Canyon’s Eurobike booth had several new mountain bikes on display and this well dressed prototype disc brake road bike.
Dubbed the CF SLX, it takes one of their existing road bike frames and adapts it for hydraulic disc brakes. What’s particularly interesting is that they took the time to mount up some unlabeled Avid hydraulic brakes, likely running empty hoses into the bar tape to complete the look. It’s super clean with internal routing and nary a sign of any mechanical-to-hydraulic converter box. But it doesn’t end there…
The fork is pretty slim compared to most disc brake road forks we’ve seen coming out (here and here, for example), and tire clearance is rather tight at the crown, likely for aerodynamics. Of course, this is a prototype, so anything could change, but it does look rather nice as is.
Wheels are the current Reynolds Assault CX disc brake wheels that have been updated since our test set came in to use modified versions of their newer straight pull mountain bike hubs. Reynolds says they’re working very hard on dedicated disc brake road wheelsets that’ll lose the brake track that’s currently on the Assault CXs. It’s worth noting that these hubs are slimmed down versions of the MTB hubs to save weight by limiting them to standard QR axles only. Our Reynolds rep says they didn’t need to offer thru axle options for cyclocross, so they could bring a slimmer, lighter wheelset out. All that lends some credence to the hype on their placard below.
We can hear the groans from bike wrenches now about the short stub of a hose coming into the caliper, but it sure does look sweet.
Oh, and if you’re jonesing for that split seatpost that they introduced last year as a prototype, Ergon has one they’re actually bringing to the U.S. (Canyon is a German brand that sells direct-to-consumer with no current U.S. distribution or sales)
The new Nerve AL 29er is abig wheel version of their carbon 26″ Nerve. While the smaller wheeled version gets 120mm travel, the 29er drops down a hair to 110mm. At first glance, the hydroformed front triangle looks very carbon-esque, in no small part thanks to the one piece split top tube.
The rear end gets a 12×142 thru axle and beefy pivot points. A direct mount front derailleur and routing for shock remote round out the package.
The Grand Canyon 29er hardtail mountain bike has been raced this past season by the Topeak Ergon riders and now becomes part of the production family. Head- and downtubes are pretty massive, finishing at a very wide bottom bracket shell to give it decent tire clearance and solid power transfer. It, too, gets the thru-axle rear.
The most unique feature is an integrated steering stop. A replaceable bumper on the top tube limits handlebar rotation to prevent it or the fork from damaging the frame during a wipeout.
Lastly, the ghosted prototype TT/Triathlon bike at last year’s show gets official…and officially bad ass looking.
