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Cervélo launches mind-bending new P5X triathlon bike with disc brakes

Cervélo's new P5X triathlon race features disc brakes and a radical frame design

No, it's not Batman's new bike, it's the new P5X from Cervélo. The Canadian manufacturer has long been at the cutting edge of bicycle design, and it’s taken things to another level with its stunning new P5X triathlon bike, launched in Hawaii this week ahead of the Kona Ironman at the weekend. The P5X has been designed for triathlon and Ironman only, so no time trials on this one, as the radical frame features those things that the UCI hates, disc brakes. 

Cervélo calls the new P5X the fastest, most technologically advanced triathlon bike ever made. It features disc brakes, a first for a triathlon bike, and a radical frame design that has more in common with the Lotus 108 than anything the company has produced before. It’s a bike that has been designed without limitations or restrictions.

Cervélo P5X 2.jpg

The new P5X has been three years in development and the goal was to create a bike that fully catered for every need of triathletes, whether that’s training or racing. Until now manufacturers and Cervélo with its previous P5 have designed triathlon bikes that can, with a few changes, satisfy the UCI rules and be used for time trials, but with triathlon and Ironman events enforcing less strict rules, Cervélo has shunned tradition and focused fully on the needs of triathletes. So you won’t be seeing this bike at your local time trial or WorldTour time trial events.

“We found that a different approach was needed to improve the entire triathlete experience, not only on race day but also in training and travel,” explained Cervélo Engineering Director Sean McDermott. “From aerodynamically integrated storage to simple and wide-ranging aero bar adjustments, the P5X delivers a complete system that harmoniously addresses speed, fit and usage.”

Aerodynamic improvements were obviously top of the list. It has spent 180-hours in a wind tunnel along and developed some 150 frame iterations before arriving at the bike it has just released. We saw the new Parlee TT bike with disc brakes at Eurobike, and Cervélo has opted for disc brakes with thru-axles and flat mounts. Disc brakes improve safety and boost stiffness, says the company, but it also says the disc brakes offer improved aerodynamics. 

Cervélo tells us the new bike is 30g faster than the P5 from +15 to -15 yaw angles in a full Ironman set up, and up to 90g faster at 0 yaw. Here's a graph of the aero performance that Cervélo has released. We'd like a bit more aero data really, but this is all we have to go on at the moment. It's clear that Cervélo is confident the bike is faster, despite the addition of disc brakes, and that does tally with what we're hearing from other manufacturers that are starting to work with disc brakes. The acutal disc brakes might generate more drag, but savings can be made on the rest of the frame to balance things out, or even produce less overall drag.

Cervélo P5X 3.png

A new split aero bar and fork were developed with Enve Composites, while Cervélo also enlisted the expertise of the late Steve Hed and his company to work on the carbon fibre layup of the frame, where the frame will be manufactured at Minnesota-based HED Cycling.

You can have the best aerodynamic products in the world, but if your position is lousy, you’re not going to benefit. Cervélo has worked on offering micro and macro-adjustability to the fit to make it easy for an athlete to find the optimum position quickly and easily. The P5X features a wide front end fit range with an 112mm sliding stack adjustment and 91mm reach adjustment. The base bar can be flipped providing 0 to 12-degree tilt adjustment. It's available in just four frame sizes; S, M, L and XL.

Triathletes travel a lot, so the P5X can be dissembled simply by removing a couple of bolts, wth the two-piece aero bar folding away. 

Triathletes and Ironman competitors also like storage and hydration solutions, so Cervélo has developed a modular storage system that allows a high level of customisation. 

Cervélo P5X 1.jpg

“Launching the P5X at the Ironman World Championship means a lot to us,” says Antoine Ballon, Cervélo’s Global Marketing Director. “Chrissie Wellington made history here in 2007 and 2008 by claiming victory on one of our first tri bikes, and we have continued to make history here by leading the Kona Bike Count for 11 consecutive years and counting. Designed with nothing but the triathlete in mind, this badass ride represents the pinnacle of our systematic, engineering-first approach. The P5X is a personal best for us, and we know it will help athletes achieve their own personal best.”

