2025 Cervelo Caledonia-5 review: Familiar but still good for silly miles

by Suvi Loponen 16.12.2024 Photography by
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The Cervelo Caledonia-5 is the bike’s second generation, but the updates are so subtle that, at first glance, you might even miss that this is a “new” bike at all, and that sums up much of the story here. Cervelo hasn’t made the Caledonia-5 any easier to categorise – it continues to sit in its unique space as a performance-oriented endurance bike with race-adjacent geometry, built more for long days on rough tarmac than for outright speed or gravel adventuring an all-road bike would do.

For riders who find themselves drawn to this niche, there’s still a lot to like. The Caledonia-5 easily became one of the most balanced endurance bikes I’ve ridden, blending comfort with sporty handling. But with only subtle updates like a slightly wider tyre clearance and the addition of a not-so-great storage hatch, the question is really: did this second-generation refresh do enough to justify itself?

The short of it: Cervelo’s take on an endurance bike remains mostly unchanged with a firm focus on staying on paved roads.
Good stuff : A balanced ride that toes the line between endurance and race bikes. On the sportier-handling side of the endurance category. Compatible with aftermarket stem/bar options. 
Bad stuff: Unfinished-feeling downtube storage hatch (and impractical, especially on small frames) and no UDH with this update. Minimal number of mounts – whether that’s bad is subjective. 
Weight: 7.8 kg (size 48, with tubeless/tube setup and mounts but no pedals or cages)

The backstory of the Caledonia-5 – made for big, stupid rides

The Caledonia-5 was and continues to be a bike that doesn’t quite fit neatly into any category: it’s not an all-out race bike, not a true endurance bike, and definitely not gravel. Cervelo has intended it for faster and longer miles without going fully into the endurance category.

It has a much lower and hence, aggressive geometry than the likes of Trek Domane and Specialized Roubaix, and while its closest competitor is the BMC Roadmachine, the two are not made the same, either. 

In short, the Caledonia-5 owes its existence to a mix of professional racing needs and the gritty reality of Toronto’s pothole-riddled streets, where Cervelo was based. Its origins can be traced back to the R3 Mud, a Roubaix-ready variant of the R3 with lengthened chain stays, a longer fork, and a dose of frame flex – built for stability, comfort and tire clearance on the cobbles. The bike never quite made it to the mass markets, but it inspired Cervelo to make an endurance all-road bike.

Fast forward to the discontinued C-Series, a range aimed squarely at endurance riders. The C-Series filled a niche for all-day comfort but needed more of the performance pedigree that Cervelo is known for. And here is where the Caledonia comes in, bridging that gap between the outright speed of Cervelo’s aero-leaning S-Series and gravel Aspero.

So, what’s actually new?

The new, second-generation Caledonia-5 doesn’t take things in a radically different direction from its 2020 cobble-stone racing origins, as for 2025, Cervelo has tweaked the bike very minimally. Truth be told, when I scanned through the press release back in August I was left a little confused about even saying this is a new bike – because really, it is just a small update in the grand scheme of things. 

It is also worth noting that only the Caledonia-5 got the update. The Caledonia range has two lineups: the Caledonia-5 sits at the top, above the more budget-friendly Caledonia that remains as it was for 2025, meaning that its tyre clearance is still limited to 34 mm and it doesn’t have the brand-new storage hatch, either. 

The Caledonia-5 continues to feature fully internal cable routing, a D-shaped seatpost, and a cleaner, overall more integrated look built on a higher-grade carbon fibre frame than its sibling. It also comes with electronic drivetrains only – so if you’re still fond of mechanical shifting and let’s say it, simplicity of servicing things, the base model is where you’ll want to look. 

The biggest change to the Caledonia-5 frame itself is the integrated downtube storage hatch. The trend that started in the MTB sphere has slowly been creeping onto drop-bar bikes and as such, Cervelo decided to make a hole in the downtube and add a glove box for storing a tube, CO2 canister, tyre levers and more in two provided pouches. As handy as this out-of-sight way of storing things is, it comes with its engineering and space challenges that Cervelo hasn’t quite hacked.

