Cervelo S5 Red eTap AXS

I admit that I was not initially too impressed with the aesthetics of the latest Cervelo S5 when it was first launched, with the radical upwardly angled V-shaped stem looking very awkward to my eyes. However, the S5 looks much better and more cohesive in the flesh; the stark side-on view depicted in lots of publicity shots is its worst angle, and as a three-dimensional object it drew a number of admiring comments from fellow riders who hadn’t seen one before.

For once I actually looked forward to the chaingang part of my regular Tuesday night ride, hoping that rather than simply hanging on and waiting for the hill home the S5 would miraculously transform me into a powerful rouleur. After feeling great again on the early hills, despite its weight penalty over my R5, the S5 made perfect sense, cutting through the air on the 50kph flat section, feeling fast and smooth.

The lever shift action on the 12-speed eTap is slightly softer than with 11-speed, and the actuation perhaps a little more muted, in keeping with the quiet drivetrain. SRAM hasn’t managed to hide the bulk of the hydraulics as well as Shimano has with their Di2 shifters either, and the hoods sit almost two centimetres higher and one centimetre wider than my 11-speed eTap rim brake ones - not good or bad, just different. This is certainly worth bearing in mind if you have small hands though. 

The fluid-damped Orbit chain management system worked superbly, it controlled the chain very well without the use of a clutch mechanism; even deliberately harsh bunnyhops failed to elicit any chainslap noise from the back end. This single rear derailleur will cope with gravel and cyclocross duties as well as it does with road rides.

The DT Swiss ARC 1450 wheels come in at around 1,600 grams for the pair, so not super light but pretty good for a 48mm deep, 25mm wide, aero wheelset. They matched the frame well, both visually and performance wise, holding speed well and getting less affected by crosswinds than I feared with excellent stability even in blustery conditions. They were already set up tubeless, and with the extra width of the rim giving the tyres added volume they inspired plenty of confidence heading into corners, daring me to hold off the brakes as long as possible.

SRAM’s AXS smartphone app was easy to pair up and use, with the individual battery status information useful and wireless firmware update simple to do. I experimented with the two alternative shifting modes accessed via the app too; Sequential performs front shifts automatically to maintain cadence and Compensating makes rear shifts to compensate when a front change is made. I didn’t spend too much time trying to get used to these aids, but for me they felt a little superfluous - I sometimes change gear precisely because I want a change in cadence, so having the bike work to keep me at a certain RPM wasn’t always what I wanted.

There is still an obvious difference in feel between the sprightly Cervelo R5 and the powerful S5, but neither feels out of place in the other’s territory at all, and the science suggests that most of us would gain some benefit from an aerodynamic bike like the S5 even on hillier rides. The SRAM AXS eTap 12-speed is a very worthy successor to its groundbreaking 11-speed forebearer, with the innovative gears giving a wider spread of useable ratio options and allowing an optimal cadence to be found more frequently than with a traditional 11-speed set up.