i've got to agree with SBRcanuck. your bike is at least 15yo. do you even have 10sp on that bike? if anyone has permission to upgrade your fleet, it's you.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

I understand that there are faster aftermarket bar options for the old P5, so I wonder with careful selection and arguably a wider selection of aero-wheels (with lower spoke counts) if the new and old bike would be fairly even aerowise.

I guess pro will have to roll out a disc version of their 3 spoke wheel for Sunweb in time for the grand tours. Though I don't know how much of a redesign this would take or if the rotor may effect air flow and require any changes.

Regardless of what I ride, surely an old disc wheel in a modern rim brake bike is still going to be faster than the base wheel build of a disc brake bike.
Discs are where the market is going, so should we all move onto the disc brakes and upgrade our wheels after if our resources won't stretch to a full race setup?

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"Here's how you run a marathon. Step 1: You start running. Step 2: There is no step 2." - Barney (How I Met Your Mother)

first of all, you don't have to buy this bike. you can buy a QR PRfour Disc for about $3000 complete. then you have money left over to upgrade your wheel stable.

if you don't want to upgrade your wheels, then canyon, premier, plenty of companies will continue to offer rim brake bikes. if you buy a canyon CF 7.0 or 8.0 then you're good. you're in at $2,xxx and you can ride your existing wheels. same with QR PRthree, cervelo P2, etc.

that said, if you're asking me whether bikes are going to continue to move to disc brake, or whether they'll continue to be 50/50 disc/rim, they're going to move to disc brake. so, if you intend to buy both new wheels and a new bike, i'd go disc brake. if you have a limited spend, then get a good but more affordable (than the new P5) disc brake tri bike, like the PRfour.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

Great write up and that p5 disc is very nice. I like how they kept it simple with decreasing the weight and stiffness while upgrading the obvious areas like Disc Brakes (which just seems like a trend). Seems like a good opportunity for an after market storage system on the down tube, but maybe that starts to creep into the P5X area too much. Also, the inability to tilt the front end bar seems strange given the ability to tilt has been around for years and seems popular (eg: Trek SC gen 2 even has some tilt).

Would be nice to upgrade, but it's not only the 7.5k bike. It's the wheelset, groupset (coming from a rim brake set), and possibly turbo trainer (gen 1 tacx Neo). I think my Trek SC gen 2 with Zipp 808, Quarq, and Di2 gets pretty heavy once I put on all the bottles, etc...but it moves pretty quick on a straight just not that responsive like a road bike. The new P5 sounds a little more responsive with the weight and stiffness.

Great write up Dan. I note there is no XL size at launch (which appears to be the same approach as Specialized with the new Shiv). Are the bigger people getting left out by these manufacturers or do we just have to wait a bit longer given we are not the most populous segment of the market?

I agree

they're naming the sizes numerically. 48, 51, 54, 56, 58. i believe the last P5, in 2012, has a 45 and a 61. i'm pretty sure there won't be any 45. will there be a 61? don't know. what i would say is that the 58 is a fairly longish bike, reach of 437mm, front/center of 640mm, so, it's pretty XLish. the available bars on that bike - stay tuned for more on this - give you a lot of adjustability.

so, because of that adjustability, i think cervelo could get away with not offering that 61cm size. you'd probably have to be in the 6'5" range to begin to feel that the 58cm was just too small a bike.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

What he describes sounds like something that may already exist as aftermarket...51 Speedshop bars. I wonder if that would fit/work on the new P5. Maybe Mat will chime in--there's your unsolicited plug Mat! Actually, never seen them in person.

I like the new P5 Disc...really looks sweet. I've had 2 people today say it looks like a Canyon, but I don't agree. The paint job may give the illusion it does, but the top/seat tube junction is clearly very different. Canyon is a boxy-style not curvy smooth like this P5. The other advantage is--the Cervelo is available NOW (haha)...as a buyer in about a year--the P5-D (as I call it for D/disc), is a game changer as someone who has been considering the likes of a Canyon or Trek, or Felt. Having ridden my P3 for 10 years, I would have to do a lot of test rides to make sure I'd want to leave the Cervelo camp. I just love the performance of my ride...I do need an upgrade of components (Sram R2C)...and wheels are not as skinny as they used to be--it's all just getting dated. Time to upgrade!

I also wonder how it packs for travel - the p5-6 was really difficult to pack unless you used soft scicon - wonder wehther enough of brake cable there to be able to take off the base bar

The only thing missing from this bike is a draft box.

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Make Inside Out Sports your next online tri shop! http://www.insideoutsports.com/

Sarcasm?

In the article, you gave a center-to-center pad distance of 21mm. Did you mean 21cm? Unless I'm totally mis-interpreting what you mean 21mm sounds really small.

No. It’s definitely missing and they could have easily put a mounting system somewhere on the bike.

No excuses when Trek and others have done it

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Make Inside Out Sports your next online tri shop! http://www.insideoutsports.com/

It makes sense on the Trek, because it's a Kamm design. Cervelo (as is typical with Cervelo) goes for full, narrow tube profile. I don't think the box makes much sense then.

Looking at the rear of the new P5, it looks beautiful and narrow. Like someone put a lot of work in to design it to exactly that shape. I would shudder to put something there. This bike is TT-first, tri-second. If you want tri-first, there's the PX series.

To be honest, this is why I wouldn't buy this bike, no integrated storage. I know some folks don't care about it, but I like it. So many other bikes with nice integrated boxes or internal frame storage. Why couldn't Cervelo at least made a 'fuel cell' like case to fit in the bottom of the triangle, instead of just offering a bottle?
I know, there is the P5X, but i think this P5 looks much cleaner, even if it had a storage case there.

I suspect you may be pleased by the next Cervelo reveal coming up. (I know *zero* about it, I'm just suspecting).

Today is for the TT purists. Let us have our one day. It's been a long time since we've had a day of our own.

yup. 21mm would be world class narrowness. you're correct. should be cm.

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

Fine, you have 27 minutes left (Atlantic time...)....

I don't have any inside knowledge, but l could wager a good guess: l doubt above-BB storage units are aero neutral on a bike with a rider aboard.

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Advanced Aero TopTube Storage for Road, Gravel, & Tri...ZeroSlip & Direct-mount, made in the USA.
DarkSpeedWorks.com.....Reviews.....Insta.....Facebook
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I am 6 3 and my buddy is 6 1 we got for by jim last week and this bike is too small for both of us. The problem is to go low it doesn't let me go long. .. same with my buddy. Oh well I am not on love with the areo bars either and the storage so I am a p5x guy I guess.

Same. I think there’s going to be more X series bikes which will be awesome!

Honestly plenty of places to stick spares in the given storage, esp if you use liquid nutrition. I love the look of this bike

Admit it, you thought of Kiley while writing your review.

Looks like a job well done by Cervelo, which ironically makes me feel great about my P3 Alpha One build.

Scott

how do do you know the bike is too small for you? and, you're going to get happier by the end of the month. but, to be clear, why is this bike too small for you?

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman