Can you ride a carbon Canyon bike on a turbo trainer? The quick answer is yes. The long answer is, it depends… Since November 2019, Canyon have provided an official set of regulations regarding which of their bike models can be used on turbo trainers, and under what conditions. Now they are updating these regulations. Here is a list of the Canyon bikes approved for turbo trainers, and guidelines for how to use them properly.
Canyon Bikes Approved for Turbo Trainers
The following Canyon bikes are still officially approved for turbo trainer usage as long as certain conditions are fulfilled:
- Canyon Aeroad
- Canyon Ultimate
- Canyon Endurace
- Canyon Speedmax
- Canyon Inflite
- Canyon Grail
- Canyon Exceed
The rules are these:
Firstly, and unsurprisingly, only non-motorized models are approved. So no, you can’t use your Canyon E-bikes on your indoor trainer. Before mounting the bike on the trainer for the first time, you must ensure that trainer is compatible with the bike, following the assembly instructions provided by the turbo trainer manufacturer.
Canyon bikes with thru-axles are approved for use in direct drive turbo trainers only. The trainer may only be mounted on the bicycle frame at the mounting points for the wheel hub. The trainer must not contact the frame at all on the outside of the dropouts and for trainers that replace the rear wheel, it should only contact the inside of the frame as the rear hub would.
Combinations that are not compatible
Canyon say they are constantly testing new combinations of their bikes with the various indoor trainers available on the market. The following Canyon Bikes are not compatible with the Wahoo KICKR v5, KICKR’18 and KICKR CORE:
• Canyon Ultimate CF SL rim brake models
• Canyon Ultimate CF SLX rim brake models
• Canyon Ultimate CFR rim brake models
Canyon make no claim that this a complete, exhaustive list. If a rider’s preferred indoor trainer is not included in this list, they recommend riders check the trainer’s suitability according to the criteria described above. It is not possible for them to check every combination of bike and trainer.
We previously asked Canyon for further clarification of approval for carbon frames with both Direct-drive & Roller-style turbo trainers (since it wasn’t explicitly called out) as long as the aforementioned requirements are met.
Their response: “Yes, we DO approve these setups.” Older, more rare trainers that clamp directly to the frame are not OK, but “choosing a modern turbo trainer will always be the safe option, no matter if direct or with wheels attached.”