Elsewhere on the frame, changes are barely noticeable to the naked eye. Cervelo never did and still hasn’t added any suspension or elastic parts to the Caledonia-5; instead, it relies on the wider tyres and carbon frame (and components) for delivering comfort. The second gen Cal-5 gets more of that plush as you can now officially fit 36 mm tyres (34 mm if you’re running mudguards) but unofficially, you’d probably be able to squeeze in something a little wider too. While that is not game-changing by modern standards, it just about puts the bike in the all-road category. It’s wide enough for some rough roads, perhaps even gravel at some parts of the world.

And really, the tyre clearance and the added storage were the main things that got updated. The bottom bracket is still a press-fit BBright (with a thread-together bottom bracket supplied), there is no UDH compatibility (Universal Derailleur Hanger, required for example for the latest SRAM Red XPLR 13-speed drivetrain) and there is no real gravel-ready tyre clearance. Is this a little disappointing? Maybe. But at the same time, why change what works? Well, that seems to be Cervelo’s thinking, at least.

The largely unchanged, all-carbon frame has a claimed weight of 995 g (size 56, painted), and the fork adds another 394 g. At that, this is not the lightest frameset. But for a bike designed for longer distances that is hardly an issue, and neither is the fact that Cervelo isn’t shouting of any new aero advantages. With the heritage that Cervelo has in aero frame design, the tubes are still as optimised as you’d expect, including the chunky down tube.

In terms of mounts, the Cal-5 is minimalist. Apart from the two standard bottle cage mounts in the front triangle, there are no other mounting points – which is a little surprising given the cheaper Caledonia gets two bosses for a top tube bag. You do get mudguard mounts but even these are minimal and installing mudguards takes a little effort. 

That’s because, where the older Caledonia-5 had an optional-to-install mount bridge inside the seat stays, this has been removed for the 2025 model and instead, you need to use shims as the base for the new mount bridge. The fork crown has a traditional mount for the front mudguard and there’s a mount at the chain stay bridge for a full-length guard. As the last step in installing mudguards you also need to swap out the dropout inserts to ones that have eyelets for mudguards. It might take a little bit of time to do this, but positively, you can fit any standard mudguards on the mounts and don’t have to rely on proprietary Cervelo ones. 

The frame is completed with a D-shaped seatpost – a shape that is also present at the steerer tube for easier cable routing – carried over from the original model and adding a touch of compliance without being too flexy. The seatpost clamp continues to be integrated into the top tube and yes, it’s one of those that oh-so-easily drops deep inside the frame if you’re not careful when the post is removed. 

At the time when the Caledonia-5 first came out, integrated cable routing was starting to gain mass traction, and now it’s pretty much a standard, like it or not. While Cervelo has taken that hide-the-cables approach with the Cal-5, it has still not fully embraced a one-piece cockpit (phew). Instead, Cervelo continues to pair its AB09 carbon handlebar with either the carbon ST32 or aluminium ST31 stem for a semi-integrated cable routing system. The brake hoses and shift cables run externally below the bar before sliding through the stem and frame. 

This design, as far as integration goes, does offer a sort of balance between aesthetics and practicality – it’s not quite as fussy to work on as fully integrated systems but still looks sleek. Regardless, for a stem swap (which I did) or a headset bearing replacement, you still need to disconnect the brake hoses and re-bleed the brakes to get back on the road. As fussy as that sounds and in reality, is, it is becoming a common feature for modern integrated road bikes and if you rather have an easier-to-service setup, then the Caledonia is a better option. 

Lastly, aiding the process of tailoring fit, the aero-shaped headset spacers on the Caledonia-5 are the same split-style found on Cervelo R5 and you can flip them for stem height adjustment without having to cut or disconnect things. The headset cap also comes in two heights: 22 mm and a teeny 7 mm but you also get lots of spacers to tailor the fit. 

