Review: Canyon Precede:ON CF 8

It’s 5:26 pm and all I want to do is ride my mountain bike on trails. But I also need to pick up my CSA farm share, mail a letter, and buy a few groceries. So instead of heading out on my mountain bike, I fire up the Precede:ON CF8, Canyon’s new carbon ebike, and ride a 7-mile-long loop down a steep, potholed asphalt parkway, on a busy city street, and home along a freshly paved scenic road. By the time I get home, I’ve got that ear-to-ear, ebike grin on my face. And that’s why I love these powerful toys: They turn mundane tasks into joy rides.

Already familiar with Canyon’s electric and analog mountain bikes, which deliver high quality at a fair price because of the company’s direct-to-consumer model, I was curious to ride the first urban ebike Canyon has offered in the US. (Since introducing the Precede:ON here a few months ago, the company has also added the Pathlite:ON SUV, an ebike that’s been popular in Europe.)

The Precede:ON arrived on a FedEx freight truck in a massive box about half the size of my Prius. After reading the directions, I was able to wrench it together in about 15 minutes. This mainly required attaching the front wheel, handlebars, and headset to the bike and adjusting the seat height. Then I stepped back to admire the ride. The Precede:ON is a sleek gun-metal gray and has handlebars that are integrated into the frame, which hides the cables and gives the whole cockpit a futuristic Blade Runner feel. With built-in rear and front Supernova lights, a tinkling Knog bell, and a rack over the back fender, it’s got everything a city commuter needs. Plus, the Bosch Kiox ride computer magnetically attaches to the handlebars and can be easily removed while running inside on a quick errand, which adds an extra layer of theft protection.

Photograph: Canyon

The bike’s e-componentry is high-end, with a 250-watt Bosch Performance Line Speed motor that provides pedal assistance at any speed up to 28 mph (I maxed out at 30). Any software updates to the motor can be installed wirelessly using a companion mobile app. The Bosch also offers a feature called Smart Walk Assist that kicks the motor in as soon as you start to push the bike from a walking position, causing the bike to effortlessly glide along next to you. A long-range Bosch Powertube 500-watt-hour battery is integrated into the downtube and can easily be charged on or off the bike. The brakes and shifting are Shimano Deore M6100 series and, to allow for rugged terrain, the Shimano Deore XT M8100 groupset is the same 12-speed setup Canyon uses on its mountain bikes. Aluminum fenders covering the front and rear wheels ensure protection from slop, and the rack on the back fender has a locking system that will secure Ortlieb bags.

All of this comes in a 46.4-pound package, which is not ultralight, but not ultraheavy either. The Precede:ON I tested is a step-over model, but it also comes in a step-through version and a less expensive version that forgoes the carbon frame for an aluminum one ($2,599). That also comes in both step-over and step-through configurations.

Photograph: Canyon

Visually, the Precede:ON is a classy commuter. But given the aerodynamic and compact-looking cockpit, from which narrow, arrow-straight handlebars seemed to grow, I wondered how the bike would ride. Turns out, it rides quite nicely. With an Enviolo Automatiq Sport Transmission, an internal transmission that alters its resistance to match your pedaling, the bike automatically changes gear, so I didn’t need to worry about mashing through gears on quick stops and starts in the city. And the Eco, Touring, Sport, and Turbo modes are well calibrated. (Some ebikes have Turbo modes that feel like rocket launchers, and while this Turbo felt less powerful on steep Duluth hills than other bikes I’ve tested, it got me up those hills with smooth, consistent pedaling.) Even in a city notorious for pothole-riddled streets, the bike felt equipped to handle the rough spots with its 57-mm Schwalbe G-One Allround tires, which are, as the name implies, designed to ride pavement, dirt, and even off-road terrain.

But still, this is an urban bike, meant to be mostly ridden on pavement. I wouldn’t feel comfortable taking it off-road, namely because the frame’s geometry seats you in an upright position, the cockpit feels too compact, and the bike has no suspension, which I felt on the roughest city roads. But I did ride the Precede:ON all over the city, all summer long—on cruddy streets, paved paths, steep uphills, and steep downhills. My farthest test was a 20-mile round trip ride on busy paved streets to watch a kid’s bike rodeo. I burned up a mere 20 percent of the battery, even while mostly riding in Turbo mode.

Photograph: Canyon

My biggest issue with the bike is that the Bosch Kiox computer screen is hard to see and navigate at high speeds when riding in busy streets at 20 mph. Yes, I have aging eyes, but on a few rides the computer kept asking me to reset my trip halfway through, and I had to pull over to safely figure out what button I had pushed to prompt the reset. Other small issues were an unmagnetized socket, which makes it hard to plug in the bike in an unlit space, and a heavy kickstand that was necessary to hold up the bike, but which gouged my ankles on more than one occasion when wheeling the bike out of the garage.

But there’s a more existential question I struggle over with Canyon bikes, especially as I see more of them out on my local trail (including the Canyon mountain bike I own). How do direct-to-consumer sales affect the local bike shops, which would otherwise be serving these eager ebike customers? To find out, I called Ski Hut, a three-generation, family-owned, bike-and-ski shop in Duluth, Minnesota, where I bought my first Specialized Rockhopper back in the 1980s.

“The number one thing for Ski Hut is that people are happy with the service they get,” the shop’s co-owner Dave Neustel told me. “We treat every customer who rolls their bike in here the same.” But, he added, there are certain aspects of direct-to-consumer bikes that make them more difficult to service, namely that Ski Hut, which is one of the largest bike shops in the Midwest, doesn’t always have Canyon-specific parts in stock like they would with bikes they sell.

Neustel also pointed out another major drawback that happens when consumers buy direct, namely that it cuts his budget for local community projects and funding. In Ski Hut’s case, that means funding for COGGS, the leading nonprofit mountain-bike advocacy organization in town; Duluth Devo, the citywide youth mountain biking nonprofit (full disclosure, my partner is its head coach); and the Bike Duluth Festival, an annual celebration of cycling held at the local ski area, Spirit Mountain. “We put volunteer hours and dollars into the community, which is why buying from a local bike shop is important,” says Neustel. “It’s hard, because Canyons are good bikes, but direct-to-consumer brands aren’t out there supporting the local clubs and organizations.”

A Canyon spokesperson countered that the company does donate to and support a number of national bike organizations, including the International Mountain Biking Association, the National Interscholastic Cycling Association, and People for Bikes. In Carlsbad, California, which hosts Canyon’s only US showroom, the company supports three local cycling clubs, along with the famous Belgian Waffle Ride, the San Diego Mountain Biking Association, and the local Cycling for All branch. In addition, through cycling ambassadors and athletes, the company sponsors a number of organizations throughout the country.

There’s no question that direct-to-consumer models are disrupting the long-entrenched supply chains of the bike industry, for better and for worse. There’s also no question that Canyon makes an excellent product that is often less expensive than what’s offered by its competitors. And in a globalized world, it’s often hard to define what buying local means anymore. But the fact remains that it’s still impossible to buy the new Precede:ON through your local shop. You have to wait for that FedEx driver to drop off the giant box, then get to work assembling your new ride.