Cervélo R5 £8,599 | 7.4kg

It’s all gravy when it comes to the new R5, writes Simon Smythe

- Simon Smythe

I have renamed this bike the Ahh... 5. Every time I get on it I’m like a Bisto kid whenever the delicious aroma of, erm, instant gravy wafts under his nose. Except the ride quality is far smoother and no matter how dark, thick and meaty Bisto looks, it’s made from potato starch, maltodextrin and palm fat and is suitable for vegetarians. Whereas the R5 is all lean meat.

As for the other part of its name, the 5 – well, obviously that stands for the perfect score I’m giving it.

Frame

The new R5 was finally launched at the end of September after spending most of the season in the WorldTour being ridden to some big victories – including the Vuelta – by Primož RogliÄ and the JumboVisma team alongside the Cervélo S5, the brand’s aero bike.

The new R5 frame is a claimed 130g lighter than the outgoing one, weighing 703g in a size 56cm (painted). The proprietary seatpost and stem are also lighter. Next would usually come a claim about increased stiffness, but according to Cervélo the new R5 is less stiff – and that’s in response to feedback from pro riders, who apparently reported that the old R5 got more uncomfortable as a three-week Grand Tour progressed, particularly at the front end.

Cervélo says its engineers had previously found that a specific ratio between head tube and bottom bracket stiffness equalled the magic formula for ride quality, but they’d never applied it to the R5 since it was a climbing bike and they wanted all-out stiffness.

Yes, it sounds more like a magic marketing ratio for selling bikes, but the actual ride quality backs it up, as we shall see.