We recently reviewed the 27.5″ aluminum Canyon Spectral, and today the brand has a fully redesigned carbon 29er to offer. This fresh frame squishes a full 150mm at the rear axle with 150 or 160mm of traction-grabbing fun through the fork.
With the success of the prior model, a few things carry over, including the flip-chip for adjustable geometry. This may sound like a skipping record to the tune of longer-clip-slacker-clip-steeper-clip. The bike has a 64° head tube angle in the low position with a 160mm fork, a 65° HTA in the high position with a balanced 150mm fork, and the flip changes the HTA by 0.5° if the fork length remains constant. The bike also gets longer to add stability, with a 460mm reach measurement on the size medium that increases or decreases by 25mm between sizes. Chain stays remain 437mm long across the size run, and the seat tube angle leans in at 76° in the low position with a 160mm fork or 77° in the high position with a 150mm travel up front. To keep the record clipping, all of the bikes receive shorter seat tubes to accommodate shorter riders and longer dropper posts. This is the sort of skipping record that we wanna listen to.
On the suspension front Canyon claims to have kept as much of the lively climbing and descending character that the bike is known for while optimizing it for a larger wheel platform. They increased the anti-squat for improved pedaling efficiency and made it a little more progressive to deal with the often higher speeds 29″ hoops are known to favor. While the bike was designed around an air-sprung shock, Canyon says it will work fine with a coil, however, some large coil shocks will forego the frame’s water bottle spacing.
Finally, Canyon added replaceable thread inserts in the frame, so stripping out a bolt no longer means a massive repair job. The threaded 73mm bottom bracket, double-sealed pivot bearings, and internally-guided cable routing should have home mechanics stoked to work on this whip.
Three models will be available in the US, ranging from $3,699 to $5,699, while the four EU models span a price range from €3,299 to €5,999. Head over to the Canyon website for further details and build kit specs.
