First Look: Cervelo's First Mountain Bike is a Race-Bred Hardtail
Cervelo is better known in the curly bar world where they sponsor Wout van Aert and the rest of Team Jumbo-Visma, but today sees them release their first mountain bike, the ZHT-5 hardtail that they describe as, "Stiff, light, and ready to fight." In other words, the ZHT-5 is all about cross-country racing, and Cervelo says that the 907-gram frame (medium) is a "super stiff mountain bike design that propels you to the front without compromising weight or ride quality."
Cervelo is offering the ZHT-5 in two flavors; $9,000 USD gets you an XX1 AXS, a SID SL Ultimate, and a set of carbon fiber wheels from Reserve, while the $4,800 USD build comes with GX AXS, a SID SL Select, and aluminum wheels bolted to the same carbon frame.
Cervelo is offering the ZHT-5 in two flavors; $9,000 USD gets you an XX1 AXS, a SID SL Ultimate, and a set of carbon fiber wheels from Reserve, while the $4,800 USD build comes with GX AXS, a SID SL Select, and aluminum wheels bolted to the same carbon frame.
ZHT-5 Details
• Intended use: Cross-country racing
• Travel: 100mm fork
• Frame material: Carbon fiber
• Head angle: 68.5-degrees
• Seat angle: 74-degrees
• Wheels: 29" only
• Sizes: SM, MD, LRG, XL
• Reach: 457mm (LRG)
• Weight: 907 grams (MD frame only)
• Price: $9,000, $4,800 USD
• More info: www.cervelo.com
• Intended use: Cross-country racing
• Travel: 100mm fork
• Frame material: Carbon fiber
• Head angle: 68.5-degrees
• Seat angle: 74-degrees
• Wheels: 29" only
• Sizes: SM, MD, LRG, XL
• Reach: 457mm (LRG)
• Weight: 907 grams (MD frame only)
• Price: $9,000, $4,800 USD
• More info: www.cervelo.com
The top-of-the-line ZHT-5 comes with XX1 AXS, a SID SL Ultimate, and a set of carbon fiber wheels from Reserve for $9,000 USD.
$4,800 USD gets you the same carbon frame but a GX AXS drivetrain, SID SL Select, and aluminum wheels.
Frame Details
Cervelo makes some very light road and gravel bikes, so it's not exactly a surprise to hear that a medium-sized ZHT-5 frame weighs just 907 grams. That's not the absolute lightest on the market, but it's not far off, and Cervelo told us that while it could be a little lighter, they also wanted the frame to feel stiff in an efficient kind of way.
The most polarizing detail will no doubt be the internal cable routing that enters through the headset top cap and makes for a sleek-looking frame. It likely makes maintenance a little more complicated as well but, aside from the top cap itself, there are no weird proprietary parts and it uses normal bearings that should be easy to source. Speaking of cables, neither of the two complete bikes come from Cervelo with a dropper post - this is a full-out cross-country bike, after all - but they were smart to include internal routing should a ZHT-5 owner want to add one down the road after they've been thrown out the front door a few times.
Other details worth mentioning include two bottle mount locations - a must-have for this type of bike - and a threaded bottom bracket that will never call for a hammer or press to work on.
Geometry
The ZHT-5 is designed around a 100mm-travel fork and a 68.5-degree head angle, which is probably more than a couple of degrees steeper than your brand-new trail bike but in line with other race-focused hardtails. If you could do with a bit more forgiveness, Cervelo did tell us earlier this year that you're able to run up to a 130mm fork that would also relax the steering a touch. All four sizes get a 74-degree seat angle and a 430mm rear-end, but the headtube does grow from just 89mm on the small to 121mm on the extra-large.
Reach numbers lean more towards conservative than long, with the large-sized frame coming in at 457mm. The 484mm extra-large is as big as it gets, and it starts at 409mm for the small frame.
Author Info:
Must Read This Week
XC racing is no longer a cyclocross race...as it should be.
I wouldn't spend more than $500 on a no-suspension carbon frame for off road beyond gravel. If I wanted to be slow as hell with a bike that is light, I would buy on Aliexpress.
Reduce, reuse, recycle. Reduce the production of dog-shit.
www.instagram.com/p/CjTJTNYKZLI/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y
This is a gravel/cross bike in mountain bike drag.
geometrygeeks.bike/bike/scott-spark-rc-2022
www.scott-sports.com/us/en/product/scott-spark-rc-world-cup-evo-axs-bike?article=286250008
I made the switch to a modern FS XC frame (Intense Sniper), but I didn't go leaps and bounds faster than the Pivot Les I had before (69.5*). I had a higher level of fitness on the Cannondale F-Si before that so my results are hard to compare.
I still have the Les frame. I could build it back up and race it just fine. The Les probably would have been faster at one of my recent out of state races (High Cascades 100), but slower at another different out of state race (True Grit Epic), so I think it averages out.
I never ride my XC bike outside of competition anyway.
"And if you’re wondering where the full-suspension half to the Jumbo Visma race quiver is, then if I told you that the HT in ZHT stood for HardTail then you might be able to deduce what bike I may have ridden the next day in Florence. You’ll have to be a little more patient for that one though."
This really seems like a very targeted bike (or line of bikes?) specifically developed for their partnership with some very elite XC racers. Different horses for different courses.
What they did wrong is how they labelled the bike: this is a perfect “winter gravel bike”:
For muddy conditions, where 40mm wide tyres won’t do and you’re too slow in the mud to benefit from the aero gains of a drop bar.
I actually have an XC hardtail exactly for this
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TVLrRV6CKA&ab_channel=ProCyclingClips
Something tells me that a bike made for Milan Vader's probably going to do alright.
My buddy works at Fox and was present in the carbon lab as these were being developed. Get your uneducated statements out of here.
Given Cervelo is a PON company, I'd be exceedingly surprised if Giant manufactures their frames.
Kona’s description of The Hoss: “Kona's Hoss was developed for the Clydesdale class, those riders weighing over 200 pounds, and it's notoriously durable.”
But yah awesome that your old bike with nothing to do with xc racing is slacker, rad story.
Its funny now what is considered "narrow" for handlebar width, what is "steep" for geometry, tall for gearing, and harsh for suspension when you have thirty plus years of mountain bike experience, in a sport that's only forty years old for the vast majority of people. In this area...we have people with so poor of bike handling skills that they cannot do singletrack XC without cutting trees out of sections their handlebars are too wide to go thru. They just don't know how to LEAN a bike over at slow speeds to get the bars between trees too close for their 30" trail bike bars. Same people who build new trail lines because they don't know how to approach a fallen tree with a nice stone ramp built up to it and away from it, on a 5% slope where the tree is lying at an angle (not straight 90 degrees perpendicular across the trail line). The basic concept of slowing to turn into the ramp and then turn back in line with the trail once over it (rather than fail to lift their back tire over it with their crappy bunny hop ability, so sliding back tire along and off the slanted tree making them crash) was TOO difficult for them, so they built an entire trail bypass around this tiny tree (its literally SIX INCHES tall off the ground), and oh look...they routed it right over a field of broken glass (its a trail going thru a centuries old homestead that the government expropriated the land of decades ago to create parkland around Ottawa). There's another bypass in the same area to take the line AWAY from this very old tree that grew around a section of barbed wire fencing that has rusty wire sticking out. It was about SIX feet wide of existing trail where it passed the tree... but oh no...these strava time lads had to move the trail because they couldn't pass the tree at speed safely apparently.
Cervelo exec #2, "stupid question - 69"
Cervelo exec #1, "give this man a raise"
Upgrade to Charger Race Day damper for $250. Wheels and XX1 are less than $4k.
At least the hot patches line up with the valves! (always finish on a positive).
Oh no...
