Beyond Limits

Leveraging the power of Strava to go beyond limits with Canyon Bicycles

Canyon Bicycles

Based in Koblenz, Germany, Canyon Bicycles is a brand known for its use of cutting edge technology, servicing some of the world's very best professional cycling teams and athletes. With a few of us in the studio being avid bike nuts we jumped at the chance when Canyon approached us to help them with the launch of their new Exceed CF SLX mountain bike in conjunction with reigning mountain bike Marathon World Champion, Alban Lakata.

Go Beyond Limits

We know that people obsessed with riding are equally as obsessed with Strava (an extremely popular activity tracker for cyclists). Athletes all over the world can track their ride data but that data is not always easy to understand nor is it always directly comparable to their friends (or rivals).

So we encouraged people to push themselves and we would take care of the rest by translating their efforts into something more tangible - furthermore they could win a bike for taking part.

So really it all just came down to one simple question: How far can you go, Beyond Limits?

You Versus The World

Leveraging the power of Strava we went about creating a series of custom algorithms that would track a cyclists data points over a ride such as distance, speed and average power, amongst others. We then normalised this data using our ‘Beyond Limits’ algorithm to see how far athletes pushed themselves beyond their bests.

This meant that for the first time, cyclists could compare their efforts on a like for like basis. It didn’t matter if you were hitting the trails on a mountain bike or smashing out a criterium on a racing bike. It’s you versus the world.

Speed (km/h) 00

Power (Watts) 00

The Campaign Hub

A centralised campaign hub was then built, allowing fans to login with their Strava account at which point our custom algorithm would analyse their recent rides to see how far they’d gone ‘Beyond Limits’.

Their best ride was then turned into a personalised infographic, showcasing their best stats and global ranking.

Establishing a Visual Language

Working alongside additional agency partners we collaborated on how our algorithm would inform and guide the design of the custom info-graphic while still staying true to the established design guidelines of Canyon.

Award Nominated

Beyond Limits went on to be shortlisted as a finalist in two categories for the prestigious Shorty Awards:

Best Data Visualisation

Best in Sports

The Results

The campaign was launched to much aplomb by the cycling media, with it being featured in all the major International news outlets including Cycling Weekly, Road.cc & Bike Rumor.

The app was equally well received by fans with over 10,000 personalised infographics created in the first 5 days.

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