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Just a short write up of this years CX race bike. After much deliberation I plumped for a Canyon Inflite AL SLX frameset. Quite good reviews, supposed to be light for an alloy frame (200g lighter than the Crux) and came in black. I preferred the Crux's turquoise paint to be honest but hey ho.
Now as I was self building I had already accumulated a pot of bits ready, and this is where the choice of a Canyon started to bite me.
Hope V Twin brakes, for example, are fine if you are using the industry norm 1 1/8" steerer, but not with the Canyon and it's 1 1/4". Luckily a friend was able to laser me up some larger bore brackets.
Rotor Crankset, the Canyon has a BB86 bottom bracket, and the crankset I had was ex-Cervelo so too narrow. See elsewhere for the saga on this. I ended up buying another Rotor crankset.
But I had already bought the Rotor 4130 bearing to suit, only to find that the quality was very poor and the outer seals fell out regularly. Like every trial fit of the crank.
Onward then...
First proper run out today through the woods and the bike feels quite long but well composed. The brakes feel smooth and not at all like an on/off switch which I'd been worried about. The bike is painful to shoulder and those square edges do it no favour.
I also find it heavy. It comes up at 9kg, which is about a kilo more than I would have hoped and quite disappointing. The Boardman CXR9.8 is a good 400g lighter and was my second choice. The Limus tubs are amazing at finding grip, if draggy on smooth surfaces. Far better than the Dugast Rhinos I ran last year.
Some pictures then.
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Spec;
Canyon Inflite AL SLX frameset
Rotor 4130 ceramic BB
Rotor 3D+ crankset 175mm arms
Hope 38T retainer ring
Hope V Twin brakes
Hope 160/140 floating rotors
Ultegra 6700 shifters, rear derailleur and 11-28 cassette
Cole T38 CX wheels
Challenge Limus tubs
Zipp SLC V2 bars
Specialized Roubaix wide tape (probably my new favourite tape)
Fizik Antares saddle
XT780 pedals
KMC TiNi chain