Canyon Commuter 5

The Canyon Commuter 5 is a fast and fun urban bike that provides all the performance that people who are ready to splash £1,000+ on a commuter are probably looking for. It's not the most forgiving ride, but – ironically – considering how responsive it is, that's actually quite easy to forgive. Perhaps most surprising, though, the Commuter 5 provides all its thrills while also coming with a hub gear.

When it comes to ride quality, the typical compromise is comfort at the expense of a bit of speed, or speed at the expense of a bit of comfort. Sometimes you stumble upon a two-wheeled holy grail that can seemingly do it all, but even if that's not the case, as long as the bike you're riding is hitting its desired brief, any weaknesses are easy to accommodate.

> Buy now: Canyon Commuter 5 for £1,149 from Canyon

The Canyon Commuter is not a holy grail; its stiffness might be just a bit too much for precious posteriors. But in terms of hitting its brief – in this case, providing the kind of performance that will satisfy people who are willing to spend more than £1k on a flat-bar road bike – it is an astounding success.

Let's get that stiffness issue out of the way first. Yes, over very poor road surfaces you can feel just a little uncomfortable at times. Simply 'rough' roads are handled pretty well, but any overly-sunken manhole covers can knock you off your pedal stroke. The flipside, though, is that this is a superb bike when it comes to rewarding your effort.

We'll look at the fitted hub gear in more detail later, but it's fair to say that hub gears are not necessarily the first choice for intracity speed demons. However, even with the extra weight that the hub brings at the rear, the Commuter 5 is an absolute joy to get up to speed, with perfectly reactive acceleration and efficient high-speed cruising.

Steering, balance and overall bike control are awesome too. No matter what speed you reach, you always feel like you have the right bike underneath you to handle things. Cornering is exciting but always well under control. Quite simply, it's the most fun I've had on a bike with a hub gear.

Frame

The Commuter 5's frame is Canyon's UO22 Commuter aluminium offering. It's very nicely put together with a mixture of tube profiles used throughout, and particularly square-edged options at the top and down tube. The substantial down tube also features a little bit of goose-necking where it meets the head tube.

That front end looks super strong and goes some way to explaining the on-point control. The second ingredient in that excellent handling is Canyon's straight-legged FK0083 carbon fibre fork. Although it only has a quick-release dropout for the disc brake front wheel rather than bolt-thru, there's no shortage of front-end confidence, and the minimal fork rake means it's a fairly direct path from you to wheel to road surface.

In terms of sizing, I tested a medium model which required me to use all the available seatpin to accommodate my 6ft frame. Reach-wise, though, there wasn't anything I could do to overcome its shortness. To be fair, Canyon's website and suggested size guide does say as much. Despite this, I can still say the Commuter 5 would offer quite a nice halfway house between head-down speed and all-about-you vision, which is an ideal compromise for speedy commuting.

It's not all good news, though. I suspect some readers are going to go crackers about this: despite being called a Commuter model, there are no mounts for a traditional rear rack and even the mudguard mounts are hidden away a bit.

Canyon has a bit of a history using integrated mudguards-cum-racks on its Commuter models – all the other models in the current Commuter range feature such things – but I still think it's a bit of an omission not to spec traditional rack mounts on a bike branded 'Commuter'.

Anybody spending £1k+ on a high-speed commuter might hope to find a stripped-back package like this weighing in somewhere close to 10kg. The Commuter 5's overall weight of 11.6kg might seem a tad heavy against that, but I think when you factor in the added mass of the Nexus hub, it's actually very good.

Gearing and brakes

Which brings us to the elephant in the room. Anybody who has read my reviews of hub-geared bikes before might be surprised to notice I am yet to moan about the 8-speed Shimano Nexus hub fitted here.

I'm not normally a huge fan because, 'IMO' as the kids says, hub gears dampen the overall performance of a bike with fair bit of extra weight at the back and – especially at this entry-level end of the hub gear market – are not quite as plush a gearing experience as their many fans would have you believe. At road.cc, as we typically only have a bike to test for a month, we have to focus on performance rather than long-term reliability – which I admit is an area where hub gears do excel.