The fit

With this second generation, Cervelo stuck with the same geometry, which makes it a road bike that isn’t quite for racing, with a lower stack and longer reach than your average endurance bike. It’s a geometry that wants you to keep moving and at some speed, instead of stopping to admire the views too much.

If you’re used to thinking of endurance geometry being like that of Trek Domane or Specialized Roubaix, you will find the Caledonia-5 gives you a lower riding position and is snappier to handle. The stack is about 2–3 cm lower across the size range when compared to most other endurance road bikes – such as the Canyon Endurace or BMC Roadmachine – which makes it feel more aggressive, though not punishingly so. 

The low stack height might sound good, but at the same time, many of us don’t really need to go as low as on a race road bike in most cases. Luckily, Cervelo has made the stack height pretty adjustable on the Caledonia-5 – in fact you can add up to 62 mm of stack with the top cap and spacers. This would mean using the higher 22 mm top cap and all 40 mm of the spacer stack. Granted, it would not be a pretty creation with all that, but if needs must, it’s possible. In terms of catering to a wide range of fits, I think Cervelo has done good work here. As much as I don’t like the little chimney (and you should keep this to 5mm on top of the stem) I’ve created with the spacers on my test bike to tailor the fit without cutting the steerer, I appreciate that I can adjust the stack height easily without chopping hoses and also tailor it to the reach of the bike.

The Caledonia-5’s size range that spans six frame sizes is pretty inclusive too – though as ever, you might not want to rely on the labels; rather have a proper look at the actual geometry numbers and also take on account the stem length and handlebar reach.

For sizing, Cervelo uses three different fork offsets (60 mm for smaller sizes, 54 mm for mid-range, and 51 mm for larger frames) to maintain consistent handling and as such, all sizes have a trail figure of 57.8 mm.

This a figure that many brands aim to achieve on a road bike, and at times hard to find on smaller frame sizes that often get an overly slack headtube angle paired with the one fork offset used across the size range, resulting in a whoppingly high trail figure. The 57.8 mm of trail is not so high it would make the bike like a cruise ship to steer, but neither is it too twitchy – it’s balanced. I could probably slap that adjective on to describe most of this bike, because it is pretty balanced. 

Granted, component sizing also affects the ride feel and fit. The two smallest sizes of the Cal-5 come with a 38 cm handlebar and 165 mm crank length and either 80 or 90 mm stems. The 80 mm that I got with my size 48 bike certainly added some reactivity to the steering, to the point that I wanted to swap to a longer stem that stabilised the front end a bit more. 

As much as I managed to make the size 48 Caledonia-5  work well for me, it’s always a bit of a compromise with smaller bikes and I’m yet to encounter one that comes perfect out of the box. In the case of the Caledonia, the size 51 frame mostly pushed my standover comfort – the Caledonia-5 has quite a horizontal top tube compared to other endurance road bikes – and would have left me with very little seatpost exposed for compliance.

Toe overlap is pretty much a norm for the frame sizes I ride and the Caledonia was no different in this; my shoe would catch the front tyre ever so slightly when turning the front wheel more dramatically. This is much less of an issue on a road bike than it is on a gravel bike, but at the same time something to bear in mind if you are at the smaller end of the size range on this bike and especially so if you hoped to fit the widest 36 mm tyres on, as that’d bring the tyre even closer to the pedal. 

Build options

The Caledonia-5 comes in five builds and as a frameset only. Whereas the less integrated Caledonia sibling gets mechanical options – the Caledonia-5 is an electronic-only deal. Both ranges have the same two colour options: black and carmine (red).

The carry-over and less-integrated Caledonia range (not reviewed here) comes with three options from mechanical Shimano 105 (US$3,300) to Sram Rival AXS (US$4,700) but gets lower grade carbon fibre frame, Cervelo saddle and Zaffiro Pro V G2.0 700x32mm tyres.  The Caledonia-5 builds then start from a Rival AXS bike, and there is a frame-only option too, for $5,000/£4,500. The SRAM Red build comes standard with a Hammerhead Karoo computer.

