Canyon Launches All-new Torque AL 8

Thursday 28 May - For 20 years the Canyon Torque has pushed the boundaries and redefined what a gravity bike can be. Today, Canyon is rolling out its most capable freeride/park bike to date, the all-new Torque. Smartly designed, built to take a beating, and surprisingly versatile, the new Torque AL raises the bar on gravity riding without raising the price.

Is the new Torque AL an enduro bike? A freeride bike? A downhill bike?  Yes. Yes. And yes. In a world of hyper-segmented mountain bikes, the Torque is the rare long-travel bruiser that excels at any and every kind of gravity riding.  

Each Torque now boasts 180mm of front and rear suspension and rolls strictly on a mullet wheel set-up. Each of the four new Torque models dishes out gnar-devouring suspension and supremely confident control in a deceptively simple and extraordinarily tough (Category 5) aluminum package. This bike is living proof that top-shelf performance doesn’t always require carbon frames, idler pulleys, Gucci-grade electronic drivetrains, or price tags that make your eyes bleed.

• More suspension travel: The Torque AL gets a slight bump in travel to help you sail away unscathed from even the most ill-conceived adventures. The Torque AL now rocks 180mm of suspension travel, front and rear. The only exception to that rule is our Torque AL DH model, which sports a 190mm-travel RockShox Boxxer dual-crown fork, available later this year.  

• Improved adjustability: Not all riders are the same nor want the same exact ride quality. We equipped the new Torque with modular T-type rear axle dropouts that let you choose between a short and playful rear center or a longer set up for more stability at speed. There’s also a flip-chip integrated within the seatstay that allows for quick and easy geometry adjustment. 

• Single crown and dual-crown compatible: The majority of our new Torque AL models are equipped with 180mm-travel, single crown forks, but we designed the frame to also accept dual-crown forks (set to no more than 190mm of travel).

• Better climbing performance: The Torque AL is a gravity rig, but it still needs to be a decent enough climber that riders don’t feel like they are being punished for choosing to pedal uphill. We built in more anti-squat than on earlier Torque models; this keeps things lively in the early part of the travel and offers more support for pedaling and pushing into terrain, but not so much that it gets in the way of swallowing impacts. 

• Hassle-free cable routing: The new Torque AL features thru-frame cable routing that makes routine maintenance quick and painless. Ride more. Curse the gods-of-onerous-cable-routing less. 

• Plenty of protection: Gravity bikes are pummeled as a matter of course—tossed down mountainsides, intentionally ridden at Mach Chicken down the most poorly-conceived line possible, and manhandled onto truck tailgates and chairlifts the world over. It pays then, to add a bit of protection. Each new Torque AL frame therefore features an integrated shuttle pad, downtube protector, and both seat and chainstay protection.

Canyon is launching four new Torque AL models, ranging in price from the Torque AL 7 at 2,499€ and the Torque AL 8 at 2,999€ to the Torque AL 9 Factory 3,999€, available now exclusively at Canyon.com or via the Canyon app. And the excitement doesn’t stop there – the Torque AL DH drops later this year. Each bike sports the same tough-as-nails aluminum frame, equipped with stellar components. Gravity riding is brutal on bikes, so even our most affordable model arrives at the bike park, ready to rumble, with parts that’ll take a proper flogging.