REASONS TO BUY
Excellent uphill efficiency
Agile and responsive
Fun on mellow to moderate terrain
REASONS TO AVOID
Stock tires can be easily overwhelmed
Not great on rough trails
Canyon Neuron 5 Review
An efficient and agile trail bike that flies uphill
The Neuron is a great way to experience the trails, and it won't cost you a fortune.
Credit: Pat Donahue
By Pat Donahue ⋅ Senior Review Editor ⋅ August 21, 2023
Contributions From: Joshua Hutchens
RELATED: Best Budget Mountain Bikes of 2025
Our Verdict
The Canyon Neuron 5 is a fast and efficient trail bike with conservative geometry. This bike has a bit of an old-school attitude, and that is exactly what makes it great. Instead of using ultra-modern geometry with an emphasis on downhill performance, Canyon built the Neuron with a focus on efficiency and responsiveness. This bike is happy to log big miles and slice and dice downhill. In addition, this bike is quite easy to ride as it doesn't require Ludacris speeds to feel responsive and fun. The Neuron 5 earned a Top Pick as Most Efficient Bike for its preference for scooting up climbs and covering ground as opposed to outright shredding.
Our Analysis and Test Results
For 2024, Canyon changed the build kit from Deore 12-speed to SRAM SX while leaving the rest of the bike unchanged, still an awesome value -May 2024
Analysis and Test Results
The Canyon rolls fast and is a blast on flow trails.
Credit: Pat Donahue
Should I Buy This Bike?
If you value climbing efficiency and rolling speed as opposed to full-out charging on difficult trails, the Neuron 5 is worthy of consideration. While it is capable of getting a little rad, this bike really shines when it's breezing up long climbs and exploring singletrack. Don't let the term “conservative geometry” scare you away, this bike is very responsive and easy to get along with. Less aggressive riders will find this Canyon to be very intuitive and timid riders can still have a blast on this bike.
If you want to ride as hard as you can or shred difficult trails, we suggest looking elsewhere. Despite having 130mm of rear wheel travel, the Neuron feels a bit more like a cross-country bike than a mid-travel trail bike.
This bike is a blast on fast and smooth trails.
Credit: Pat Donahue
Fun Factor
The Neuron 5 is a very fun bike to ride. It is responsive and agile at all speeds. While a longer bike requires more energy to corner or change directions, the conservative, 1234mm (large) wheelbase paired with a 66-degree head angle is very quick to react. Simply dip a shoulder into a corner and the bike reacts promptly. Slicing and dicing your way down mellow to moderate terrain is a blast.
The Canyon is happy to pop and hop its way down a trail and its quite easy to get airborne. Our test bike is fitted with a Schwalbe Nobby Nic 29 x 2.4-inch front tire and an even faster rolling Wicked Will 2.4-inch rear tire. These fast and light tires help create the ultra-efficient ride that we loved. That being said, a more aggressive set of tires would go a long way in unlocking higher speeds and more aggressive movements. On loose/sandy surfaces you need to pay a good amount of attention to the tires to avoid losing traction.
Things get sketchy quickly on steep and loose downhills. The fast-rolling tires simply can't hold up.
Credit: Pat Donahue
Downhill
The downhill performance was a bit of a mixed bag. This bike simply isn't designed to shred rowdy downhills or boost jump lines. As a result, it isn't all that comfortable in those situations. If you dial it back to green-blue style trails, this bike is perfectly capable and fast.
When riding this bike back-to-back with other bikes in this test class the steeper head tube angle and the shorter wheelbase was immediately noticeable. This bike makes its money carving down smooth downhills or using its agility to carefully navigate technical sections of the trail. This bike could be described as precise and it felt like a breath of fresh air in a world of long, slack, bikes, and somewhat clumsy bikes. It corners quite well despite its less-than-aggressive tires, it made short work of switchbacks and was able to change lines in a hurry.
This bike has 130mm of rear suspension that took some time to dial in. The bike's suspension design is very progressive meaning it ramps up, or becomes harder to compress, deeper in its travel. A short-mid travel bike typically requires between 25-30% sag. When running 28% it was very difficult to use more than ⅔ of the shock stroke. The small bump compliance felt okay but the big impacts were harsh. Even dropping the pressure and using 30% sag wasn't much of an improvement. We opened the shock up and removed one of the two volume spacers. This improved the performance significantly.
