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TECH NEWS
Cavendish Cervelo S5 Tour Tech - 3.jpgTour Tech: Mark Cavendish's Cervelo S5 with an F1 paint finish
So we're in Düsseldorf for the build-up to the Tour de France Grand Depart on Saturday, roaming around the team hotels trying to shoot as many of the race bikes as we can, and as luck would have it the first team we bumped into was Dimension-Data. And here's Mark Cavendish.
Mark Cavendish is once again riding the Cervelo S5, the Canadian company's most aerodynamic race bike, and it looks pretty much the same as last year's bike, so far as we can tell. We didn't get a chance to have a real close look because the team were departing for a training ride as we arrived, but we rattled off a few shots - we're going to get a closer look later today so we'll update this piece with more detail.
He's riding the brand new Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 and there are the same Enve wheels he raced last season - come race day he'll have a new set of Enve wheels with matching green logos. The rims are laced to green Chris King R45 hubs, a nice touch.
The Dimension-Data team is actually sponsored by Rotor but Mark Cavendish has shunned sponsorship duties preferring to use an SRM power meter, even if it means the logo has to be concealed. There's also an Enve aero carbon handlebar and stem. The garish bar tape of last year has been replaced by a standard black bar tape, which is no bad thing... There are Shimano Dura-Ace pedals and an Enve aero carbon handlebar and stem, and Ceramic Speed bearings in the head tube.
What is new is the paint job, well it's not exactly painted as such...The finish on Mark Cavendish’s bike owes a lot to Formula One. Cervelo started working with a paint specialist company in Silverstone to produce a super light paint finish for the T5GB track bikes used by Team GB in the Rio Olympics last year, and this partnership led to Fav’s custom S5.
The company - Silverstone Paint Technology- has developed a heat-shielding material used for Formula One brakes and engines that is just 10 microns thick and weighs just 1g when used on the S5 frame. And when it's applied to bare carbon fibre it produces the stunning chrome finish. The Cervelo lead designer has then added a green dye to the material to produce a fade finish across the frame. You can see how thin the finish is, the carbon weave shows through in several places. Because so little paint has been used, the frameset weight has been reduced by 75g.
Update: So since photographing the bike, we've learned that the finish costs a staggering €4,000, so don't expect to see this option in your local Cervelo dealer anytime soon. We've also learned that the S5 differs slightly from the standard frame with extra carbon fibre added to key targeted places to increase the stiffness of the frame, intended to prevent it twisting and flexing during a sprint finish.
“It needed to be Mark Cavendish’s bike at its core, and this was achieved both technically and visually,” said Tom Briggs, Cervélo’s lead graphic designer. “To highlight his team pride we used DiData green and maintained the same mask lines as the Team Edition S5. We also included the Qhubeka charity logo on the inside of the chainstay because of Mark’s commitment to Qhubeka and what they are trying to achieve.
Mark Turner, Silverstone Paint Technology’s director, is similarly excited: “Watching Britain’s Olympians reach the podium in Rio on the T5GB represented the proudest moment in our company’s history. Now, with Cav’s S5, we’re pushing the incremental performance benefits of our paint technology even further. We’ve learned that every bit of weight savings can make a difference, and Cervélo’s willingness to explore technology outside of their industry has really pushed and challenged us.”
So what do you think of his Tour race bike? Thumbs up or down? Let's hear your thoughts in the comments section below.
David worked on the road.cc tech team from 2012-2020. Previously he was editor of Bikemagic.com and before that staff writer at RCUK. He's a seasoned cyclist of all disciplines, from road to mountain biking, touring to cyclo-cross, he only wishes he had time to ride them all. He's mildly competitive, though he'll never admit it, and is a frequent road racer but is too lazy to do really well. He currently resides in the Cotswolds, and you can now find him over on his own YouTube channel David Arthur - Just Ride Bikes.
Latest Comments
- mdavidford 5 min 55 sec ago
All that money spent on special lanes for improbability drives, and the bastards are still always appearing out of nowhere in front of you.
- brooksby 26 min 57 sec ago
Thank you! I was about to post, to ask whether or not the canal path in question is or is not 'pedestrians only'…
- Paul J 53 min 46 sec ago
Well, it can't be that bad that it's an ethical issue - the CO rebreathing method is a very standard technique, used in pretty much every sports...
- Steve K 1 hour 2 min ago
I broke two on the same wheel on a multi day trip from London to Sunderland in 2016 - I think the repair on the first was probably botched hence...
- chrisonabike 1 hour 10 min ago
Citation needed - or could it be that it's actually because they are regularly associating with criminals (the ones you point out - perhaps at the...
