First Look: Canyon Tips the Scales With New Exceed Hardtail MTB
We’ve witnessed a couple significant-profile XC hardtails launched in the earlier thirty day period. BMC twisted out the Twostroke, a contemporary still measured solution to a classification that is nevertheless applicable, but requires a back seat to entire-suspension. On the other hand, Orbea dropped the Alma, a purist’s race machine that requires a spare-no-cost solution to making the best (examine: lightest) hardtail on the market place. The new Canyon Exceed is in the latter faculty, and because it’s in five grams of the Alma, we’ll connect with that aspect a tie. But there is a good deal extra to it, so let us dig in.
The Exceed doesn’t see many of the updates we generally converse about in the trail bicycle classification. The geometry did not improve much at all. The achieve amplified by about ten millimeters across all sizes, and the sizing-precise chainstay lengths reduced by two millimeters. Aside from a transfer to 80-millimeter stems across all frame sizes, and the addition of an XS choice (which nevertheless matches two in-triangle h2o bottles) not a whole good deal changed in the suit of the Exceed. The complete, on the other hand, is one more tale.
The buzzword you’ll see most regularly in the Exceed information is “unicorn hair,” which refers to the Toray M40X specific mix of carbon fiber substance. Because we couldn’t uncover the phrase affiliated with everything but the new Exceed and a hip model of hair dye aimed at millennials, it looks that unicorn hair is Canyon’s expression, not Toray’s, but it is absolutely fitting. Unicorn hair is uncommon and highly-priced but boasts an unusual combination of stiffness and toughness, even though most carbon is, to some diploma, possibly one or the other. It is how Canyon realized the sizing-medium Exceed CFR’s 835-gram frame body weight. There are also two other new frames in the Exceed lineup, the entry-level CF and the confusingly named SLX, weighing 1,312 and 1,015 grams respectively.
But there are plenty of other headline-grabbing updates to the Exceed. Canyon formulated a exclusive headset structure that passes the cables by way of the headset by itself. Part of the gain is its tidy looks, but Canyon also statements that the new routing helps make for considerably less inhibition on steering forces, even though also not inhibiting shifting effectiveness. It does introduce one more variable to cable alternative, and stops the rider from taking benefit of the in-out simplicity of tube-in-tube routing, but anybody opting for a hardtail race frame is about outcomes, not advantage. Atop that routing is a new integrated carbon bar and stem combo that is specced on the CFR and SLX versions.
On the other conclude of the touchpoints, the Exceed has a intelligent new hidden seat clamp, which integrates beneath the best tube. It is most likely lighter, it may perhaps enable the seatpost to start off its convenience-aiding flex an inch or two lower. But actually, it’s most likely just about on the lookout interesting. Atop the clamp is a sixty-millimeter dropper submit, developed for Canyon by DT Swiss.
It is sixty millimeters for a couple factors. One, it’s lighter. There’s a carbon-bodied model that is 390 grams and an aluminum one that is 420 grams. But also, sixty millimeters is the most productive sum of fall for XC racing. It requires considerably less energy to squat down and compress than a entire-duration dropper, and nevertheless permits for semi-productive seated pedaling when down.
The frame has a couple other useful features like minimal headset rotation to guard the frame, and aluminum chain-fall plates to do the very same. And the Exceed is one more bicycle to adopt the SRAM universal derailleur hanger, and is sticking with conventional submit-mount brake calipers.
Comprehensive Exceed versions start off at $two,000 with the entry-level CF frame, $four,500 with the mid-array SLX frame and $7,000 with the best-conclude CFR frame.
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This post originally appeared on Bikemag.com and was republished with permission.
