Unboxing the 2018 Canyon Ultimate CF SLX 9.0 with Dura-Ace R9100

It's taken a while, but 2018 bikes are starting to arrive in the shops, real and virtual, and we've got our hands on one of the brand new Canyon Ultimate CF SLX Disc bikes to show you in our latest unboxing video. 

Canyon's Ultimate CF SLX race bike has long been a popular bike with road.cc testers and readers, and it's now available with disc brakes. The new version offers the same brilliant performance and handling but benefits from improved braking in all weathers, not only the rain but also in the dry. You can read a review of the 2017 version of this bike that we tested earlier in the year. Aside from the groupset, the bike is essentially the same.  This is the Ultimate CF SLX DISC 9.0 model and it costs £4,899.

Disc brakes are hot right now. Previously the domain of endurance and adventure bikes, we're now starting to see race bikes getting overhauled with disc brakes, and the Ultimate CF SLX Disc joins a small but growing, list of disc-equipped race bikes. Might we start to see more disc brake road bikes in the 2018 peloton? Does anyone really care? Yes, obviously lots of you do, so it'll be interesting to see if any teams start using disc brakes now that the brands are offering race-ready bikes. 

- 12 of 2018’s hottest disc brake-equipped race bikes

The other obstacle to disc brake adoption has been the availability of decent brakes. Shimano has truly been leading the charge and its latest Dura-Ace R9100, which features on this bike, is not only its most advanced groupset but also the first time it has applied the Dura-Ace label to disc brakes.  It's taken a while since Shimano launched this groupset at the Tour de France last year for it to really start appearing on production bikes, so we've not had many opportunities to actually ride it. This bike has the mechanical gears with hydraulic brakes version and includes the funky new disc rotors that are designed to reduce heat buildup.

You can read a first ride of the R9100 groupset here.

Lastly, we'll leave you with one question: what do you think of the colour? Canyon calls it Jet Silver-Grey and I think it looks really good, a nice change from the previous stealth black colours that used to dominate the Canyon range.