My review of the Cervelo P5 three

I have purchased from my local bike shop a Cervelo P5 three. First impressions when looking at this bike is for me "how is this legal?". Such a large seat tube gets you wondering how the engineers at Cervelo interpret this as three to one, yet the UCI legal sticker quells all fears. With the P5 being the big brother of Cervelo's flagship P3 and quirky P4, there are big shoes to fill when it comes to the performance of the bike. I will be going through the details of the bike after only riding it once, this is all about first impressions.

The Frameset
The only way to describe the P5 three frameset is difficult at best. The weight when you lift up bike seems a bit on the heavier side, but once you throw a leg over and start to ride the weight seems to disappear. Accelerating is easy, you have the ability to get out of the saddle and push the bike around without feeling like you're being over powered by the sheer weight of the bike. The UCI legal forks look like they aren't going anywhere, the bottom bracket junction is beefy and feels like all of the power is transferred through to the rear wheel. In fact I must compliment the bike on the stiffness and performance of the frame, there is no flex in the frame whatsoever. With minimal flex you can really feel how rough the road is below you, every bump in the road seems to hit you hard especially across the shoulders, not so much through the saddle though. As for handling, all time trial bikes are built for straight line speed and this is made very apparent when trying to turn the P5 three. Take turns wide as this bike isn't as whippy as a road bike and will take some getting used to before hitting the corners at maximum pace. When tucked in the aero position the bike feels stable when the wind is hitting from all directions, it's a strange feeling but the bike feels like it was built around having good stability when in an aero tuck. The Cervelo P5 three is a stiff and stable frame when in race position, when sitting with hands on the bullhorns the bike feels slightly sluggish but get out of the seat and the bike accelerates as if riding an S5 VWD.

Cockpit
The standard P5 three is assembled with 3T components namely the 3T Aura aerobars, however I used a set of 3T Mistral Pro bars that I had from my days riding the team pursuit on the track. The reason behind this decision is solely based on a change in position. The Aura bars may be slightly lighter but the Mistral bars allow you to place the extensions underneath the base bar and by placing the arm pads on the base bar I am able to get an overall lower position. Accessorised with SRAM S900 shifters, nothing amazing about them but they do the job well. The big talking point about the P5 is the hydraulic brakes, with the P5 being one of the first bikes sold standard with hydraulic brakes I thought wise to mention them. Many bike companies seem to believe that having the brakes hidden under the bottom bracket can effect the stopping power. With the Magura RT 6TT brakes 'oh how they are wrong', the only problem I initially had with these brakes is previous experience. My previous TT bike lacked any sort of stopping power, the first time I used the brakes I found myself in a double wheel lockup. Caution, care should be exercised when applying these Magura brakes because unlike many other time trial specific brakes, they work and very well. Cervelo supplies with its bike, a quality cockpit as standard with the bike but the standout is definitely Magura's hydraulic brakes.

Drivetrain
There is nothing that stands out about the drivetrain supplied standard by Cervelo. SRAM S900 bar end shifters get the job done, SRAM front and rear derailleurs add to the look of the bike with the red accents. The cranks that come with the bike are a set of Rotor 3D+ Aero cranks, the interesting point about these cranks is, they are 167.5mm cranks. Cervelo has gone against the convention of longer cranks for more leverage and have replaced them with shorter cranks giving the rider the ability to get a lower front end. All up the cranks are really the only change between the P5 and any other time trial bike.

Wheelset
The bike arrived with Mavic Cosmic Elite wheels, a brand of wheels that I have never ridden before. The wheels are certainly from first impressions good training wheels and perhaps racing on if you don't want to use your good wheels. They roll well, accelerate about as well as any other basic training wheel eg. fulcrum racing 5.

Overall
Overall this bike is insanely fast. Everything seems to have been designed to perfection, put the power down and the bike takes off. I can't wait to race this bike and see how it performs with race wheels fully kitted out to see how fast this bike really is. The Cervelo P5 three is honestly the fastest bike I have ridden and when race kit is applied I'm sure it'll be even faster.

This weekend I will be racing the Tour of the South West as a part of the Victorian Road Series. A 102km road race Saturday morning, a 12km time trial on Saturday afternoon and an hour long criterium on Sunday. With such close racing planned for the weekend there is no doubt that the time trial will play a critical role in the overall standings. This bike leaves no excuses, the best bike possible and the best opportunity to show how good it is.