Coming To America? Canyon Concept Speedmax

European bike maker Canyon has a new time trial bike, and a triathlon-specific version might be coming to the States.

Canyon bicycles are currently only available in Europe and they are not coming to the United States in 2012. Although their road bikes are already well established—they currently sponsor a ProTour cycling team—the business side of Canyon Bikes isn’t yet ready for the American market. They are planning on making an announcement early in 2013, presumably about their decision whether or not to come to America. Like the back-end of Canyon’s business, their triathlon bikes are also not yet ready for North America. But they’re getting close. Canyon has redesigned their time trial bike with all the attributes needed to compete with top-shelf aero bikes, and a version with triathlon-specific geometry is soon to follow.

The Concept Speedmax, Canyon’s new time trial machine, was developed in the wind tunnel using a modular model of the bike constructed from rapid prototyped segments. The pieces can snap together to test many different attributes and features to see which ones actually create the least wind resistance. Cervelo used a similar process to develop the P4. It’s integrated aerobar attachment system can be set to three different lengths, 90mm, 105mm and 120mm but the basebar cannot be raised. Canyon offers two basebars, one with drop and one without. The current Concept Speedmax has a smoothly integrated aerobar attachment system, concealed brake calipers and unique tubeshapes, but geometry is its shortcoming. It is built for time trialists, not triathletes. Its seat tube angle is shallow and the front end can only position the aerobar at an extremely low slack height. Canyon knows this geometry style is not the recipe for an effective triathlon fit. They don’t yet have specifics, but Canyon engineers are working on two additional models of the Concept Speedmax with geometry specifically for triathletes.

If the announcement in 2013 confirms their plans to enter the US market, Canyon could do so on the back of those tri-specific versions of the Concept Speedmax. In the mean time, the TT version is ready and was on display last week at Eurobike. Details of the Speedmax 2 are in the following photo gallery.

Aaron Hersh is the senior tech editor for Triathlete.com. Follow him on Twitter @Triathletetech.