New to the road cycling scene at 46. Mostly commuting on my Schindelhauer Thinbike since 2014. Anyhow, in September I decided to join a Triathlon Club, so naturally I needed a road bike (somehow the Thinbike wasn’t eligible to the Sunday bike rides…). I have my mind set on either an S or M triathlon, so after asking around and doing some research (hours on YouTube channels, mostly CADE Media and GCN), asking ChatGPT and going on reddit subs, I was still hesitating between a Giant Contend AR 1 and a Canyon Endurace CF. There’s a Giant store not far away, so I spent an hour there, but they didn’t have any AR 1s, and worse, when I left, I had more questions than answers… carbon or not, SRAM or Shimano, CAES or 105 etc…
That night I had dinner with some friends and told them I was a bit skeptical about an online only Bike Manufacturer. By coincidence one guy told me he was on his 3rd Canyon and reassured me by saying they were all great and that finishing the bike once it arrived was easy. That’s when I went on the Canyon website and ended up spending some time on the outlet section of their website. Fortunately there was this S sized Ultimate CF SL 7 Disc from 2022. Sure it has some scratches, and it’s 3 years old, but I don’t really mind as it was a Carbon bike with Shimano 105 group and a 6 year warranty. I had heard that the most important thing for choosing a bike was the size. To ease this, there’s a great simulator on the Canyon website that gives you an estimate of the most adapted bike size in relation to your height and inseam. I’m spot in the middle of their chart, so I was relieved that I wouldn’t mess up.
Color-wise, True Grey, as it’s called, is kinda “meh” for me. I found some cool vinyl stickers online that I ordered as an homage to their Ultimate CF SLX collab with Rapha.
3 weeks later my bike arrived and I was finally able to ride it today after applying the stickers and putting some Shimano SPD SL R800 E1 pedals. Fun fact, Cockpit was not the original H36, but the CP0030 and the saddle was not the Selle Italia Model X but a Fizik Vento Argo.
I’m really glad I chose it and would highly recommend Canyon to anyone hesitant to purchase an online brand: easy to choose, easy to finish assembling at an affordable price, especially if on the outlet section if you don’t mind a couple of scratches.
TL;DR – was looking for a triathlon bike, this Canyon spotted on the outlet section was exactly what I needed at a reasonable price!
by lescalp