Hello everyone,
little review of my CF8 1by after the first 1000km for everyone interested, from the perspective of a fairly new amateur. Some rambling incoming, skip if you are not interested 🙂
Bought the bike in February 2026 after selling some $RKLB stock to treat myself, hence the Rocketlab stickers 🙂 SIze M, fits me perfectly (29yo, 175cm, 84,5cm inseam, 68kg).
Rode a Pathlite 7 all 2025 and decided it was time to get a bit more serious. The pathlite was my first proper bike and I did a full year of riding until I decided I wanted to stick to the sport. Family and friends are all bikers, I never got into it but realized in 2025 I need to improve my health and need an outlet. I work a lot, full time plus freelance and it really helps me calm my nerves.
I paid 2.918,85€ including 19,99€ shipping with a friend referral. Currently you get it for 2.499€ minus the referral, which is a good deal imho.
First, Current setup/changes I did:
- Waxed chain. Holy moly what a difference it did. Did a proper hot wax setup with a friend who has all the tools at home. Base hot wax setup, rewaxing with Slick Wax now every 100-150km. Cleaning a white bike from oil and degreaser stains was a nightmare I dont wish to have back.
- Favero Assioma MX-2 powermeters (one sided). Love it – as a data nerd this is gold. No issue with them, but set the default time out to something longer. Apart from that they work 100% with my old apple watch Series 7.
- 33mm Schwalbe X-One pro from the stock 40mm. Big difference IMO, rides faster and I dont do full gravel, for that I still have my Pathlite. Grip is still amazing. Not a single flat on both stock tires and these.
- LOAD bag, 3x ZEFAL carbon bottle mounts for long >100km rides, I dont like to have to refill that often. The load bag is great, together with shirt pockets its plenty storage for me. I ride alone 99% of the time so I need to support myself.
- Bought a cheap light mount, drilled holes into the mount and made it fit the undercarriage of the stock CP0045 cockpit. Works for my cheap amazon light, I dont ride at night. I use the canyon rear light. Short battery life but plenty for me.
- SPC+ Phone mount. Controversial I know, but I do not like the handling of bike computers and do not want to compromise the comfort of my iphone. I have an older iphone 13 where I dont really care if the autofocus some day breaks, but for now it has no issue.
Now to the review:
- Bike is an absolute beast, wants to ride fast and feels like an extension of my body after some getting used. The geometry is aggressive and I had to build up some back muscles, but I can ride it >150km by now. Other bikers and people have complimented it and even though I am really not someone looking for compliments, in fact I like to ride trails with as few people as possible, It feels nice having such a cool machine.
- Seat definitely took some getting used to. Im still not 100% if its good for me as my butt does hurt after longer rides, but I will tackle that later.
- Bike fit was not necessary, the canyon size table does a very good job.
- Missing suspension definetely is stiff. Cobblestone and forest paths are not my favourite in this bike, but it works for mixed routes. My rides are 50% bike path, 25% road, 20% gravel and 5% cobblestone I would say.
- Especially for short sprints its a massive upgrade from my heavy pathlite, I'm able to push 641W at 15s, 559W at 30s, 387W at 1min. I feel like this is half the bikes achievement and half the big motivation push this bike gives me, because I feel like I have to step my game up lol.
- No complaints about build quality or factory setup, shiftin, breaking, etc. It was perfect out of the box. The grip tape and cockpit setup felt very good.
- One note: You have to apply much much more carbon grease than you think. I had issues with a slipping seatpost and went to the canyon store. They changed out the clamp for safety, but said it was fine. I just did way too little carbon paste. The service was perfect though and the canyon HQ store is a 15 minute drive for me.
- The 1by setup scared me a little first because we live in hilly terrain, but honestly it is fine. After a very long ride the home climb is though, but still nothing you dont manage as a trained amateur. The highest gears could go faster than I currently sustain. Brakes are great, no squeaking, no issues.
- The paint is not very scratch resistant. I have accepted it, but purists and people who buy the higher configurations (especially the 7000€ bikes) might want to coat it or something.
- I dont like that canyon does not even give you basic tools for such a bike, no bell, no real torque wrench, not even spare screws. I guess thats part of it and not a big expense though. If you buy a canyon bike, immediately buy a proper torque wrench. Im not comfortable screwing into carbon with the plastic toy they give you.
Currently preparing for some larger 250km rides and a 400km jumbo ride later this summer. I guess this will be the real test.
Some questions, if you know I would appreciate:
- Any "Arschraketen" (butt rockets) you could recommend for this bike specifically? For the longer rides I will need more storage, for overnight stays i also need some spare clothes.
- Any locks you recommend? Thinking about a tool bottle in a 4th bottle mounts on the lower crank mount. Would only lock the bikes for maximum 10-15 minutes in front of an ALDI or something. Nothing longer without supervision.
- Is it worth going down the seat rabbithole or is some pain normal on these slim race seats? Nothing I cant manage so I dont know if its worth spending hundreds on fitting, testing, custom seats, etc.
Let me know your thoughts and all the best!
by IqfishLP