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Thu 10 Sep 2009, 10:24 am UTC

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Eurobike: Off-road frames and trickle-down road tech from Canyon

By James Huang, Technical Editor

German online-only bicycle company Canyon debuted its latest Torque off-road frame platforms at this year's Eurobike show to complement the current freeride/downhill-specific Torque FRX. 

Canyon will offer the new lighter-weight Torque in both 160mm ES and 170mm-travel FR variants to suit enduro to light freeride applications. Common elements include mostly square-profile 7500-series aluminium tubing, a true four-bar linkage design, tapered 1 1/8"-to-1 1/2" front ends, Truvativ HammerSchmidt-compatible ISCG tabs, full cartridge bearing pivots and a convenient etched-on sag indicator for easier setup.

The rear end of the Torque FR is fitted with Syntace X-12 12x142mm thru-axle dropouts while the more all-mountain oriented ES gets standard 135mm OLD quick-release dropouts.

Claimed frame weight for the ES is 3.1kg (6.8lb) without the included RockShox Monarch 4.2 air shock and 3.39kg (7.47lb) for the beefier FR, again without its included Manitou Evolver ISX-6 rear shock. 

Canyon showed off this 'projekt s5' machine complete with 180mm of travel front and rear and weighing under 12kg (26.5lb) as seen here. :

Canyon showed off this 'Projekt S5' machine complete with 180mm of travel front and rear and weighing under 12kg (26.5lb) as seen here. 

Canyon also put together a special show bike to demonstrate the Torque's versatility called the Projekt S5. 

Canyon made its own arm and chainring guards for the thm-carbones clavicula crankset.:

Canyon made its own arm and chainring guards for the THM-Carbones Clavicula crankset.

Built around a specially lightened 'Torque 2010 light' frame weighing 2.9kg (6.4lb) and boasting an array of exotica such as a two-ring THM-Carbones Clavula carbon crankset, a Recon machined aluminium cassette, and a RockShox prototype rear shock – but also some impressively standard items such as the DT Swiss EXC 1550 wheelset and SRAM X.0 transmission – total claimed weight was a fantastic sub-12kg (26.3lb). 

Canyon's ultimate al frame uses the company's one one four front end, asymmetrical maximus seat tube shaping and spindly seat stays.:

Canyon's Ultimate Al frame uses the company's One One Four front end, asymmetrical Maximus seat tube shaping and spindly seat stays.

Trickle-down tech was the story on the road front with the Ultimate CF SLX, Ultimate CF and Ultimate Al frames carrying over for 2010, and all still boasting Canyon's giant 1 1/4"-to-1 1/2" tapered front ends, Maximus asymmetrical seat tubes and spindly seat stays. 

Canyon's one one four fork design uses a gigantic tapered 1 1/4

Canyon's One One Four fork design uses a gigantic tapered 1 1/4"-to-1 1/2" steerer.

The top-end One One Four SLX carbon fork will now be included with all three models, however, and the Ultimate Al will also get the Canyon-exclusive VCLS comfort-enhancing carbon seatpost built by Ritchey.

For all of BikeRadar's Eurobike coverage, click here.

You can follow BikeRadar on Twitter at twitter.com/bikeradar.

User Comments

There are 9 comments on this post

Showing 1 - 9 of 9 comments

  • Glad to see that you finally found interest in canyon. Maybe bikeradar should test one of their sub 1000£ hardtails and one of their road bikes?? if you look at the specifications you get far more value for your money with canyon, then you do with any other brand of bike.

  • Hi Bay-DK,

    We already spoke with the Canyon folks at Eurobike to get a road bike tester in the near future. Stay tuned.

  • Anyone any personal experience of Canyon. I too am intrigued by the possibility of one.......

  • Yes stump paul, a mate of mine has a nerve am, he bought it ex-display and got a wicked spec for just over a grand. he was a bit sceptical of them, having no reviews at easy reach, but its an absolutley brilliant bike, lots of thought has gone into its design and finish, he's had no problems with it mechanically as they cope with british weather really well. good weight for a 140mm full susser too, he did an enduro on it and was riding past carbon-framed-lycra-whippets on it! The spec you get for the money is brilliant (formula brakes,sram x9,fox rp23, pikes, those pimp red dt swiss wheels...!!) buy one mate and enjoy the looks of intrigue as your fellow cyclists are wondering what make it is!

  • Yes I have one. its a Grand Canyon AL 7.0 MTB, i had been looking around for a few months for a new MTB and i found canyon's homepage. Then one month ago i was on holiday in Germany and among many other things i visited canyons showroom in Koblenz. All their bikes are on display and you can try all of them, the canyon staff are really helpful and even though my German is not that good (i'm from Denmark) they took their time talking half German half English. I've tried many MTB like trek, scott , Focus, Kona, Specialized.. and many more. none of them even though they were expensive felt anywhere near as well balanced. next up for me is one of their carbon hard-tails. I havent really any knowledge about road bikes but i did try ultimate AL 9.0 and it was fast and light. so go ahead and by a canyon

  • What a nice surprise indeed, Bike Radar featuring something from Canyon! I hope that MBUK will test some Canyon MTBs as well! They have been all over in European magazines, always winning all the tests. I am really longing to see what verdict MBUK will give -if they ever get to test one!

    I have 2 Canyon Bikes, both bought as outlet frames only, and they perform extremely well! This summer I tried a full bike assembled at the factory. The work made from '08 models to '09 is incredible! The rear suspension of a Neve XC (120mm fully) performs as good as my 07/08 Nerve AM (140mm), great improvements in terms of geometry!

    That said, MBUK, get a Never AM or a Torque, I am sure that there is a lot of people waiting for such a test!

  • I'll second that about reviewing the Torque, particularly the ES variant. I find it stunning there are so few reviews out there on these bikes, we've been waiting a long time, - i can assure you, it'll sell more than a few magazines!

    There's no doubt these bikes pack bang for buck, - but personally I'm just a little bit nervous parting with 2 or 3 grand without some opinions on the frame, geometry handling etc

    Come on guys, get the finger out...... you'd be doing more than a few of us a big favour!

  • I got a Canyon Lux MR 8.0 in the recent annual sale for just of £2k. Its is an amazingly fast and light XC fully. A couple of mates got Nerve MR's which are even more amazing value. It now always makes me chuckle seeing a review of a Specialized or Cannondale that weights 2Kg more but costs £5k+

  • I own two the CF Pro(F10) used last year by Lotto, and the F4 as winter bike and i can tell you that they are awsom, stiff but still very confortable.

    they are priced well and affordable at the price of looks. canyon takes the "skoda" approach with effectiveness over looks( they leave that to the italians).

    Only doing online sales set some limitations on marketing, but they well deserved as one of the better brands for price, perfromance and quality, and as "bobbyfett" says they have really been putting a lot of thought into the design and made something that really works.

  • 1

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