Mathieu van der Poel rides a Canyon Lux World Cup Team, not races, as he hasn’t done a top-level mountain bike race this year, but he certainly has one.
- Brand: Canyon
- Product: Lux World Cup CFR Team
- Price: £6,649
- From: Canyon
- Review by: Rhys for 3 months
Three things I liked
- Looks fantastic
- Ruthlessly efficient at covering ground
- Very quiet bike over rough ground
Three things I’d change
- It needs a dropper to be versatile enough on modern XC courses
- The very firm ride won’t be for everyone
- Conservative geometry doesn’t inspire confidence descending
Picture the scene…
We’re at another 10@Kirroughtree endurance XC and I’ve rolled out another one-ride-old cross country racing steed from the back of the van. This year it’s a Canyon Lux World Cup CFR Team. Sometimes I think they give bikes extra-long names to justify hefty price tags; or vice versa. Either way it’s the German firms top spec 100mm travel race machine.
It’s a serious piece of kit. You probably shouldn’t be thinking about one of these unless you’re a serious racer looking to push hard on the cross country racing circuit. Even marathon XC racing seems a little beyond the scope of this beast. Ironic, considering the conditions and course I’m about to subject it to for the next ten hours.
Initial Impressions & New Specs
Is Mathieu van der Poel that relevant here? No, not really but several people pointed this out to me during my time with the Lux World Cup so there’s clearly some influence there if you’re the kind of person who likes that kind of kudos.
This bike does look quite striking in its orange Fox factory fork, bright white front triangle fading into a deep blue towards the back end. White wheel graphics highlighting the rolling gear whilst everything else is carbon fibre and black. As it should be within the realms of taste; nobody really likes flashy, clashy component colour schemes. They’re so 2005.
There is space for two bottle cages which are supplied. Cool. Here’s a secret, I don’t actually like bottles for XC racing since I discovered these fancy hydration bladder things. How fashions change. Either way I can appreciate the fitting of two bottles inside the front triangle (no sniggering Amanda) of a size small frame is great packaging. The side entry cages and clear bottles are also provided.
Frame Spec, Sizing & Geometry
Canyon claim their top spec CFR frame material shaves 390g from the standard Lux frame. This may also include savings from the Ceramic Speed SLT bearings that are used in the pivots and headset. 390g is a lot of weight to lose from anywhere, so is it impressive or is the regular Lux a tad lardy? I’ll leave you to decide.
I will however state that we weighed this small frame bike at 10.60kg with bottle cages. That’s exactly the same as the medium Santa Cruz Blur we had a year ago and that had a 100mm dropper post fitted and near identical frame design. If I could type a ‘shrug’ emoji this is where I’d use it.
Sizing and geometry are fairly standard fare for a modern cross-country race machine, perhaps a touch on the conservative side. Nobody really needs a 68.5˚ to climb efficiently but they sure as hell don’t need it on a steep gnarly modern XCO course. Did you see how gnarly the Les Gets World Champs course was?! The steep-ish geometry isn’t a deal breaker however, I do predict head angles on XC bikes converging down towards the 65-66˚ angles we see on trail bikes in the not so distant future.
The 75˚ seat tube angle may seem conservative to some of you however from a biomechanical bike fit perspective its pretty good. Smidge steeper than a road bike, doesn’t overload your hands or quads when pedalling hard. However, some would argue with the way XCO is going, with increasingly technical courses, steeper seat angles and subsequently the whole longer, lower, slacker trend (yawn) might be where XC bikes are going.
Suspension Design & Performance
The frame and rear suspension design are very similar to the flex-pivot seat stay designs were seeing basically everywhere at the moment. Its light and gives enough leverage rate tuning possibilities to get things feeling how the frame designer wants. Canyon have engineered the frame so that its nominal position of the flex pivot is at the sag point of the frame, effectively adding some negative spring rate into the back end. Clever stuff.
How have the clever intentions worked out? Well, not so good. When I think of XC race bike suspension I want smooth small bump absorption allowing me to pedal over as much chatter as possible. What the Lux World cup achieves is a very firm ride that doesn’t really come alive until speeds are high and the impacts are hard. Because of this I basically found no use whatsoever for the lockout, despite running the fork and shock with more sag than usual.
Why is this? The shock has a 50mm stroke and provides 100mm of wheel travel. 2:1 is a very low leverage ratio. It doesn’t feel like the shock tube has been specified to accommodate this. I ran the rebound adjuster fully open to try and get some more life out of the back end at low speeds but it didn’t really cure the problem.
Don’t get me wrong, at warp speed, the Lux comes alive and feels well damped over high-speed rock gardens and root blankets. The damping taking the hits and converting them to dull thuds. It’s just not the end of the spectrum I’d have tuned the suspension towards given the intended nature of the bike.
