{"id":326270,"date":"2025-08-07T22:08:21","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T22:08:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/326270\/"},"modified":"2025-08-07T22:08:21","modified_gmt":"2025-08-07T22:08:21","slug":"cervelo-s5-first-ride-i-didnt-expect-to-fall-in-love-with-a-bike-again-but-then-i-rode-this","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/326270\/","title":{"rendered":"Cervelo S5 First Ride | I Didn\u2019t Expect to Fall in Love With a Bike Again\u2014But Then I Rode This"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m as guilty as anyone of looking past a bike as a whole. Instead, I see a collection of lifeless parts\u2014geometry numbers on a page, a spec sheet full of components found on a thousand other bikes. A weird handlebar. A funny seat tube. A tire I don\u2019t like.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve ridden bikes that were, on paper, perfect. The fit was dialed<\/a>. The parts were thoughtfully chosen. And yet, no spark.<\/p>\n

That spark\u2014that flash of joy and freedom, of possibility and wonder\u2014is what transforms a bike from an object into something else entirely. It\u2019s elusive, unpredictable, and frustratingly unbuyable. No matter the price tag, no matter the brand, no spec sheet can guarantee it.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the bike you grew up with that carried you through summer adventures. The commuter<\/a> that\u2019s followed you through the routine of adult life, quietly collecting thousands of miles between work, groceries, and dinner. So much a part of your story that when it\u2019s finally gone, it feels like something in you is missing, too.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the beauty of riding\u2014a fleeting, unexplainable harmony between rider and machine. When it happens, you float. You escape time, effort, place. It\u2019s just you and the moment, on a plane of your own.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve felt it only a few times. A mountain bike<\/a> when I was 11. A road bike at 19. Once on a track bike<\/a>. Plenty of other bikes I\u2019ve loved, sure\u2014but only a handful sparked something deeper.<\/p>\n

Today, I felt it again.<\/strong><\/p>\n

And, as always, it came when I wasn\u2019t expecting it.<\/p>\n

I had written off modern road bikes<\/a> as joyless. Overdesigned. All aero tunnel, no soul. The integration. The proprietary parts. The relentless pursuit of speed over feel. I figured my spark\u2014if it ever came back\u2014would come from a lugged steel frame or a custom titanium build designed not for aerodynamics, but for joy.<\/p>\n

Not from one of the fastest, flashiest aero road bikes on the market.<\/p>\n

\"cervelo<\/p>\n

Trevor Raab<\/p>\n

\"cervelo<\/p>\n

Trevor Raab<\/p>\n

But from the first pedal stroke on the new Cerv\u00e9lo S5<\/a>, it was there. Instant. Electric. My body folded into a position so familiar and so precise\u2014one I\u2019ve copied countless times, but never fully replicated.<\/p>\n

Ironically, the last time I felt this spark was nearly 13 years ago\u2014on the original Cerv\u00e9lo S5. My mind raced back to that ride in Alar\u00f3, Spain: clipping in, pushing off, and being lifted into that same rush. That same sense of effortless flight.<\/p>\n

So much has changed since then\u2014my life, the bike, the entire cycling industry. And yet somehow, in that moment, nothing had. A new bike, a different place, a different time. But the feeling? The feeling was exactly the same.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s why we keep riding.<\/p>\n

\"Headshot<\/p>\n

Bobby is part of the Bicycling Test Team and brings with him over a decade of professional racing experience, including 3 Olympic Team berths. Prior to joining Bicycling, he raced professionally on the road and track for over ten years and dabbled in cyclo-cross and cross-country mountain bike racing as a junior. His resume includes a bronze medal at the 2015 Track Cycling World Championships, three trips to the Olympic Games, Pan American titles, and dozens of National titles. In his spare time between testing bikes and continuing to race at a regional level, he can be found enjoying the quieter side of life and cheap beer on the farm he shares with his wife and their 2 dogs, 3 cats, and 14 chickens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019m as guilty as anyone of looking past a bike as a whole. Instead, I see a collection…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":326271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[78425,117607,2000,299,117605,36,117604,117606],"class_list":{"0":"post-326270","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-cervelo","9":"tag-cervelo-s5","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-first-ride","13":"tag-france","14":"tag-road-bikes","15":"tag-s5"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114989767353702009","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}