It's no secret that Teutonic techno pop legends Kraftwerk are fans of cycling; the clues are in their back catalogue, like that song - oh, you know the one. Kraftwerk also have strong ties with Dusseldorf, and with le Tour rolling out of the Rhineland city this weekend Canyon have marked the occasion by launching the CF SLX Kraftwerk.
Based on the German brand's Grand Tour-winning Ultimate CF SLX frameset, the limited edition build features SRAM's wireless eTap groupset and Zipp's lauded 303 Firecrest wheels. But the most striking feature is the unique, hand-finished design, a geometric pattern of reflective strips inspired by Kraftwerk's Ralf Hütter.
Each reflective strip is cut to measure and then painstakingly applied by hand: a process that takes over seven hours per frameset and is, claim Canyon, the most complex ever undertaken by their design team.
Canyon say, "This extremely limited run of 21 technically-accomplished machines pays homage to Kraftwerk's iconic aesthetic and harks to the pioneering sounds they produce, music that has paved the way for so many others to follow."
For Canyon Founder & CEO, Roman Arnold, the partnership carries personal significance: "My memories of partying in friends' basements as a teenager are dominated by hearing Kraftwerk's groundbreaking sounds," he says.
"Kraftwerk and cycling have a special and unique connection - their music, and all that they do, has inspired our work at Canyon in so many ways across the years. It is an unbelievable honour for us to pay respect to everything that Kraftwerk stands for and has achieved in such a fitting way with these stunning bikes."
In addition to the 21 limited edition Ultimate CF SLX Kraftwerk models available to the public, Time Trial World Champion, Tony Martin (Team Katusha Alpecin), will also roll down the start ramp of the 104th Tour de France on a Speedmax CF SLX bearing the same striking design.
21 examples of the Ultimate CF SLX Kraftwerk will be available to order from Monday 3 July, costing £8,999.
For more information, visit www.canyon.com/kraftwerk.
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