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Canyon Lux Trail adds travel without losing race pedigree

Race light, trail ready and available in an Emily Batty edition colourway

Canyon Lux Trail Emily Batty Photo by: Canyon

What do you get when you take a World Cup winning frame and take it out into the real world? Probably something like the Lux Trail.

Canyon’s newest bike is close enough in intention to its highly decorated dual suspension cross country race bike that the German brand didn’t even change the name. Instead, it tweaks that design just enough that you get trail fun without losing the speed that makes the original Lux so thrilling to ride. And, as a bonus for Canadians, it comes in an Emily Batty Edition model.

Canyon Lux Trail Emily Batty

Race pedigree, trail fun

The Lux Trail fits in with new breed of short-travel trail bikes cover a wide range of riding styles. They can be anything from mini-bruisers to longer-legged race bikes. With its World Cup-worthy frame and 110/120mm travel, the Lux Trail definitely falls into the latter. It will out-climb many pure race bikes but aims to add just enough descending capability to really enjoy the ride back down.

So if that’s the basic idea of the Lux Trail, a race-bred bike with a healthy injection of fun-factor, what’s different than the Lux?

Canyon makes a few small – but important tweaks from the Lux to make the Lux Trail stand apart. Canyon keeps the same triple-phase suspension and flex pivots in the rear end, but travel is upped from a balanced 100-mm front and rear to 120 mm up front and 110 mm out back. That’s enough to smooth out rougher trails without muting the climbing prowess and acceleration of the original. Canyon also extends the reach on the Lux Trail, by about 20-mm per frame size, and slackens the head angle 2.5 degrees to 67.5. Like the Lux CF, the Lux Trail is only available with fast-rolling 29″ wheels.

Canyon Lux Trail CF7
Flex pivots keep the Lux Trail’s frame incredibly light

All that adds just a scant 30 grams to the Lux Trail’s carbon fibre frame, compared to the 100-mm Lux. That makes the 1,905 gram (size Medium) frame one of the lightest “trail” bike frames out there.

To suit the Lux Trail’s more wide-ranging purpose, Canyon adds a tougher, but still weight-conscious build. Fox 34 StepCast or RochShox SID 35 forks add support for the longer travel numbers without bulking up the bike much. The Lux’s one-piece bar-stem combo is replaced by a 760-mm wide bar and short, for Canyon, 60-mm stem. There’s a longer, compared to the Lux, 125-mm dropper post and wide (30-mm internal) rims for meatier tires. The shock still has a remote lockout, and the frame still has a 2.4″ max tire clearance, though, so it’s still very speed-focused.

Canyon Lux Trail Emily Batty
Emily Batty

Why the Lux Trail?

Canyon already has a short travel trail bike, the 130-mm travel Neuron. So why create the Lux Trail? Who is this bike for?

In short, anyone who likes to go fast. The Lux Trail blurs the line between cross country race bike and trail machine. In fact, it’s still easily light enough – 10.9 kg for the Batty-edition CF9 – that it would be an ideal marathon or cross country stage race bike. It’s also capable enough to hunt KOMs on the climbs and still push the paces – and hit jumps – on the way back down.

If you love the responsiveness and raw speed of a cross country race bike but are looking for something a bit more capable between race days, a bit more well-rounded for more technical trails, the Lux Trail is looking in your direction. With its super-light frame, Canyon puts the XC back in “downcountry.”

Canyon Lux Trail: Pricing and availability

There are four models of Lux Trail available now directly through Canyon. They range from the CF6 to the CF9 Emily Batty Edition. All four come in sizes S, M, L, and XL.

At one end, the Lux Trail CF 6, for $4,450.00 with Shimano SLX drivetrain, Fox 34 StepCast Performance fork and DT Swiss X1900 29″ wheels.

At the other end of the spectrum, the CF9 Emily Batty Edition retails for $7,600.00 with full Shimano XTR, Fox Factory 34 Step Cast fork, Fox Float DPS Factory remote shock, Transfer Factory SL dropper post, and World-Cup worthy DT Swiss XRC 1200 carbon fibre wheels.

Between those two the Lux Trail CF 8 offers a SRAM GX Eagle AXS wireless drivetrain, RockShox SID 35 Select+ fork, DT Swiss XRC 1501 carbon fibre wheels and RockShox Deluxe Ultimate remote shock, for $7,000.00. The CF7 shifts back to Shimano for full XT drivetrain and brakes, Fox 34 SC Performance fork, DPS Performance Elite shock w/remote, DT Swiss XRC 1700 wheels and Fox Transfer SL PFE dropper post for $5,700.00.