Colin and Jena review the 2024 Canyon Grail

With the latest generation Grail, Canyon has placed it firmly in the camp of a gravel racer while also aiming to put some daylight between it and the more adventure-focused Grizl.

While the double-decker handlebar and proprietary front end are abandoned in favour of something a little more conventional—with some caveats—and speed-focused design language, there are still provisions for fenders, bags, and bolt-on accessories.

With a few gravel events on the calendar, we organised a Canyon Grail CF SL 7 to see if Canyon has righted the ship or created something equally as weird.

We did a first look at the Canyon Grail a little while back you hit the link to read more

Related:

• New Shimano GRX 820 12-Speed Review | Boring but brilliant
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• 2023 Focus Atlas Review | A burly gravel bike best suited for big adventures

An overview of the Canyon Grail CF SL 7

Canyon designed the Grail to go as fast as humanly possible on gravel roads. Just about every tube on the bike features some sort of aerodynamic shaping, which is claimed to slice through the air more efficiently than its predecessor.

Canyon offers the Grail in three versions: CFR, SLX, and CF. The top two tiers also get in-frame storage. We have the CF model, which utilises the lowest grade of carbon and does not have the trap door to hide your spares and tools in the downtube. All up this build equipped with a 2×12 Shimano GRX groupset and alloy DT Swiss wheels tipped our scales at 9.21kg.

Despite Canyon pitching the Grail as a race bike, it’s comfortably equipped with a range of fender and luggage mounts. One notable omission, however, is bosses on the fork, but Canyon has a solution for that called its Load Fork Sleeves. As the name suggests, these sleeves slip onto the fork legs and add a three-pack of bosses with a 1.5kg weight limit.

In among those mounts there is the option for a nifty Fidlock frame bag that attaches to three little magnetic nubs which have their own threaded bosses in the frame. Interestingly, Canyon says installing the bag makes the frame a bit more aero. Unfortunately, it does not come with the bike and needs to be purchased separately.

Canyon says the max tyre clearance on this bike is 42mm, which is the same as its predecessor, however that figure is with fenders installed.  If you’re worried that you can’t fit something wider, the Grizl — which has a stated max clearance of 50mm — may be a better option for you.

In that same vein, along with the tyre clearance, Canyon has managed to make room for 52/36T chainrings without any weird spacing or dropping chainstays.

Bye-bye double-decker, hello one-piece bar and stem

At the top, I mentioned that the front end had become a little more conventional, albeit with some caveats.The biplane handlebars and extremely proprietary fork and steerer have been replaced by Canyon’s new Double Drop one-piece bar and stem and a standard 1⅛in steerer.

There is quite a bit of shaping happening here, with the tops seeing a 5º backsweep and a 16º flair at the drops. The tops themselves have a broad upper edge, which is comfy for just cruising. For my hands and wrists, the hoods and drops offer a comfortable locked-in feel.

At 42mm wide at the hoods (measured centre-to-centre), this bucks the aero trend of the rest of the bike as a narrower hand position is well established to put your body in a position to punch a smaller hole in the wind. My preference for gravel, however puts handling and comfort above a drag coefficient and, so the wider bar was much appreciated.

But if you don’t like the dimension of the bar or want a shorter or longer stem, you’ll have to swap in an entirely different unit. While Canyon does offer a Double Drop cockpit in a range of sizes and stem lengths, the 1 1/8in steerer means you can use any bar and stem you want.

Canyon Grail CF geometry and fit

Putting the second-generation Grail to its predecessor makes it a bit longer. In our size small test bike, the reach has grown by 6mm, the top tube is 20mm longer, and the wheelbase has been bumped up to 1,034mm. Even with the exact same 425mm chain stays, that’s 10mm longer than the equivalent Scott Addict Gravel we just reviewed.

While the head angle is only half a degree different, Canyon has tweaked the fork rake to maintain the same 69mm trail figure across the range.

Given this is a race bike, it should come as no surprise the front end is low, and there were quite a few spacers below the stem that would allow for a position well beyond my flexibility.

I should also note that even with the cleats pushed almost as far back as they would go in my shoes, I did not experience any toe overlap with our size small tester, something that often goes under-appreciated.

This, however, brings up another point, and that is the overall sizing. At 175cm tall with an 83cm inseam, I am squarely a medium in just about every brand. For the Grail however that would have been WAY too big. To its credit, Canyon does recommend a small frame for someone of my dimensions; however, take this as a reminder to double-check.

What we liked about the Canyon Grail

The new Grail is about as similar to its predecessor as a frog and an orange, and in the best way. By far the biggest standout is the handling. While it’s a little drowsy on the tarmac, once you leave the pavement, the Grail comes into its own.

That extra length brings with it plenty of stability, especially when things get rough, but it is still decisive enough to pick your lines — or change your mind mid corner.

I took this bike to goodnessgravel Glen Innes and found myself chasing folks riding mountain bikes on the gravel descents without a second thought. Fortunately, I didn’t find myself in a situation where I ran out of grip and skill, and I’d attribute the lion’s share of that to the way the Grail behaves itself.

