Review: 2022 Canyon Torque CF8

Frame Details

Canyon designed the new Torque to be ridden hard, so they made sure the frame met the same Grade 5 classification as the Sender downhill bike. Like the Sender, it's dual crown fork compatible, a fact that Thomas Genon illustrated at Red Bull Rampage.

Even with the Grade 5 designation, the frame weight is still reasonable at a claimed 2,652 grams. My test bike weighed in at 34.9 pounds (15.8 kg). That may not seem all that light, but that's with a DoubleDown casing rear tire, and a whole bunch of aluminum parts, including the cranks, handlebar, and rims. It'd be easy to knock a couple of pounds off if someone wanted to spend the money for lighter carbon parts. Personally, I'd be more inclined to save my cash and spend it on lift tickets, but that's just me.

There's also room for a water bottle inside the front triangle, eliminating the need to worry about getting dehydrated during those dusty days in the bike park. Canyon's own water bottle is a little wider than the norm, which allows it to hold 600mL of fluid.

On the carbon frame, there's only a solitary bolt hole on the underside of the top tube that can be used to attach Canyon's own accessory bag. The aluminum frame has two holes, which makes it easier to find a tube or tool holding mount that'll bolt right on – I'm not sure why the carbon frame got the short end of the stick here.

One nice touch that Canyon has implemented in recent years is the use of replaceable threaded inserts to help keep the frame safe from mechanical mishaps. Other details include fully guided internal routing, a threaded bottom bracket, and SRAM's universal derailleur hanger.

Geometry & Sizing

The Torque ships in the low geometry setting, which gives it a 63.5-degree head angle and 77.5-degree seat tube angle. In the high setting, those change to 64-degrees and 78-degrees respectively, with an 8mm increase in the bottom bracket height.

Reach numbers are on the longer side of things, with the size large I tested coming in at 490mm. The seat tube lengths are fairly short across all sizes, and the bikes come with dropper posts where the amount of drop can be easily adjusted, which means riders should be able to go down a size if they'd like without running into any issues.

On the mixed-wheel CF8 the chainstays measure 435mm across all sizes. The Sender DH bike has adjustable chainstays, but that feature didn't trickle down to the Torque.

Suspension Design

The Torque still uses a Horst-link suspension layout (Canyon calls it 'Triple Phase Suspension'), but changes have been made compared to the previous version. The initial leverage ratio has decreased slightly, and the amount of progression has been increased in order to allow the bike to work with both coil and air shocks. The amount of anti-squat has also increased at the sag point in order to improve the pedaling performance, and then it drops off fairly quickly as the bike goes deeper into its travel.

Testing took place in Bellingham, Washington, and on Vancouver's North Shore, with conditions ranging from extra-muddy and wet to unseasonably warm with perfect dirt.

Climbing


Canyon's not kidding with the Torque's 'Low' geometry setting – I measured a bottom bracket height of 335mm, which is positively ground-scraping for a bike with 175mm of travel. I found myself smacking my pedals more often than usual, and that's on climbing trails that don't really have that many obstacles. Switching to the higher geometry setting raises the bottom bracket height by 8mm, and that made a noticeable difference. Yes, it also steepens the head angle by .5-degrees, but for rides with a lot of pedaling that's a tradeoff I'm willing to accept.

The Torque's geometry numbers may look intimidating on paper, but while this isn't going to be the bike to choose for rolling terrain or areas with really tight, technical climbs, it's actually a pretty mild-mannered climber. Long, steep fireroad grinds were as comfortable as they could be aboard a 35-pound machine – the seated climbing position is nice and upright, and I didn't have any trouble settling for the spin to the top. Getting around sharp uphill turns does require advanced planning in order to make sure there's enough room to swing the front end around. The steep seat angle makes does make it possible to remain seated for many of those maneuvers – it's a matter of sliding forward or backwards on the saddle to maintain traction, rather than standing up and performing a more drastic weight shift.

The compression lever on the DHX2 is easy to reach, and I'd flip that switch for longer sections of dirt roads. It's not a full lockout, so the shock is still able to track the ground and take the edge of chunkier sections. Even in the fully-open position the Torque doesn't bob all that much. It's not nearly as snappy as the Propain Sprindrift, a bike I'd put at the top of my list when it comes to pedaling efficiency in this category, but the suspension is noticeably calmer than the previous version during out of the sadddle pedaling efforts.

Descending

It only took a few laps on the Torque to realize how much fun this green machine would be in a bike park setting, somewhere with plenty of high speed trails and big jumps. Ratchet up the miles-per-hour and put a big lip in front of it and the Torque is right at home; it ended up being a much more entertaining ride than I'd expected. It's also very quiet, free of any distracting chainslap or cable rattling noises.

