Cervélo R5 Disc | Review | Cycling Weekly

Vibrant in green but sleek with its matte black colour, the new Cervélo R5 is a drop dead gorgeous frame. It’s all straight lines and aggressive angles that makes it look like it’s chomping at the bit to ride fast – and ride fast it does.

Our test rides in both the mountains of Northern Italy and the lanes of Southern England convinced us that this was a bike that had it all – race car handling, criterium speed and stiffness as well drop dead gorgeous good looks.

Cervélo’s engineers wanted to great a bike that would make riders really feel the ride and explore how a bike can make a rider feel fast and responsive without being uncomfortable. This they aptly named “the psychology of the ride”, and the frame’s carbon layup allows just enough road resonance through to make the ride feel fast and lively, without being jarring.

Pro rider input
The bike’s geometry chart is really a long list of developments that make it an all round more aggressive beast, the most drastic of which is the drop in the head tube height from the previous model down to 151mm – an adjustment made for the company’s professional riders, according to Cervélo. To put that in perspective, that’s lower than both the Specialized Tarmac and the Pinarello Dogma F10.

That head tube lowering partnered with an updated bottom bracket drop of 72mm and a lengthening of the bike’s wheelbase to 993mm makes for a triple whammy that makes the bike handle – and look – like a race car.

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[cyclingweekly]

What 2018 bike would you pick over the Cervélo R5 Disc? Let us know in the comment section!

[dom]

I bought one last week and I friken love it! Slapped some zipp 404 tubulars on it. Came with durace di2! So nice and crispy when shifting.

[rk]

What I find laughable about cervelo (and this is coming from someone who owns both current s5 and the previous gen r5) is their pricing of frame vs whole bike. I can EASILY build the whole bike they sell for $9000 well below that price if I just buy a frame and seatpost from them. I could even spec it out with extralite stem and an exotic level full carbon saddle and still end up way below the $9000 they charge for the full bike. I guess they bank on the fact that most people don't build their own bikes? Anyway. This is why I never pay cervelo. I just find a MINT used frame a year later and build my own bike to my spec and end up with "super bike" that costs $3000+ less than what Cervelo asks. I love the brand and the bikes but their prices are shameful and not worth it.

[VelotvUK]

4:05 you can use a bar fly garmin mount in the front plate of the stem, also it comes with two top caps for the stem so you can use spacers above the stem.

[zombierider]

Digging that intro music. Basically my mental soundtrack whilst out riding lol. Great vid!

[nobrakes]

Personally I think bikes should just stop coming with saddles, just as they don't come with pedals. Your saddle is something even more personal to you than pedals, so why on earth do bikes come with some random "one size fits all" saddle anyway? I'd much rather have that money go towards something else like the tires. Tires should always be top spec on something like this tho

[smokey]

What happend at 3:42? Talking thru axles one minute and stems the next... btw. have the RAT axle on my focus mtbs, the old one was really really good and fast, the new one on the Focus O1E jams and is super slow to use

[matthewholberton]

Guys, great review! The bike is a joy to ride and handles insanely well. Agree with all your comments regarding the frame.
Have a few issues though:
The RAT system is fast! You have you push it right in and then turn it.
Why would anyone want to put spacers above the stem? If you need spacers you can put them below. The stem looks really nice, especially when slammed.
Most manufacturers skimp out on tyres, no biggie, but it should have come with 28s.
The bottom bracket is the real problem, you didn’t mention this. It’s a cheap BBB one and has to be swapped out immediately to a high end bottom bracket like C Bear or Ceramic Speed.
I can understand why Cervelo would put a cheap saddle on the bike because most people would swap it anyway.
The stem is designed for a Barfly mount so use it. They look really good, no need for an ugly one that clamps to the bars.
The wheels on this model are good but the Dura Ace version comes with old Enve rims paired with cheap Formula hubs that are just awful.

[perrymckenna]

Excellent balanced and objective review.  What is the weight w/o pedals?

[jimmyacombp]

Scott Addict Premium Di2 Disc review would be great to see, comes with everything the Cervelo doesn't and is an absolute ripper of a bike. Grin from ear to ear every pedal stroke. If you get a chance ride one then you will be wanting to purchase one.

[josh]

I believe this is a serious contender aside from the saddle and tires (and stem) because chances are going to change...maybe tires not so much, but if you're going to get fitted, you're going to have already sorted out your saddle and the fit will decide the stem, and its not likely to be the one that came with the bike. Tires, the average person is like going to fine tune their tire choice around what they ride. All-in-all 4000s are better all around though.

If I were buying this, I would look at if I could convert those Zipps to tubeless and minimally 28s. If not, I would build from the frameset up in an "all-road" setup with 28s or 30s with tubeless, and diversify the my riding in this light confident geometry.

The problem for me would start with the fact that the Specialized Tarmac Disc frameset comes in less expensive, and the complete bike has tubeless ready wheels along with similar or slightly more clearance. In the end, I still prefer the design and engineering of Cervelo bikes and I also believe they use better carbon with a better dampening characteristic which in the long term isn't a value on paper, but a value in ownership. Then again, most of this might not be at all important to the road racer this bike was aimed for, and in all reality something like the C Series or Open UPPER or 3T Strata would be a better option for my focus, but there are drawback to those setups especially if you're going to do competitive racing or fast group rides on the same bike.

[duanescot]

The through axles are a bit of a pain in the ass until you figure them out, then, not an issue, overall, I love my R5, fast, nimble, light, great bike that looks good, get lots of compliments on it, even from non riders..

[alansheard]

We now know the reason for the white stem !!
It's the bike is would have if I had that kind of money.

[batbawls]

The correct response to this video is yes.

[carlosvieira]

Nice review! This should be the standard!

[johnratcliffe]

I have to say that the taller head tube was one of the things I liked about the Cervelo frames. I'd really like an R5, but I'd have to try the new frame before committing. A shame.

[jamesp.]

I was enquiring about this exact bike they are like gold dust.. Evans cannot source them at all, wheelbase said they "might" be able to get hold of o e sometime in 2019!!! A BIKE shop in Hull said they might be able to get hold of a frame in a month.. I can't find anyone that has actually got any of these in stock.
No one will tell me but have these been secretly recalled for some reason? I do not believe that Cervelo have sold all their stock and that is it.

[markp]

Mentioned it was awesome climbing and descending. What about long days in the saddle?

[DarthJabba]

How about a direct comparison of the R5 and R3 with similar equipment and wheels. Nobody does these and it's the most obvious choice readers face when shopping.

[chrispyy]

The 2018 bike I’d pick above the R5 disc is the R5 rim brake...