On 28 August 2013, many product managers in the trekking bike industry must have winced. That was the day the Eurobike trade fair began. And on the Canyon stand, a grey bike gleamed, still consisting of many milled and printed plastic parts: the near-production study for our pin-up. The horror would be understandable, because the model became reality: with the Commuter as its top model, Canyon is actually entering the market for urban everyday bikes for the 2015 season.
And Canyon is not just anyone. No other brand has shaken up the market for high-quality racing bikes and mountain bikes over the past decade like the mail-order company from Koblenz. The brand has developed from a low-cost supplier into one of the most innovative and best-selling suppliers of sports bikes - at a pace that many competitors have been unable to match. Only city and touring bikes have never existed before. In this respect, the Commuter is not just a commuter bike, but also a statement. And what a statement it is!
You've seen the silhouette somewhere before, that cat hump between the top tube and stem, that smooth transition. The sports car manufacturer Jaguar, for example, in the lines of the radiator grille, between the shoulders and head of the leaping cat. But other bikes - such as those from the French brand Look - have also come and continue to come onto the market with this striking detail. But these are high-end competition bikes, and they cost several times as much as the Canyon battle machine.
The bike that rolled into TREKKINGBIKE for the first test is still a prototype. It can be ridden, but some of the equipment and technical details are not yet as advanced as the production bikes, which are due to be delivered in the spring. Visually, little will change. And what the team around designer Lutz Scheffer and product manager Sebastian Wegerle have worked out is more than just a look, because it is all about technology. The integrated unit consisting of stem, headlight and two screwed-in handlebar halves takes centre stage. It couldn't be tidier: only the gear cable of the hub gear runs openly into the down tube, all other cables and wires reach their destination through the stem and frame - an enormous effort in terms of design, and technically a protection against damage, for example in full bike racks.
First seat test. The two halves of the longitudinally split carbon seat post flex back very slightly and the hands reach far down until they find the leather grips. A sporty riding position combined with very lively steering behaviour. The fact that the Commuter feels so fast and manoeuvrable is also due to the special wheels. They are almost four centimetres smaller than usual (tyre size "27.5 inches"), which means they develop less stabilising gyroscopic forces. Added to this are extra-light tyres and rims. Canyon has deliberately decided in favour of sportiness here: The lightweight rims limit the system weight of the bike, payload and rider to 110 kilos. But this fits in with the concept of a light, nimble commuter bike. The length of the mudguards shows that Canyon's development is practice-orientated, and the uniform matt finish of these and almost all other components proves that no detail goes unnoticed. Canyon doesn't experiment with the drivetrain either - what could possibly go wrong with this spec? The most striking thing about the rolling bike is that nothing is noticeable. No noise, not even rattling cables, and the belt is a silent comrade anyway. Car companies have acoustic designers. Maybe Canyon borrowed one of them for this bike.
So everything looks, sounds and feels great? Not quite. The most elaborate part of all, the front handlebar light, has its limits. It goes without saying that this in-house development is expensive. And it is likely that each of these parts becomes cheaper the more of them are produced. In any case, Canyon uses the same stem length across all frame sizes, 80 millimetres. If this results in a suitable seat length and handlebar height, then everything is fine. If this isn't the case, the bike doesn't fit and can't be made to fit - the splendour and misery of system integration are often only centimetres apart.
