Canyon Nerve AM 8.0x

SH4RKY

My Canyon Nerve AM 8.0x arrived. Week early too, bonus!

Not got any dirty pics at the moment as I didn’t get chance to get out at the weekend

Impressed by the bike, seems really well made and the fit and finish is bang on. The 'RAW' colour looks pretty ace in the flesh too, glad I went for it over the green actually.... mainly because it gives me future customisation options in any colour I want :twisted:

Haven’t ridden it properly yet, but sizing feels good. I was worried it would feel small as I almost bash my knees on the handlebars of a friends 'medium' orange... but, yeah, feels good to me.

The only issues I have had is the lower rear gears jumped ever so slightly, required a 10 sec adjustment at the handlebar selectors (not blaming canyon as it may have been knocked during packaging/transport etc) and the main problem (a little disappointing really) is that the cable for the reverb had detached from the actuator during transit. I don’t have any spare barbs, fluid or syringes so couldn’t fix... but emailed canyon and will see what they say. Hopefully they will sort a repair out or perhaps, preferably, send me a service kit (cable needs shortening anyway).

Ghostt

Nice, sucks about the reverb line though. Did it p*ss fluid everywhere? Can't imagine the disappointment of opening the box to see your nice shiny bike and finding it covered in hydraulic fluid.

SH4RKY

Oddly, no. Must have been pressure from the post and button holding it in.

For now I just kinda jammed it back in and the seat sort of works. You can hear the air, and it doesnt rise the full amount, but you can lift and lower it while holding the button, so the bike is still perfectly ridable.

Mojo_666

Nice bike, shame about the Reverb, the Raw looks much nicer in yours and other pictures I have seen than on the website.

craig1984

That's a beauty! Love Canyons. Great spec with great prices.

webby_1805

That's a sweet looking bike, i'm not decided which one to buy whether to go for the 0.7 - 0.9(to much choices) but after seeing your pictures looks like that might be the one and saving me a few pennies also.

charb0y

i've just ordered myself one.

so have you taken it for a ride then, how is it? i was slightly worried about the steep headset angle 68.5 deg, but it was such good value i went for this over the zesty 314

SH4RKY

Fiiiiiinally got out on it last weekend!! Far too much work / uni work at the moment

((Regarding the Reverb: The barb at the actuator end had snapped during transit. LBS didn’t want to repair, or more so they warned it would cost too much as they didn’t have any of the parts to do it. So sent it back to SRAM under the instruction of Canyon. Could have just fixed my self, but Canyon obviously wanted certified techs doing the work to keep warranty. As mentioned, I was too busy to ride anyway, so no loss. Came back after a few days fixed.))


But yeah, did a lap of Cannock on Sunday and I LOVE that damn thing. It felt great. Coming from a hard tail with bottom of the range forks to this was a revelation to say the least. Smoothed the crap out and gave me SOOO much more confidence. My friend commented (when he caught up ) that I was riding a little aggressively/fast considering it was my first outing with it, but it just felt good. Perfect fit, which was a slight concern with direct ordering. Tried his medium Orange 5 again and to me it felt tiny... are oranges sized small?

Anyway, the seat post worked great. You think you will use it just before that climb at xx metres, then at that downhill at xx location, but I found I was using it constantly; constant on the fly adjusting with the varying terrain. Now very glad I went for the 8.0x to get the post over the 7.0.

Need to do some more tests, but i felt flipping the talas to the 130 setting over the 150 made quite a difference when climbing. Front end was a lot less inclined to lift. Wasn’t sure of the point of them at first (does 20mm really make that much difference?), but it actually did seem to make a difference, so again, happy!
Cant really comment on head angle, dont have enough experience. TBH it never crossed my mind!

One of the biggest revelations came in the form of climbing. I guess it’s having rear suspension, but the climbing ability was the biggest shock to me. The rear wheel just sticks to the ground and felt super grippy.... I felt I was letting the side down because of my lack of fitness! Haha, i even started to look forward to the climbs!? Just, fast and fun. And i didn't even have my SPDs on so had no upstroke etc


But yeah, dead happy with it! Had so much more fun with it. Grip, climbing, and confidence. Plus it looks badass when filthy!!

webby_1805

Nice review i finally ordered mine on Saturday can't wait......
Your at Uni and able to buy a 2k bike Wow not bad :-)

SH4RKY

Part time degree whilst working full time. Not recommended

It always gets to about this time of year when things start getting hectic that I go slightly insane and buy something expensive, haha.

Ill have to get some muddy pics out and about next time.

charb0y

thanks for the great review

smeagol

Very nice bike dude.

I recently had my Cube AMS 130 SL nicked a few weeks ago, after only having it for 3 days. I was livered (to say the least) but my incurance Co. who sorted my claim out in no time have come to the rescue and I am able to go ahead and purchase a new bike.

How do you find the Canyon especially with the rear shock running down the inside of the seatpost? The Cube AMS had its rear shock running under the top bar.

The one nice feature to the AM 8.0 is the reverb seat - I had seen this for the first time at the London bike show and was really impressed.

One thing bout frame size, what did you go for and what height are you?

SH4RKY

Sorry for the delay...

Medium Frame.
Height: 176cm
Inseam: 82cm, ish

Unlucky about the Cube I almost bought the stereo, but was slightly put off by the shock being in prime postion to get plastered by mud from the rear wheel... that and the price went back up before i could buy!

As for the shock where it is on the canyon... err, dunno, i havent ridden enough full suss to comment!
But i havent had any issues with it.... Oh.... Actually i guess the only slight problem is the reverb cable. It hangs down near the rocker arm of the suspension. Out on the first ride i noticed it was actually catching and pulling the cable slightly so i gave it some more slack and it seems better now. I think it might be a problem for any bike with a rear suspension joint either on the top tube or down tube and high rocker arms...

The reverb i still love. Although, to be honest, i leave it relatively high most of the time mainly due to the suspension soaking up all my mistakes and cock ups! haha....

I swapped back to my hard tail for half of cwncarn the other week... and my god, now that was a PROPER workout. It felt faster, but i think that was just beacuse it was a hell of a lot more twitchy. My brother on my canyon had no issues in keeping up even though i was trying my upmost to loose him. I guess the full 'high end' suspension just makes it more a relaxed ride so it feels slower, but in reality you are proably going much faster.

Definately easier on the full suss though. Its just the difference of being able to sit and pedal over rough terrain that helps keep you fresher rather than having to soak it up semi standing on a hardtail. maybe thats may appauling lack of fitness though... but i would say makes the ride more fun as im in better condition to attack the fun stuff on the down sides! that and the massive travel has saved my life more than once when i have ran out of talent!!!


I need to get out more though. Uni has almost finished, so looking forward to giving it a proper workout over the summer