Canyon Exceed CFR LTD – First Ride Review

When an email dropped into my inbox asking if I’d like to test the new Canyon Exceed CFR, I’ll admit I hesitated before accepting the challenge. The last time I rode a hardtail race machine was exactly a year ago at the 10@Kirroughtree race, and it was such a terrifying experience I switched to a 30lb trail bike with 150mm forks after one lap. It’s not just that race courses are including steeper and more technical descents, but after spending most of the last year or two riding full suspension trail bikes, I’d pretty much forgotten how to ride a hardtail XC bike on anything more technical than a fire road.

Those concerns were compounded in a call with the Exceed’s product manager, who proudly and confidently told me that the they weren’t following the growing trend of incorporating trail bike characteristics on XC bikes, but were keeping strictly to the goal of designing a pure XC bike tailored specifically for European marathon race circuits where climbing efficiency and razor sharp handling were the priority over stability on technical descents.

As if that wasn’t enough, I was then informed that they weren’t much interested in comfort either. With the Exceed, speed was the overriding and singular focus. If I didn’t lose my teeth or break a collarbone in a high speed over the bars incident, then I could look forward to my lumbar discs exploding instead.

Looking on the bright side though, and thanks of course to ‘bloody coronavirus’, the usual press camp shindig where you get to ride the bike with a group of 20-something elite race whippets (and some less racy MTB journos) in an exotic location was cancelled. I could ride, and probably crash, the Exceed on my own, on trails of my choosing, and I could find out on my own terms if those dormant XC riding skills still existed, and whether the Exceed would help or hinder their rediscovery.

The Bike

The Exceed comes in a wide range of specs and prices to match the ambitions and resources of pretty much any rider. Canyon have introduced the CFR – Canyon Factory Racing – category at the top of the Exceed range, above the previous CF SLX and CF models, enabling buyers with deep pockets to indulge their weight saving and performance maximising fantasies, and hopefully achieve their podium ambitions. The CFR Ltd model on test here sits right at the top, and retails at a premium £6149.

That’s an awful lot to spend on a hardtail, but incremental gains cost money, and with the Exceed CFR Ltd you get every bell and whistle. Well, not actually a bell or a whistle as they’re not required on races and weigh a few superfluous grams, but you do get SRAM SID SL Ultimate forks, a SRAM Eagle AXS eTap groupset, SRAM Level Ultimate brakes, Reynolds Black Label Carbon wheels with Industry Nine Hydra hubs, an integrated Canyon Cockpit in place of the traditional stem and bars, and a specially developed, and for now exclusive to Canyon, super lightweight DT Swiss D232 One mechanical dropper post.

And if that’s not enough for your six grand, you also get some ‘Unicorn Hair’. No, that’s not something dreamt up in Dominic Cummings’ secret lab which will rescue us all from Brexit and Coronavirus, it is in fact Canyon’s nickname for a super rare type of carbon fibre, Toray M40X, which they have used to build the Exceed CFR frame. Reputedly it combines the properties of strength and stiffness enabling less of it to be used in the building of bike frames. Which is a good thing, because not only does it result in an astonishingly light frame at 835g, it’s so special apparently you need permission from the Japanese government to use it.

As previously mentioned, the Exceed’s designers have resisted the temptation to jump on the slack geometry bandwagon and have instead aimed for something more balanced. The head angle has been slackened slightly to 69°, the seat angle steepened to 75° and the reach has increased by 10mm across the sizes, representing a move in the progressive trail direction without going all in as other XC bikes have with 67° head angles and significantly longer reaches. The chainstays have been slightly shortened by a couple of millimetres, and as before the larger sizes sport longer chainstays to keep the balance consistent across the sizes.

Before seeing the specs, and based on previous knowledge of the Exceed I had assumed a dropper post too much to expect on a top-line XC hardtail if only for the extra weight it would add. It came with some surprise and not a little relief to see one when I unboxed the bike, and this is no conventional dropper, as Canyon have teamed up with DT to produce a mechanical, spring powered post weighing a measly 390g. It only provides 60mm of drop but that’s enough on most descents and it small enough to still offer useful pedalling when required.

Canyon have gone to quite some effort to completely redesign the cable routing around the head tube, doing away with the normal cable ports at the side of the head tube and instead integrating routing with the headset top cap, along with the frame protecting stop-block. This created quite a design problem for the Canyon engineers apparently, but the end result is a very neat and compact arrangement which avoids any cable rubbing, and enables the cables to be run as short as possible as they turn with the steerer, rather than requiring extra length to absorb large steering movements.

Owners of Canyon’s road bikes will also notice some similar features such as the internal integrated seatclamp, and the one piece stem and bars cockpit which borrows the same design aesthetic, and a flat mounted rear brake. All these small tweaks and weight savings contribute to the 835g frame weight, and combined with the rest of the spec the whole bike weighs in at a ridiculous claimed weight of 8.9kg.

The Ride

It won’t come as any surprise that on first impressions two things about the Exceed CFR Ltd jump out. The first obviously is the just how damn light it is. At a claimed sub-20lbs/9kg, it’s easily the lightest mountain bike I’ve ever encountered, and the fact that it includes a 2.35in front tyre, and a dropper makes that all the more surprising. It does make you wonder at whether it might be a little fragile in the same way that I sometimes worry about super light road bikes, but any concerns on this front are unwarranted as Canyon rate this bike up to a rider weight limit of 120kg.

