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Review | 2013 Canyon Nerve 9.0
Unboxing
Our Canyon Nerve 9.0 arrived in a substantial cardboard box which Caynon call the Bike Guard. Certainly it seemed to protect the bike sufficiently well for delivery, although we're not sure we would want to trust one for transportation at an airport, should a biking holiday entice us to travel further afield.
The bike was well-packaged and set-up, with one (or should that be two) small omissions. More of this and on.
Tyres were sufficiently inflated, gears and brakes adjusted perfectly, with only the seatpost to insert (saddle already attached), pedals (not supplied) and handlebars to fit. Thereafter it was just the suspension to set-up and wheels to fix. And here lay the problem with the two small omissions.
The front wheel is fixed with a bolt through quick-release, providing an easy and stiff attachment method for the Mavic Crossride wheel. However, the rear is fitted with a standard 15mm quick-release and this requires (as we later discovered) an insert to be pushed in to the wheel, on either side, before the quick release skewer is located and the wheel fitted into the dropouts of the frame. The bike was not supplied with these - an obvious packaging error - which meant we couldn't finishing building up the bike and ride it. Whilst we could wait for Canyon UK to send these through (and we must stress that they were very prompt in doing so) it would be very frustrating if you had just purchased a bike and found this to be the case. Maybe a packaging checklist would be a good idea from the factory, Canyon.
Fit and Finish
We didn't have a choice on the size or finish of the bike being sent to us and we received a medium frame in storm grey.
The storm grey is a real marmite colour. Friends have said it looks like everything from battleship grey, to the obvious remark of "they've forgotten to paint it, after applying the primer". Certainly, it looks purposeful and with the orange branding, it’s not dissimilar to the look of the Marin's of the 1990's, with their matt grey paint and orange logos (that shows how long we've been riding mountain bikes!) Overall the paint scheme is subtle and of a quality finish. We remain on the fence somewhat regarding the colour, although it's definitely grown on us these past few weeks. As we later discovered, it looks better after going in to battle, caked in mud and grime!
Don't get us wrong, the bike looks smart and the frame has a real quality edge to it, with neat welds, an intelligent routing of cables (with a patented crossover internal system for the gears), fine detailing and with a good application of branding. We also liked that Canyon have thoughtfully included underside protection of the down tube with branded heli-tape, clear patches to protect the frame against cable rub and a neoprone chainguard to help prevent chain-slap and damage to the frame. If only all bike manufacturers thought about the end-product in the same way.
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