NEW BIKE DAY! Unboxing the $4,000 Canyon Torque CF 7.0 14

Product / Technical
Only $4,000 USD and shipped to your door. Jeff Brines receives his first-ever direct-to-consumer mountain bike in the form of a Canyon Torque. Is the build process as easy as everyone says? In fact, it may be easier. With the help of his dog, Tucker, Jeff gets rolling in just a few minutes.

The Canyon Torque gets 175mm of rear travel, 180mm up front and runs 27.5-inch wheels.

Stay tuned for his complete review on the Torque dropping this Friday.
Credit: Jeff Brines
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Product / Technical
14 comments

View replies to: NEW BIKE DAY! Unboxing the $4,000 Canyon Torque CF 7.0

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PandaG
6 years ago
My CF 8.0 didn't have pedals or a tubeless kit, maybe we get different spec stuff in the UK?

It was pretty easy to build up out of the box, if I hadn't Invisiframed it and changes some parts it would't have taken long, ten minutes sounds fair enough. The main components were factory assembled and there was a basic torque wrench in the box for the stem bolts etc. The front brake was poking out of the box though, I didn't notice until I tried to take the bike out of the box, it's a bit tatty.

On the downside, the main pivot bolt came loose on it's first proper day out and a cover that looks like a bolt on the top linkage fell off - replacements arrived under warranty this week, almost two months later. Otherwise the Reverb has had a new IFP, this week the cable guide/frame protector broke at the top and cracked in the middle from the presure of holding in the cables (Canyon are replacing as a "Goodwill Gesture") and the BB is going to have to be replaced, the non-drive side bearing is on the way out.

It's a great bike, but right now I wouldn't buy another direct buy bike. Almost as soon as I bought it, people came out of the woodwork to tell me how long they waited on warranty parts (6 months for a frame!) and then it turned out suspension service parts for my mates Strive are going to be ages.
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anotherbikerguy
6 years ago
I'm unconvinced. I've unboxed many bikes from many large manufacturers, and I've never found one that can be properly built up & adjusted in ten minutes. Derailleur hangers are rarely straight; cable tension usually needs to be dialed in; brakes often need alignment, piston resets, or even bleeds; rotors are often out of true; hubs are frequently tighter than ideal; headsets aren't adjusted well... etc. I've seen all of these on bikes from old-school dealer-sales manufacturers; I've seen the same problems on bikes from direct-to-consumer companies. Maybe Canyon has perfected their build procedures so that none of these are issues when the bike arrives. I'll believe it when I see it. For now I don't believe any company has found a foolproof way to ship a bike so that it arrives in a condition that meets the standards of an experienced mechanic.
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Aushred
6 years ago
From my experiance , and I’ve seen quite a few YTs and Canyons straight outa the boxes, these are WAY more dialed than any of the major manufacturers out of the box.
Yeah you’ll still need to shorten most the cables inc brakes to get to a great standard, but can get going with how they come outa the box way better than any of the big guys.
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jeff.brines
6 years ago
@anotherbikeguy

I think the bigger question is what would prevent you from expertly building a bike, putting some packing on, placing it in a box and shipping it? So long as its packed properly what would cause the adjustments to not hold? Is it not impossible to imagine some sort of dialed assembly line where this is done in volume, the way Henry Ford figured out a better way to build cars?

Though I appreciate your thoroughness, I just don't know how reasonable it is as companies figure out the assembly process with components that are manufactured to far tighter tolerances than those 20 years ago (where the build you are describing was far more necessary)

From my POV, bicycles are one of the only vehicles that require(d) this level of "building" at their destinations. I don't get a snowmobile and immediately tear the motor apart to make sure the bolts were all torqued to the right ft/lbs. I put the skis on, put the track on and go ride. Cars, dirt bikes, etc, they come ready to rally, not something we need to check and rechceck.

I'm sure 1/XXXX aren't built perfectly or something happens in shipping. That said, I am not blowing smoke when I say this bike was as easy to put together as anything I've ever seen, and even after well over 100K of descending nothing required work (but we'll get into that later). I pushed it super hard, and am as neurotic as they come. If something wasn't put together right, I'd have found it...and I didn't.

We POV'd the first lap after the build, expecting "I had to tighten this" or "I had to resetup that". It turned out to be the most boring POV ever so we scraped the whole idea of showing it!
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anotherbikerguy
6 years ago
I absolutely believe that, absent shipping errors, careless unboxing, etc., it's possible to ship a bike that needs no skilled adjustment. All I'm saying is I haven't seen it yet, and all the other experiences I've had with boxed bikes make me skeptical. The last time I assembled a YT, it was no better--and no worse, to be fair--than the bikes I've assembled from other companies. I'd love to unbox a Canyon myself for comparison.
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loganskis
6 years ago
@anotherbikeguy im curious what bike brands you are dealing with. There are so many bikes that come shipped from the factory as a frame, wheels, and a bin of parts. To me, this argument of so many bikes from big brands, being as ride ready as a yt or canyon is absurd. Are you talking about low end giant 9er hardtails that come mostly assembled, or high end shredders comporable to the torque. Yeti and devinci are prime examples of high end bikes that are absolutely no go to send to the general public for assembly. These come as a frame and a bin of parts to build. No, I don’t have a ton of experience with a wide array of brands. But, the nice trail rippers that I have personally worked with, and bikes sold by neighbor shops I chat with, more or less, come completely unassbled. Nice parts typically don’t take kindly to being shipped attached to bikes. So, for the big guys, who dont sell direct, most of them are going to have the shop do most of the general parts assembly since they’re making a profit on the sale of said bike. Especially since its cheaper and easier for the big guys to just throw a padded frame, and parts in a box at hit send.

I wonder if yt, canyon or commencal would cover shop fees if your bike wasnt tuned properly out of the box?

@jeff.brines any input here?

Does canyon garuntee a perfeclty functional bike out of the box? And what happens when, inebitably, a customer gets one that isn't?
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loganskis
6 years ago
@anotherbikerguy yeah dude. The big brands aren’t direct to consumer. They pack their bikes to be assembled at a bike shop by skilled mechanics with an arsenal of tools. Canyon, YT and the likes are sold and shipped direct to consumer, you literally only need to tighten a couple bolts and you are ready. Its like comparing apples to oranges at this point. Yeah, like jeff says below, its not foolproof but these bikes really take 10 minutes out of the box before you can ride them. They are assembled and tuned by a mechanic at the factory before they go in a box...
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jeff.brines
6 years ago
Just a fun random thought. Being Joe Barnes is racing a 9.0, I think Canyon should do a piece where a random person picks one of them off the pallet and sends him the bike to race (and "build") at the next EWS.

Nobody would probably believe it, but I'm not kidding he could race it right out of the box and not miss a beat. May have to spend some extra time setting up his wheels, tokens in his suspension/rear shock, but outside of that she is ready to rally with no fiddling with cables, chain, brakes, derailleur etc.

I've raced for a long time, not very good at it (very much a mid pack pro) but some of the advantage I've found always came from me being smarter about my setup, being savvy with my ability with a wrench.

I raced this bike at the highest level Nationally without even once turning a barrel adjuster, bleeding a brake, doing anything to the reverb, tightening the frame. Nothing except tightening the rear axle once, adding a token to the rear shock and swapping old, worn out tires with new cush core backed tires. It was rock solid, even between the tape, which is the place we most find stuff falls apart... (I'm also 200lbs)
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grinch
6 years ago
Yt and commencal have set up shop in Canada . Any idea if canyon plans to do something in Canada? Torque looks amazing