Cervelo has released a new Aspero 5, featuring a completely different mold from the standard Aspero, thus distinguishing the Aspero 5 as Cervelo’s dedicated gravel race machine. The differences to the latest Aspero released last year are myriad, but most importantly, Cervelo has focused on making the Aspero 5 a proper aero bike, to the tune of a claimed 37-watt boost in efficiency over its predecessor, and 34 watts faster than the nearest competitor’s aero gravel bike.
The Roadie’s Gravel Bike
The Aspero 5’s stunning silhouette harkens back to the original Cervelo TT bikes, while borrowing gracefully from the current S5 aero road racer, as well as the grenade on wheels that is the current Soloist. The Aspero 5’s super-deep head tube takes advantage of relaxation in UCI rules, while the bottom bracket is pure Cervelo, which is to say beefier than a grass-fed bull that’s taken up cross-fit. And that bottom bracket is now threaded, with a T47 BBRight variant.
The new Aspero 5 also offers in-frame storage, which is identical to the system offered on the current Caledonia 5 endurance/all-road bike. The system uses a hatch that sits beneath the down tube water bottle cage, and Cervelo claims it’s the most aerodynamically efficient system available. Thankfully, it’s also been well-received in testing of the Caledonia 5 for its usability and durability. Cervelo has retained the outgoing Aspero 5’s bento-box mounts on the top tube for use with Cervelo’s own top tube feed bag, which works brilliantly in our experience.
Tire clearance will be a deal breaker for some folks, at 45mm. Chances are, though, if you routinely ride terrain where a 45c tire at 20-ish PSI is just miserable, or unsafe to use, you’re probably not reading this article or shopping gravel bikes in this segment. The Aspero 5 isn’t just designed to swallow a 45c tire without paint damage; its geometry, as I’ll describe later, is actually optimized for a 42-45c tire, and that’s still fairly progressive in the gravel race bike segment. Interestingly, the complete builds feature 42c slick tires, which hints at the cohort that Cervelo is targeting with the new Aspero 5.
Mixed & Matched Tire Geo for Aerodynamics
Riders can fit the Aspero 5 with equally-sized tires (like 42mm front and rear), and the Aspero-5’s handling is designed to be stable, confidence-inspiring, and ready for the roughest courses. But, to increase aerodynamics even further (and sharpen handling for less-technical courses), the geometry is actually optimized for a 4mm tire width differential (40mm front, 44mm rear, for instance). That means for the bike to be the most aerodynamic, you should be running a larger tire in the back of the bike, which seems counter-intuitive for riders from the off-road world.
Cervelo Aspero 5 Geometry
Stack and reach figures on the new Aspero 5 are slightly more aggressive than its predecessor, allowing racers to achieve a longer and lower position to save watts at high speed. The headtube angle is slackened a bit to a road-adjacent 71.6 angle that will give the new Aspero 5 a slightly more stable yet responsive steering personality. The wheelbase is lengthened by way of a small extension of the chainstays, to 422.5mm, which is at the shorter end of the spectrum for gravel bikes. The front-center and presumably the trail remain unchanged.
Notably absent from the new Aspero 5 fork is the flip chip, which allows owners to adjust the trail and steering of the original Aspero. The original Aspero and its flip chip design were born when the idea of swapping between 700c and 650b wheels was flourishing, but that trend has since fizzled, and 700c is now the only officially recommended wheel size for the Aspero 5. Bottom bracket drop is 80mm (4mm lower than the outgoing Aspero 5), which means that the new Aspero 5 will deliver even more of that stable “in the bike” feeling, by positioning the rider’s mass lower, relative to the axles.
The move to a lower bottom bracket also illustrates that Cervelo engineers intend the new Aspero 5 to be run with bigger tires than before, as that increased tire volume will offset the added bottom bracket drop, moving the axles (and rider) back up, higher off the ground. All in all, the geometry figures confirm that the Aspero is still a roadie’s gravel bike that’s designed to go fast and feel fast.
Keep Your Road Bike For Now
Can the Aspero 5 serve as a quiver killer that renders a bike like the Specialized Tarmac and its ilk unnecessary for the enthusiast road rider? Perhaps, but with a few caveats.
First, the Aspero 5 frame is not light by 2025 road bike standards, coming in at over 1,000 grams, whereas a similarly priced S-Works Tarmac SL8 road frame saves almost 1 lb of mass. No, those grams won’t actually slow anyone down, but it will no doubt give the Aspero 5 a slightly overbuilt and heavy-hitting ride quality versus the zippy and more playful feel of a proper road racer.
Perhaps the bigger issue, however, is the 80mm bottom bracket drop. Combining this ultra-low crank position with only a 30c tire may cause pedal strikes, and while it’s not likely, it only needs to happen once to ruin your season. On the plus side, Cervelo has wisely retained compatibility with front derailleurs, as well as chainring clearance for at least a 50×34, perhaps more with crafty use of spacers. If your road rides are self-guided journeys over varied terrain and you’re cool with 1x or a frame-up build, then the Aspero 5 could be a drop bar quiver-killer, perhaps paired with both road and gravel-specific wheelsets.
Builds and Specs
The Aspero 5 is available in two complete builds and as a frameset. Both complete bikes use SRAM AXS, and there is no Di2 option right now. As if I even needed to write this, the frameset is for electronic shifting only. First up, at $12,500, is the SRAM Red/Eagle SS SL AXS Mullet set up with Red AXS E1 levers, Red calipers, and Red power-meter equipped crank, bolted to a whopping 48-tooth chainring and held by a ceramic bottom bracket. Out back is an Eagle XX SL full-mount derailleur and a 10-52 XX SL Eagle cassette. Wheels are the excellent Reserve 40/44 carbon with DT Swiss 240 series hubs, shod with 42c Vittoria Corsa Pro Control TLR G2.0 slicks. The gearing and tires do not really complement each other, to my mind, but let us know what you think in the comments. For $8,500, the build trickles down to the freshly released Force AXS E1 and Eagle X0, and DT Swiss 350 hubs. The Force/Eagle XO build also gets a power meter and a ceramic bottom bracket.
To their credit, Cervelo has spec’d the cockpit dimensions mostly in line with modern bike fit. The seatpost is zero offset, as should be every seatpost at this point. The handlebars on a size 56 are 40cm at the hoods and much wider in the drops, and jump up and down in width appropriately to match frame sizes. Stock stem lengths will never please everyone, but they sure seem a bit short given the bike’s intended audience, with a 90mm spec’d on the 56 cm and maxing out at only 100mm on the size 61.
Crank sizing is more on-trend, but still conservative, with a 170mm spec’d on the 56 cm, and maxing out at 172.5 on the 61 cm.
While the handlebar clearly offers a wide range of hand positions and is claimed to save 6w, it does appear possible to swap to any other bar with a routing port inside the stem clamp zone, in the event the shaping doesn’t work for your fit. Our advice for buying complete bikes like the Aspero 5 is to work with a boutique shop in your area to get the build and dimensions dialed the first time, after you’ve had a professional bike fit. Safer yet, buy the frameset and pick the parts that work best for your unique body and your local terrain.
So, who is the Cervelo Aspero 5 for? That answer is surprisingly simple, because it hasn’t changed – the Aspero 5 is a gravel bike for road riders who like to ride fast wherever they go, because “wherever” is always some sort of road, whether it’s paved or not. Is it actually a racer’s gravel bike? 5 years ago, the answer would have been “of course it is,” but right now, with the shift to 2″+ tires for racing, it’s tough to see many pinning their hopes of glory on a maximum of 45c tires.
