Aluminium may be regarded as a step back in time in the evolution of bikes for racing, serious training or sportiving; but Canyon have come up with a gem with this baby.
Review: Canyon Ultimate AL 9.0 road bike
By Myles McCorry
An aluminium frame holds a special place in the heart of any cyclist who raced in the 1990s. The introduction of this wonder-metal shed up to 4lbs in weight from the modern racing bike.
Sean Kelly popularised them in Ireland with the wonderful and hopefully-stayed-stuck-together Vitus 979.
As the alloys improved, tig welding took hold and they were much stiffer than their slimmer, steel forefathers. Then came carbon; lighter still and desirably expensive.
Over the last ten years, alloy frames faded to the stigma of being an entry level racing bike. Companies invested and promoted carbon as the only choice.
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It is a better frame material in most cases. It’s stiffer and better designed than the early days and improved and increased production has made it as cheap as aluminium.
When an email arrived saying I should expect delivery of Canyon’s 2014 Ultimate aluminium race machine for a long term test, I anticipated its arrival with mixed emotions.
Could it top my 1998 aluminium TCR? Or would I even bother riding it much when I owned a 15lb carbon race machine.
Out of the box, assembly is fantastically easy. As the German-based brand only sells online, it has perfected packaging to the point that even my training partner, who finds using knife and fork challenging, could put this together.
After five minutes spent attaching the pedals, front wheel and swing bars, it stood ready. Another five for bottle cages and 120 psi in the tyres and I was getting changed. It was a very easy assembly process.
Any first spin on a new bike is usually just a few kilometres to fiddle around with Allen keys and fix the position. My first quick spin on this lasted four hours as I forgot the way home in the summer sun.
This was not the step backwards in the evolution of the bicycle I’d expected, but a step forward in alloy bike construction.
The 1/2 bearing headset and full carbon fork left the front end stable and solid. The seat stays are slim but the rear of the bike does jar a bit more than a carbon frame set. But most of my rides are under four hours and never has my back fatigued.
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The carbon seat post has around 20mm of flex at the height limit so this also helps. The bottom bracket is Shimano own BB72; creak-free and just as stiff as a BB30. The internal cables are solid, quiet and nicely finished. Welding and paint is of a very high standard.
The bike is finished with Shimano’s mechanical Ultegra 11-speed groupset. Although I hadn't ridden it before, I was delighted to see the two massive advancements from the Dura Ace 9000 groupset trickle down; not the pretty chainset, but the amazing front mech.
A simple design of making the pulling cable arm on the mech longer, makes the shift quicker and lighter; so much so, that it is a serious wonder why no one did it before. Campagnolo, on its new Record groupset, has copied the design.
The Ultegra brake calipers are also a nice bit of engineering. Not since the dual pivot was introduced has any real improvement been made.
The design has three separate planes, and by some sort of witchcraft, they apply even pressure and pull to both sides of the rim; the motion of centre pull with the power of side pull.
At just under 1200 grams for the frameset, the weight penalty is 250 grams over a €2,000 carbon frame and none over a €700 one.
In the six weeks it has been sitting in my shed, not one time have I opted for my own ‘better’ fitting race bike. It has a more expensive groupset and lighter carbon frame. Nice new carbon wheels sit with the glue going off.
The Canyon Al is just a great bike to ride; no bling just competent. Each component does its job a bit better than you expect.
The finishing kit is all Ritchey WCS, so you don’t need to change or upgrade anything.
The email is going to come any day now to pack it up to be sent back. I’ll miss the extra stiffness when you kick up a hill and the one finger gear changing. At €1,699 euros, the AL 9.0 is a super bike for the money.
- For: Frame , Groupset , finishing kit, wheels.
- Against: The chain stay protector is peeling off…that is all!
- Rating: 9.5/10
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