2018 Canyon Aeroad SLX Di2 Disc - Fork Arrives (day 6)

[Gancherov]

Hey weenies! I've been a fan of bikes for a long time but I've never had a good excuse to have a road bike. As a kid I couldn't afford anything with road bars and nice bikes had a mysterious way of disappearing in my neighborhood. When I did have a chance to get a decent bike I went for a mountain bike and I rarely used it's capabilities beyond a few rough roads. I think I regretted that more than I wanted to admit. I even spent a few years working in a tiny bike shop in San Francisco - right by the baseball stadium. I got to play with and test drive a bunch of bikes, but never got around to making my own road bike. This was the late 90's and I remember thinking of road bikes being a level above 'regular bikes'.

When I started riding to work last year I decided to set a goal - and if I hit it I would either make my own bike or modify the daily driver.
This would keep me motivated through fatigue and weather - but I think we all know how much easier that is when you're a bit in love with your bike. As long as I keep commuting by bike I can spend some of my car budget on bikes! I needed a commuter that would let me adventure a little bit so this is what I ended up with.

This is the daily driver - a 2017 Giant Fastroad that I picked up second hand:


It's been a great commuter. I've fixed a few things and changed a bit to deal with minor issues.
I got rid of the horns, installed a Jones bar, and bolted on a Kmount with a light and a Garmin.
I stretched on some bigger tires and set them up tubeless.


Well, my goal has come and gone now and I have some savings built up.
One night I hit craigslist with nothing specific in mind - just looking for trouble.
It wasn't long until I stumbled upon this and something in me wouldn't let me walk away.
This is my new 2018 Canyon Aeroad SLX frame.


It came with this S27 seatpost...

...and this H31 intergrated handlebar and stem.

It's more bike than I was really planning on (or need), but I think it should be a fun project.
This frame is Di2 disc specific, so i'll get to figure out how electric groupsets work.
It's been over 10 years since my last build so I'm sure this will be a big learning experience.

The sharp ones in the audience will have noticed that it is missing a fork. That'll be my first challenge in this little journey.

I'm open to advice and criticism - please do let me know what you think. And if this thread belongs elsewhere, just let me know.

[Gancherov]

The first attempt at contacting Canyon was a nightmare.
The fellow on the phone didn't seem to know what was going on or if they even sell parts or spares in the USA market.
Kept telling me they don't do "aftermarket" sales.

If I can't get a fork for this frame, this project is going to be dead in the water.
Canyon does list a local bike shop as an authorized service center so I've dropped the frame off with them to see if maybe they can get the Canyon fork or something compatible.

[alistaird]

They do a crash replacement for the Fork - I'm sure they would sell you one at full price?

https://www.canyon.com/en-gb/service/crashreplacement/

A

[Gancherov]

They do a crash replacement for the Fork - I'm sure they would sell you one at full price?

https://www.canyon.com/en-gb/service/crashreplacement/

A

That's exactly what I expected when I called them, but I was told that isn't possible and I should have the original purchaser of the bike call the warranty department and get it through them.
Since I didn't buy the bike or frame from Canyon, they wouldn't talk to me.
I think it was only a fluke.

I dropped the bike off with my LBS which happens to be listed on the Canyon site as an approved repair/service location.
They called in to Canyon and were also told that the OWNER needs to call to make a purchase.
However, this time the Canyon service rep gave them part numbers and pricing!

When I called back with those part numbers, the new person on the phone was more than willing to place an order for me.
After the order was placed I asked if this was an abnormal request or if it was outside their normal policies - and the guy on the phone wasn't sure or wasn't willing to say.
I hope I don't find out that this really isn't OK and i'll never be able to get another Canyon part once they catch on and blacklist my account or something.

A proper Canyon fork is on it's way to me now (hopefully) and the project gets to move on.

Next up is taking stock of the frame, sourcing bearings and a headset, and choosing an electric groupset with hydro brakes.

[Mep]

Anything can be done if you try hard enough! Nice job on acquiring the fork.

[Gancherov]

OK, it's confession time. I'm not really much of a weight weenie. I'm 187cm tall and around 85kg, and I tend to ride with a 3-5kg load.
I'm also not racing against a clock or live competitors - I'm only trying to beat my past efforts and enjoy myself.
If this bike ended up being 10kg instead of 9 or 8... I probably wouldn't be able to tell.

That doesn't seem to embrace the spirit of this forum.
I decided to play along with you folks and exercise my compulsive side by weighing every little piece of this project.

Weighing the frame was a bit of a challenge since my kitchen scale only goes up to 500g.
I had to find something with a bigger capacity but I didn't want to sacrifice accuracy.
Unfortunately, the best I could find was this postal scale that'll meaure up to 6lb x 0.0005lb or 2.7kg in 0.23g increments.



This 2018 Canyon Aeroad CF SLX size XL frame only with no bearings, mounts, or grommets included measured 2.2560 imperial parakeets... or 1023g.
It's advertised as 980g at size M - that's close enough for me.

[xDOMx]

Within decent tolerances with the weight. For your intended use, probably no issue.

[Gancherov]

While I wait for the fork, lets take a closer look at some of the other bits.

First, the seatpost is the one that Canyon ships with the Aeroad SLX - the Canyon S27.
The little text says "Aero VCLS CF, Length 350mm, Setback 15/-1 mm, Category 1"
Weight - 203.9g (0.4495 lb)



Next, the integrated bar and stem.
I'm told this piece came from a Canyon Endurace - Canyon H31
"Ergocockpit CF, Width 440mm, Length 100mm, Reach 70mm, Drop 128mm, Category 1"
Weight - 325.2g (0.7170lb)



MEANWHILE
I've been having some issues figuring out exactly where the front deraillur wire comes out from the frame and how I'm supposed to route it.
I ran into someone with this very same frame on my commute and I flagged him down to take a look!
Unfortunately, his was built up with a SRAM wireless groupset so it was very little help.
However, after this encounter I started looking more and more closely at the mounting bracket and found a little notch in the middle of it.
Once I took this mount off the bike I realized that the wire must come out through this little hole in the bracket and tuck immediately into the deraillleur.


And while I'm waiting for the fork to arrive, I went ahead and sourced some new headset bearings.
Started by measuring the bearings I received with the frame and found that they were not exactly standard sizes.


The sizes make a little more sense in metric - 33mm and 34mm internal diameters for top and bottom, with a matching 43mm OD.
A little research led me to ACROS bearings who manufcature these for Canyon.
So, new bearings are on the way.
Progress is brewing.

[Gancherov]

Well, the fork arrived... without an axle.
Found out the hard way that the through axles on this bike are NOT standard size and thread pitch.

I ordered some DT Swiss axles in the necessary length and it turns out that the commercially available DT axles have a thread pitch of 1.5 while the ones specced out for this frameset are custom made for Canyon with a 1.0 pitch.

When I called Canyon and told them this story, they were very appologetic and sent me a free front axle.
So, +1 point for good customer service, but -1 point for not telling me I had to order it separately from the fork!

[1llum4]

For thru-axle there is 3 thread pitch standard that are used by most bike company 1.0mm/1.5mm/1.75mm. The only exception that I know is the mavic speedrelease system that use a specific double lead thread.

[Gancherov]

The fork arrived and stopped for a quick prayer at the shrine of mass.

This Canyon F041-RD disk fork weighs in at 405.7g (0.8945lb).




and the front axle without the head on it weighs in at 28.80g (.0635lb)



So now the basics are ready to go.