Cervélo dives deeper into XC with ZFS-5 full suspension bike

Less than a year after tentatively launching its first mountain bike, Cervélo is jumping into mountain biking with both feet. With the launch of the Cervélo ZFS-5, a full suspension cross country race bike, the Canadian-founded brand looks to take on a full season of World Cup mountain biking.

Like its predecessor, the hardtail ZHT-5, the new ZFS-5 is a very race-focused bike. The story is that this bike is being created specifically so that two of the Cervélo-sponsored Team Jumbo-Visma athletes, Milan Vader and Fem van Empel, have a bike suitable to be seriously capable of contesting modern World Cup XCO courses. With the Paris Games Games just over one year away, Cervélo also clearly has its sights set on helping one or both of those athletes qualify to compete in the Olympic mountain bike event.

2023 Cervélo ZFS-5

If you set your expectations for Cervélo’s first full suspension bike based on its first mountain bike, the hardtail ZHT-5, you would likely not expect the ZFS-5. Where the hardtail was reasonably conservative, Cervélo goes all-in on its full suspension bike. Its geometry is by no means extreme, but it is more progressive than some other brands are offering. It also comes in both 100mm and 120mm travel options.

At the core of Cervélo’s first full suspension bike is a carbon fibre flex stay suspension design. That design comes with several advantages. It is light. It is well established, though Cervélo of course adds that it has tuned the suspension to its preferences. That design lends 100mm of rear wheel travel to the ZFS-5. The ZHT-5 uses size-specific rear centers, which should keep riders balanced in the same position on the bike, regardless of size. Chain stays run from 432mm on the size small to 440mm on the XL.

Geometry on the ZFS-5 is best described as balanced. A 67.8-degree head angle (66.6 degrees on the 120mm version) is aggressive enough to feel comfortable on the jumps and drops that litter a modern World Cup course while still steep enough to feel comfortable riding in a group. A seat tube angle that ranges from 75.3 degrees (small) to 74.9 degrees isn’t so steep that it will put a rider’s weight too far forward on the bike.

A floating brake

Cervélo does also take the step of adding a floating rear brake mount. It says this makes it possible to “equalized the flex of the stays on each side of the swing arm.” One bolt of the rear brake caliper attaches to the chain stay and the other bolt to an axle-mounted post.

The frame uses a BSA threaded bottom bracket, allowing easy service after muddy races. That’s balanced out by using headset-routed cables. Other details include the ability to add two water bottle cages inside the front triangle.

 

When will the Cervélo ZFS-5 be available?

While Vader and van Emple will be aboard the ZFS-5 this weekend in Nove Mesto, Cervélo says the new full suspension bike will be available for everyone else sometime in summer 2023. Until then, it’s holding back on all the details of the build kit. There are some details that can be gleaned from the launch materials, though.

Update: Cervélo ZFS-5 is now available in Canada.

SRAM’s wireless, derailleur hanger-less Transmission drivetrain makes an appearance, so the ZFS-5 clearly uses a Universal Derailleur Hangar (UDH). As does RockShox’s wireless Reverb AXS dropper post. Reserve carbon fibre wheels are also a safe bet.

What all that will translate to for the price of the ZHT-5 is also yet to be revealed, but you can bet that it won’t be cheap. The top-end ZHT-5 pushed well past the price of some similarly-specced full suspension bikes. Adding more complexity is not likely to make the ZFS-5 more affordable.

A California connection?

Cervélo is part of the same large holdings group as Santa Cruz. While Pon Holdings has numerous other bicycle brands, the relationship between Cervélo and Santa Cruz appears to be closer than most. Cervélo’s pro road teams like Jumbo-Visma now race on Reserve wheels. So it makes sense that the two would share notes when Cervélo decided to create its first full-suspension mountain bike. And the two frames do look very similar, with some key differences. (It is worth noting that Cervélo and Santa Cruz are far from the only brands using a similar style of flex-stay suspension design and that several other bikes share a very similar silhouette to the Blur and ZHT-5. We only compare these two because of the connection between the two brands).

But, like the hardtail ZHT-5 is not a Chameleon, this ZFS-5 is not a Blur. It’s actually more aggressive than the existing Santa Cruz Blur that was released last year. It has a slacker head angle – if only slightly – and a 120mm option for the ZFS-5 compared to the 115mm Blur TR. The Cervélo also has a slightly steeper seat tube angle in the large and XL sizes. That is somewhat surprising given Cervélo’s reputation as a road brand and Santa Cruz’s heritage as a progressive mountain bike brand.

Cervélo also adds a floating brake mount to the rear triangle. That allows Cervélo to give a slightly different shape to the non-drive side rear axle area. Cervélo also opts for headset routing for, well, just for the single rear brake hose as the rear shifting and dropper post are both wireless on the pro models shown in photos.

Who is the ZFS-5 for?

Cervélo designed the ZFS-5 first and foremost for Milan Vader and Fem van Emple. Vader is an experienced cross country racer, including a Dutch national XCO title. He now primarily races for Jumbo Visma on the road. He was set to debut the ZHT-5 in 2022 when a serious crash at Itzulia Basque Country brought his racing ambitions that year to a grinding halt. He’s made an impressive recovery and is scheduled to race the full World Cup season this year.

Fem van Emple is a more recent signing for Jumbo-Visma. She is also a recent world champion, winning the elite women’s title in Hoogerheide. The Dutch woman is now, like Vader, mixing road and mountain bike events.