But they aren't selling this to mountain bikers anyways
I mean, how many of us are thinking "I'd be all over this if it wasn't for that ridiculous cable routing"? And how many of the target audience are thinking "that cable routing is going to interfere with me performing my own maintenance"?
That’s effectively what I said. Bruni won worlds on a DH bike.
Both are niche machines relative to what’s actually sold.
Does Trek or Specialized sell more than a hundred DH bikes per year?
At which races was it bred?
Especially when anyone can go onto aliexpress and find a knock-off of this (or ANY carbon frame) for $4-500.
And please don't tell me that Cervelo (or any other bike brand) has a 'higher standard' manufacturer. Nonsense.....enter Hambini
It's the Cervelo fanboi with an N+1 fetish that this will appeal to. The $9k USD XX1 AXS build makes the $11K e-bikes look like good value. It's also VERY cheap vs. their top-spec Red AXS / DA DI2 bikes, so they need to keep that gap close. Otherwise, how could they justify a $15k road bike when this has all of the same components (electronic shifting, hydraulic discs, carbon everything), plus a suspension fork that has to cost more than a carbon fork? I honestly think this is the biggest factor in their $9k pricing decision.
Canyon Exceed CFR LTD hardtail, again used by the XC race team, $8150 CAD, hardtail, basically the same geometry as the Lux, same groupset, same fork, a DT One 60mm travel dropper, Reynolds carbon wheelset.
And Canyon makes a LOT of the spares available to order direct off their website, not to mention the bikes themselves..so why would I (or anyone) pay more for a Cervelo that isn't any better.
"And if you’re wondering where the full-suspension half to the Jumbo Visma race quiver is, then if I told you that the HT in ZHT stood for HardTail then you might be able to deduce what bike I may have ridden the next day in Florence. You’ll have to be a little more patient for that one though."
This really seems like a very targeted bike (or line of bikes?) specifically developed for their partnership with some very elite XC racers. Different horses for different courses.
We can gawk at the price and marketing, but I do agree with Herald, a bike like this still has it's place for plenty of folk. But there is not reason to spend to coin on this particular model.
My Judy XC's through your inappropriate usage of "race bred" in the title.
What two race hard tails swapped hydraulic fluid to breed this stiff banana?
The specs need seat tube length(no seat tube length? omg), bb drop and bb height(provide both, because every vendor varies). Then all the stats over again paired with a 120mm sc and 130mm fork.
I need to know what length of dropper(even if short gravel dropper) i can get, how out of the way that bike can get with that seat dropped to kick everyone's ass on the down. you got to get the seat out of the way, anybody that's ridden a bmx bike vs enduro bike knows head tube angle put aside; drop that seat and charge, you just don't ride them the same. but a risen seat will just down right screw you even in XC.
Then i still need to calculate if this bike actually could have that sweet spot for head angle with a 120sc or 130mm fork and still destroys everyone on the up. 100mm is just handing numbing up or down and going to produce a steep HA, reduce the fatigue!
They are selling this thing for darn near 10k targeting the XC or ultra marathon and those riders want to know if it fits perfect and for what races. They are riding a freaking samurai sword of a bike and need ultra specs, not just its 900g.
I would then immediately throw this thing against the Yeti ARC or Stanton Sherpa ti depending on the race to make my decision. we can already see its a trying to be a photo copy of Specialized and Trek HTs.
I think the only exciting thing i read was it's 900g and has a threaded bottom bracket!! Please compare XC bikes critically as well as AM Enduro, Trail etc.
I guess it’ll be an XC killer……in flatlandia.
A bike like this would basically only be good on a course like Leadville
Sure, I CAN ride steep, committing lines on old school geometry-no dropper. But it’s not the best tool for the job.
Just like I COULD carry my groceries one at a time instead of putting them in a couple of bags, or I COULD hammer in all the trim nails when installing baseboard, or I COULD ski on 215 straight skis, wood bases, tele bindings, leather boots…..
Even WC XC bikes are moving to around a 65 HTA, because it works better.
Its a Cervelo, of course its overpriced and not worth it.