The fast track
Canyon’s latest Aeroad does a whole lot more than just speed
By way of introduction, Canyon says the new Aeroad saves an average 7.4 watts on its predecessor at 45kmh in a wind-tunnel – or 5.4 watts with two bottles plus the brand’s in-house ‘rider’, a pair of pedalling carbon fibre legs named Ferdi. In a world where just a few issues ago we were reporting that Specialized had made its Tarmac so ‘fast’ it meant goodnight Venge, 5.4 watts might sound like a last feeble gasp for the aero-road category. But in the context of the gains available in aerodynamics nowadays it’s a fair leap, and yet is only half the story of this ingenious bike.
To achieve these rarefied drag gains, tube profiles have been made substantially deeper throughout – the seatpost is essentially twice as deep as before – while cabling is all hidden and even the tyres have been specially chosen. Instead of two matching, the Aeroad has been designed around 25mm front and 28mm rear tyres, the idea being that a narrow profile is preferable at the front of a bike but has negligible benefit at the rear, hence a wider, more comfortable tyre can be used. To that end, the Aeroad now accommodates up to 30mm tyres should you wish to maximise comfort. Yet strangely, given such lengths, Canyon says it left even more aero gains on the table.
‘We collaborated with aero experts Swissside for the CFD and wind-tunnel refinement process, and some of the designs we came up with were as much as four watts faster than the design we settled on,’ says lead engineer, Lukas Schuchnigg. ‘However those designs sacrificed in other areas.’
Indeed the outgoing Aeroad was admired for its handling and comfort, so it’s no surprise Canyon wanted that balance to carry through. Achieving that as well as improving efficiency required some exceedingly clever design.
‘The clamping point of the seatpost is 10cm lower than where the seatpost enters the frame, which gives it more length to flex,’ says Schuchnigg. ‘But crucially we have removed material from the part of the seatpost you can’t see.’
The rear half of the seatpost is effectively a hollow carbon shroud. It extends off the back of a D-shaped post that is otherwise similar in profile to before. This is to improve the tube's aerodynamics while preserving the flex characteristics of the shallower structural part of the seatpost. Once inside the frame the shroud is cut back to save weight. Canyon says overall the seatpost is lighter, more aero and just as flexible as the old one.
The adjustment bureau
This subtle but smart thinking continues at the front of the bike. Like the seatpost, the CP0018 cockpit might look like a regular one-piece bar/stem, but this is actually housing a neat trick – the bar is effectively three pieces slotted together.
The middle of the bar is a T-section – the ‘stem’ plus a section of the bar tops – and into each side of this slots a left or right ‘wing’ – the other section of the bar tops plus drops. These can be bolted together in three positions, such that a 410mm bar (there are five distinct sizes) can narrow to 390mm or widen to 430mm.
‘We’ve had reports of pros altering handlebar width, making it narrower for flat, less technical races where aerodynamics is most important, or wider for races with climbing and sprinting,’ says Schuchnigg. ‘We also did this because our business model is direct to consumer. The cockpit now is much simpler for customers to set up out of the box. It makes it easier to travel with the bike too.’
But that’s not all – bar height can be adjusted without cutting steerers or removing stems, as the stem element of the cockpit is similar to quill stems of old, where part of the stem slides over the steerer tube. As with the seatpost, the clamping mechanism is a grub screw coming through the back of the stem, so to change stem height all a rider or mechanic need do is loosen said screw and slide the stem up or down. Spacers are the puzzle type, which lock together in two pieces and hence can be removed without disassembling the front end. Per frame size, stem height can be adjusted by up to 15mm in 5mm increments.
Yet despite these elaborate touches, the topspec Aeroad CFR frameset plus cockpit (CFR is Canyon’s lightest carbon layup, above SL and SLX) is a claimed 168g lighter than the previous version and yet 14% stiffer. A top spec Dura-ace
Di2 build comes in at 7.26kg.
Lighter, stiffer and faster? Perhaps it’s the lightweight bike’s days that are numbered.
Achieving comfort and handling as well as improving efficiency required some exceedingly clever design