Cervelo P5-six review

Recently I've upgrade from my Cervelo P4 to the P5. Been riding the P4 for three years and to be honest I wasn't that happy with it compared to the P3. So when the P5 became available I had a good excuse to upgrade.

Initially Cervelo SA decided to only bring the P5-three to South Africa with no option of the "six". The main difference between the "Three" and "Six" is that the "Three" is UCI legal. The "six" comes with an integrated Anduro aero bar and stem, a deeper fork with the front brakes inside the fork. It also have the carbon option Magura RT8 Brakes and the front brake is covered by a faring.

Seeing that I don't participate in Road race events and prefer long distance triathlons I decided to rather get me the "Six"

Only problem, it wasn't available in SA but thanks to Marco at Cycle Tech, with whom I've been dealing with for almost ten years, he made a plan and got me one.

 I've done a  fair amount of training on it and also two Half Ironman and must say it is just superb. Much better than the P4 and remind me of the P3. One thing I like about it is that it is a solid bike and I get the feeling that you won't ride this bike to pieces, not like the P4 which I felt was a bit too "fragile"

The Bike is very stiff but at the same time it is a very comfortable ride. There is also very little flex and power gets transferred better. Handling is also great and when you point it into a direction it goes with a twitch.

With all the different options on the handlebar I could play around with the setting without too much change to my initial set up. What I also like about it is that Cervelo made sure that one can add components and accessories to the bike without compromising the aero, set up or look.

One thing I am very glad about is the Magura hydraulic brakes. The brakes are potent and worlds apart from the P4. It was something to get used to applying the brakes, been a while since I could lock my rear wheel as the P4's rear brake was just pathetic. Choosing a crank I opted for the Rotor Flow aero crank with 54/42 chain ring.

 I've opted to go with the Shimano Dura Ace Di2 group set. At first I had them build the Sram group set over from the previous bike but the angle at the stem is very tight and I found it difficult at some stages changing gears. The Di2 electronic system is flawless and I am very impressed with it. I haven't had any issues with it even under load and shifting gears rapidly.

After riding with a Fizik saddle for all these years I took a chance and swop to the Adamo Aero saddle. Best move I've ever done. The saddle is so comfortable and I can stay in the aero position much longer. No more shifting around on the saddle during my long rides.

As I said before one thing I am very impressed with is how one can add accessories without an issue. The Xlab stealth pocket uses two screws to fix it to the top tube. The Di2 battery is also stored within the frame close to the rear brake and it is easy removing it to charge it. I've decided to hide the Di2 indicator inside the stem. Only disadvantage is I can't see when the battery needs to be charged.

The Aero bar also has a base plate on which one can add a water bottle holder without adding extra brackets to fix the holder to the bar. Fitting a rear bottle holder to the seat post is also no problem as the seat post has a hollow "tube" whereby the water bottle holder "rot" slide into.

In Summary the Pro's and Con's

Pro's

The whole bike, no seriously this is the best TT bike I've ever ridden

Stiffness and handling

Power transfer and the frame not flexing

Magura brakes

Making provision to the frame to add accessories without issues

Con's

With the performance and handling of the bike I couldn't find any faults yet and the only downside is the Matt finish to the paintwork. It does look good but keeping the bike clean can be an issue