“Hey, what about the gravel, is it enough for one round?” More and more people are asking me that. And the answer is clear, if you like off-road riding, it’s not enough.
I bought 3 new full suspension bikes in the last 3 years. But somehow it still wasn’t what I was looking for. The downhills were good on all the bikes, but the uphills, whether on or off-road, were dull drudgery. This year it finally worked out and I chose a bike that suits me perfectly in all aspects. Trail bike on 29″ wheels with a carbon frame with 140/130mm travel – Canyon Neuron CF 8.
It’s a bike with geometry more for XC than enduro, which is exactly what I was looking for. I chose Shimano SLX. I rode XT on my previous bike and the only thing that made me a little nervous when I bought it were the brakes. After all, 4-piston XTs behave in an exemplary manner, but since I weigh 70 kg, I went for CF 8. The real experience is very good, I haven’t reached the limits of the SLX brake yet. The SLX kit seems to me to be an ideal compromise, everything works as it should, but if a technical problem appears, the SLX will not ruin you financially. Last year I pull of XT derailleur in Austria – a new derailleur plus assembly for about 4,300 CZK. Even though I’ve had a Neuron since the summer, I also managed to snag a derailleur – in this case it cost 1,850 CZK. And I didn’t drive any hell with the Neuron, just a thin stick that got wrapped around the rear wheel and I finished the ride. The solution would be the XTR derailleur, which has a metal structure, but that is already somewhere else financially.
I currently have about 800 km on the Neuron, mostly off-road. The bike has factory-balanced components, so there was no need to change anything. But in the end I did one upgrade after all. I purchased Race Face Next 35 carbon handlebars with 20mm of travel.
