Canyon Tempr CFR Road Cycling Shoes
I didn’t expect much when I agreed to give Canyon’s new cycling shoes a go. My everyday shoes for road riding are Shimano S Phyre and it’s hard to improve on those. But my new everyday road cycling shoes are Canyon Tempr CFR and I’ll tell you why they work so well for me, but let’s start with a paragraph about the development of this shoe.
Canyon looked to Eric Horton, former design chief at Giro (we talked to Eric when he was at Giro), and Carl Bird who ran equipment at Specialized for the last 10 of his 23 years at that company. These two joined forces during the pandemic and started a design firm called Form8ion, and it was here that the Canyon Tempr series took shape.
There isn’t a vertical lineup, as in, the cheap model has 2 velcro straps, the midrange 1 velcro and 1 BOA, and the top a pair of BOAs. There is just the top-level shoe. Just the double-BOA closure scheme and there’s both a road and an MTB version.
I guess I think Bont started something when it brought its more rigid inline skate boot style to cycling. The S Phyre borrows a bit from that motif. Some cycling shoes don’t open or close very much in my experience and my Shimano S Phyre road shoes are like that. The Tempr CFR does not share either of those design motifs. Its upper is softer and in that way is more like Shimano’s comfort-focused SH-RC702 (RC7 for short). The Tempr CFR is extremely forgiving, with a lot of range and what I mean by "range" is this shoe's ability to fit a wider and narrower foot, high and flat arch, with the same shoe model.
But it isn’t just the softer upper material. It’s the choice to join the left and the right sides of the upper with an elastic fabric and that’s missing in most cycling shoes. None of my road shoes have this design. They’ll have a tongue between the left and right sides of the upper, like what you’d see in a running shoe (the RC7 has this). Or, one side of the shoe simply overlaps the other. I believe some triathlon cycling shoes might’ve used an elastic piece like this, tho rooting around in my workshop has failed to produce an example. This elastic seems to me to make this more of a universal shoe, fitting a wider range of foot types.
My first ride in the Canyon shoe felt a little strange. The next day my feet hurt. I’m not the only person to whom I’ve spoken that had this experience. After my second ride my feet didn’t hurt and since then it’s been clear sailing. This has been my go-to road shoe since that second ride and I think that – while the shoe is forgiving – my feet have become less as I’ve “seasoned.” My feet are more easily insulted now by footwear. I have Joe Biden’s feet. This has narrowed my choice of available cycling shoes.
More on this: When you put this shoe on your foot has a lot of room. This shoe has very good volume, in height and in width, for reasons described above. As you tighten the BOA closures the designers of this shoe have done a nice job handling with the excess material. I think Canyon does this a little better than Shimano (though I’m still a fan of the RC7). When the closures are tight the shoe is snug but without any puckering or bunching of excess material.
These shoes are available in Euros sizes 39 to 48, half sizes from 40 thru 47. They fit true to size. Cleats are 3-hole native and as you see they accept an adapter for Speedplays.
Advertised are “Custom” Solestar® insoles but – in the spirit of “words mean things” – no, they are not custom, as they are not molded to my feet as are my Sidas or Footbalance (actual custom) footbeds. These are production. But they are good footbeds and I have not found the need to replace these with my customs. One last thing about these footbeds. They are structural. I think it's why my feet hurt after that first ride. (But only after the first ride, just as my feet are sore after my first run in a fresh orthotic.)
Advertised is a 260g weight to, for example, the S Phyre’s advertised weight of 225g. But in my (larger) size, with (identical Speedplay) cleats on, with the Tempr CFT road shoe I pay a fewer-than-10g penalty per shoe versus the S Phyre.
This shoe retails for $329.99 and that appears to be the price whether in the U.S., in US Dollars or whether it’s in Euros for those in Europe. What you see here is not an in-line color. As well as I can tell the road shoes are white and as mentioned there’s a Tempr CFT offroad shoe as well, in black. If you go to the US site and see all the sizes sold out it’s that the site isn’t live for selling yet. Give it a few days to kick start.
I only have miles in the road shoe and the photos here are not of a pristine shoe. I have about 500 miles in them, pretty hard miles, on the road and on gravel, through driving rain, 1-hour rides and 6-hour rides. (Yes, I should’ve taken my pics before I began riding in this shoe. That… didn’t happen.)
As a tri shoe: Yes, this is a viable IRONMAN shoe. In fact, I think it’s a great IRONMAN shoe because it’s not at all a hot shoe and if you find your foot expanding or for whatever reason needing a bit more volume partway through a ride this shoe would be great for that. I think it’s best as a shoe you put on in transition before you run out; attaching these to the bike, trying to get in while you’re riding, I don’t know that this is the fastest way into them. It’s not a short distance tri shoe.
By design or by sheer luck – every company needs it’s fair share of luck – I suspect Canyon has developed a shoe that works perfectly for its broad audience because of its sales model. The very best shoe for a consumer direct market is one forgiving enough to fit a range of foot styles and this shoe will absolutely do that. I’m usually a snob about brands and brand congruity. I won’t put a Felt stem or a Cannondale crank on my Cervelo bike. So much more so with Canyon, in particular because I have a beef with that brand (I stand in religious opposition to their habit of putting integrated stem/bars on their road and gravel bikes, which is a sin magnified for a consumer direct brand). Why would I ride a Canyon shoe when aboard my Cervelo bike? My feet dig the shoe. Sue me. (Or sue my feet.) Besides, wearing this shoe allowed me to congruently ride with the 2 pairs of Canyon socks that had been languishing in my drawer.
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