Canyon's Ultimate CF SLX
Price $6,500; Weight 14.25 lb. (54cm); Sizes 50, 52, 54 (tested), 56, 58, 60, 62, 64cm; Frame Canyon F10 carbon; Fork Canyon One One Four SLX, 1?- to 1?-in. taper; Component highlights Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 group, cranks (53/39), cassette (11-25); Mavic Cosmic Carbone Ultimate wheels, Yksion Grip Link tubular tires; Ritchey WCS bar and stem; Info canyon.com; Buy it if You want a bike that no one else in your town has.
The Ultimate CF SLX is like a friend who's always urging you to take on something more audacious than you'd planned. It feels so fast, responsive, and confident that even an act as doomed as attacking on a 5-mile climb when you're 20 pounds overweight seems like a good idea.
Like any of the latest superbikes, it's very stiff. The drivetrain seems to erase the distance between your legs and the tire's contact patch, while the unified front end helps you connect with the road. As much as the parts do their individual jobs, the entire bike is also nicely tied together. This whole-frame stiffness, along with its low weight and standard race-bike geometry, come together to form a racer that's agile and responsive.
The Canyon is one of the best bikes but it's not perfect. The Dura-Ace Di2 wiring rattled in the driveside chainstay, marring the serenity of an otherwise silky ride. The tall head tube and unusual 1?-inch upper-steerer tube diameter might make it hard for you to find a stem that lets you dial your position. —Matt Phillips
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Trek Madone 6.9SSL
Price $11,686; Weight 14.9 lb. (54cm); Sizes 50, 52, 54 (tested), 56, 58, 60, 62cm; Frame 700 Series OCLV Carbon; Fork Bontrager Race XXX Lite carbon; Component highlights Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 group (53/39 crankset, 11-25 cassette); Bontrager Aeolus 5 D3 carbon wheelset, R4 tires, Team Issue saddle, carbon seatmast cap w/ 20mm offset, Race XXX Lite VR carbon bar and XXX Lite carbon stem; Cane Creek IS-8 headset (1-in. top, 1?-in. bottom); Info trekbikes.com; Buy It If You want a bike with a famous name and a ride to match.
It's as speedy and precise as ever—and, finally, equally as fun. I rank the Madone among the best bikes I've ridden in more than 20 years of testing. Whether you call the quality compliance or liveliness, this edition of the bike has enough of it to create a ride that is far more interactive than reactive—you're Red Pollard curved low over Seabiscuit rather than Dr. Strangelove clinging to a nuclear missile.
Reggie Lund, a composite engineer at Trek who worked on this bike and previous versions, agrees that this is the liveliest Madone (while also politely disputing my characterization of the earlier models). He says the effect I'm praising is the culmination of an evolution that began in earnest in 2008, when the in-house research-and-development team sharpened its focus on building in more compliance. Our test Madone, says Lund, uses a new fiber that lets the designers "play around with the laminate more than before." He says the experimentation let them drop the weight of the frame about 5 percent, make the head tube a little stiffer, and increase stiffness at the bottom bracket by around 5 percent.
Somewhere amid all that quantifiable engineering, the magic occurred that can be felt only by a rider, the culmination of nearly infinite factors that turns a great bike into an unbelievable bike. The Madone 6.9SSL is confident, compliant, quick and fast, intuitive, all-day comfortable, smooth, sharp—and, by the way, fetching to the eye. We're lucky to have it.—Bill Strickland