Just finished building my SLX and taking it for a first spin. I've been riding a 2017 Giant TCR Advanced Pro for the past several years, including for a couple centuries and triathlons with aerobars up to half ironman distances. That's been a great bike but time to upgrade and got a good price that got me to pull the trigger. Here's my experience and learnings so far:
- I went for the CF SLX instead of CFR for 3 reasons: it comes with the CP0048 cockpit, which has the gear groove and so can fit canyon aerobars. The CFR does not support that. I also preferred the more aero wheelset and finally it was cheaper.
- Shipping took about 2 weeks. Unboxing and building was super easy – very well packaged and with the right tools etc.
- I got the Metallic Acid color – it's interesting and hard to nail down how it looks or capture it in pictures. Without direct light on it its mostly a grey-blue color, but in sunlight you get the sparkly green and iridescent purple/pink. Definitely unique – I loved it when unboxing, then was underwhelmed building it in the evening in my room, but then really liked it in the sun on my first ride.
- I'm 5'10" with a 34" inseam and got a size M and it works well for me. I was on the edge of sizing down to S, but worried that would be too aggressive so went for M with a backup plan of ordering a shorter stem cockpit. I adjusted my seat forward a bit to help with reach but otherwise M feels good for me.
First ride impressions:
- New bikes feel soooo nice – everything just smooth and crisp, love it!
- Biggest difference I noticed between the TCR and this was the stiffness of the frame. It just feels very snappy and responsive.
- Pirellis feed good too, but might switch them to wider GT5ks at some point.
- Overall bike felt great climbing, and good in the descent – its a bit more twitchy than the TCR so will need some getting use to before I fully bomb down hills.
- I tweaked the pitch on the saddle (forward a bit) , shifted it forward slightly, and adjusted seat height, but otherwise fit feels good out of the box.
Accessories:
- These VERY light carbon bottle cages – so far so good.
- beSmart Canyon Gear Groove Garmin Mount_v2.0 – ships from Germany so it was a bit pricey and took a week or so to arrive. But great quality and very recommended.
- Garmin Edge 540 — was on special and I use it mostly just for extended display mode with my Forerunner 970 watch if I do a triathlon.
- Garmin Varia rear light/radar — the standard attachment seems to fit the seatpost well so I'm happy with it as is.
- I also got the canyon bar end bell — super easy to pop onto the drop. Looks a bit dorky but I don;t like yelling at people in the bike lane
by jamesinorbit