For Caledonia-5, I’d like to argue that at US$6,000 the Rival build could offer the best bang for your buck, but you are compromising on the wheels. The Vision Teams are a good chunk heavier than the Reserve set (about 500 g) so you’d probably be looking to upgrade those and you’d likely spend around US$1k doing that.

As reviewed, the Force AXS build came with Cervelo’s Reserve 42|49 wheels which are light, stiff, and appropriately fancy, Vittoria Corsa N.EXT 30 mm tires (fast and comfy), and SRAM’s Force AXS 2×12 drivetrain. Force might not be Red, but it shifts quickly, quietly, and reliably. Even if it doesn’t have the fancy bonus buttons on the hood tops, it’s hard to fault. All of the Caledonia-5 models come equipped with power meters (the Shimano builds use 4iiii’s Precision Pro Gen 3), which might not be totally necessary for an endurance bike but does help in pacing efforts on long days out. 

The 48/35T chainrings paired with a 10-36T cassette were plenty for most riding I would take this bike on – easy enough for steeper climbs but not too easy for going faster on flats and mellow descents. The Shimano builds in the range come with 52/36T and 11-34T cassette setup, meaning SRAM would be slightly better if you rather have more speed on the flats and descents. The gearing here is also an indicator of this bike’s purpose; it is a road bike first and foremost.

Apart from the groupset and Selle Italia saddles, pretty much everything on this bike screams Cervelo. The handlebar is a Cervelo HB13 carbon model with slightly flattened tops, moderate drop, and a traditional 31.8 mm clamp section. This makes mounting accessories easier and if you are not happy with the setup, you can change the whole cockpit to aftermarket options, too – again something that makes life easier for tailoring fit on the bike. 

In terms of the finishing kit, the stem is the only part where the two lower models differ from the top ones: the Rival and Force AXS builds both get the carbon handlebar but come equipped with the ST32 alloy stem. Cervelo said this is based on price point, and I admit it isn’t a huge downside especially as the weight of the carbon and aluminium stems are the same. The stem material doesn’t make as much difference in terms of compliance as the handlebar either – but there are other bikes where the one-piece cockpit is full carbon at the same price point. 

With the stem you also get a computer mount that doubles as an accessory mount with GoPro prongs that can take a light, camera, or whatever you wish. Though I didn’t have a compatible light for this at the time of testing, I think it’s great to get this as a standard because especially on narrower bars space for lights, computers et cetera gets scarce rather quickly. There is also another GoPro universal mount at the saddle clamp, similarly suited for lights or cameras or the like. 

The storage

On the topic of accessories, I do have to unpick the storage space that this bike has, as it was the biggest let-down of the whole bike and admittedly, the standalone feature of the second-generation updates. The short story of it is that it seems like the great idea was there, but something went a little crossed in the execution, and the result was the most impractical storage hatch I’ve used.

While most integrated storage hatches are tilted to the side to open, the one on the Caledonia-5 comes up towards the top tube. This means that it lifts the bottle cage that is attached to the hatch door up with it, and unless you have special bottle cages, this then makes the door clash with the seat tube bottle cage and bottle. If you are only running one bottle, this isn’t much of an issue, but on a couple of rides where I did have to get the spares out, I had to first remove both bottles before I could open the storage. And even with them removed, your bottle cage might hit the downtube above the hatch. For this reason, perhaps, Cervelo does recommend putting protective tape on the downtube both below and above the hatch. 

The reason to tape both bottom and top can also be because you can attach this door whichever way you want – with the opening switch at the bottom or top – but in either case, you’re pretty much bound to find that while lifting the lid you don’t have enough space. For me, on the small frame, I had to install it the way I had it because otherwise I could not even fit two bottles so … yeah, it’s just not ideal. Whether this will be an issue on the bigger frames, I assume not so much. 

The actual mechanism attaching the door to the frame also seems a little fiddly (but there are replacements available in case you do break one). The twist lock is solid enough but the whole thing is made of plastic and the pivot arm underneath the door seems like it might not last a long time. The size of the opening is generous enough, though, which makes stashing the two provided pouches for all the possible spares easy. The pouches are also excellent in that they have strap hooks over their length which makes grabbing and pulling them from inside the downtube a lot easier.  

