The Canyon Tempr CFR Road Shoes Are Packed With Tech- Velo

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It was only a matter of time before Canyon released its own line of apparel, and shoes are a good first step. That’s what I thought before I hopped on the Canyon website and found the company had a healthy range of on and off-bike apparel ready to go. So while the release of the new Canyon Tempr CFR Road shoes seems like a surprise, the brand has been working toward new shoes for quite some time.

The Tempr CFR isn’t just one shoe, but a duo: one for road, and one for off-road. Canyon says they’ve thrown all of the latest technology they could into this new shoe, with all the fun names for features you’d expect: PureFit360, PeformFit Wrap, Percent+, etc.

In for review is the Tempr CFR Road, which we’ve had the ability to ride in this not-for-sale colorway since April. And while Canyon could’ve mailed it in with these shoes, they made something seriously impressive.

Quick hits: Seven things to know about the Canyon Tempr CFR shoes

• The Canyon Tempr CFR isn’t just one, but two shoes: a Tempr CFR Road shoe for road cleats, and a Tempr CFR Off-Road shoe for a two-bolt cleat.
• The CFR indicates the shoe is the top-spec version of Canyon’s shoe.
• Two colors are available: black and white.
• Sizes: 36-48; half sizes from 40.5 to 46.5
• Weight: 250 g (claimed, size 42)
• Price: $329.95/€329.95
• For more: canyon.com

Details about the Tempr CFR

Some shoes want to be an ultra-stiff place for your feet to be as you pedal. Others want to form to your unique foot shape, and sacrifice a bit of lateral support and shaping along the way. Canyon says they’ve gone right down the middle here.

Canyon’s new shoe seems pretty straightforward from the outside. There’s a synthetic upper material that looks traditionally unyielding. The heel cup looks straightforward too. And while the metal Boa Li2 dials look flashy, they’re functionally the same as every other dual-direction Boa dial on other shoes.

All that said, Canyon has included a whole bunch of interesting design decisions aimed at making the shoe more comfortable.

At a starting point, Canyon uses a sock-like knit material at the tongue, not unlike what Trek uses all over its new RSL road shoe. It’s awfully soft in its feel, with that synthetic leather material wrapping around the top of the foot and forefoot connected to each Boa dial. It allows the rider to really crank down on the Boa dials without a feeling of pressure from cable guides or the dials themselves.

Out back is a small heel cup, with a small ‘CFR’ motif along the outer side of the cup. This heel cup is important to Canyon’s PerformFit Wrap system, as locking in the heel allows the toes and metatarsals to spread out a bit more and not need to be quite as supported.

Inside is a collaboration with Solestar, a German company best known for making shoes more comfortable with its aftermarket insoles. Canyon says the insole is designed to “match the foot form” and “return it to a neutral position.” Really, you’re getting a single pair of insoles with a metatarsal bump in the middle of the sole in an effort to prevent your toes from curling up as you ride along.

Important to note, the Tempr CFR shoes feature material that is purposefully stretchier for the first and fifth metatarsals of your feet. Translation? The shoes are supposed to be more accommodating around your big and pinky toes, which when paired with a wider toe box, should make the shoe roomier for wider feet.

Down below is Canyon’s full-length CFR carbon fiber internal plate. There are no claims of maximum stiffness or anything like that, but the shoe promises to be stiff when pedaling. As you’d imagine, Canyon really succeeded here.

Riding the Canyon Tempr CFR

Canyon claims a Tempr CFR road shoe in size 42 weighs in at 250 grams per shoe. My size 40 Tempr CFR weighed in at 245 grams or 490 grams as a pair. The shoes feature a standard three-bolt cleat mount, perfect for Shimano SPD-SL, Look Keo, or the Wahoo Speedplay cleats I used for review.

The standard warning about cycling shoes being extremely personal items continues here. A shoe that doesn’t fit you properly won’t feel like a high-performance shoe if you can’t take advantage of it. That continues with the Canyon Tempr CFR Road shoes.

My feet are quite wide at the forefoot, with a high arch complementing it. My heel, however, is about average width. Many wide-label shoes simply add more upper material without adding width to the sole, resulting in shoes that just don’t fit my feet right.

That’s what makes the Tempr CFR shoes so interesting. The forefoot is quite a bit more squared off than you’d think from a shoe with high-performance intentions. That squared-off look is paired with the especially stretchy sides of the shoe that aim to fit around feet of myriad widths.

Ideally, this allows the shoes to adapt neatly to different feet. In reality? It depends.

The shoes feel snug to start, locking in my heel neatly. I could really crank down on the Boa dials without developing hot spots, too. It results in what feels like a secure heel and midfoot, as one might expect from a shoe with performance intentions.

Up front was a slightly different story. I felt the shoes lock my feet in place, but I’d feel the squeeze on my feet after about an hour’s worth of riding. Swapping to a more structured insole seemed to help, but I still felt obliged to pull my feet out of the shoes every couple of hours as it seemed to put more pressure on my pinky toe than I expected.

Interestingly, Senior Tech Editor Josh Ross had a similar experience despite having a narrower foot than me.

“I also had pain on longer rides on the outside of the pinky. I suspect it needs a better insole to control rolling and I think there will always be some pressure there because it tightens by bringing the sides in rather than top down.”

In my case, at least, I suspect I’m testing the absolute limits of how wide of a foot you can put in the Tempr CFR. Outside of Shimano’s and Specialized’s road shoes, I often get along better with the wide version of a shoe anyway. These come awfully close, but I couldn’t make them quite work with my E-width feet.

To note, the Tempr CFR build quality felt every bit as good as other high-end road shoes on the market. The toe box has a thin, molded bumper to prevent scuffs and limit abrasions from the shoe hitting your front tire. Further, the outer bits of the sole are far from fragile. These are shoes that you can expect to look good for a long time, even in white.

The knit tongue wasn’t quite the dirt magnet I expected it to be, either. Cleaning the shoes was easy too, and far easier than the increasing number of knit shoes on the market. The shoes won’t ventilate like a pure knit shoe, but I had no issues in the heat of South Texas.

I should also note that Canyon has elected to not do a fit guarantee with its Tempr CFR shoes. With most brands, a fit guarantee allows someone to exchange or return the shoes in a given time period, even if they rode in them. It’s an uncommon practice, often dependent on whether or not the retailer chooses to participate.

Canyon doesn’t have retail spaces, so there’s no place to try on multiple sizes back-to-back. In that case, I’d love to see Canyon adopt a fit guarantee for its shoes if only to provide some level of consumer confidence when buying a top-tier road shoe.

Conclusion

It’s clear that Canyon put a lot of thought into its new Tempr CFR Road shoe. The build quality feels as good as the best road cycling shoes on the market, but it manages to do it at a price point that undercuts just about all top-tier shoes.

It’s also a shoe that feels forward-thinking, with a modern, squared-off toe box and plenty of space to make the shoes feel roomy for most folks. And unlike the increasing number of knit shoes on the market, it is easy to clean and durable after lots of use too.

Like any cycling shoe, you’re going to want to do your due diligence in ensuring it fits properly. Do that with the Tempr CFR and you’ll get a shoe you’ll likely be very happy with.

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