Rapha brings out a special edition Canyon Ultimate and new sunglasses
Only 50 Canyon Ultimate bikes will be made in Rapha livery
The limited edition Rapha Canyon Ultimate CF SLX 9.0 will be made in a hand painted black, with fade to grey towards the rear of the bike. And logos for Canyon and on the top tube for Rapha will be in Rapha’s signature hot pink.
Rapha’s in-house graphics team created the colour scheme, to match the brand’s other products released this season.
There’s further personalisation with Rapha putting the owner’s Rapha Cycle Club membership number and chapter logo on the frame.
Of course, you wouldn’t want your Canyon Ultimate kitted out with just any old components, so the Rapha version comes with a SRAM Red eTap groupset with a 52/36 semi-compact chainset and Zipp NSW 404 carbon wheels. You also get Canyon’s custom carbon Aerocockpit integrated bar and stem.
And the price: £7000. But don’t go queuing up at the door of your nearest Rapha store tomorrow morning. Rapha says that the bike is available to RCC members by invitation only.
And new sunnies too
To match your new Canyon, Rapha has also just released a new design of sunglasses. Called the Pro Team Arenberg, they are a full frame design. They’re also a bit cheaper than the bike, at £150.
Rapha vaunts the clarity of vision and secure fit of the new sunglasses. The lenses are made by Carl Zeiss and the shape is the same as the brand’s existing Pro Team Flyweight glasses, but as well as the full frame, there’s a new snap-lock hinge.
>>> Inside Rapha: is it just branding or a British success story?
There’s plenty of venting at the sides and under the top rim of the Pro Team Arenberg glasses, to prevent misting.
The standard lens colour is a bronze mirror, but Rapha will sell another five different interchangeable lens colour options. And there are another four different frame colours, in addition to the Rapha pink option.
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Paul started writing for Cycling Weekly in 2015, covering cycling tech, new bikes and product testing. Since then, he’s reviewed hundreds of bikes and thousands of other pieces of cycling equipment for the magazine and the Cycling Weekly website.
He’s been cycling for a lot longer than that though and his travels by bike have taken him all around Europe and to California. He’s been riding gravel since before gravel bikes existed too, riding a cyclocross bike through the Chilterns and along the South Downs.
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