The new Cervélo S5 is smoother in the wind and in its setup

The new Cervélo S5 has been a terribly kept secret by the once-Canadian company. The pros of Jumbo-Visma have been riding, and winning, on this bike since early this season. Now, Cervélo, which is owned by the Dutch organization Pon Holdings, has made it official: its new aero road bike is here.

What took so long for the release? Well, all the challenges that have been affecting bike production throughout the past two years. Cervélo wanted to make sure it had bike in-stock at launch.

Subtle but important changes at the (kinda controversial) V stem of the Cervélo S5

When the previous S5 was announced in 2018, it came with its head-turning, and occasionally polarizing, V stem. The design fulfilled a few roles. It allowed hydraulic brake hoses and shifting cables to run internally from the bars, through the stem and into the head tube with fairly shallow bends. With a more conventional bar/stem combination, the cables have to make a pretty sharp turn into the head tube. That bend can have a negative effect on mechanical shifting performance. To make sure that mechanical shifting would work well, engineers, such as Scott Roy, looked to the V stem layout. “Truthfully, it was scary making that stem,” Roy says. “It was kind of uncharted. We were going through testing and development. We were even over-testing it. We had it with the team for a long time, but we needed to make it full-proof.”

The team nailed the functionality of the stem, but there was a hitch when it came to adjustability. The bike came slammed: great for the pros or the vain, but not practical for most of us. Dealers had to have the right bolts and spacers on-hand to set up the bike for customers. If you bought an S5 used, either you’d hope you had the same fit as the bike’s previous owner or you’d have to chase down the right bolts and spacers elsewhere.
With the new S5, the bike ships with one set of bolts and 30 mm of spacers. Sounds like a small thing, but it really does make things easier. When I assembled the bike, I simply threw on all the split spacers, which fit around the brake lines, and twisted in the three bolts. If I want to make a change, it will be a cinch.

The irony with the V stem is that while it was first designed, in part, to make sure mechanical shifting was smooth, that feature is no longer needed. The new S5 frame is for electronic shifting only. The…