How does Cervélo’s first full-suspension MTB compare to the Santa Cruz Blur?
Cervélo’s ZFS-5 was first spotted at the first round of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in Nové Město before being officially launched in August this year.
This is only Cervélo’s second mountain bike, with the full-suspension ZFS-5 following on from the hardtail ZHT-5 that was released last year.
It has now arrived at BikeRadar HQ ready for testing.
Cervélo says the bike is built for the demands of current XCO courses, with the ZFS-5 available in 100mm and 120mm travel configurations.
Flex-stay suspension and forgoing for grams
While the name isn’t the most catchy, the ZFS-5 uses Cervélo’s established naming structure. The ‘Z’ refers to Cervélo’s mountain bike range, with the ‘FS’ indicating it is full-suspension and the ‘5’ meaning it sits at the top of the model’s hierarchy.
As is becoming ever more popular for cross-country bikes, the ZFS-5 is available with 100mm or 120mm of rear suspension to deal with evolving race circuits and more consumer-orientated riding.
There is no difference in the frame, with the longer-travel option achieved by swapping in a longer stroke shock.
A single-pivot, flex-stay suspension design is used on the rear of the bike, with a link driving the top-tube mounted shock.
Flex-stay suspension systems use flex built into the rear triangle to articulate the suspension travel rather than a conventional pivot.
We are seeing this on many of the best cross-country bikes, as well as Pinarello’s unreleased Dogma XC. Cervélo says the design allows for greater weight saving, reduced maintenance and increased stiffness.
For the ZFS-5, Cervélo appears to have borrowed heavily from its sister brand, Santa Cruz. The ZFS-5 shares a similar frameset design with Santa Cruz’s Blur mountain bike.
The ZFS-5 also features shapely seatstays that are more in tune with the design language Cervélo has developed on its road and gravel bikes.
Cervélo has followed the trend of running the gear cables and brake hoses internally through the headset cups.
This makes the front of the bike look impressively clean, but could cause issues for home mechanics.
In a bid to save every gram, Cervélo says it has forgone carbon sleeves for the internal cable routing, which feature on the Santa Cruz Blur.
Home mechanics can rejoice in the fact that the ZFS-5 uses a BSA 73mm threaded bottom bracket as well as SRAM’s Universal Derailleur Hanger, which should make maintenance and repairs simpler – and possibly make up for having to deal with internally routed cables.
Cervélo has given the bike room for two water bottles, which will be a welcome sight for marathon racers.
There is a huge tyre clearance of 29×2.9in the rear triangle.
Size-specific geometry
| | S | M | L | XL | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cervelo ZSF-5 100 | |||||||
| Seat angle (degrees) | 76.5 | 76.3 | 76.2 | 76 | |||
| Head angle (degrees) | 67.8 | 67.8 | 67.8 | 67.8 | |||
| Chainstay (mm) | 432 | 435 | 437 | 440 | |||
| front center (mm) | 692 | 718 | 746 | 779 | |||
| Head tube (mm) | 96 | 102 | 114 | 128 | |||
| Fork offset (mm) | 44 | 44 | 44 | 44 | |||
| Bottom bracket drop (mm) | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 | |||
| Bottom bracket height (mm) | 338 | 338 | 338 | 338 | |||
| Wheelbase (mm) | 1,120 | 1,149 | 1,180 | 1,215 | |||
| Standover (mm) | 746 | 744 | 744 | 744 | |||
| Stack (mm) | 584 | 590 | 601 | 614 | |||
| Reach (mm) | 421 | 445 | 469 | 496 | |||
| Cervelo ZSF-5 120 | |||||||
| Seat angle (degrees) | 75.3 | 75.1 | 75 | 74.9 | |||
| Head angle (degrees) | 66.6 | 66.6 | 66.6 | 66.7 | |||
| Chainstay (mm) | 432 | 435 | 437 | 440 | |||
| Front center (mm) | 700 | 726 | 755 | 787 | |||
| Head tube (mm) | 96 | 102 | 114 | 128 | |||
| Fork offset (mm) | 44 | 44 | 44 | 44 | |||
| Bottom bracket drop (mm) | 42 | 42 | 42 | 42 | |||
| Bottom bracket height (mm) | 347 | 347 | 347 | 347 | |||
| Wheelbase (mm) | 1,130 | 1,159 | 1,190 | 1,225 | |||
| Standover (mm) | 756 | 754 | 754 | 754 | |||
| Stack (mm) | 593 | 600 | 610 | 624 | |||
The geometry of the ZFS-5 looks relatively up-to-date on paper and isn’t just a badge-swapped Santa Cruz Blur. The bike features a head angle of 67.8 degrees for the 100mm configuration and 66.6 degrees for the 120mm model.
For reference, the Blur’s head angles are 68.3 degrees for the 100mm bike and 67.1 degrees for the 120mm version.
Cervélo says the head angle translates into confident handling that enables you to “let off the brakes when the track gets rough”.
This 100mm bike has a claimed seat tube angle of 76.5 degrees, while the 120mm models have a seat tube angle of 75.3 degrees.
Cervélo offers the bike in S, M, L and XL, with size-specific geometry that sees chainstay lengths increase through the sizing from 432mm to 440mm.
Covetous componentry
We have the range-topping Cervélo VFS-5 XX SL AXS model in for testing, which retails for £10,499/€12,999/AU$17,000.
Most pockets aren’t this deep, and many will be pleased to know that Cervélo offers the VFS-5 in six different builds, two of which feature 120mm of travel.
The range starts at £5,399 for a GX Eagle build with 100mm of travel from a Rockshox SID SL Select fork and Rockshox SIDLuxe Select+ shock.
Our build is nearly impossible to upgrade, except for preference, and is bejeweled with the best from SRAM Corp.
A 100mm Rockshox SID SL Ultimate with a Charge Race Day damper is used to support the front of the bike, while a Rockshox SIDLuxe Ultimate rear shock is used inside the frame.
RockShox’s TwistLoc remote is used on the bar to lock the fork and shock out.
SRAM’s wireless and hangerless XX SL Eagle AXS drivetrain features, with Cervélo speccing a 32T front chainring, as well as the US brand’s Level Ultimate Stealth 4 piston brakes in a chrome finish.
Cervélo has leant into other sister brands, with the VFS-5 featuring Reserve 28 XC rims built onto DT Swiss 240 hubs.
The wheels are wrapped in 2.4in Maxxis Reckon Race tyres, which use the brand’s EXO 120 TPI casing.
Cervélo specs its own rigid SP29 Carbon Seatpost, which indicates the bike’s race pedigree, on top of which is a Prologo Dimension NDR Nack saddle.
760mm Race Face Next Carbon handlebars are mounted to a Race Face Aeffect Alloy stem to complete the cockpit.