The P5X is available in two builds. At the top is SRAM RED eTap and ENVE 7.8 wheels and will cost $15,000. A Ultegra Di2, Rotor crank and Hed 6.9 wheelset build will cost $11,000 USD. The bikes will only be sold at select dealers and we’ve no word on UK pricing or availability yet. 

If that’s too rich you for, you can always ride the new bike virtually in Zwift. 

Why not call it the P6? Cervélo says it isn’t meant to replace the current P5, which was designed for both time trials and triathlon, and the X appended to the name calls for its specificity. More at https://p5x.cervelo.com/

So what do you think? 

David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes

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16 comments

Avatar
Maggers | 7 years ago
1 like

Just need one of the playmobil helmets now. 

 

 

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giobox | 7 years ago
0 likes

I'm not huge on the styling, but this really rams home how much the UCI rulebook is stifling modern road bike development. The triathonlon community have always been great with their forward looking attitudes in general. I think it's arguable that the tri-guys really embraced training with power way before it gained widespread acceptance in the general road cycling community, who all to often moan at change.

It's great to see a cycle sport unburdened by tradition - why should bikes still have to look like something merckx rode 40 years ago?

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ficklewhippet | 7 years ago
0 likes

Agreed, it's revolting. CF can be responsible for some real abominations.

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Must be Mad | 7 years ago
0 likes

That second bottle cage position looks a little precarious....

(the one almost touching the rear wheel)

Avatar
Paul J | 7 years ago
1 like

The drag chart says there's *0* difference in a headwind, then 1% to 1.8% improvement (i.e. reduction, new bike as baseline) to about 10° apparent wind¹. Then, going out to 15° you get a big 4.8% improvement IF the wind is from the - direction (left I presume) but *worse* performance if the apparent wind is from the /other/ side. The "average" improvement (if that is meaningful) is a 1.3% reduction.

I'm going to assume these figures are frame-only figures, so without - by far - the largest component in aerodynamic drag. In which case these differences will become trivially small once there's an actual rider on board.

1. Note that regardless of the actual wind direction, the faster you cycle the more the apparent wind moves toward to "head on" - as the apparent wind is the product of your speed and the wind. Just in case that's not obvious.

So, going at 35 km/h, you'd need about a 6 km/h perfect side "real" wind for the 10° apparent wind, and 9 km/h "real" wind for 15°. Going at 45 km/h, you'd need an 8 km/h side for 10°, and 12 km/h for 15°.

Avatar
jimt | 7 years ago
1 like

For a slightly less extreme version take a look at reapbikes.com.

A UK bassed alternative with some vewry nice looking bikes. They had both bikes on display at the bike show last month.

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NoOneSpecial | 7 years ago
0 likes

Er...... it's not exactly new.

Zipp did a similar design to this using the Allsop 'suspension beam' system twenty years ago, amongst others.

It worked about as well as a fart in an astronaut suit, but the Tri people loved it (strange breed) as it 'eased the transition between the cycle and the run'.

Don't even get me started about when they started putting 24" wheels on the fucking things.

Gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Avatar
tritecommentbot replied to NoOneSpecial | 7 years ago
1 like

NoOneSpecial wrote:

Er...... it's not exactly new.

Zipp did a similar design to this using the Allsop 'suspension beam' system twenty years ago, amongst others.

It worked about as well as a fart in an astronaut suit, but the Tri people loved it (strange breed) as it 'eased the transition between the cycle and the run'.

Don't even get me started about when they started putting 24" wheels on the fucking things.

Gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

 

Are you saying that no bike is new because similar bikes have been designed before, or are you trying to impress us with common knowledge that beam bikes have been designed before.

 

Either way, not looking good.