Component Specification
The component spec on this Team spec Canyon Lux is tasty in anyone’s eyes. Fox Factory 32’s, Fox Float Factory shock, full XTR groupset, carbon Race Face cranks, DT Swiss’ top end carbon rims on 180 hubs. It’s all drool worthy.
In operation it’s flawless. Even if I love the bzzt bzzt of SRAM’s electronic derailleurs I certainly can’t complain at the speed and accuracy the full XTR drivetrain offers. Is it lighter? Google tells me that a full XTR drivetrain is almost exactly the same weight as a wireless SRAM one so I guess that just makes is a preference. Personally I’d rather have one less cable on the bike; for reasons about to make themselves known.
Which brings us to the headset. It’s one of THOSE. A cables and hoses through the upper headset bearing, a total mechanics nightmare of a headset. The Lux didn’t come with a dropper post despite Canyon having worked with DT Swiss to develop the mightiest dropper on the market for XC racing. So, to tackle the very challenging 10@Kirroughtree course I had to fit one.
Canyon have internally ‘tubed’ all the hoses and cables the bike comes with. But there isn’t one for a dropper. Which means I had to gut the poor thing to get a cable through the headset, down the down tube, round the bottom bracket and into the seat tube. If I’d have bought one of these and experienced that I would have been quite displeased to say the least.
The only discernible reason this bike comes with a fixed carbon seat post is so the weight figure on the website is as low as possible. Trading that for a huge performance advantage that a dropper offers is a terrible mistake. If weight was more ultimate performance decider we wouldn’t have suspension, or gears for that matter.
The DT Swiss carbon rims on 180 hubs are delightful. Super light and seemingly very strong. I gave them some hammer over some fairly chunky rocky terrain and they were fabulous. The 2.4 Maxxis Ikon tyres offering great volume and plenty of rolling speed. The Ratchet EXP freehub has a very pretty sound that’s pleasingly inoffensive despite being quite loud.
The 740mm one-piece carbon bar and stem is a work of art. Uncompromising in its design for simplicity and weight saving. Just don’t expect to be able to attach anything to them. Seriously, nobody makes a D-section-with-flat-bits shaped clamp for a light or head unit. You’ll need Canyon’s head unit mount that tops the stem as a headset spacer for that. Just don’t plan any night riding or racing because you’re never getting a light on those bars. Trust me, I tried.
Ride & Performance
So, you’re probably concluding that the Canyon Lux World Cup isn’t all that great? That’s true but also not true. It’s definitely not a trail bike. It’s too firm, too sharp and there are too many uncompromising design features of the bike to make it useable on a daily basis. I’d even go as far as saying it could be a difficult bike to train full time on due to the difficulty attaching lights and accessories. So a race bike for race days only.
What the Canyon Lux World Cup Team is, is exactly as its name suggests. It’s a full on zero compromise XCO race machine. No messing around. Its firm, its fast. Don’t ride it slow, neither you nor the bike will have a good time. If you want something with manners perhaps look elsewhere.
If you’re a committed XC racer and you want a fast climbing, fast descending, stiff sprinting race bike then this may be one of the most focussed machines currently on sale. Just don’t expect forgiveness if you bite off more than you can chew.
Specification
- Frame // Carbon (CFR), 100mm
- Shock // FOX Float DPS Factory Remote
- Fork // FOX 32 Step-Cast Factory Remote, 100mm
- Wheels // DT Swiss XRC 1200 Spline
- Front Tyre // MAXXIS Ikon Exo 2.35″
- Rear Tyre // MAXXIS Ikon Exo 2.35″
- Chainset // Race Face Next SL
- Shifter // Shimano XTR, 12-speed
- Rear Mech // Shimano XTR, 12-speed
- Cassette // Shimano XTR CS-M9101 12s 10-51
- Brakes // Shimano XTR M9100, 180/180mm rotors
- Stem // Canyon CP0008 XC-Cockpit
- Bars // Canyon CP0008 XC-Cockpit
- Grips // Ergon GA20
- Seatpost // Canyon SP0061 Carbon Seatpost
- BB // Shimano
- Size Tested // S
- Sizes Available // XS, S, M, L, XL
- Weight // 10.7kg
Geometry of our size H3 test bike
- Head angle // 68.5°
- Effective seat angle // 75°
- Seat tube length // 415mm
- Head tube length // 90mm
- Chainstay // 432mm
- Wheelbase // 1,120mm
- Effective top tube // 581mm
- BB height // 38mm drop
- Reach // 430mm
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Review Info
| Brand: | Canyon |
| Product: | Lux World Cup CFR Team |
| From: | Canyon |
| Price: | £6,649 |
| Tested: | by Rhys for 3 months |
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