NEW CANYON ULTIMATE CF 7 Di2 AERO ($4,499) // Buyer’s Guide

Hello friends!
In this episode, I bring you the buyer’s guide for the all new Canyon Ultimate CF 7 Di2 Aero road bike.
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Links from the video:
https://www.canyon.com/en-us/road-bikes/race-bikes/ultimate/cf-sl/ultimate-cf-7-di2-aero/4064.html?dwvar_4064_pv_rahmenfarbe=R101_P07
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Thumbnail photo credit: Canyon Bikes
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Thank you for watching.
Cheers!

Well, well, here we are. This is the all new Canyon Ultimate road bike. And in this episode, I will give you the buyer’s guide for this bike. And also, I will tell you some of the likes and dislikes when it comes to this specific Kenyon Ultimate CF7 DI2 Aero road bike. As you can see, it’s an absolute mouthful of names when Kenyon is naming their bikes, but this is the standard stuff from Canyon. Okay, so as you can see, uh this is the all new, let’s call it 2025, 2026 Canyon Ultimate. And this specific model CF7DI2 Arrow has a retail price of $4,500 US or uh 3,750 British pounds. When it comes to the Canyon Ultimate Bikes, I mean it’s an absolute legendary platform from Kenyon. So this is their allin lightweight climbing bike and in this iteration this is the fifth iteration of the bike they have incorporated some of the aerodynamically optimized you know pieces on the bike. So definitely this is the trend of all these lightweight climbing bikes that they are slowly gaining some of the uh aerodynamically optimized components to go as fast as possible. So first thing first, who is this bike for? So Kenyon ultimate platform, you always have to think about it as a lightweight climbing machine with a little bit of arrow tweaks here and there. So in my opinion, the whole focus of this bike should be on the lightweight machine, lightweight climbing machine. And I don’t mind that the whole carbon fiber frame and the fork will be a bit on the stiffer side compared to let’s say Kenyon and race bikes. So just keep that in mind when evaluating or shopping for this uh bike. I’ll just mention here briefly when you look at the US market, you only have one paint scheme on offer. This is this. It’s a beautiful teal paint scheme. Uh definitely reminds me a lot of the specialized tarmac SL8 paint scheme, but if you are in Europe, you also have this other totally white paint scheme. Again, a beautiful addition to the paint scheme in Europe. I don’t know why Kenyon didn’t include this paint scheme also for the US market but probably you know there are some limitations with is it a supply chain or whatever there is manufacturing why there’s only one paint scheme for the for the US market. Okay. So let’s dive into the specifications of this bike and really see what are some of the main likes and dislikes for this bike. So, starting with the frame and the fork on this bike. So, this is the Kenyon’s CFSL carbon fiber frame and the matching fork. Uh, as you can see here, all the cables are internally routed. There are 12 mm through axles front and the back. It comes with the press fit PF86 bottom bracket. Excellent stuff. No complaints here. And I have to mention here that Canyon offers a six years warranty on carbon fiber frames, forks, handlebar, the seat post, basically everything that is manufactured by Canyon. It is a decent warranty. Of course, I wish that at some point Canyon would move to the lifetime warranty, let’s say, on their frames and forks. That would be very nice, but 6 years warranty should be more than enough on these levels of carbon fiber frames and the forks. As I was mentioning, this is not creme de la creme, carbon fiber frame and the fork. This is the third level. So above this, you can have CFSLX and then you can have the CFR. But I always like to see the lowest levels of the bikes that manufacturers are doing because that tells you a lot about you know the way of thinking they have applied to this new uh Kenyon ultimate platform because after all this is the fifth generation. So, in my opinion, they should have ironed all the little things that, you know, were bothering me in the previous generations. Okay. So, carbon fiber frame fork, as I was saying, CFSL, totally fine. No special complaints here. Also, I’ll just mention here carbon fiber seat post from Canyon. Uh, excellent stuff. They are well known for absorbing a lot of road bumps with their seat post. So, absolutely fine. And in this iteration, as far as I’m aware, this is a bit of D-shaped aerodynamically optimized seat post. So just again, you know, keep that in mind. Uh settle, this is the Cell Italia. Personally, I like Cell Italia products. If you don’t, it’s going to be very easy to replace this settle. There’s nothing special, nothing proprietary. Uh speaking about proprietary solutions, okay, let’s talk about this handlebar and the stem. So this is the one piece uh carbon fiber handlebar and the stem. And this also comes with the specific pace solution from Canyon. So this is basically where this one piece carbon fiber handlebar and the stem you can adjust the height at about 20 mm and you can adjust the width uh as you can see here at about 50 mm. Very nice, very neat solution. I haven’t heard any special complaints about it. So, at least you can, you know, adjust a bit of the positioning on the bike. Uh, and again, very nice because when you are choosing your specific frame size, of course, the handlebar width and the stem length will be fixed because this is a one piece handlebar and the stem, but at least Canyon is sorting it with their pace system as you can see here on their little video that they have provided. So all in again perfectly fine. Uh no complaints from me when it comes to their uh one piece uh pace handlebar uh system on this Canyon bike. Okay, moving on to the group set on the bike. So what are you getting for your hard-earned money? So this group set is the Shimano’s 105 electronic group set. So 12speed group set shifters, front mech and the rear mech. Everything Shimano 105DI2. No cutting corners here. Also this crank set, Shimano 105 crank set. As you can see, double chain rings at the front. And these are the 5236 chain rings. And then paired with the beautiful cassette 1134. So you can definitely attack steep mountains. You can definitely spend, you know, long days in the saddle. Totally fine. And the chain, a classical Shimano’s 12speed chain. Of course, I would advise you here in the future when replacing the chain, definitely stick with any