New Canyon concept bike: Biplane cockpit ✅ 32” wheels ✅ Upside-down fork ✅ Aero ✅

Every few years a big brand lifts the lid on a “concept bike” — a thing that exists mainly to make the rest of us spit our coffee across the keyboard and immediately start typing about it. Mission accomplished, Canyon. Meet the Lux Era: a full-suspension XC concept with a biplane cockpit, an upside-down fork, 32in wheels and a computer sprouting from the top cap, all in the name of going faster in a straight line.

If that double-decker cockpit is giving you flashbacks, you’re not alone — Canyon went down this road once before with the much-memed double-decker bar on the Grail gravel bike. They’ve evidently decided that’s a hill worth dying on twice.

And before the comments fill with “the UCI will never allow it”: quite possibly not, and Canyon knows it. This is a concept, not a product — no UCI approval, and by Canyon’s own admission that fork isn’t even a working fork yet. What it is, is a statement of intent about where XC race tech might be heading. Here’s Canyon to explain itself, press release in full…

CANYON DROPS ‘LUX ERA’ MOUNTAIN BIKE CONCEPT TO FIRE THE STARTING GUN FOR A NEW AGE OF CROSS COUNTRY RACING

Cross-country racing is, at its very core, a contest of speed – that’s truer today than ever before. In 2016, the average speed of XCO MTB World Cup races was 18 km/h. Today, it’s 24 km/h. Longer races are getting faster, too: the Leadville 100 MTB now sees winning speeds of 28 km/h.

Speed wins the race, but XC bikes have not kept the pace. If you want to cross the finish line first, you need every conceivable advantage. Making bikes as light and efficient as possible – the paradigm for decades – is no longer enough to secure victory. As speeds increase, aerodynamics become more important, yet existing mountain bike frames and components don’t allow riders to truly achieve and maintain safe aero-optimized positions.

Those conceivable advantage questions have been answered by Canyon who lifted the lid today on a full-suspension concept XC bike known as the Lux Era.

The Era of Speed

Its wild front-end features a bi-plane cockpit that recalls the radical double decker handlebar Canyon used on a previous generation of their Grail gravel bike. This enables riders to put their hands on the lower section of the bars for an aero-optimized position.

This aero direction is followed by a pointed head tube profile, upside-down fork, 32” wheels and computer integrated into the top cap, built to factor in aerodynamic advantages with the handling needed to stay at the sharp end of the pack.

“There’s a three-fold problem in XC racing right now. Races are getting faster and riders need to go faster. Riders are looking for potentially unsafe solutions to do so. And they don’t have enough hand positions to maintain aerodynamic positions,” Fedja Delic, Canyon Head of Design.

Canyon’s goal with the Lux Era is to give riders a way to get low and fast without risking a catastrophic crash. But instead of just tweaking tube shapes, Canyon went back to the drawing board to question why XC mountain bikes currently look the way they do.

Here is the breakdown of what makes the Lux Era look so radical:

The Lux Era’s sleek, bi-plane design offers multiple hand positions and crucially offers a safer way for the rider to get in a lower, more aerodynamic position, reducing the 70% of drag that riders typically account for.

The upside-down fork offers both superior high-performance riding – better fore/aft rigidity, better hard braking stability, reduced unsprung mass, better lubrication and sharper handling – and better aerodynamic performance thanks to narrow crown integration.

A minimal computer display reduces aero drag and allows the rider to read essential performance data like speed, distance, time, power, or heart rate while keeping a clean cockpit.

Bigger 32” wheels roll over obstacles more easily, maintain speed better, provide more traction and offer increased comfort.

The frame cutaway provides a direct line of sight to the rider’s shock, making for easier sag setup.

“Whether it’s world cups or marathon races, riders constantly are figuring out how to go faster. Every second counts even more. Today’s cockpits only let you go so far. We need a solution that lets you get aero and comfortably stay aero,” Luca Schwarzbauer, Canyon XC Racing.

From wheels that help maintain speed better, to the bike’s aero-optimised cockpit, fork and frame, offering riders greater comfort in more aerodynamic positions and in a safer way, will lead to a faster XC mountain bike.

When will the Lux Era see the light of day?

For now, the Lux Era is strictly a “prototype concept” yet to be submitted for UCI approval, so don’t expect to see Luca Schwarzbauer or Jenny Rissveds lining up at a World Cup on the bike just yet. However, athlete and wind tunnel testing is now taking place to validate these claims.

So — vaporware, or a glimpse of 2030? Probably a bit of both. Concept bikes are equal parts genuine R&D and clever marketing, and the Lux Era is doing a very good job of the latter. You are, after all, reading about it.

But strip away the wind-tunnel theatre and there are real questions in here. Mountain bikes have crept from 26in to 27.5in to 29in and now, apparently, 32in; upside-down forks have been tried and quietly shelved more than once (RockShox’s RS-1, anyone?); and “aero” has spent a decade colonising every corner of cycling it can reach. XC has always been the discipline most willing to borrow from the road, so if aero positions arrive at a start line anywhere, it’ll be here first.

Whether the UCI ever lets Luca Schwarzbauer or Jenny Rissveds line up on something this wild is another matter. For now, file the Lux Era under “fascinating”, keep your own fork the right way up, and enjoy the fact that someone out there is still bold enough to bolt a biplane to a cross-country bike. We’ll let you know if it ever grows a real fork.