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With the aim of being the number one brand for road, tri, and gravel by 2025, Cervelo has noticed how the best athletes compete in more than one discipline. As such, the brand has embraced the multi-discipline movement and has brought the ZHT-5 into the fray. It’s a cross-country hardtail that’s designed to be efficient, fast, and even a little bit of fun.
Cervelo’s new cross country bike takes its inspiration from the brand’s gravel bike, Aspero. Cervelo has taken everything learned from that gravel rig, partnered with an elite XCO athlete and has created a hardtail mountain bike that’s designed to top podiums.
With the ZHT-5, Cervelo has two goals. First, make a bike that’s light with excellent handling. Cervelo has gone as far as to say that the ZHT-5 is a bike that’s for those who value efficiency over anything else and those with the skill to tackle modern XC courses without requiring a rear shock.
With that in mind, the brand hasn’t gone crazy with the bike’s geometry. It’s said that rather than progressive, the ZHT-5’s shape is rational, being shaped with a 69-degree head tube angle and a 74-degree seat tube. There’s a 430mm chainstay and a large frame gets a 457mm reach. Cervelo definitely seems to be taking baby steps, whereas other brands are pushing the boundaries of what we expect from a modern cross country bike’s geo chart.
Of course, the bike isn’t just about geometry. ZHT-5 is dropper post compatible, has clearance for 2.4in tyres, and comes with a threaded bottom bracket. It uses the SRAM UDH mech hanger standard and it comes in four sizes from SM up to XL. Cervelo claims that the weight of the frame is class-leading at 870g.
Keeping the bike’s lines sleek is full internal cable routing which exits through the headset’s top cap, reducing the cable’s exposure to the elements and reducing the number of holes in the frame. This keeps the weight that bit lower as this requires slightly less reinforcement in these areas.
Cervelo is building the ZHT-5 with two build kits to suit two different price points. As you might guess from its name, the ZHT-5 XX1 AXS is a top-of-the-range bike with an RRP of £8500. It gets a RockShox SID SL Ultimate fork with 100mm of travel along with SRAM’s top shelf XX1 AXS Eagle drivetrain. It rolls on a pair of 29″ Reserve 28 XC wheels that are wrapped with a pair of Maxxis Rekon Race 2.4in tyres, kitted with EXO casings. There’s no dropper here as there’s a Cervelo SP29 Carbon seapost in its place. The bike is slowed down by a pair of SRAM Level Ultimate brakes.
Bringing the asking price down to a round £5,000 is the GX Eagle AXS model. This one gets a slightly downgraded RockShox SID SL Select RL fork with the same travel and the GX AXS drivetrain. There’s a pair of Race Face ARC offset 27 wheels with the same tires. Braking is provided by SRAM’s Level TL brakes and there’s a Race Face Ride XC Alloy seat post.
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