During my first week working at a cycling magazine, my spellcheck autocorrected the name of the Canyon Endurace to Endurance. Sadly, this misplaced correction made it all the way to the headline of a print feature commissioned to introduce the first version of this bike back in 2014. So, yeah, it’s ‘Endu-race’, not ‘Endurance’.
Obviously, the bike’s name is a portmanteau of ‘endurance’ and ‘race’. Signifying its combination of racing bike features with a rider-friendly endurance-focused disposition, this is a fact now seared into my brain forever.
Like my copyediting skills, the Endurace has improved incrementally over the intervening years. Still aiming to take the best traits from Canyon’s Ultimate racing bikes and blend them into a form more palatable to the average endurance rider, it’s always benefited from being good value. Selling its bikes direct to consumers means Canyon bikes are consistently well built for the money. So much so I know at least one Endurace owner who broke a shifter and worked out it was cheaper to buy a complete bike and sell the rest of the bits on eBay than get the spare from their local shop.
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More stack, less reach
However, besides being very cheap, the Endurace has also proved popular thanks to being very easy to get on with. Although it can’t claim to have invented the genre, the Endurace certainly helped popularise a more forgiving approach to road bike geometry. Just a touch shorter and higher than an out-and-out racing bike, the Endurace has always remained sleek enough to slip in among more race-focused machines without looking like a touring bike.
Canyon calls this its Sport Geometry concept. Simply put, this tips the balance so there’s less weight on your arms and more on your bum. Meaning you won’t need incredible flexibility and core strength to keep a hold of the bars; simultaneously, the bike’s handling is kept sharp because wanting comfort doesn’t always indicate you also want sedate steering.
Cheap, cushy, and good looking, the Endurace is precisely the sort of bike most people need. Available in both aluminium and carbon fibre formats, its more affordable versions also make a great introduction to road riding.
Updated traits
Long since having acquired disc brakes, this latest update also sees the Endurace take on-board current market trends in the form of clearance for 35mm tyres and mounts for a top-tube stash box. The carbon fork found across the entire range has also been updated. With distinctly slender looking legs, its steerer now switches to the broader 1¼” diameter used on Canyon’s other road bikes.
Promising enhanced stability under heavy braking, plus improved steering precision, it’s joined by a press-fit BB86 bottom bracket. Also aiming to give a stiffer performance, this time to withstand pedalling inputs, it has also been pinched from the firm’s racing models. Carrying over from previous years, comfort boosting features like the integrated seat clamp, dropped and truncated stays, and 27.2mm post remain.
Now more all-road capable, this year, the Endurace also comes in a beefed-up format. Called the Endurace CF 7 All-Road, this single model differs predominantly by arriving with chunkier 35c Schwalbe G-One Speed tyres rather than the 30 or 32c road tyres found elsewhere. Also new this year, Canyon is amalgamating its men’s and women’s ranges. However, with the Endurace coming in eight sizes, from 3XS to 2XL, everyone from the very small to the very large should still find a suitable size.
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Key models
Endurace CF 7 eTap, £2,999
A carbon bike with a wireless 12-speed Sram Rival groupset for a quid less than £3,000. With no corners cut elsewhere, you get a Fizik Argo saddle and a reliable DT Swiss Endurance LN wheelset. Weighing a claimed 8.6kg, given the wide 30c Continental GP5000 tyres and disc brakes, this is a fair chunk less than you could reasonably expect given the cost.
Endurace 6, £1,399
Forgoing a carbon frame adds less than a kilo and saves you £600 compared to Canyon’s CF 7. A pretty good deal, this aluminium model makes the most of Shimano's much improved Tiagra groupset by employing a broad 11-34 cassette and pro-compact chainset for a wide range of gears. Supported by hydraulic disc brakes and Fulcrum Racing wheels, it’s characteristically good value.
