CANYON TORQUE: ON 9
£5,999 + shipping Direct-sale giants’ irst e-powered park bike
With this electrified cousin of their Torque bike park shredder, Canyon aim to stay true to the design philosophy behind the regular bike – fun. The Torque:ON lives up to its name, its Shimano motor delivering 85Nm of max torque to help you get back to the top of the hill, run after run. But is it just as capable and enjoyable on the way down?
The frame
The aluminium frame dishes out 175mm of rear wheel travel, rolls on 650b wheels and sports short 430mm chainstays, all in the name of grin-inducing fun. Reach numbers are longer than on the standard Torque – 460mm on our medium test bike. It’s also slacker, with a 63.5-degree head angle. Seat tubes on all sizes are sensible lengths, too, allowing you to drop the saddle far out of the way.
It uses Shimano’s latest EP8 motor, which provides up to 400 per cent pedalling assistance as well as the aforementioned decent level of torque. This is powered by an integrated 504Wh battery – not the biggest out there, but if you’re planning long rides or all-day sessions, you can buy the Torque:ON with a second battery and matching down tube cover at a discounted price.
Canyon have tweaked the kinematics of their four-bar linkage Triple Phase Suspension so that there’s less anti-squat than on the regular Torque, to reduce pedal kickback and increase traction. Oversize bearings and a bridge across the seat tube link boost sti ness, and the frame is rated for a dual-crown fork should you wish to upgrade. Semi-internal cable routing keeps things looking clean. There’s a set of bottle cage mounts on the down tube.
The kit
This is the top-end build, with a Factory-spec Fox 38 fork and X2 shock, SRAM GX Eagle-based drivetrain and Code RSC brakes, with a huge 220mm front rotor. DT Swiss’s e-bike-specific H 1700 wheels, with 30mm and 35mm rim widths (internal, front and rear respectively), are fitted with chunky Maxxis Minion tyres, with a tough DoubleDown casing up front and a slightly lighter EXO+ on the rear Canyon’s own e-specific bar, stem and saddle sort out the cockpit, and the dropper post is from their in-house Iridium range.
The ride
The Torque:ON is a burly bike but it’s got some sti competition in the expanding hard-hitting e-bike market, from the likes of Scott, YT and Focus, to name a few. While it’s been given the longer, slacker treatment (more reach and a relaxed head angle), Canyon haven’t followed the modern trend of providing a super-steep e ective seat tube angle, keeping it at a relatively slack 74 degrees. We can’t say this ever became an issue for us while winching back to the top of a bike park or o -piste trail, but for those looking to climb the steepest, gnarliest trails, this and its short