The ride

One of Caledonia-5’s greatest strengths was and continues to be its ability to blur the line between race bike and endurance bike. It’s not quite as aggressive as Cervelo’s R5 or as relaxed as the Aspero, but it’s far from too upright or sluggish. Endurance and long miles, as far as road riding goes, are kinda my cup of tea and as such, the Caledonia-5 has long been a bike I’ve been curious to try. From longer riders to short lunch spins, it turned out to be a bike that felt comfy and even if it makes me ride lower than many other endurance bikes, it wasn’t too aggressive for longer days. It feels like a race bike for the non-racers and certainly, fits quite a narrow window in the broader road bike market which means I could spend half of this review just trying to fit it into a defined box that doesn’t really exist.

The Caledonia has been historically praised for its balanced ride quality and keeping things simple – as in, no suspension, no gimmicky frame features, or even a one-piece cockpit – and that holds largely true with the updated second-generation model, if we don’t talk about the storage. While riding, the Caledonia-5 strikes a balance between stiffness and compliance but if I had to weigh the scale in either direction, I’d say it tips towards compliance. The frame feels solid under power, with no noticeable flex when sprinting or climbing out of the saddle. At the same time, it absorbs road chatter impressively well, which is effective at keeping fatigue at bay on longer rides. 

But despite that long-ride emphasis, I would say, in short, that the Caledonia-5 is a performance-leaning endurance bike. Having spent quite a bit of time on the Specialized Roubaix SL 8 prior to testing this bike, it was obvious that despite fitting into the same endurance market segment, the two represent its opposite ends. The Caledonia-5 is a much snappier bike with a more aggressive rider position than the Roubaix, and I think no matter how hard I tried, I could not quite make the latter feel as sporty as the Caledonia-5. The Roubaix remains one of my favourite bikes and I enjoy the fact it can take 40 mm tyres, but I’d also say these two bikes are for different battles so there can be two winners.

A closer competitor would thus be BMC Roadmachine and also the Liv Avail (or Giant Defy). The Canyon Endurace, while also offering a sportier ride, still has a slightly more relaxed and upright riding position. Apart from the Endurace, all of the aforementioned come with more tyre clearance than the Caledonia-5, though, and that makes them slightly more versatile.

Even if some class the Caledonia-5 firmly as an all-road bike, I’d be more hesitant to make that statement. Apart from a few stints on smooth gravel cycle paths, I don’t quite see it being a bike for gravel, even if it had 36 mm tyres on. That’s quite different to say, the likes of Specialized Roubaix SL8, which I’d happily ride on rougher dirt roads due to the wider clearance and suspension. Yes, I think with puncture-proof tyres the Caledonia-5 is more than capable of tackling the occasional smooth dirt road or a off-road shortcut on a bikepacking trip. But for me, to take it to what gravel is where I live I’d say it needed a couple more millimetres of clearance for some proper all-road tyres. This might be completely different for others living around more hardpacked and less broken gravel paths. 

That said, if you mainly stay on the roads, the 36 mm clearance is enough. The 30 mm Vittoria Corsa N.EXT TLR G2.0 measure beyond their stated width at 32 mm on the Reserve wheels (these have a stated internal width of 25.4 mm at the front and 24.8 mm at the back), and certainly as such made the riding on rough Scottish roads more plushy. But while they were very grippy and fast, I’m not entirely convinced of the tyres’ durability as I managed to puncture both of them at separate times and would certainly prefer something more robust especially for winter riding or if I treated this as a true all-road bike.

Punctures aside, the overall wheel and tyre combo was great for my riding needs. As a lighter rider, I often struggle with deeper-section wheels – especially in crosswinds – and whatever Reserve has done with its Turbulent Aero approach, it seems to work. The wheels are relatively lightly built with 24 spokes front and rear, but as with all of its road wheels, Reserve says there is no weight limit to worry about. Instead of going full hookless, these wheels are semi-hooked, meaning they be used with either clincher or tubeless setups which helps with more tyre compatibility. This means they are not as sensitive to tyre pressures as with fully hookless hoops – and while Reserve says you could pump the tyres up to 100 PSI, it also recommends staying below 80 PSI. 