Avatar
Carton replied to tritecommentbot | 7 years ago
0 likes

unconstituted wrote:

Are you saying that no bike is new because similar bikes have been designed before, or are you trying to impress us with common knowledge that beam bikes have been designed before.

 

Either way, not looking good.

I love your, ahem, liberal standards as to what should be considered to be “common” knowledge. In any case, it might not be unduly fastidious to consider "mind-bending" a bit of an over-statement, surely?

Fast looking bike though. A proper (mandibular symphysis-snapping, wallet-lightening) Cervélo.

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PaulBox replied to NoOneSpecial | 7 years ago
0 likes

NoOneSpecial wrote:

It worked about as well as a fart in an astronaut suit, but the Tri people loved it (strange breed) as it 'eased the transition between the cycle and the run'.

Don't even get me started about when they started putting 24" wheels on the fucking things.

Gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Apparently farts work really well in space suits, so maybe the tri-people were right.

But, a bird in the hand gathers no moss!

NoOneSpecial wrote:

Don't even get me started about when they started putting 24" wheels on the fucking things.

Gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

I won't...

Avatar
MBWB | 7 years ago
0 likes

What about the terrible burns they will all have due to those scary dangerous disk brakes!? Will there be a burns kit storage in there for that very situation.

Im sure this bike would transform me to a world beating triathlete, its the lack of this bike thats holding me back!

 

Avatar
imaca | 7 years ago
1 like

It's interesting how disc brakes have come along and suddenly yaw angles greater than 15deg don't exist any more. lol. According to my shaky maths, 15degrees yaw equates to a 10kmh cross wind (at 90 deg to heading) at 40kmh. In this part of the world the wind rarely drops that low, and if you are riding parallel to the coast, the wind will mostly be at or near to 90 degrees. In other words, we spend a lot of time with yaw angles way past 15deg. You can see on the graph at +12.5 degress (presumably the left side) the drag is already trending to be greater than the old bike despite the high tech design. 

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fukawitribe replied to imaca | 7 years ago
0 likes

imaca wrote:

It's interesting how disc brakes have come along and suddenly yaw angles greater than 15deg don't exist any more. lol. According to my shaky maths, 15degrees yaw equates to a 10kmh cross wind (at 90 deg to heading) at 40kmh. In this part of the world the wind rarely drops that low, and if you are riding parallel to the coast, the wind will mostly be at or near to 90 degrees. In other words, we spend a lot of time with yaw angles way past 15deg. You can see on the graph at +12.5 degress (presumably the left side) the drag is already trending to be greater than the old bike despite the high tech design. 

It's not really about discs but the wheels themselves - most aero wheels will be experiencing flow deteachment from the rim between ~8-20 (tops) deg, which will pretty much hose the benefit regardless of brake type. That said, although i'm a huge fan of hydraulic discs in almost all types of cycling, I really can't see the point in triathlon - the courses are typically flat, non-technical with long sight-lines and limited numbers of riders close to you, a situation that the slightly more aerodynamically efficient rim brakes would be more than sufficient for.

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only1redders | 7 years ago
0 likes

This one is a marmite bike, I reckon

Those calipers look like a bit of an afterthought. Surely not too long before this Argon 18 concept becomes a reality and disc brake/true aero is available on the high street http://www.vitalmtb.com/interstitial?page=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.vitalmtb.com%...

 

Avatar
Yorkshire wallet | 7 years ago
1 like

Designers must have been binging on 80s boxsets

//www.motorcyclespecs.co.za/Custom%20Bikes/Street%20Hawk.jpg)

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tritecommentbot | 7 years ago
1 like

So hype. Two things I learned from this article.

1. I need to start swimming and running to justify this bike.

2. I need to make more money. 

 

Any chance of this beam design trickling down into the lower range TT bikes or they won't invest because they want a UCI badge? Seriously sick of this UCI nonsense, I want cool modern looking fast stuff while I'm still able to ride.

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