The second immediately apparent aspect is just how stealthy and aggressive it looks. The EEclipse Black paint job and ‘special rainbow’ (Canyon’s words not mine) decals combine with angular tubes and the integrated bars and stem to create something of a space age aesthetic. If you’re the sort of rider who likes to ride a good looking bike (who isn’t?) then you won’t be disappointed. It reminds me of something you’d see on a futurist exhibition stall rather than something covered in mud out on the trail.

If you’re used to longer trail bikes then this might feel a little short at first, and on reading the geometry figures it might be tempting to go up a size if considering a purchase. This was something I considered myself, but in the end I followed Canyon’s recommendation of the medium (I’m 175cm tall) and it was absolutely the right call. It may be shorter than some bikes (435mm reach on a medium) at this size but the 80mm stem compensates for that and the position on the bike is comfortably neutral, allowing you to sit up and relax or get lower when required.

The comfortable riding position is complemented by a surprisingly comfortable ride. Trail buzz and small bumps and rocks are absorbed easily, especially when riding at speed, with the excellent small bump compliance of the SID SL forks playing a key role. The ability of the Exceed to smooth out the trail and maintain speed is sustained on the climbs as long as you have the legs to power through any obstacles, and the lateral stiffness of the frame provides the platform to enable you to do that with alarming ease.

At the point where the trail becomes rougher with larger rocks or roots disrupting the flow, the lack of suspension becomes apparent. This is where those XC attacking skills come in handy. Spinning up a technical climb in a low gear at high cadence is not what this bike is best at, and I invariably found myself getting hung up or losing grip at the rear. A bigger gear, some aggression and using the low weight and stiffness of the bike to manhandle it upwards allows you to maintain forward momentum and the Exceed excels at this more than any bike I’ve ridden.

On descents the key thing with the Exceed CFR is to know what it’s capable of, or rather knowing what you’re capable of riding with it. This is an obvious point, but in my short experience the transition from feeling in control and stable to the opposite is a short and sometimes unpredictable one. This is no doubt the result of the Exceed encouraging you to ride faster than your skills might safely support, and when you’ve just smashed up the previous climb with energy to spare it’s easy to get carried away.

Despite the cautionary note above, the most significant confirmation of the Exceed’s descending capabilities are self evident. I remain uninjured, with teeth and collarbones intact and in full working order. On steeper and rockier ground you need to pay attention and choose your line, but you will get down without losing too much time compared to a more downhill-capable bike, and the time you gain elsewhere will compensate.

One area where the Exceed will gain you lots of time is the terrain Canyon had in mind when resisting the urge to go slacker and longer. On tight, fast twisting trails, the Exceed comes into its own. The accurate and predictable steering combine with the pedalling efficiency and the fast wireless gears to maximise speed into and out of corners. Get this one element dialled with the Exceed and I’m confident most riders would be faster than on many other bikes.

Three things we liked:

• Lack of weight. It feels a bit like you’re levitating up climbs.
• Agility on tight and twisting single track on both climbs and descents.
• Small bump/trail buzz absorption. It’s not as nearly as harsh as it looks.

Three things we would improve:

• A slightly slacker head angle would inspire confidence on the steeper descents.
• The dropper post sometimes fails to lock when extending. A stronger spring or faster locking mechanism would probably help.
• Slightly lower standover height.

In a world where you can buy a full suspension XC bike which does a very good impression of a trail bike, for around the same price or less than the Exceed CFR Ltd and only sacrifice a kilogram or two in weight you need a very good reason to buy this bike. Being competitive in races or getting an edge when all other options have been exhausted is almost certainly that reason, and thankfully that’s exactly what it’s designed for.

Overall

Going in to this test I was firmly of the opinion that outside of deep winter when axle deep in corrosive slop, riding hardtails, especially in races, was something I used to do when younger, poorer and more able. The Exceed has potentially changed my mind on that.

Whether I would buy one is thankfully a rhetorical question due to the fact that I don’t have that sort of cash lying around, am nowhere near to bothering any podiums, and don’t live in a place where the local riding matches the terrain where the Exceed excels. If you can tick two of those three criteria then you’d do very well to find a better option for your money. If money was no object I’d buy one just for the bling factor. After all, how many other bikes are made of Unicorn Hair?

Check out this and the rest of the range in our story, here or at canyon.com

Specifications

• Frame // Canyon M112 Full Carbon Frame
• Fork // RockShox SID SL Ultimate 100
• Wheels // Reynolds Black Label (30/28mm)
• Tyres // MAXXIS Ikon 2.35 TR + EXO (F) MAXXIS Aspen 2.25 TR + EXO (RO
• Chainset // SRAM XX1 Eagle DUB (34T)
• Rear Mech // SRAM XX1 Eagle eTap AXS
• Shifters // SRAM XX1 Eagle eTap AXS
• Cassette // SRAM XX1 Eagle 10-52
• Brakes // SRAM Level Ultimate FM
• Bars & Stem // Canyon CP0008 XC Cockpit (740mm bars, 80mm stem)
• Seatpost // DT Swiss D232 One
• Saddle // Selle Italia SLR BOOST Kit Carbonio
• Size Tested // M
• Sizes available // XS, S, M, L, XL 
• Colours // Eclipse Black
• Weight // 8.9kg (19.6lbs) – claimed
• Price // £6149

Review Info