- PRSboy 1 hour 14 min ago
Indeed. Its a virtual cycling platform at the end of the day, so there is a limit to what can be done without losing the 'game' feel. As it...
- Another_MAMIL 2 hours 23 min ago
Could Polartec please provide more clarity on the differences between these new materials? Which is more breathable? Which is more water resistant?...
- the little onion 2 hours 30 min ago
Unexpected item in the bagging area
- chrisonabike 3 hours 43 min ago
Well, first the British came, now there aren't any Thylacines or indeed original Tasmanians in one sense...
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34 comments
Why didn't they just go the whole hog and put it under the bottom bracket?
Clearly the team is really proud of the connections to Qhubeka...
Pardon my ignorance, but is this the old one with the infinite improbability drive, or is it the new sub-etha model?
The new sub-etha model is characterised by a double foo-foo valve on the rear rotor, but ultimately the unobtanium heatsink brings in a reactive index which more than matches the infra-red shift of the old improbability drive. As Flobble (Dr Flobster to those in the know) points out, the extra vertical compliance of the ultra-radium spoke lift cancels out the vertical oscillations making the doppler shift through the bottom bracket match the compliant stiffness of the viagral insertions.
Are we done now?
It's the former. A not too subtle nod in colour to the "secret" mechanical assist collaboration with Kawasaki...
Let's hope he has a matching jersey soon enough... though there seems something holy about Merckx' stage victory record... that said, it's probably more difficult to win a stage these days.
The pictures on the cervelo website look pretty cool, I didn't realise that the paint on a bike weighed that much but I guess it makes sense, any idea about how durable the finish is?
Choice. I don't ride with gloves unless the weather is bad. Just don't like it.
their sponsor don't have money left for providing hand gloves ? just hope for them they don't hit the tarmac, especially with some gravel ...
He has their Invsipalm (TM) anti-friction hand coating grafted on. Surprisingly, it's both lighter and stiffer than skin.
Hand gloves ? Are there any other kinds ?
Fox?
Oven glove?
Fox glove. Obviously....
Can you fit a pannier to it? No...then a handlebar wicker basket would convert it into a nice wee shopper.
That frame/bike is gopping, I'm sure perforamnce wise it's a beast but ugly doesn't even get close, the colour scheme is rank.
Not exactly new: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=wilier+le+roi&cr=countryUK%7CcountryGB...
I think this is more than just a paint job...
https://www.cervelo.com/en/about/news/cavs-custom-S5-takes-paint-to-the-next-level?contentlabel=s5%2CCavendish%2CMark-Cavendish%2CSseries%2Cpro-cycling&platform=twitter
i like it. I better get saving
Noticed the green hubs as well on his ENVE wheels (Chris King perhaps?) the others are all black.
The DA/SRM chainset is still using the older DA9000 chain rings and left crank (custom drive side). Everything else looks 9100.
I wonder what Rotor have to say about that?
As you suggest Dimension Data have Rotor as a power meter sponsor so all the other team bikes are using Rotor but Cav is a long term SRM user and I guess is a big enough name to bring his own sponsorship deals with him.
I'm surprised they didn't fit a SRM for Rotor chainring version http://www.srm.de/products/srm-powermeter/3d/
Perhaps Cav just chooses to stick with the Shimano chainrings he trusts to keep his chain on during his sprints.
Wouldn't surprise me; he's lost enough chains while sprinting over the years.
Surprised that they're mentioning the T5GB though - isn't that the one that half the sprinting squad thought was too flexy, and frequently broke, or am I the victim of Internet Rumours?
wasnt that an April fools story? (Flexy track bike)
Is that a Richard Mille watch he's wearing with tour appropriate strap? Would not want to crash with one of those on my wrist.
I'm sure he's got the appropriate insurance in place.
yep. Founder gave him one to wear on a tour stage and he won wearing it
We (I speak as a weight weenie) are suckers that we go wow 75g saved in paint and then someone points out that he rides with a completely unecessary watch that mush weigh twice that.
Naah. It has an Ultrahelium second hand that removes 96.4% of the weight. It's also 56.779% stiffer too.
Only laterally. Vertically, it's more compliant and exploits the material's natural properties to absorb road buzz.
You are, of course, absolutely right; I should have mentioned that. To be clear, it's an equivalent gain of drafting an F-16 at Mach 2.3 for 9 years in double gravity over 50km in a vaccum at between 1,000 and 3,000 What's?? Per Minute. Marginal gains....
Looks like someone got a rattle-can and touched up a silver and white frame
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