Bike
MTB
Get the lowdown on Mark Wallace’s Canyon Sender
The German company’s race-ready downhill MTB gets a thorough going over in our bike check.
3 min
Canyon Sender CF Bike Check
Nigel Reeve talks us through some of the detail on Mark Wallace's Canyon Sender CF MTB.
German brand Canyon's flagship gravity bike, the Sender, was unleashed on the market in 2016 and the 2017 season finally sees the bike take to the World Cup downhill stage. Piloted by the all-new Canyon Factory Downhill Team riders Troy Brosnan, Mark Wallace and Ruaridh Cunningham, the Sender is set to make its mark on downhill racing.
Watch Canyon's head mechanic Nigel Reeve talk through some of the detail on the Sender in the video above and read below for the story of the bike and about the process of getting the world's fastest racers up to speed on it.
Mark Wallace’s Canyon Sender uses carbon and alloy
© Bartek Woliński
Several years in development under the guidance of two-time downhill world champ Fabien Barel, the Sender's long, low chassis blends a carbon front end with aluminium rear. Its adjustable geometry allows for the wheelbase and head angle to be set to rider preference.
While the team uses a reasonably stock frame and components, there are of course some differences to an out-of-the-box Sender, namely the coil shock that adorns a bike designed around and sold with an air shock.
Rear view of the Sender
© Bartek Woliński
Canyon head mechanic Nigel Reeve explains, "Fabien Barel worked really hard with Canyon's R&D department to develop the Sender, and starting with such a good platform was a big draw for many of the people now on the team to come onboard.
"One of the big differences with the team bike compared to the stock build we started with is the coil rear shock. When we started testing as a team we tried absolutely everything – in the process narrowing down what we liked and didn't like. We ended up with a coil shock, but not with a stock linkage – it's a custom link that Canyon made for us."
Rockshox Vivid coil shock
© Bartek Woliński
Temperature indicator to show hot the shock gets
© Bartek Woliński
RockShox BoXXer forks
© Bartek Woliński
"With an air shock, for the average person who buys a bike, if they want to make it a bit harder they simply pump a bit of air in, which is really practical as a consumer. We found we could get a bit more sensitivity and grip with a coil shock, but it required a lot of work with the link and tuning of the shock to get exactly what our guys wanted.
"The thing for a team rider is that, when we go to a new track, if they want something slightly different from the coil shock – a different spring rate or tune – we can provide that. The demands of racing at this level are pretty far removed from the average person who wants to buy a bike and just smash downhill runs."
Custom-made linkage to support riders’ needs
© Bartek Woliński
There have been several generations of linkage
© Bartek Woliński
"Canyon have been really reactive and really supportive through our testing. It took around five or six weeks for each generation of linkage to come through. Mark's on the second-generation linkage, which is the silver one, and Troy is running the first generation, which is black. They have different amounts of ramp up and different support in the mid-stroke."
SRAM X0 Drivetrain
© Bartek Woliński
The bike runs in the longest chainstay setting
© Bartek Woliński
Crank Brothers’ latest DH pedals for Wallace
© Bartek Woliński
"Troy probably has the most distinctive riding style. You see him hop around a lot and ride really light, and for him to do that on this bike he really needs a lot of support in the mid-stroke of the shock to have something to push off and be able to hop. Mark smashes into stuff a bit more, and he needs something that's a little more progressive and has more resistance to bottom-out, so that's why he's on the silver linkage."
SRAM Code brakes with enormous 220mm rotors
© Bartek Woliński
Mavic Deemax wheels
© Bartek Woliński
Classic Mavic yellow hubs
© Bartek Woliński
Tubeless-ready Maxxis tyres adorn the wheels
© Bartek Woliński
"How often do we have test sessions? Well you have to remember that racers don't really enjoy testing. Testing is about doing 10 laps per day at 95 percent, and someone who's good at that is probably not going to be very good at racing. So we try to minimise the amount of testing so as not to waste people's time; we try to be very efficient with test sessions. To get to where we are now, we've probably done six full weeks of testing with these guys."
Renthal bar and stem
© Bartek Woliński
BlackBox SRAM gear shifter
© Bartek Woliński
Ergon saddle, developed with the help of Fabian
© Bartek Woliński
Ergon grips
© Bartek Woliński
"29ers are obviously the next big thing. Realistically the effect of that change is not much different to the move from 26" to 27.5" wheels. Everyone knows a bigger wheel rolls faster, and everyone knows that when you put bigger wheels on a bike you have a whole lot of other problems that you need to deal with, be it frame flex or more unsprung weight.
"It's one of those things where as soon as one team does it, everyone has to follow suit to keep up. So I'm pretty sure this time next year the majority of the field will be on bigger wheels."
For more bike checks from the 2017 World Cup season, click on any of the links below:
