FRAME ENHANCEMENTS

The UCI’s new regulations on aerodynamic design allowed us some additional room to deepen our aero profiles and squeeze 65 more grams of drag performance out of what is already the fastest aero bike on the market. You’ll notice a deeper head tube and BB area, and more aggressive shaping on the trailing edges of the tubes. Since the new S5 is only compatible with electronic shifting, we were able to tidy the dropout a bit, and update the shaping all over the bike.

TURBULENT AERODYNAMICS

Reserve and Cervélo put our heads together to develop a completely innovative way of engineering and testing wheels to perform optimally in turbulent aerodynamic conditions. Wind tunnels usually measure performance in ideal "laminar" flow situations. But such conditions are unrealistic in the real world. So we helped Reserve develop rim profiles that stall less dramatically at greater yaw angles; in riding terms it’s more stable, more planted, and thus more confidence inspiring. It makes you go faster because you feel more comfortable going faster. The Reserve 52/63 is 50g faster in laminar (traditional) flow, and 54g faster in turbulent flow than the outgoing Reserve 50/65 combo.

TIRE CLEARANCE

Wider wheels and tires are faster aerodynamically, and more comfortable to boot. S5 comes specced with 28mm tires but has clearance for up to a 34mm (measured) tire. The frame is optimized to complement the wider Reserve 52/63 turbulent aero wheels. In addition to the handling benefits, this saves over 5 watts compared to the previous Reserve wheelset.

HANDLEBAR REFINEMENT

We’ve improved the comfort of the handlebar, and tweaked the shape to get a perfectly flat bar-to-hood transition. We now use a two-bolt interface that allows for infinite tilt adjustments between 0 and 5 degrees.

KEEPING IT SIMPLE

Bike fitters at every level are moving away from longer-offset seat posts, and the new S5 comes stock with a 15mm offset post on most sizes (vs 25mm offset on outgoing S5). The old seat posts are forward-compatible, and we’ll keep the 400mm-long, 25mm offset post in stock for those looking for a more extreme fit.