Cervélo knows the value of endurance road bikes. The R3 that was taken to victory at Paris-Roubaix wasn’t stock, but something they called R3 Mud. That bike is very much part of the origin story of the Cervélo C5 Frameset.

The C5 starts with Cervélo’s standard 73-degree seat angle and Squoval tube shapes (think square, oval, and aerodynamic). They then build the bike with a more laid-back head angle, a fork with 10mm more rake, and 15mm longer stays. They also increase the bottom bracket drop, with the smaller sizes having 9.5mm more, the middle sizes, 7mm more, and the large sizes 4.5mm more. This improves stability, with a nod to keeping cornering clearance decent. Better than the R3 Mud, you can fit 28mm tires easily into this frame. Unlike that bike, this has disc brakes.

Cervélo incorporates Shimano’s Flat-Mount standard to attach the brakes to the frame. It’s a minimal design, light, and reliable. The mounts are positioned to work with rotors up to 160mm in diameter. To maximize strength, and minimize weight and complexity, they employ thru-axles, both front and rear. Thanks to the BBright bottom bracket standard, they’re able to keep the stays mounting point wide and offset the crank to deal with the 135mm rear hub spacing.

Thanks to the chainstay brake mounts, the rear end has been redesigned, with the seatstay, chainstay, and bottom bracket area molded in one piece. The seatstays are slightly bowed upward, the seatstay brake bridge removed in the name of adding compliance, and even the lower joining of the seatstays to the frame is done in the name of softening up the ride.

Another change made for the longer fork is a new lower headset race. Cervélo typically uses a tapered 1 1/8” to 1 3/8” steerer. Here, it’s 1 1/8” to 1 1/2”, to better deal with the stresses that the new fork adds.

The fork itself comes out of Cervélo’s Project California lab. Project California is where they test out their newest ideas. The products that come out of it are painstakingly hand-made, where they can assure that the fork is both bleeding edge light, and more than strong enough to take the stresses of cycling. The fabric lay-up is also sufficiently complex that it takes incredible precision and a fair amount of time, which are two of the reasons that they’re keeping production in the United States rather than sending it out overseas.

The C5 comes with Future-Proof Cable Management, meaning that the routing is internal and accommodates both mechanical and electronic shifting. For electronic shifting, the battery goes in the included seatpost. For mechanical, the shifting is smooth thanks to the reduced friction bottom bracket cable guide.

The Cervélo C5 is what they’re calling the ultimate “all road” bike. For your purposes, it’s a super-stiff, super-comfortable, disc-brake high-speed whip.