"Improving on the P3C isn’t an easy thing to do. But for its new P4C, Cervelo borrows a strategy from motorsports in order to outdo its TT rig. The company uses a steel skeleton and bolt-on modular pieces to try different shapes for any part of the frame and measure the effect of just one change. This powerful tool allows them to use academic precision when designing the next superbike.
Cervelo wouldn’t let us take any pictures when we previewed the model at Brainbike a few weeks ago - and the frame they showed us surely didn’t reveal all of Cervelo's secrets. Nevertheless, the bike they gave us a glimpse of had a few interesting changes from the P3C. For instance, the seatstays mimic the tubes from the Felt DA/B2. They don’t smoothly flow out of the seat tube; instead they remain as narrow as possible until the chainstays abruptly jump out of the frame.
The bottom bracket area of the P4C extends toward the front of the bike. This allows the down tube to connect to the head tube at a lower point and draft behind the front wheel. However, there was no front wheel cutout. The coolest part of the new down tube position is that it completely eliminated the empty space behind the crown of the fork.
Cervelo doesn’t want to release too much information about their new designs, but they slipped up. They handed out a booklet containing a picture of their engineers posing with a model bike. Most of the bike was cut out of the pic, but the steer tube was exposed. I couldn’t make out details, but there was a piece of the model plastic surrounding the steer tube and reaching out to the stem. I don’t know any more specifics, but anticipate something special."
Simon says: - "It looks like the recent wind tunnel testing where the Trek TTX drubbed the P3C has galvanised Cervelo into action - who knows, one day they may even catch up with Trek"
It'll probably end up looking something a little bit like this.
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