Owning this bike would be like owning a Jaguar. The old saw about Jaguars was, you should own two of them: one for driving, and one for the shop (apparently there was a view that English cars were prone to breakdowns). I owned an MGB-GT once. Owned? Yes. To say I drove it would be a stretch. I would occasionally take it out for a spin, but I mostly had it in the shop, keeping all those carburetors in tune, and the overdrive working. But I digress.

You won't have to take your P2K to the shop after you bring it home. But getting it home is going to take a little doing. While Cervelo's retailers love the way this bike sells, they don't line up to assemble them (I spoke to several of them in preparation for writing this review). And, I wouldn't recommend you assemble one yourself unless you REALLY know what you're doing. Sort of like owning a Jaguar.

Don't get me wrong. If somebody gave me a Jaguar I wouldn't (as we used to say in high school) kick it outa bed. Likewise, I'd consider it a privilage and an honor to bed down a P2K. But after having spent yesterday morning building my test-bike up I coulda sworn the bike was English, not Canadian. Fortunately, when I rode it I began to like it a LOT more.

Let us start at the beginning. At tube-level. Cervelo probably has the best confluence of aspect ratio, frontal area, and lateral rigidity that you're going to get in any frame and tubes. If what you want is strictly the most aero double-diamond bike going, look no further. This is your company. I'd say this is your bike except I suspect -- though I don't know -- that the P3 is more aero than the P2K. But not by much. You can't do much more to a bike than has been done to the P2K. More detail about Cervelo's tubing can be found on another Slowtwitch article on tubeshapes.

The P2K's welding and finish are both first rate. Plenty of attention to detail here. The bonus hook on this bike is it's seat tube and seat post. Plenty of companies do little fakey things with plastic fairings and such, but this bike has a real, bona-fide aero conglomerate separating the triangles. I heard from a dealer that the seat tube / seat post fit was not so red-hot, and it would be normal to suspect this to be the case, since you can ream a round seat tube so that the seat post fits perfectly (not so with an aero seat tube and post). But Cervelo has it working very nicely, thank you. I found adjusting the seat height to be a snap, and the seat post was anchored snug and solid.

Then you get to the building of the bike, A.K.A., hanging the parts. This is where things can go sideways. Most companies employing internal cables use the format Cervelo uses, which is, cut oval holes in the tubes and run your casing in the front hole and out the back. Plastic or rubber grommets plug in and seal the holes against water, sweat, and the elements.

But, Cervelo is not content to employ this method only with regard to the rear brake cable. They want to run ALL their cables internally. This is, frankly, a pain in the ass. The grommets are hard to push in, and in the case of the grommets exiting the downtube, next to the bottom bracket, if -- and this is a big if -- you CAN push those things in, when you bend the derailleur casing around the bottom bracket the angle of the casing causes the grommets to want to pop out. I swore loudly and often. The neighbors thought I was beating my dogs. Or worse.

Cervelo is not the only company to internally route their shift cables, and to be fair almost all such companies cause problems for those who must assemble the bikes. I don't know if it's worth it, aerodynamically speaking. Cervelo's principals believe it is, and their method is no better or worse than anybody else's. But I swore, and I don't care how many times per week you go to church, you'd have sworn too.

There are three other issues which I have with this bike, and I'm going to get them over with now, so that I can talk about all the MANY things I liked about the P2K.

The front derailleur mount is -- thank God -- set back on this moderately steep-seat-angled bike, so as to mimic a 73-degree position (the angle both God and Shimano intended for optimal front derailleur shifting). This might seem like persnicketiness on my part, but the front derailleur shifts fine, and I can't say the same for other makers of steep-seat-angled tri-bikes. I've always thought that it was details like this that differentiate between the companies that make a tri-bike because they want to play in this market from those who have a commitment to the art and science of making bikes for triathletes.

The chainstay is short. Did I say short? What I meant to say was, SHORT. It is 37cm, and this is unnecessarily short, in my view. Why is it so short? I suspect it's so you can cut a lot out of the seat tube and suck that rear wheel in close, creating a nice rear-wheel fairing. Perhaps this is one reason why the Cervelo is so slippery in the wind tunnel. But, when the chain is angled a fair bit, in, let's say, a 53 X 19, or a 53 X 11, there is drivetrain friction you can feel. The tradeoff is, in addition to whatever extra aerodynamic value the chainstay gives the bike, it also helps the bike's handling while in the aero position -- especially in the steeper configuration (more on that later). Having said that, I have been apprised that Cervelo is making a running change to a slightly longer chainstay -- maybe 38cm -- in at least some sizes. A "running change" means they commence an alteration mid-season, instead of waiting for the model year anniversary.

