2024 Canyon Lux Trail
Wheel Size: 29’’
Travel: 115 mm rear / 120 mm front
Geometry Highlights:
- Sizes offered: XS, S, M, L, XL
- Headtube angle: 67°
- Seat tube angle: 76°
- Reach: 460 mm (size Medium)
- Chainstay length: 435 mm
Frame Material: Carbon fiber
Price: TBD
Intro
Canyon updated their Lux XC race bike earlier this year (and renamed it the “Lux World Cup” in the process), and now it’s the turn of that bike’s bigger sibling, the Lux Trail. While the new Lux Trail has more suspension travel and longer, slacker geometry than either the Lux World Cup or the prior-generation Lux Trail, it’s still a very light, fairly XC-oriented bike.
Canyon says that the Lux Trail is for folks who want a more compliant and comfortable XC-race bike, especially for more endurance-oriented races, or for riders who want a super light and efficient everyday Trail bike for covering big miles. That’s all similar to the prior-generation Lux Trail, but Canyon has made some major updates to the bike, including geometry and suspension tweaks, a lot of in-frame storage, and more.
The Frame
The Lux Trail is offered with a carbon fiber frame only and gets 115 mm of rear-wheel travel from what Canyon describes as a linkage-driven single-pivot layout with a flex stay arrangement. (Presumably, it’s not labeled a “Horst-Link w/ flex stays” because the flex stay action is primarily happening in the seatstays rather than the chainstays.) The shock is positioned underneath the top tube, leaving room for two water bottles inside the front triangle on all five frame sizes, and Canyon has added a bunch of additional in-frame storage as well. A multi-tool is nestled into a cradle underneath the top tube, and there’s now a storage hatch in the downtube as well. Unlike most implementations of that concept, the door for the downtube storage sits forward of the water bottle mount, but a long bag slides into the downtube to fill the space, and features a sewn-on loop to fish it back out. The underside of the hatch also features a dedicated spot for a CO2 cartridge.
Despite adding the storage features, the Lux Trail frame is still very light — Canyon claims about 2,540 g (5.6 lb) for a Medium frame including the shock, axle, seat clamp, integrated chain guide, and other hardware. The added downtube storage and other features have, unsurprisingly, added a couple hundred grams to the stated weight for the Lux Trail frame compared to the prior version, but it’s still fairly light.
[That stated weight is for the standard Lux Trail CF; a Lux Trail CFR frame, with a higher-end carbon fiber layup, is offered in some markets and saves a stated ~120 grams, but isn’t available in the US.]
The Lux Trail frame gets headset cable routing and uses a pretty wild-looking junction between the headtube and toptube to keep the stack height down, despite the added height of the cable collector at the headset. It’s less striking with the bike built up, but the big notch in the headtube is quite noticeable on the bare frame.
Fit & Geometry
Arguably the biggest change to the Lux Trail’s geometry is the addition of a new XS size, which offers a reach number down to 412 mm. But there are a bunch of other updates, too. The headtube angle has been slackened a touch to 67° (from 67.5°) and the seat tube has seen a bigger change, steepening to 76° from 74.5°. The reach for the other sizes (S, M, L, & XL) hasn’t changed much; the Medium, Large, and XL come in at the same 460 / 480 / 500 mm respectively, but the Small has shrunk by a whopping 2 mm to 438 mm. That said, the steeper seat tube on the new bike means that the effective top tube has shrunk by about 20 mm in a given size. The bottom bracket drop (38 mm) and chainstay length (435 mm) are unchanged, but the seat tubes have gotten much shorter on the new bike, dropping by as much as 65 mm on the XL.
The Builds
In the US, Canyon is offering four builds for the Lux Trail, all of which are based around the standard CF frame, rather than the lighter / higher-end CFR version. The build details (including availability of the Lux Trail CFR and Lux Trail CFR LTD) vary by region; check the Canyon site for the options in your area.
All the Lux Trail builds get a three-position remote lockout that operates both the fork and shock, and as we’ve come to expect from Canyon, are pretty solid values for the money. We’re waiting on pricing for the entry-level Lux Trail CF6 but will update the post with that info when we hear back.
- Drivetrain: Shimano Deore 12 speed
- Brakes: Shimano Deore 2-piston
- Fork: Fox 34 SC Performance
- Shock: Fox Float SL Performance Elite 3-Pos Remote
- Wheels: DT Swiss LN AM
- Dropper Post: Fox Transfer SL Performance Elite (XS: 100 mm; S: 125 mm; M–XL: 150 mm)
- Drivetrain: Shimano SLX
- Brakes: Shimano SLX 2-piston
- Fork: Fox 34 SC Performance
- Shock: Fox Float SL Performance Elite 3-Pos Remote
- Wheels: DT Swiss X1900
- Dropper Post: Fox Transfer SL Performance Elite (XS: 100 mm; S: 125 mm; M–XL: 150 mm)
- Drivetrain: Shimano XT
- Brakes: Shimano XT 2-piston
- Fork: Fox 34 SC Performance Elite
- Shock: Fox Float SL Performance Elite 3-Pos Remote
- Wheels: DT Swiss XRC1700
- Dropper Post: Fox Transfer SL Performance Elite (XS: 100 mm; S: 125 mm; M–XL: 150 mm)
- Drivetrain: SRAM GX T-Type
- Brakes: Shimano SRAM Level Silver Stealth
- Fork: RockShox SID Select+
- Shock: RockShox SIDLuxe Select+
- Wheels: DT Swiss XRC1501
- Dropper Post: RockShox Reverb AXS (XS: 100 mm; S: 125 mm; M–XL: 150 mm)
Some Questions / Things We’re Curious About
(1) The Lux Trail looks like it blurs the line between true XC race bikes and a lot of shorter-travel Trail ones, but does that turn out to be the case, and who is it going to work best for?
(2) And how does the Lux Trail stack up against a bunch of the other options in that class, including the Revel Ranger, Specialized Epic Evo, Transition Spur, and others?
Bottom Line (For Now)
The Canyon Lux Trail looks like a promising bike for folks who want something that’s quite XC-derived and efficient, but more comfortable and forgiving than the most hardcore XC-race bikes out there. We’re curious to see how it compares to a bunch of the other options in that category, so stay tuned for more if and when we’re able to get on one to find out.