Canyon Endurace Young Hero: Gain your first racing experience at a favourable price

For Canyon founder Roman Arnold, promoting young talent in cycling is a matter close to his heart. In the summer of 2025, the Koblenz-based manufacturer and mail-order company relaunched its range of children's and youth bikes under the name "Young Hero", which is intended to offer modern technology for young people at affordable prices. In addition to four mountain bike variants, there are also two bikes with racing handlebars: The sporty Ultimate CF competition racing bike made of carbon and the comfort-oriented Endurace with an aluminium frame. The latter is still based on the predecessor Endurace AL, which has since been removed from the Canyon range and replaced by the heavier, simpler Endurace Allroad.

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Equipped with slightly profiled 35-millimetre tyres, the bike is more of a gravel bike, which makes it attractive for beginners and for tours with parents. The price also seems attractive: Canyon offers the Endurace for 1299 euros, making it unrivalled value for money for a fully-fledged junior road bike.

The Canyon Endurace Young Hero is relatively heavy

However, the favourable price has its side effects. At more than nine kilograms, the bike is comparatively heavy. Not only the aluminium frame, but also the inexpensive equipment increase the weight. There are hardly any specially designed lightweight parts for the lower weight of children. Especially the robust wheels, the inexpensive crank and the aluminium cockpit are relatively heavy.

With the Young Hero models, Canyon doesn't rely on a specially developed frame geometry for children, but instead uses the smallest sizes of the standard models. At 3XS and 2XS, these are really small; Canyon also used the smaller 650B wheel format for these sizes early on. This keeps the geometry short and the handling manageable. However, the Canyon is not suitable for getting started too early, as the frames are still too big for children of primary school age due to the standover height of 68 centimetres. Canyon recommends a height of at least 150 centimetres, i.e. from around eleven to 13 years of age.

At this age, you can also expect the kids to be able to handle the double gears that are fitted to both models. The crank length of 160 millimetres is just right for their height, but the handlebars look a little oversized. At 38 centimetres, it is very wide and the distance to the lower handlebar is also relatively wide, which makes it difficult to reach around. The bulky Shimano Tiagra levers are a challenge for children's hands, but there's nothing else in this price range. Electronic Di2 levers would be slimmer and easier to grip and operate, but the gears would make the bike at least twice as expensive. With its comfortable riding position and wide tyres, the Endurace is well suited to tackling your first longer tours.

It rolls pleasantly smoothly on the road, but with the tyres, field and forest paths are also no problem. There are eyelets on the top tube for attaching a small pannier. However, the Endurace is only suitable for everyday use to a limited extent due to the lack of mudguard mounts. The gearing is finely graduated and also offers an easy uphill gear. It is also designed for participation in U13 races; Canyon fulfils the prescribed gear ratio restriction for the highest gear with a crank from Miche with a smaller gradation (48/34) and a youth cassette from the same supplier, whose smallest sprocket has 18 teeth. This means that there is little standing in the way of first attempts at racing; the off-road-compatible tyres can easily be swapped for faster road tyres. However, if road cycling is a serious goal, the Ultimate Young Hero would be the better choice: not only is it significantly lighter, it also offers a sportier riding position.

The most important information about the Canyon Endurance Young Hero

• Price: 1299 Euro
• Weight of complete wheel: 9.3 kilos
• Frame sizes: 3XS, 2XS

Geometry data

• Seat/top/head tube: 400/498/124 millimetres
• Stack/Reach/STR: 510/346 millimetres/1.47
• Stack+/Reach+/STR+: 570/501 millimetres/1.14
• Wheelbase/caster: 961/64 millimetres

Equipment of the Canyon

• Drive/gear shift: Shimano Tiagra (48/34, 18-32 teeth)
• Brakes: Shimano Tiagra (160/160 millimetres)
• Tyres: Schwalbe G-One Allround, 35 mm
• Impellers: DT Swiss Endurance LN

Advantages and disadvantages

• Plus: affordable, solidly equipped, two frame sizes
• Minus: Relatively heavy, wide handlebars