Shimano 12speed compatible chain because you are running here on this bike the Shimano’s 12speed group set. So, this Shimano 105D2 proper workhorse with electronic group sets from Shimano. Absolutely no complaints here from me. I will mention a small detail here. I was expecting or hoping that this bike would come with some kind of power meter. Let’s even call it, you know, a singlesided 4i power meter. But be aware that this specific model CFSL 7i2 doesn’t come with the power meter. The higher versions of the bike as I saw CFR, CFSLX, they would come with a power meter. Okay. Uh, looking at the braking system on the bike, this is the Shimano 105 hydraulic disc brakes front and the back with the matching Shimano 105 braking rotors front and the back. All of this perfectly fine. No complaints here. at the front 160 mm rotors and at the back you are getting a 140 mm rotor. Again, I’ll complain here. I have no clue why manufacturers are using this tiny 140 mm rotor at the back. I wish that this is a 160 mm braking rotor at the back because the heat dissipation and stopping power is just going to be much much better than on this tiny 140 mm braking rotor. So something that all manufacturers in my opinion should change because there is no absolutely any weight saving. I mean these two rotors might you know have a a weight difference of I don’t know 10 15 grams or on that level. So so there’s nothing absolutely in it. Okay. So this is kind of the main components and now we come to the wheel set on this bike and this is where in my opinion absolutely everything falls apart and I just I just can’t understand why why Kenyon has done it. So okay this wheel set on the bike is the DT Swiss Arc 1,600D cut wheel set. So on the face of it, you look at it and you think, “Wow, Dysw Swiss wheels. I like Dwiss wheels. This is a carbon fiber wheel set. 50 mm deep tubeless ready wheel set. Everything excellent. Uh DT Swiss I’m guessing here 350 hubs. I’m saying I’m guessing here because when you look at the DT Swiss Arc, 1400 wheel set, a bit more advanced wheel set, this wheel set would come with the DT Swiss 240 hubs. That’s why this wheel set on the bike uh is probably DTS Swiss 350 hubs. Okay, I absolutely have no complaints about it. Perfectly fine hubs. Maybe even DTS Swiss 370. I’m not sure. Something to double check with Canyon. But then I had a look at the internal width of this wheel set and it is 20 mm. This is absolutely not acceptable in 2025. It is too narrow because on this bike as it is out of the box you are getting uh this is the tire I believe uh 28 mm tire out of the box front and the back but in today’s world you definitely want to run 32 mm tires on this bike. Why wouldn’t you? Excellent air volume, you know, much smoother bike ride, not much in it when it comes to rolling resistance. But this tiny internal rim width on these rims of 20 mm is just not acceptable. So I don’t know if Kenyon has some special deal with DT Swiss and they had to put these one DT Swiss wheels on the bike, but I just wish they that they maybe approached let’s say something like reserve wheels 5263 reserve wheels that also come with DT Swiss 350 hubs on the retail market at $1,800. But the key point here with these reserve wheels is okay, I’ll first mention the weight. So the the wheel set would be something like 1,660 g. Also internally you will have 25 mm and 24 mm at the rear. Much more advanced wheel set much more you know futurep proof wheel set. It’s just it’s just you know very very much more you know better than that DT Swiss wheels that you are getting out of the box on the Kenyon Ultimate CF7 Di2 bike. So this is the biggest letdown in my opinion about this bike. And again, when you consider that Kenyon is asking $4,500 for this bike, or as I said, $3,750 British pounds, I just don’t know why they would use this old style of DT Swiss wheels. I mean, DT Swiss wheels also have to get a bigger bigger revamp in my opinion in 2025. And this is just a no no in my opinion. Why would you limit yourself to this wheel set which is just past in my opinion? That that’s history. That’s not the future. and DT Swiss should absolutely change this wheel set. As much as I like DTS Swiss and recommend DT Swiss many times, this is just not acceptable on this bike. So, this would totally, you know, put me off of buying this Kenyon Ultimate CF7DI2 Aero bike because in my opinion, they just messed it up with the wheel set. And also, you know, when you look at the total system weight of this bike in size medium, it is 8.16 kg. Okay, I somehow wish that this is much much lighter bike, you know, 7 something kilg, but it seems like no, it’s still a bit on the heavier side as a proper, you know, lightweight climbing bike. You really have to move to the CFSLX level or CFR level to get the light bikes and again a bit disappointing. So, as you can see, two major major disappointments in my opinion with this bike are that this old school, I would call it DT Swiss Arc 1,600 wheel set should be replaced with my opinion, for example, a reserve 5263 wheel set. And uh also, where is the power meter on this bike? I think they should have included at least a single-sided power meter. So, some small small details here, but I just think they kind of missed the point also with the weight of the bike. It’s size medium, 8.2 kilograms. It should have been lighter. It just should have been lighter and and even if the price went up a little bit, whatever$100, $200 US, it would be so much more worth it. So, I’ll be making more of the videos about the new Kenyon Ultimate level of the bikes and also there’s a new Kenyon endurance level of the bikes. But as it is now with this Canyon Ultimate CF7D2 Arrow, I definitely wouldn’t go for this model. Uh the the wheel set really really is the big big drawback of this bike and it should have been much more modern wheel set with a better internal rim width because you want to run 32 mm tires on this bike and on this wheel set it’s just going to be be so ridiculous if you are running 32 mm tires on these narrow rims that the aerodynamic performance is going to be totally messed up because the tire isn’t nicely flush with the wheel set. So yeah, I think this is a missed opportunity from Kenyon in this instance. So let’s see when I dive into the specs of some other Kenyon Ultimate bikes, are they maybe a better, you know, value for money? So this is going to be it for today. I hope you like what I’m doing. If you do, keep on, you know, watching, keep on liking, and as always, I will see you soon in the next episode. Cheers.