Canyon Ultimate CF SLX Review

by Simon · 08/08/2013

The whole Ultegra groupset performed well over the four weeks I had the bike. Whilst not the top of the range and now being outdated by new 11-speed offerings, it really is a great groupset.

Canyon Ultimate CF SLX descends brilliantly

After some poor map reading, and some 90-minutes later, I ended up back at square one and there really was no choice but to head over the Malvern Camp climb and tackle its leg breaking slopes – all 16-minutes of them! To add insult to injury, a thunderstorm dumped rain over the slope but the excellent Mavic Ksyrium Elite S wheelset and Yksion PRO tyre system somehow managed to maintain traction. You’d probably want to upgrade these at some point but as a standard offering, and as a set of wheels to keep as spares, they make a lot of sense.

Canyon Ultimate after hill conquering

Canyon claim that by using basalt fibres in the fork and seatpost they have engineered a more comfortable ride. Over the initial short crits and rides I wasn’t sure; there was maybe marginal difference in comfort over my own carbon racing bike. But those marginal gains seem to really add up over a longer, hilly and wet ride. As I sat in the car dripping wet, I thought it odd; where was the back ache, the tense shoulders and neck, and the heavy legs? I couldn’t feel the usual signs of fatigue. Perhaps I was just on a good day or maybe there’s something in these basalt fibres after all? It’s hard to say for definite but on that day in particular it left me feeling relatively fresh.