My New Bike
Jim’s Tech Talk
By Jim Langley
A little over a year ago, I wrote about upgrading my racing bike to lower gearing. It’s a 2007 Cervelo Soloist Carbon aero road bike. In the story, I explained why I was upgrading an old bike instead of buying a new one. The photo shows the bike before any changes.
My reasons included; really enjoying the ride of the bike; not wanting to pay the crazy high prices of modern top-end bikes; my belief that disc brakes are overkill for road bikes; and because my old rig, with its Bontrager Aeolus carbon tubular (not tubeless) wheels and tires was competitively light at 16.6 pounds.
To be clear, since calling it a “racing bike” could be interpreted as the style of bike, I’m using “racing” because this is the rocket I raced on in every road race for 10 years (I did NOT use it for training).
I competed in what’s called Masters events (age group events) usually categorized in 5-year increments, such as age 50-55, 55-60, 60-65 and so on. I also have a dedicated time trial bike for those events (a Cervelo P2 – below) and a mountain bike (Specialized S-Works hardtail), which I raced off-road. The road and time trial competitions were mostly in Northern California and I also did USA Cycling’s Masters Nationals events, which took place in Louisville, KY; Bend, OR; and Ogden, UT.
All that racing bonds you to a bike and that’s another reason I wasn’t eager to replace it and why I went ahead and spent about $200 to get it ready for more miles with lower gears to accommodate my failing knees. If you’d like to read more of the backstory and all about the conversion, that article is here: The Long Story of Lowering the Gearing on My Old Road Racing Bike.
While I was looking for that link to give you, I discovered the original review I wrote on the bike, which you can read here if you want to go back to the beginning: Cervelo Soloist Carbon Road Bike.
I didn’t lie, I just changed my mind
Quite a few of you commented on the upgrade article so I need to come clean and admit that I actually did end up buying a new bike, and in only about a year after saying in the article that I wouldn’t. I’ll explain why next and tell you what I chose.
5 reasons
- To go ultralight: The number one reason for getting a new bike was to go lighter because my favorite thing is climbing, and lighter is better when it comes to the hills. Several of my friends own Specialized Aethos bikes, which at the top end of the line can weigh less than 14 pounds or over 2 pounds lighter than my old Cervelo.
- To get an integrated front end: For some time I’ve been considering getting an integrated carbon handlebar and stem setup, which are standard today on many if not most top-of-the-line road racing bikes. The one-piece look is super-clean and good integrated front ends offer nice ergonomics too.
- To hide the hoses and get rid of the wires: Speaking of a clean look, high-end roadsters today feature internal hose routing so that only a small section is visible by the rear brake, the rest is hidden inside the frame, fork and handlebars.
- To get SRAM eTap electronic shifting: My 2007 Cervelo was built with mechanical Shimano Dura-Ace components. I upgraded my 2011 Cervelo P2 to Shimano Di2 electronic components. For the new machine I wanted to ditch all the wires, which you can do with SRAM AXS eTap components. To keep the price a little lower, the Force group is available, too, which uses the same wireless electronic shifting as SRAM Red components, their pro group. In my opinion, SRAM’s eTap utilizes a more intuitive and easier to use shifting system.
- To get wide clincher tires: In last year’s article, I mentioned how much I like the ride of my old Cervelo’s tubular tires (also called “sew-ups” because the tire casings are sewn around the tubes inside.) But, there’s no question that it’s easier to maintain clincher tires, which is what’s on modern road bikes. And, I wanted to get a bike that accepted 30mm wide clinchers so that they might even out perform the tubulars.
With these specs in mind, I went shopping online and it didn’t take long. I did look at the 2026 Specialized Aethos that I mentioned, but for this year they went with a more upright frame geometry, which I didn’t want. So I ruled that bike out. But, because I had looked at that model, Google suggested looking at Cervelo’s R5, basically their ultralight climbing bike like the Aethos.
Since I love the Cervelos I already have and because the R5 has a great reputation and all the features I was looking for, it was an easy choice for me and I bought the R5 Force AXS as shown below ($10,250).
Watch the video
To explain more about how I chose the bike and to show all the details – including the assembly, I made this video for you. Enjoy the show and let me know with a comment below if you have any questions. As I get in more miles, I may do a follow-up if there’s interest.
Jim Langley is RBR’s Technical Editor. A pro mechanic & cycling writer for more than 40 years, he’s the author of Your Home Bicycle Workshop in the RBR eBookstore. Tune in to Jim’s popular YouTube channel for wheel building & bike repair how-to’s. Jim’s also known for his cycling streak that ended in February 2022 with a total of 10,269 consecutive daily rides (28 years, 1 month and 11 days of never missing a ride). Click to read Jim’s full bio.