd to me. So, should I try to find EX 10 or set up like Wout? AND, what does the crystal ball say as to availability?

Thanks,

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David
* Ironman for Life! (Blog) * IM Everyday Hero Video * Daggett Shuler Law *
Disclaimer: I have personal and professional relationships with many athletes, vendors, and organizations in the triathlon world.

If you want to wait until April, I can probably answer your questions in person. We can do a bike fit then some on the road aero testing.

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta