Phoenix Rising: The New Sika Henry Machine

September 23, 2019

Sika Henry came to the sport late, picking up high-level swimming and cycling in her 30s, her distance running pedigree stretching back only a few years before that. Notwithstanding her late start, this 70.3 specialist is a fair bet to qualify for her pro card and if that were to happen she’d be the first African American female to do so.

In triathlon you learn to become a defensive driver. Sika found that out earlier this year at Ironman Texas 70.3. She hit the deck during the bike leg after a slower rider swerved in front of her. I have resisted posting the pictures of the aftermath; suffice it to say, many broken bones, 33 stitches in her face, several surgeries, more to come, rely on your imagination or Sika was brave enough to share some “selfies” on her blog.

Besides the human toll the casualties included her bike, wheels, saddle, helmet, everything. On the plus side – the only plus side – it gave her a chance to upgrade to equipment that’s come onto the market recently that fits her particular imperatives. I test rode a Cervelo P3X earlier in the year, and found it uniquely suited, on paper at least, to Sika. Very long story short, here it is, and I’ll describe the bike and the reasons why it works for her.

There are people whose morphology is more or less average, that is, legs and torsos are symmetrical. Then there are the leggy types, and their long levers and short torsos are conundra for bike fitters. Then there are uniquely long-leg, short-torso riders who face bike fit challenges even more severe. Then there’s Sika.

This P3X of hers is made in 4 sizes. She’s on an L. I’ve got a bike just like this – different color, but same size – in my workshop. I’m 6’2” and Sika’s 5’10”. How can this fit us both? Well, it doesn’t, really. As I wrote this past Spring, I’m probably a better fit on Cervelo’s new P5. The P5 is a little too long for Sika (because she’s shorter, and because she’s got a proportionately shorter torso) in the size I’d ride in a P5 (size 56). But the P5 is too low for her in size 54. The P3X in size L is in between those sizes (tho closer to the P5 in size 56), but it’s a little bit taller and the Speedriser stem gives Sika an easy way to get the pads up to where they’ll be.

The pads are not high versus her saddle. The pads need to be high because her saddle is high because her legs are so long: While I’m 10cm taller than she is, her saddle is 4cm taller than mine. She’s got a decent amount of armrest drop from saddle to pads, maybe 135mm. The P3X has a crazy amount of adjustability, rivaling or surpassing Trek’s Speed Concept, which has always been the most adjustable superbike prior to the P5X (and now P3X).

This particular bike is built with a Shimano Ultegra Di2 kit, and one message I’ll be pounding over the next year is that triathletes really need to find a way to get electronic shifting onto their tri bikes if they can do it. Bike makers are forcing consumers to make huge dollar purchases to get electronic and that’s a mistake. The hole in the market is the midrange electronic bike. But I digress.

This bike has HED Vanquish wheels, and you might wonder how you get these decals on a bike like this. HED makes its products in its own factory. HED can do what it wants. Like make decals that match a bike.

The Vanquish is HED’s newest aero wheel and like most wheel brands on the leading edge of tech, these wheels are 60mm deep and are configured tubeless. The tires on this bike are tubeless Schwalbe Pro Ones. Yes, we’ve been talking about these lately. There’s a thread on our Reader Forum asking where to buy the new Pro Ones. I’ve inset the new Pro One, so you can see the difference in graphic treatment. Sika’s bike doesn’t yet have the new Pro Ones but they’ll be on her bike within a week or so. If the Pro Ones you get don’t have the orange logo, they’re the old Pro Ones.

These are 28mm Pro Ones. Newer tri and road bikes are made with more tire clearance, and the 28mm width works on this bike fine. The new Pro One tubeless tires come in 25mm, 28mm and 30mm, and were she to opt for 30mm it would probably fit.

This bike currently has 3 water bottle cages, as you can see. The cage I like the least is the cage most pro triathletes use almost universally: the rear mounted one, behind the saddle. Sika likes it the least as well. She didn’t immediately realize that a cage was possible above the frame storage. I suspect she’ll remove the rear cage for racing.

The cockpit is Cervelo’s own, and of all the bike companies that’ve tried to make their own aerobars, these are among the best. That said, the bars didn’t make it down to the newly introduced P-Series. While not shown, the front cage is populated by Profile Design’s Aero HC hydration system when she’s riding. Sika rides an ISM saddle, a PR 2.0, which is my favorite among the ISMs. The kit she's wearing is from Zoot.

If you race Augusta 70.3 this weekend, you may see this bike.

PHOTOS: Shelly Liebler (Sals Journey Photos)