However, all that said, the Commuter 5 is the most satisfying hub-geared bike I've ridden to date. Part of that is down to the Gates Carbon Belt drive, which offers faultless transmission of power. But I think the greater part of it is due to the fantastic frame and the overall exuberant ride experience. I'd be intrigued to test a derailleur-geared Commuter model to see if the frame becomes almost too exuberant without the extra weight of the hub at the rear.

Whatever the case, if you're looking for a fun hub-geared bike – something that at times feels like an oxymoron – look no further. The combination of 55-tooth chainring, or rather 'belt-ring', and 8-speed Nexus hub means you'll find a ratio for most jobs. The smallest gear is good enough for fairly testing climbs although, overall, I'd say the selection slightly favours higher-speed riding.

Thankfully, for all that on-road enthusiasm Canyon has also fitted suitable stoppers: the M200 Shimano hydraulic disc brakes are among the best value-for-money discs you'll find, with good power and superb feel. In fact, allied with the super-compliant frame and excellent tyres, when faced with a possible head-on country lane collision with a Chelsea tractor on a damp descent, the M200s brought me to a swift stop without even a hint of locking up.

Wheels and tyres

There are a few other secret ingredients in the Commuter 5's recipe that I didn't notice at first. One of which is the decision to spec Alexrims GX26P rims. Alexrims kit on an off-the-shelf bike is not normally a reason for excitement, but these are 650B (27.5in) rims, rather than expected 700C (29in) hoops and, it seems to me, that smaller size plays some role in making the Commuter 5 feel alive.

As I mentioned, the tyres are fantastic, too. I'm a big fan of Schwalbe's G-One Allrounds – in fact, they're the only tyres I have bought with my own money over the last few years – and these 40mm versions offer excellent grip even on damp days, but are certainly not so sticky that you feel like you're pedalling in treacle.

It's a speccing choice that contributes nicely to the positive overall feeling – in this case, speedy but secure cornering. The tyres' only negative is a relative lack of puncture protection.

Finishing kit

I can't be nice about everything and there are a couple of little niggles, but they can be overcome. The first is the all-in-one bar and stem. It looks uber cool and feels nice and solid in use. But if this bike is a little too long or short for you, it's going to take a bit of work – and extra cost – compared with a typical aheadset setup to swap in a longer stem and new bar.

That said, I do have to give credit to the Ergon ergonomic bar ends that feel great.

My second minor gripe is the Canyon Sport Saddle. When I first got the Commuter 5, the saddle was ever so slightly upwards pointing, which is always a cause of discomfort. However, even when levelled off, it was still a touch tough. I'm no southern softy who runs a mile at the idea of a svelte seat – quite the contrary, overflowing amounts of foam and gel fill me with horror – but this perch seems just a bit too minimalist even for my liking.

Price and conclusion

Despite my hesitancy in unconditionally recommending hub-geared bikes, looking back at my past reviews reveals that the last bike I tested with a Nexus hub gear was also something of a corker. The Vitus Dee VR City Bike is also fast and fun and only costs £429.99. But with just three available ratios at the hub – and a far less refined overall ride – it can't match the Commuter 5 in absolute terms, although in relative value-for-money terms, it's very close.

Nearer the same budget, the Marin Muirwoods at £985 featured a lot of the same ideas as the Commuter 5 but with a heavy and unenthusiastic frame that ruined the ride. Marin's current Muirwoods model is now derailleur geared, but its Presidio 2 looks like a heavily updated version of a similar theme, with a 7-speed Nexus hub, for £845.

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Funnily enough, talking of heavily updated versions, looking back at my past bike reviews I found this little gem from late 2019: the previous Canyon Commuter 5.0. While the model names and market positioning might be essentially the same, go through the frame design and specs and you'll find significant differences (even the Alexrims rims are different, lest anyone put the different scores down to fickle reviewing!). In terms of performance, the overall ride is now in a different league to what I tested back then.

I've said it a couple of times in this review already, but it's worth saying again: the Commuter 5 is the most fun I've had on a hub-geared bike. If you want all the sensibleness of reduced maintenance and long-term reliability, but don't want to forgo a fair dose of fun in the saddle, this is the best option I've yet come across. Add in an all-round great spec – including excellent brakes – and this is a (light) commuting wonder weapon.

Verdict

Excellent fast, fun and assured bike for light commuting and urban blasts, and it's got a hub gear