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Canyon’s firing a new Neuron. The brand’s lightweight, mid-travel, all-purpose, every-trail, hyphenation special gets a rework, bringing it in line with current trends.
Full details are below, but I don’t have a ride review for you yet. Although Canyon sent me a Neuron CF 9 SL (well in advance of today’s launch,) winter weather has thus far stymied any attempts to get out on the new bike. However, the new Neuron is unavailable to buy in the USA until June: I’ll get a ride review together before then.
I got a day on the CF 9 SL back in October 2022 when I visited Canyon’s HQ in Koblenz, Germany. The trails were unfamiliar, so I’m hesitant to extract much feedback from this first ride. But my initial impressions are very positive, with the Neuron feeling light, reactive, and efficient. Yet surprisingly capable and robust also. Compared to the many other great performing bikes in this category or thereabouts, the Neuron leans to the lighter and more agile end of the spectrum and not the baby-enduro end.
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What’s New and What Isn’t
As before, Canyon’s Neuron is the brand’s lightweight mid-travel (130mm rear, 140mm front) trail bike. It’s the brand’s most broadly appealing model, fitting between the Lux on the lighter/shorter travel side and Spectral (the 150mm and 125mm travel versions) as the heavier and more robust bike for more aggressive riding and terrain. Canyon still leans on its familiar FSR-style four-bar suspension, and kinematics are mostly the same as before and tuned for all-around—climb, pedal, descend—performance.
What’s new is pretty much everything else. As mountain biking evolves, so do riders’ expectations what a lightweight mid-travel bike can do, how it handles, and its feature list.
Leading off the list of changes are details that won’t surprise anyone that follows mountain bike design. The new Neuron has a longer reach measurement (about 20mm), a 1.5-degree slacker head tube angle (now 66 degrees), and a 1.5-degree steeper seat tube angle (now 76 degrees). The seat tubes are about 20mm shorter to accommodate longer travel dropper posts. And carbon models get straight seat tubes for even more dropper compatibility (aluminum frames have a bent seat tube).
Canyon also shaved 200 grams off the carbon frame, making a light frame even lighter. The carbon frame has a claimed weight of 2,440 grams, while the aluminum frame weighs 3,100 grams.
Diving deeper, Canyon made updates that emphasize durability and ease of ownership. Changes include a wider main bearing, better bearing and pivot sealing, improved pivot hardware, full-length tunnels for easy hose and housing routing, sealing sleeves at the intersection of the front and rear triangle to prevent water and grit ingress around the brake hose and rear derailleur housing. Also new is a UDH, making the Neuron compatible with SRAM’s direct mount rear derailleurs, and a BSA threaded bottom bracket for easier BB replacement and service.
Exclusive to the carbon frame are new replaceable downtube and chain slap protectors, a mount on the downtube above the shock for a tool/accessory kit (a water bottle mount resides below the shock), and a cleanly integrated upper chain guide (the frame does not have ISCG tabs).
Carbon frames also get hose and housing routing that enters through the upper headset cap, which Canyon claims saves 80 grams and reduces the number of bends the hoses and housing make. Unfortunately this routing method requires the user disconnect the hydraulic hoses, and rear derailleur cable if equipped with mechanical shifting, to replace or service the headset bearings. Aluminum frames also have internal routing but with more traditional entry ports in the downtube.
The aluminum frame gets one feature the carbon frame does not: A second water bottle mount—or cargo/tool mount—on the seat tube.
Sizes and Geometry
Carbon and aluminum frames share the same geometry (see table below) and size range (extra small, small, medium, large, extra-large). Extra-small and small-sized frames roll on 27.5-inch wheels, while larger sizes run on 29-inch. Canyon says the Neuron is not designed to use mixed-wheel sizes. Going against the growing mountain bike geometry trend, Canyon does not size adjust seat tube angle. And chain stay length changes are limited to wheel size-specific changes.
Three Models for the USA, More Globally
Together Canyon makes 11 models of the new Neuron. However, the USA gets just three, and because bikes for the States come through a different supply chain—they’re not assembled in Canyon’s Koblenz factory—riders here won’t be able to buy them until June.
The three models for the USA are Neuron CF 9 SL ($5,500), Neuron 6 ($2,600), and Neuron 5 ($2,100). The latter two use an aluminum frame.
The CF 9 SL seems like an absurdly good deal. It’s built with Fox Factory suspension, DT-Swiss XMC 1501 wheels with carbon rims (30mm internal width), SRAM GX Eagle AXS drivetrain, SRAM X1 carbon crank, SRAM Code RSC brakes, and a Race Face NEXT 35 carbon bar mated to a Race Face Turbine R stem. For example, a roughly comparable Trek Top Fuel sells for $7,650: $2,150 more than the Neuron CF 9 SL.
A gear editor for his entire career, Matt’s journey to becoming a leading cycling tech journalist started in 1995, and he’s been at it ever since; likely riding more cycling equipment than anyone on the planet along the way. Previous to his time with Bicycling, Matt worked in bike shops as a service manager, mechanic, and sales person. Based in Durango, Colorado, he enjoys riding and testing any and all kinds of bikes, so you’re just as likely to see him on a road bike dressed in Lycra at a Tuesday night worlds ride as you are to find him dressed in a full face helmet and pads riding a bike park on an enduro bike. He doesn’t race often, but he’s game for anything; having entered road races, criteriums, trials competitions, dual slalom, downhill races, enduros, stage races, short track, time trials, and gran fondos. Next up on his to-do list: a multi day bikepacking trip, and an e-bike race.
