Canyon shows Ultimate CF SLX Disc bike at Eurobike

Canyon has shown a disc-equipped Ultimate CF SLX road bike at Eurobike. Don’t get too excited about being able to buy it just yet though, this is still a prototype, as indicated by the white paint job that Canyon now uses for all its working prototypes.

It’s likely the professional teams that Canyon sponsors (Movistar and Katusha) will be using this bike when they test disc brakes in selected professional races. When those races are, we don’t currently know, but we have seen a few disc-equipped bikes in races recently, and expect to see more before the end of the year.

- Team Sky races with disc brakes for the first time

This bike here is essentially based on the new Ultimate CF SLX that was launched just before the Tour de France. You can read about it here, but basically Canyon has taken some of the lessons it learned in developing the Aeroad and applied them to the Ultimate. So there’s a D-shaped down tube and seat tube, and aero shaped seatpost and an integrated seat clamp.

- Canyon unveils new Ultimate CF SLX with aero features

There are some obvious changes with the addition of the disc brakes. One big story is the use of 12mm thru-axles front and rear (with 100mm front wheel spacing and 142mm rear). Currently, most disc road bikes have been using mountain bike inspired 15mm front and 12mm rear axles, but there has been a lot of speculation that road bikes might switch to a 12mm standard, to save weight.

- Cervelo R3 Disc spotted at Eurobike

With the new Cervelo R3 Disc, and now the Canyon, both using 12mm thru-axles, it looks like the future of disc-equipped road bikes will include 12mm axles. Elsewhere on the new bike, no surprise that Canyon is using the flat mount standard. It’s also going with 160mm rotors, rather than 140mm discs.

The changes have also netted a significant increase in tyre size compatibility - it now accepts up to 30mm tyres. This is still a race bike remember. All cables and hoses are internally routed.  The rear triangle is completely different. There’s no brake bridge so it looks a lot cleaner around the top of the rear wheel now. The fork is new too. Canyon claims a 1,200g frameset weight.

The new Ultimate CF SLX Disc does look pretty ready to hit production we'd say, so could we see it becoming available next year? 

More from Canyon, including its Smart Computers and a super lightweight bike, soon…