The mixed-wheel setup makes a lot of sense for a bike like the Torque. Canyon does offer a dual 29” wheel option, and there's a 27.5” version too, but during all my time on this mulleted machine I never found myself wishing for something different. For me, it handily ticks the 'freeride' box, a bike that's happiest on extra-gnarly terrain or boosting jumps, rather than trying to find the fastest line possible between the tape. Now, there's no reason you couldn't do some enduro races with the Torque, but it is a lot of bike, and probably overkill for some race courses.

There's a very smooth ramp-up to the Torque's 175mm of travel, and I didn't encounter any harsh bottom outs. It does sit a little deeper in its travel in extended sections of rough terrain, part of the reason it feels more like a freeride bike rather than a race machine – the scales are tipped a little more towards the plush side of things, rather than being super supportive.


Not surprisingly, its weight and length are more noticeable at slower speeds and on flatter bits of trail – on more than one occasion I found myself manualing rather than bunnyhopping through a section, simply because I was feeling a little lazy and wanted to save to some energy. There's also the fact that the chainstay length remains the same on all sizes - it'd be great to see an adjustable chainstay length feature, or chainstay lengths that change with each size. I spent a lot of time on a Commencal Meta TR last year, which happens to have the same reach number and chainstay length as the Torque; that may be why it didn't take long for me to get up to speed. If I had to pick, I'd prefer a slightly shorter reach and longer chainstays, but riders that prefer blowing up berms and letting the back end break free at every opportunity may disagree.

In keeping with the freeride theme I made a trip up to Vancouver's North Shore to see how it handled some old-school rock rolls and chunky, technical trails. The overall length was noticeable on some of the slower speed sections, but this is another instance where I'd say the 27.5” rear wheel and shorter chainstays ended up being a benefit by making it easy to weight the front of the bike, and then pivot the back end to get around a steep, weird turn, or reposition the bike to line up for another section of rocks and roots.

How Does It Compare?

When it comes to pricing, Canyon have put together a very attractive proposition. You'll need to shell out at least $1,500 more to get a similarly spec'd bike from a non-consumer direct brand.

How does it compare to the Norco Range, last year's Mountain Bike of the Year? When it comes to geometry, both bikes are plenty slack – the Range's head angle is 63.25-degrees, and the Torque is 63.5-degrees. I'd be willing to be 99% of riders wouldn't be able to detect a .25-degree difference, so they're essentially identical in that regard. Norco does a better job of altering their geometry, including the chainstay length, so I'm going to give them the point when it comes to the overall fit.

However, there's no mullet version of the Range, or an aluminum-framed option for that matter (Norco does make the Shore, but it's not exactly the same). It's also not designed to be run with an air shock, all things that Canyon offers.

The large Range has a reach of 480mm and a chainstay length of 442.5mm, numbers that worked extremely well for me. The Canyon has a less balanced feel, which can be a lot of fun, but it does take a little extra work to remain centered and in the sweet spot.

Neither bike is going to rocket up the climbs, but I prefer the Canyon over the Range due to its slightly lighter weight and quieter pedaling. On the descents, the tables turn a little. If I wanted to go as fast as possible through the roughest terrain around, I'd pick the Range. The Torque can hold its own, it just doesn't erase chunky sections of trail in the same way the Range does. Now, if I wanted a bike to slash berms and get sideways off jumps with, I'd go with the Canyon. The Range has a more stuck-to-the-ground feel, while the Canyon is a little easier to get airborne.

Technical Report

Tires: The Torque comes with my preferred setup for riding here in the Pacific Northwest - a Maxxis Assegai up front with an EXO+ casing and MaxxGrip rubber, and a DoubleDown casing DHRII with MaxxTerra rubber out back. Some riders may want to swap out the front tire for something with an even thicker casing, but for me this setup worked perfectly, and I didn't suffer any punctures.

G5 dropper post: It's great to see a 200mm post come as the stock option, and if that's too much drop it's easily adjusted without any tools. However, the post did have a rattle out of the box when it was fully extended - the inner cartridge was knocking against the outer tube and making a super annoying racket. Luckily the fix isn't too complicated - it requires removing the cartridge, wrapping a loop of electrical tape around it, and putting it all back together. After that was done everything was quiet and trouble-free.

Contact points After a few rides I ended up swapping the grips and seat out for more comfortable options – the G5 grips aren't particularly soft, and the seat's totally flat profile didn't work well for me. It's a matter of personal preference, and I'm sure some riders swear by them, but I've never got along that well with Fizik's saddles.

Shimano XT brakes I've griped about Shimano's wandering bite point issues plenty of times in the past, but I'm not going to do that this time around. This set of brakes worked perfectly out of the box, with plenty of stopping power and good consistency even during sustained sections of heavy braking.

Pinkbike's Take

---

---