Competitive Cyclist

CERVÉLO P4

The Cervélo P3 Carbon has been the unquestioned gold standard for TT bike quality and aerodynamics for time immemorial. So the first thing to plainly state here is what the Cervélo P4 isn't. It's not a P3 with a integrated water bottle and a funky rear brake. It's a completely new machine. Except for about the middle 8cm of the top tube, every iota of every tube is different. It's lighter, it's more comfortable, and it's far less visible to the wind. These quantum improvements of the P4 are all byproducts of one totalizing thought during the design process: Use an integrated design approach to make the P4 substantially less susceptible to drag -- both in the tunnel, and in the real world. And just how successful was Cervélo with this approach? They state that in a 40km time trial, a high-caliber rider will shave 30 seconds off their time in comparison to a P3. And -- in case you aren't on a P3 -- you'll shed closer to 90 seconds from a 40km TT. They told us that it's the fastest TT bike ever tested -- UCI legal or not. Yes, this includes Chris Boardman's infamous Lotus -- the now-illegal bike long considered the fastest design (lawful or not) ever produced.

For all the innovation on the P4, nothing got people more worked up than its integrated bottle cage system. It wedges (you can say it "snaps") into the crux of the downtube/BB/seat tube. It carries a standard volume of water, and the frame is significantly faster with the bottle snapped in, as opposed to not being there at all. And, for triathletes who lack in jersey pockets and like to carry food in a Bento Box-like device, Cervélo will also make a snap-in box to take the place of the bottle.

The other dramatic innovation comes with the rear brake. It's a proprietary Cervélo design. The caliper is comprised of 17 pieces, and it's literally part of the bottom bracket shell. You'll only know a brake is there if you turn the bike upside down and look at the bottom of the BB shell. That's where you'll see two brake shoes barely nosing out, where they're oriented perpendicularly to the ground. One reason why the brake has so many pieces is that Cervélo wasn't content to have merely an aero rear brake -- they wanted one with real stopping power. So part of the design is an integrated brake booster made to deliver rear braking power no less stout (and with equal modulation) to a Red or Dura Ace or Super Record rear brake caliper.

The cables route through the top of the top tube, right behind the headset. The housing feeds into cable stops inside the top tube, then naked wires through the down tube and into housing stops at the BB shell. Additionally, the P4 is that the rear derailleur cable doesn't run externally from BB-to-chainstay cable stop. Instead, it runs through the inside of the right chainstay, and only exits the frame to make its loop from the chainstay to the rear derailleur barrel adjuster.

The 2010 version of the P4 has one significant enhancement to this internal cable routing: It uses Cervélo's new ICS-3 system, which is a series of replaceable Teflon-lined stainless steel cable routing tubes that are bonded into the top tube and fixed internally to the upper downtube. This new cable routing system controls the cables' entrance, their curvature inside the frame, as well as their exit angle towards the bottom bracket area. You'll end up with more consistent shifting quality, and perhaps the greatest advantage of the ICS-3 system is the improvement in the speed of the bike build. Cable routing will be as easy as a P3 cable install.

You'll note that the P4 has a new seat clamp design, with a seamless wedge bolt system at the leading edge of the seatpost/top tube interface -- a significant aero improvement over the P3's use of two bolts behind the seatpost. The seatstays are more knife-like than what you see on the P3, and they're more steeply angled (and they anchor to the seat tube further forward on the frame) in order to reduce their effective frontal area -- again, reducing drag.

Final aero details include an airfoil-shaped headset top cap that perfectly mates to the integrated stem of a 3T aerobar. And, also at the frontward part of the bike, is a new more-aero head tube that's built out more forward on the frame, which lets the front brake caliper to actually be countersunk into the fork.

Two other things worth mentioning: Rather than making use of adjustable set screws at the rear dropouts to increase or decrease the effective wheelbase of the bike, the P4 is built with tiny, integrated dials in the chainstay that, when turned, limit how far inward you can push your rear wheel.

The Cervélo P4 will come as frame, fork, headset, seatpost, along with one integrated water bottle and an aero headset top cap. It will also come with an integrated rear brake and a Shimano Dura Ace BR-7800 front brake. It requires an English bottom bracket, and a braze on front derailleur. It is available in 6 sizes from 48-61cm, and will come in Black with White Decals. Like all Cervélo frames, it will have a limited lifetime warranty from manufacturing defect.

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2010 Cervélo P4 Pricing

2010 Cervélo P4 Geometry

	Size	Top Tube	Head Tube	Head Tube Angle	Seat Angle	Standover
75 Degree Seat Tube Angle (rear facing seatpost position)	48	51.4	11.0	72.0	75.0	71.6
	51	53.5	9.0	72.5	75.0	74.6
	54	55.7	10.5	72.5	75.0	76.2
	56	57.3	12.5	72.5	75.0	78.0
	58	58.9	14.5	72.5	75.0	79.9
	61	60.4	17.5	72.5	75.0	82.8
78 Degree Seat Tube Angle (forward facing seatpost position)	48	49.0	11.0	72.0	78.0	71.6
	51	51.0	9.0	72.5	78.0	74.6
	54	53.0	10.5	72.5	78.0	76.2
	56	54.5	12.5	72.5	78.0	78.0
	58	56.0	14.5	72.5	78.0	79.9
	61	57.4	17.5	72.5	78.0	82.8