While I don’t necessarily think that we should have ever-more proprietary features such as suspension on our road bikes, based on my experience with the Roubaix, the added plush does make the bike feel a lot more planted especially on faster descents and rougher roads – it almost feels like the suspension allows gravity to pull the bike tightly onto the tarmac which feels very reassuring. 

At the same time, the extra give takes away from snappiness of the bike, and the Caledonia-5 is certainly more reactive overall than endurance bikes with either elastomers or suspension built into them. Its front and rear feel equally stiff and the Reserve wheels are not giving much either – yet the bike is not harsh to ride at all. Having more seatpost out helps to dampen down some of the road chatter that the tyres might not have caught and the handlebar with flat tops aids in changing positions on the longer days but it’s not as flexy as the Roubaix’s Pave or the Endurace’s leaf-spring posts are. 

One thing that affected the ride quality of the Caledonia-5 negatively was its front end but that was more due to the component fit than the frame geometry or materials.  Although the 48 frame size comes with an 80 mm stem and a sensible trail figure, the front end was slightly too short and reactive, and not one I’d let track freely without a hand on the handlebar. In any sort of wind and especially at slower speeds the front was subject to twitching whichever way it wanted and having experienced this before, I assumed it was because I could not quite weigh down the front. As such, my first experiences of descending on the bike were not too confident, mainly because I felt I was leaning over the handlebar more than onto it – until I requested a longer stem sent over by Cervelo. 

Swapping to a 100 mm stem made a whole world of a difference and really calmed the steering down, making the bike a lot more confident to descend at higher speeds, as well. What I’ve described is something I quite often experience with smaller frames with relatively short wheelbases, and though a longer stem can fix it by calming the front end down, it’s not always the case. I also acknowledge that not everyone on the smallest frame sizes can fit a longer stem on their bike as this would make the reach too long.

I can only speculate how this changes for the larger sizes, but generally, if I have tested a size that is slightly too big for me, this is much less of an issue but at the same time that usually compromises my desired riding position elsewhere (usually leaving me sitting quite upright). So my feeling is that the bigger than size 51 bikes will likely experience less of this twitchiness.

Finally, where would I say the Caledonia-5 excels? I’d say flat and rolling terrain. It holds speed well, but it’s not quite a climber – the 7.8 kg weight isn’t excessive but it isn’t weight-weenie material either. Cervelo said that instead of weight its priority with the Caledonia-5 was durability and compliance. I can’t say about the durability quite yet, but in terms of compliance, it’s evident that the frame has been well thought-through. 

Final words

The Cervelo Caledonia-5 isn’t a bike that stands out for being radically different – good or bad. That’s not necessarily a negative, as it does everything it promises well enough. In the performance-oriented endurance bike segment, which I admit is more of a niche within a niche, it’s a bike that is hard to beat, but I feel that I’m not alone in being a little confused about what that segment even is.

With the update, you get a little more tyre clerance, but you’re still quite a bit away from the true, all-road endurance bike clearances that more often than not max out at 40 mm instead of 36 mm. The lack of UDH compatability is also an oversight considering the direction most of the drop-bar market is going.

Cervelo clearly didn’t seem to think much needed changing but as such, the second-generation Caledonia-5 doesn’t really feel new, either. It’s a bike that continues to work really well in the niche it is intended for and offers a geometry that is more suitable for most regular riders needs – whether you enjoy long or short rides. But if I owned the first generation I’d not rush to update to this one.

A lot of that comes down to the storage hatch – I feel Cervelo should have perhaps waited for the third-generation model so that it had had time to really engineer its functionality. As of now, it almost undermines the update, even if it doesn’t in any way impact the ride quality that remains pleasantly balanced.

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