Canyon has responded to complaints about the seatpost on its 2021 Aeroad model - though a patent submitted earlier this year could be a hint at more redesigns to come.
The brand's newest Aeroad features a redesigned seatpost, which uses a truncated design whereby the lower half - which is hidden within the frame - is significantly thinner.
The upper half features an aero fairing, the front section being structural whilst the rear half is extremely thin and flexible. The brand designed this to lower weight, cutting off a claimed 33g, and add to compliance.
Image: Canyon
Our tester wasn't entirely convinced, noting: "I’m a little sceptical as it is clamped in place and then held at the top tube which I would expect will limit the actual amount of movement." However, we didn't come across any issues associated with wear during testing.
Customers, it seems, have encountered issues over longer-term use - as exemplified on several forums including Weight Weenies and Reddit - the former morphing into an epic 113 page thread (at time of writing), including images of damaged seatposts after around 200 kilometres of riding, according to the users.
The primary issue appears to be caused by too much flex at the seatpost. The laws of physics mean that this will be more problematic for heavier riders, and for riders with a lot of exposed seatpost. Lighter riders or those with more of the wider part of the seatpost inside the frame are less likely to be affected.
All Canyon Aeroad owners received an email communication regarding the issues, advising that they use grease only on the upper part of the post, as assembly paste could increase abrasion. Canyon also said it was working on a 'seal' to prevent dirt getting into the seat tube.
Responding to questions over the issue, Canyon told Cycling Weekly: "The Aeroad seatpost concern was one raised by a very small number of customers in recent weeks, so as we would always do we looked closely into their feedback. Upon inspection we found some customers seatposts had experienced an aesthetic wear issue. This innovative post design needs to be kept super clean and our engineering team are now working on a solution to support this.
"In the meantime we have reached out to all Aeroad customers asking for their support to check their post and feedback to us, hence the recent social attention and the few additional numbers we’ve encountered we have offered to replace the seat post to keep people riding.
"We hope to have the solution available to all existing and future Aeroad customers in the coming weeks and will proactively ensure every bike existing and future bike has the upgrade applied."
It seems that Canyon may have something else in the pipeline, though - but it's unclear if this is a design for future Aeroad models or another bike.
On January 7, Canyon filed a patent with the German Patent and Trade Mark Office for a new seatpost design for a racing bike.
The patent shows a seatpost that is similar in many ways to the existing Aeroad seatpost, but utilizes an 's' shape and includes a "damping element, connected to the support element," the damping element has been moved to the front of the seatpost, and is said to be made from a "soft plastic" such as polyurethane.
Regarding the 's' shape, the patent states: "the S-shaped configuration of the bicycle seat post in side view has the advantage that there are two points of contact and stress on the frame."
The seatpost submitted in this patent aims to dampen movement, providing flex and therefore comfort, much like the existing design but to a greater extent.
Currently, there are no Aeroads available to buy - all models appear to be out of stock, with pre-order available on the Aeroad CF SL 7 (£2,999) for arrival in May and June. Framesets are due in Autumn 2021 and all other options have the option to receive a notification when stock is available.
Will this new patent represent a fix, or will the promised seal sort the issue? We'll be following the story - if you're an Aeroad owner and have some information for us, contact us at cycling [at] futurenet.com and ask for the tech team.
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Michelle Arthurs-Brennan the Editor of Cycling Weekly website. An NCTJ qualified traditional journalist by trade, Michelle began her career working for local newspapers. She's worked within the cycling industry since 2012, and joined the Cycling Weekly team in 2017, having previously been Editor at Total Women's Cycling. Prior to welcoming her daughter in 2022, Michelle raced on the road, track, and in time trials, and still rides as much as she can - albeit a fair proportion indoors, for now.
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