It won't be troubling the top spot of Kona any time soon, but Canyon's new Speedmax CF triathlon bike may become the first choice for many age-groupers. Dubbed 'the most versatile and fastest triathlon and time trial bike in its class', the new bike borrows heavily from the more expensive Speedmax CF SLX, but starts at €2,300 (international pricing TBC). Let's take a look.
We were invited by Canyon to the launch event at Schloß Montfort, a striking castle on the edge of Germany's Bodensee lake, near the Eurobike exhibition that we swoop on every year to spot the latest new bike gear. Product engineer Lukas Schuchnigg told us that the new Speedmax CF is "like an entry to medium level bike for triathlon", which looks similar to the Speedmax CF SLX.
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Cheaper price, shorter development time
"Of course, aerodynamics are the most important thing for the bike, so we took a lot of features from the Aeroad and Speedmax CF SLX, and put them into this bike. For example, the tubes shapes – down tube, seat tube, fork legs – they all have very similar shapes to the Aeroad or Speedmax CF SLX. We didn't need to develop these shapes again, it had already been done."
This benefits the customer by offering a cheaper price, and shorter development time. It differs from the Speedmax CF SLX in a couple of important ways: firstly the Shimano direct mount brakes are not integrated, which has a bit of an aero disadvantage, but makes them much easier to service.
The frame is made from a lower-end carbon fibre, which is slightly heavier (we were't told how much heavier), but encouragingly Canyon claim that there's only a 0.5W aero penalty compared to the Speedmax CF SLX. When asked how they arrived at this figure, Canyon said that they measured it in the wind tunnel at multiple points between 20° and -20°, and took an average.
Canyon Speedmax CF: features
There's an all-new H30 carbon base bar and V21 stem combination, which sits flush with the rubber Energy Source gels storage box behind it. The stem height can be lowered by 25mm via a headset spacer if you wish, and a slightly shorter storage box can be ordered to keep the profile flush. There's also a 62mm spacer kit for height adjustment of the Profile Design arm rest pads.
While there is an integrated storage box for energy gels, there isn't one included for spare inner tubes and CO2 cartridges, as done on the Speedmax SLX. Nor is there a specific hydration bottle available, though they can be bought aftermarket from companies like Profile Design, and there are two bottle bosses included on the frame.
On to geometry, this bike has a slightly more comfortable position than its older brother the Speedmax CF SLX. So there's a shorter reach and higher stack height, reflecting the fact this bike is aimed at age-groupers and not elites. All sizes have a 420mm chain stay length, and the size medium has a 73° head tube angle, 533mm stack and 425mm reach.
Canyon Speedmax CF: models and prices
There will be six versions of the bike available, starting at €2,300 for Shimano 105-level components, going up to €4,500 for the Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 model with carbon clinchers. It comes in three colours: the green and yellow version we saw in the photos, a metallic silver version with white details, and a women's version which comes in silver with a different green.
This compares to the Speedmax CF SLX pricing of €5,499 for the base model with Shimano Ultegra components, and goes all the way up to €9,500 for the model Jan Frodeno rode to his Kona win in 2015.
Its price rivals might include the Specialized Shiv, which starts at $2,200 for the Shiv Sport, Cervélo's P Series tri bikes which start at around $2,000 / £2,000, and Giant's Trinity Advanced, which starts at around the same price level as the Cervélo P Series.
The Canyon Speedmax CF is available to buy from the Canyon website from 31 August 2016, and is already in production. It's been raced, and won, by Canyon-SRAM rider Trixi Worrack, who claimed the German World Champs individual time trial on this bike back in June.