That extra length was also much appreciated after many hours when your attention is a bit less sharp and provides some forgiveness when you come into a rough corner with way too much heat. On the flip side this is not a gravel bike that can double as a CX racer, and on tight singletrack you do notice the long wheelbase.

On the pedals, the Grail is reactive and enthusiastic, and there is nothing lost to flex in the frame. The new Grail is most definitely one of the stiffer gravel bikes I’ve pedalled to date, and you do well and truly feel that in your lower back six hours into a ride.

I am also stoked to see Canyon employ SRAM’s UDH at the back. I am in the midst of a spate of bad luck, having KO’d two derailleurs and a non-UDH hanger on my personal bikes in the space of a month. While I can appreciate the ability to run T-Type Transmission, having just been through trying to dig out a part number to find the correct hanger, the convenience of popping into any bike shop and finding what I need is worthy of praise.

What we did not like

While there is an argument for stiffness in a race bike, the Grail is quite firm — perhaps even a little bit much. There is something to be said for frame rigidity when you’re head down munching stem on champagne gravel, but it’s an entirely different story when you’re pinging off rocks and bouncing over corrugations many hours into the day while still trying to chase onto the back of a group — or simply survive and keep moving forward.

While the D-shaped seat post does deflect when you ride through the rough, it doesn’t match Canyon’s VCLS leaf spring seatpost that came on the old one. The proprietary post also means there is no option for a dropper; as far as I can tell on the Canyon website, there is no 0mm offset version available.

Moving forward, it would be remiss not to mention the headset cable routing. It’s there, I wish it wasn’t, but unfortunately the number of bikes without it seems to be steadily decreasing. For what it’s worth, there is more sealing around the upper and lower bearings and cable ports than we usually see, which will hopefully extend their life. But that’s only a small consolation when those bearings eventually die, and you have to disconnect everything to replace them.

It’s also a disappointment that the frame storage has not trickled down to the CF-level Grail frames. It costs money to engineer holes into bike frames, and the CF Grails are the most affordable of the bunch, so some compromises had to be made somewhere. But given the flashy video and the amount of space on the Grail page on Canyon’s website devoted to internal storage, it’s a shame that it didn’t make the cut.

Canyon Grail component highs and lows

I’ve already addressed the lack of adjustability that comes along with the one-piece cockpit, however, I did like the way it felt. On the CF models, Canyon has equipped the lower-end CP0045 version of the Double Drop cockpit. This misses out on the Gear Groove, which is a nifty mounting interface for computers, lights and even aero bars.

Funny enough, Canyon included the Gear Groove computer mount in the box with our test bike, which unfortunately didn’t fit.

Turning the gears was Shimano’s new 12-speed GRX. I reviewed the 1x Unstoppable trim, however this is my first interaction with the 2×12 Undroppable spec. Ridiculous names aside, it works very well; the shifting is precise and with a positive lever feel — even with the lower-end GRX 610 levers.

With a 46/30T chainset and a 34-11T cassette, there is ample range to winch your way up steep and technical climbs. However, the 105-level cluster misses out on the Hyperglide+ ramping machined into the cogs. The difference in the way the chain dances up and down the cassette is noticeable, especially when shifting under power.

While the majority of the parts come from the lower-end GRX 610 range, both derailleurs are the flashy GRX 820 versions. Typically, we’d rather see higher-end shifters and a cheaper derailleur. However, at the time of writing, there are no 610-level 12-speed derailleurs, so with that in mind, Canyon’s money-saving efforts here are commendable.

Rolling stock is a set of DT Swiss Gravel LN hoops. On the whole, they aren’t particularly remarkable, but they do come with the brand’s Ratchet LN — the entry-level of the brand’s Star Ratchet freehubs.

Those unremarkable wheels, however, are packaged in a set of 700x40mm Schwalbe G-One R Tires. The standard G-Ones are probably my favourite gravel tyres, and I use them on my personal gravel bike; however, the G-One Rs roll significantly faster and provide more grip.

Flow’s Verdict

Canyon’s new Grail is one classy gravel bike. Everything else aside, the German outfit has nailed the geometry for a bike that is forgiving enough to keep you upright when you make a braindead mistake many hours into a bike ride but isn’t so slow and boring that it will put you asleep at the wheel. With the Grail shifting more into the racing category, it also helps to put a bit more daylight between it and Canyon’s other gravel bike, the Grizl. While the Grail does have some mounts for luggage and full coverage fenders, for bike packing and adventure riding, the additional tyre clearance the Grizl offers makes it far more fit for purpose.

Put simply, if you’re looking for a go-fast gravel bike, it would be hard to look past the Grail. Yes, it is firm and quite stiff, but it’s not unusual for a bike in this category.

Priced at $4,199 AUD plus another $199 AUD for shipping, the Grail CF SL offers a lot of bikes for the money — it’s cheaper than the frameset of the Scott Addict Gravel we just tested. If you want the in-frame storage that comes on the SLX level frames, it’s at least a $3,000 AUD jump in price — albeit with carbon wheels and electronic shifting. Whether that’s worth the extra dosh will be entirely up to you.

ABOUT THE REVIEWER - Colin Levitch

Hometown

Gold Coast, QLD

Height

175cm

Weight

72kg

RIDING STYLE

Aggressively mediocre