This bike was fairly easy to overwhelm on choppy or loose surfaces. That said, that is a bit outside the Neuron's intended application. When ridden on the right terrain it is a competent and fun descender.
This bike is a spectacular climber due to its suspension kinematics and fast tires.
Credit: Pat Donahue
Climbing
The Neuron 5 is an outstanding climber. Despite its portly 33+ pound weight, this bicycle screams efficiency. We were happy to tackle the longest, steepest climbs on this bike and set some PRs by accident.
When perched atop the Neuron, the seated climbing position feels fine. With a 76-degree seat tube angle this bike places you in a nice climbing position. You generally feel like you are right on top of the cranks and the 480mm reach is airy and offers plenty of room to shift year weight around.
As soon as you put the power down, this bike responds. The fast-rolling and light Schwalbe rubber is immediately noticeable when you are happily spinning away. On steeper punches, the bike responds well when you stand up to hammer and the 4-bar suspension design remains reasonably calm. We used the climb switch on the RockShox Deluxe Select shock on fireroad and double track but we didn't feel the need on singletrack.
Climbing is extremely pleasant aboard our Canyon Neuron. It effectively utilizes rider input.
Credit: Pat Donahue
Working up technical switchbacks was easy as these situations really play to this bicycle's agility. It is easy to find smooth lines through rooty or problematic sections of trail.
We loved this bike's climbing performance. In 2023, the industry puts a heavy amount of focus on progressive geometry and downhill performance. There was something very satisfying about climbing on this bike that was a welcome reminder of the good old days.
The zippy Canyon Neuron in its glory. The geometry may not be extreme, but this bike is agile and efficient.
Credit: Pat Donahue
Build
The build kit on our Neuron was impressive and highly functional. As is usually the case with consumer-direct brands, this bike has a strong component spec for the price.
Fork- We fitted a 140mm RockShox Recon Silver RL on the front of our Neuron 5. It worked well enough, especially within this bike's sweet spot of climbing and ripping moderate trails. Running a high pressure was necessary to prevent the fork from diving too easily into its travel. We can't say it felt plush, but we were able to identify some settings where we more or less forgot about the fork.
Checking the Shock on the Canyon Neuron
Credit: Joshua Hutchens
Shock-The RockShox Deluxe took a bit of getting used to. Out of the box it was very, very progressive. We removed two volume spacers and enjoyed a much smoother and more forgiving ride.
The RockShox Deluxe shock felt much better after removing volume spacers.
Credit: Pat Donahue
Drivetrain - A Shimano Deore 12-speed drivetrain went beautifully unnoticed throughout our testing period. This workhorse groupset worked very well and the shifting under load was great.
Brakes- The Shimano MT-410 brakes performed the stopping duties on our test bike. These brakes aren't especially powerful, but they have a very consistent feel and work well within the bike's unintended application.
Tires- Our test bike was fitted with a Schwalbe Nobby Nic 29 x 2.4-inch front tire and a Wicked Will 2.4-inch rear tire.
The Nobby Nic rolls well but lacks enough bite on loose or soft terrain. It was a sensible specification on a bike focused on logging miles and efficiency. The Wicked Will is an even faster tire that felt extremely efficient although the braking bite was suboptimal.
Wheels - The Canyon Iridium 30 wheels were fine. They remained straight, set up tubeless very easily, and the freehub is still functioning. Nothing too exciting here.
The Canyon in its happy place. Carving down moderate terrain.
Credit: Pat Donahue
Conclusion
The Canyon Neuron 5 earned a Top Pick for Most Efficient Bike. While this bike might lack the appetite to push the limits, it more than makes up for it with its efficient climbing and agile attitude. It is a blast to effortlessly scoot up climbs and finesse your way down moderate terrain. Pair these performance characteristics with a largely dialed build kit and you are set up for success.
Side-by-Side Comparison
Compare Canyon Neuron 5 versus top competing products:
—Pat Donahue, Joshua Hutchens
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