Canyon Teams Up With Giants From Numerous Industries To Unveil the Future of Cycling

Earlier this year, Canyon Bicycles decided to show the world just what they can achieve with modern machines. However, to create the “Ride Green” bike, Canyon didn’t work alone. This trinket is part of a project designed to show the world that a “sustainable” and eco-friendly bicycle can exist. Just so we’re on the same page, the Ride Green initiative came about as a result of a question asked by Bike Magazine Germany, “Can we build a sustainable bike?” Well, let’s find out what happened because clearly there’s a whole bunch going on here.

After that question, several cycle and component manufacturers reached out and decided to take part in the initiative, one of which was Canyon. But this famed cycling team is only responsible for the frame and the fork of this mountain bike, which, mind you, only weigh around 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds). Yes, the frame was designed by Canyon, but the actual printing process was left in the hands of professionals in the field, Materialize, an additive manufacturing team from Bremen.

Using Selective Laser Melting (SLM), the frame and fork you see were built up layer by layer from an aluminum powder, resulting in an array of separate components that were welded to ultimately yield the network of tubes you see. If SLM sounds familiar, it’s because we’ve covered bikes built this way, the Urwahn machines, that also hail from Germany.

But how is any of this sustainable and green? Well, one result of this sort of building technique is that, if this frameset is ever damaged, it can be broken down and recycled. Oh, and the ability to maintain a material’s properties while all that happens was also a point of focus for this project.

As we can see, Canyon also looked to explore a slightly different frame style than what we may be used to; it’s composed of a lattice network of tubes. Why did they do this? View the image gallery and really give it some thought. It’s simple, a lighter bike. Sure, this is a mere prototype, but in time, we just may see this sort of layout on other Canyon mountain goats.

And no, that’s not the end of this story either. If you look at the video below, it’s revealed that even the drivetrain is built with sustainability and the three Rs (Renew, Reuse, and Recycle) in mind. For example, the cassette is made from nothing other than steel, so is the chain ring and chain itself; the cranks are alloy. Even Schwalbe is in on the action, bringing their decades of know-how to the game. Did you know they recycle inner tubes? This project even went as far as bringing 100% renewable grease to lube components.

All that raises just one question: how well does this bugger perform under a rider? Considering there’s only one such unicorn in the world – to my knowledge – it's possible we’ll never know. Luckily for us, there’s a little snippet at the end of the video below that shows the host hitting some single tracks through the woods. By the looks of it, this trinket can take the abuse, but a front fork with suspension is sure to feel a whole lot better. Nonetheless, it’s here and brandishing a whole bunch of clean-er technology. Time will show if this bike can be mass-produced.