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Canyon has just launched its brand new 2019 Lux full suspension race bike. Wil went over to Girona in Spain to test it out.
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everyone it's will hear from single
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track magazine and single track WorldCom
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and I'm here to talk to you about the
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2019 Canyon lux now a few weeks girls
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invited out to Girona in Spain to test
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out the new Lux
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this is canyons new lightweight full
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suspension XC race bike now it replaces
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the existing Lux in the Canyon liner a
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bike which is coming up to five years
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old this year the new lux carries over
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the 29 inch wheels one hundred mil
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travel front and rear it's still
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designed to be a very sharp lightweight
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and efficient cross-country race bike
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but almost everything has changed it's
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entirely new from the ground up the luxe
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frame will only be available in
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carbon-fiber there are no alloy versions
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available at all but there are two
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versions of the carbon-fiber frame just
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like other Canyon models you've got an
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SL frame an SL X frame
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now the SL X uses a slightly lighter
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weight carbon fiber and as a result the
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whole frame is a little bit lighter
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you're talking sixteen hundred and
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sixty-two grams is the claimed weight
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for a medium luxe SL X frame however
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that weight is for the bare frame once
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you add in the rear shock the remote
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lockout the chain guide through axle
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seek collar and a few other bits of
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hardware you're looking at 21 28 grams
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which is not quite as headline-grabbing
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as the original figure but still very
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impressive nonetheless there are some
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really nice features on the luxe frame
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some of which have carried over from
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other Kenyan models and some which are
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brand new we've got the impact
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protection unit up at the headset and
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the IPU basically stops the headset from
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over rotating so in the event of a crash
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your handlebars are limited how far they
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can turn around and therefore hopefully
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stop the shifter and brake lever from
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careering through the top tube which is
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quite nice we've also got the qixels
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rear axle on the back so this is boost
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spacing on the back and we've got a
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really neat little integrated axle which
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just pulls out of the back end and
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allows you to loosen or tighten the rear
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axle without any tools which is quite
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neat another neat feature on the new
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luxe is the super minimalist chain guide
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I think this weighs about four point two
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grams or something like that it's just a
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little light
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alloy guide that bolts into the head of
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the main pivot bolt it can be adjusted
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for different chain ring sizes very
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simple very minimalist but does the job
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really well the main difference with the
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new luxe frame is of course the layout
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with suspension now Kenyon have flipped
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the rear shock from a vertically mounted
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shock up to the top tube and the idea
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here
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aside from performance advantages that
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it's provided it also delivers a lot
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more space inside the main frame so now
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for every single frame size you can fit
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two full-sized water bottles inside the
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main frame that goes for the small
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medium large and extra-large frame sizes
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for long distance riders and marathon
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races this is a really big deal because
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it means they can carry two water
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bottles on the frame for racing you're
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all less likely to need to stop at a
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feed zone in order to refill a bottle
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grab a fresh one you can just go
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straight on through the suspension
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design itself has changed considerably
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we still have a carbon-fiber one-piece
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wing arm so there's no pivots at the
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back the swing arm is designed to flex
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through the carbon seat stays as the
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suspension cycles through its travel
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there's two little links that drive the
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rear shock we've got a carbon fiber yoke
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which attaches to the lower eyelid of
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the rear shock and a little alloy link
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on the inside which bolted to the seat
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tube and controls the link as it goes
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through the travel the rear shock itself
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is a metric size we've got a 210 by 55
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mils stroke now that is quite a big
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shock especially for a short travel
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cross-country race bike with 55 mils
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stroke and a hundred mil travel we end
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up with an average suspension leverage
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ratio of 1.8 1 to 1 so very low and that
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means we end up with quite low operating
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pressures for my 70 kilo right away I
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had 110 psi in the rear shock to get me
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at 25% sag so quite low pressures
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relative to other cross-country race
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bikes the bike that I was riding at
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launch is the second from the top it is
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cold wait for it the luxe CF s LX 9.0
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pro race just rolls off the tongue that
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one it's a sub 10 kilogram carbon fibre
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race with it super light super trick
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we've got a SRAM X
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one Eagle group said on here we've got a
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rock shock suspension package with a
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Sidwell cut fork on the front very
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lightweight Reynolds wheels these are
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carbon-fiber rims and they weigh less
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than 1400 grams for the passive very
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light thankfully a dropper post which
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was a very nice addition for the trails
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that we were riding so the writing
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position on the lux
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it is fairly traditional for a
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cross-country bike the basic numbers for
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geometry we've got a 70 degree head
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angle and a 74 point five degree seat
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angle so quite sharp the reach on the
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medium size that I was riding is 435
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millimeters that combined with an 80 ml
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stem 720 millimeter bars it does put
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quite a lot of weight on the front wheel
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stretches you out over the cockpit puts
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you in a really good position for
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climbing and getting the power down on
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the pedals and in general this bike it
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does pedal very very well very efficient
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I found it quite an exhausting bike to
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ride because it encourages you to get
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out of the saddle and hammer it really
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goes you into going faster and just put
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more effort in it's not a bike that's
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really interested in going slowly it
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wants you to go fast so at the end of
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end of the day I was absolutely
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knackered riding this bike the
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suspension design is really efficient
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and to be honest I don't know why
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canyons bothered with the remote lock
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out on the handlebar the dual lockout
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activates both the fork and the shock
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but to be honest this bike doesn't need
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it it pedals really really well as is if
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it was my bike I'd be taking that off
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straight away personally although the
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suspension is very very stable and very
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balanced under pedaling it's also still
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active so great traction levels on this
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bike
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it actually has quite good big hit
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capability so I took it off some
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reasonable sized drops and jumps and the
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bike stayed really planted without sort
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of squirreling about yeah in general the
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suspension gives the whole bike a lot of
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stability and a lot of calmness so even
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though those geometry numbers are quite
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sharp quality of the rear suspension
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gives this bike a load more capability
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and a load more stability than perhaps
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those geometry numbers would suggest the
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fork didn't quite match the quality of
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the rear suspension turns out there
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weren't any bottomless tokens inside the
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air spring
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of the CID Forks that we are writing and
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that's something I would do if I had a
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bit more time with this bike is to put a
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couple of tokens inside there to give it
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a bit more progression and a bit more
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ramp up to balance with the rear
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suspension but otherwise I really
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enjoyed riding this bike and it
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surprised me quite a lot with how well
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it rode on quite rough rocky terrain
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that we were riding around Girona
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now for the 2019 Canyon luxe range there
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will be six models available the two
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top-end models will use the lighter
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weight SLX frame and the four cheaper
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models will use the SL frame the SL
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models will also come with a longer
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travel fork 110 millimeters of travel
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that will kick back the angles a little
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bit and in theory should relax a
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steering a little bit especially for
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descending of note is that any model
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that comes with the RockShox fork has a
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longer 51 mil fork offset whereas the
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Fox models will come with a shorter 44
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mil off set now that will give a
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slightly different steering dynamic so
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with the Fox fork models you are going
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to get a slightly Karma and more damped
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steering feel whereas the RockShox
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models you're going to get that sharper
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more responsive feel that you get with a
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longer offset so that's something to
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bear in mind as well now if you'd like
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to read more about the 2019 Canyon luxe
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Range make sure you jump on singletrack
7:57
worldcom you'll be able to read our full
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news story on the new bike as well as my
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first ride review of this very
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lightweight very efficient and very
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stealthy full suspension race bike from
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Kenyon thanks guys to route
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