Finally, I didn't like the kit that came with the bike. The beads of the IRC tires didn't seat nicely into the rims. Okay, they are light tires, and supposedly -- so says Cervelo -- have very little rolling resistance (a claim at which I raise my eyebrow). Fast-rolling or no, I expect the bead to seat nicely into the rim. I didn't like the Ritchie wheels. Specifically, I didn't like the hubs. I thought they were cheap. You can't use bad skewers with a bike like this. Its horizontal dropouts demand a good, strong skewer and quick-release mechanism. I made the mistake of accelerating with the skewer not sufficiently tight, and I pulled the wheel forward in the dropouts. Aluminum is softer than steel, and so one only uses horizontal dropouts in such a bike if one has good skewers. One might investigate, for future models, making a dropout with adjustment screws, like those which used to be found on steel bikes with horizontal dropouts. But, they would be placed in front of the rear axle. (This bike's wheel enters from the rear, like a track bike. This is so its user can adjust precisely where the tire should be with regard to the cutout in the back of the seat tube). Having adjustment screws -- or perhaps inserts or shims of different sizes which might fit tightly between the wheel axle and the front of the dropout -- would allow adjustment without any concern about the tightness of the quick-release mechanism. (In all fairness, after I re-tightened the skewer -- and I didn't have to make it super-tight -- I never had another problem with the wheel pulling forward).

Back to the kit. I'd put dual-pivot brakes on this bike instead of the single-pivot Dia Compe that comes with both Cervelo's kits. Dual pivots are just better brakes. Besides that, at the angle the seat stays join the seat tube, and with the trailing edge of the seat tube in the way, there is no room for a standard 13mm cone wrench to fit into the appropriate adjustment slot on a Dia Compe rear caliper. You'd need a 90-degree cone wrench to adjust this bike's brakes easily. Better just to go dual-pivot, where the adjustment is made with a 3mm Allen wrench.

The upshot is, as a bare-frame -- or frame and fork (the Cervelo comes with a very nice Profile BRC fork) -- I like the P2K a lot. I don't know if I'd use Cervelo as a kit supplier though. I might rely on my LBS, or one of the mail order firms, for the rest of the parts. But, as I said, if you assemble this bike yourself be a little careful. There are pitfalls (besides the grommets). For example, I thought I'd be set for shift cables with those that come with Shimano's 9sp bar-end shifters. But the rear cable was too short. Go figure. Bar-end shifters are supposed to be put on the ends of bars, so they're going to need extra-long cables. I needed to dig into my supply of cables and STI housing when building this bike. I happen to have such things. You may not. So, as I said, for a lot of reasons, leave the assembly of this bike to your LBS unless you know what you're doing. (Of course, this short-cable problem would have happened on any tri bike, not just the P2K -- tri-bike assembly in general comes with its own set of challenges).

Now we get to the riding. When you leave my house you go down a 200-meter hill, veer right, and almost immediately climb a hill which starts shallow, and then pitches up at the end. On a bad bike I'm in my 39 X 19, knowing that it's going to be a short ride, or a long day. On the P2K I was in my big ring and the middle of the cogset. This bike is rock-solid when out-of-the-saddle, which is abnormal for a bike this skinny. You expect a little back-and-forth whip. Not with the P2K. And skinny? When you look down, you don't see very much underneath you. Cervelo has thinned up everything. You see a lot of asphalt below you, and not a lot of bike. Just the sensation of seeing a lot of very narrow cross-sections makes you feel fast when you're riding the P2K.

I left the saddle in the 75-degree configuration it came with (you can flip the seat post head around and achieve a relative seat-angle of 78 degrees). The bike did everything I wanted it to do, and I guess I would only have one complaint, that the short chainstay, although nice when climbing out-of-the-saddle, did not carve the descents as well as a longer chainstay would have. But, had I flipped the seat post and had the bike in its 78-degree configuration, I'd have appreciated the short chainstay while in the aero position.

I wondered why this bike was so laterally stiff and out-of-the-saddle responsive. Then I took a closer look. It's chainstays are beefy, and the short chainstay measurement combined with the severe angle of the seatstays makes for a little-bitty rear triangle that isn't going anywhere when you push it.

It's just a great tri-bike. It's one of the world's great tri-bikes. The P2K sells for $1199, and you get the seatpost and fork with that. This is a more-than-fair price. The only thing I'd like better is a P3. I can just imagine how that bike rides. And it has no down tube grommets. Oh, joy.

Like good Tequila, high-yield bonds, and Jaguars, there is usually a price one pays when investing in something really sexy. Such is the case with Cervelo's P2K. If you want absolutely the fastest thing on two wheels below $3000, this has got to be your bike. The only other bike I would put in its class is the Yaqui Mariola. You say one abra-cadabra and the Mariola's parts fall right on the frame, no muss, no fuss. With the P2K you start out with one Hail Mary and then set to it. But, the P2K would be easy to assemble if it wasn't for Cervelo's absolute commitment to aerodynamics, which means the rear wheel placement and the shift cable routing requires a little more patience and care. If you are -- or you've got -- a talented mechanic, this is your bike. Speaking of good tequila, after your wrench builds up your new P2K, slip him a bottle of Tres Generaciones -- he'll have earned it.