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TECH NEWS

Tour de France Tech 2014: Canyon’s new Aeroad CF SLX R28

Live from Yorkshire: exclusive pictures of Team Katusha's new aero road bike

Canyon are launching a new version of their Aeroad aero road bike, and here it is.

We’ve known for some time that a new Aeroad is on the way, not least because Team Katusha stuck a shot on their Facebook page a couple of weeks ago, and Yurii Trofimov used it during the Dauphiné. 

Now we’ve been snooping around the team hotels ahead of the Tour de France’s Grand Départ in Yorkshire this weekend – we’ll call it the Tour t’France, for short – and spotted several of the new Aeroads being prepared by the Katusha mechanics, including Yurii Trofimov’s ride.

So, what has changed? Well, for a start, the name. This is the Canyon Aeroad CF SLX R28.

The most noticeable difference you can see is that Canyon have filled in the gap between the seat tube and the leading edge of the rear wheel – in time trial style – to smooth the airflow over the rear of the frame.

The seatpost is now much deeper than before front to rear and Canyon have changed the seatpost clamping arrangement too. They used used to use a plate behind the seat tube but now they’re using a wedge design that’s tightened via a bolt that sits flush with the top tube, just in front of the seatpost. It looks similar to designs used by many other manufacturers.

Up front, the head tube looks to be less of an hourglass shape than previously. It really slimmed down in the central section but that looks to have changed now.

The fork is different too. The new fork is the Aeroblade SLX F30, as opposed to the Canyon Aeroblade SL on the existing model. The fork legs look deeper.

Canyon have shifted to direct mount brakes for the new incarnation, where each arm is bolted directly to the frame or fork rather than via a central mount.

The UCI have approved the Aeroad CF SLX R28 in sizes 2XS-2XL, which is the same as the current Aeroad’s size range.

Our man Dave is heading to the launch tomorrow so we’ll have more information then.

Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. We send him off around the world to get all the news from launches and shows too. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.

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2 comments

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ajmarshal1 | 9 years ago
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That looks 'kin fast.

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Leviathan | 9 years ago
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Me please*

*If I keep flogging this 'I though it was the grab bag' meme long enough someone might take pity on me. Love the No Seat Tube illusion in the photo above. Don't love the aero noise of someone on a bike like this approaching from behind and overtaking me.

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