Canyon Nerve AL 9.9 29er

The bike is finished off with Crank Brothers Cobalt stem and handlebars, which felt solid enough and wide enough on long fast fire road and tight narrow single track alike. I used my own saddle, but the Nerve AL is supplied with a Selle Italia X1 saddle and Iridium Sl seat post as standard; all solid and comfortable, though if I were to be looking for fault I must say the seat clamp mechanism was a little on the tricky side when swapping seats and required a degree of playing around with before I was happy with the positioning. Interestingly that appears to be really my only gripe…

Crisp and dependable Shimano XT

Weight wise it came in at a fraction under 14kg with pedals and battle cage, so whilst no weight weenie it was respectable enough.

Conclusion

Overall the Canyon Nerve AL 9.9 did everything I had hoped it would, and everything it claimed it could do. Perfectly suited to the kind of long Alpine endurance or marathon event that the Cristalp is; it got me up and over everything put in its path.

Canyon Nerve AL came in at just under 14kgs with pedals and a bottle cage