CX / Gravel Canyon Grail

Was talking to a Canyon rep yesterday at the Bike Motion Fair in Utrecht and he told me that Canyon is working hard to release a gravel racer in the first quarter of 2017.

Together with the AL disc brake version of the Endurace SLX that is the second scoop in a week from the Germany company.

UPDATE: Not officially announced but the Canyon Gravelbike will be released in the spring of 2018. More soon...
UPDATE: The wait is over, The Canyon Grail is here

 

Ideally I need two bikes for each surface or occasion

 

Weird, was emailing with Canyon today and now they more or less deny the gravel bike coming.

Damn, was really looking forward to one.

 

I hoped for an announcement during the Velofollies expo this weekend in Belgium but no luck, still nothing.

 

Nope returned it after two weeks as I coudn't ride this winter on skinny tires. Glad I did as the roads have been crap from the moment I received it until a long time from now. Might pick it up in April again when the weather gets better.

 

Mother nature blocked my ambitious riding plan for this winter. Nothing wrong with the bike as it's the best I have ridden on so far but i am not going to ride with skinny tires without mudguards with all this rain we are having here for the last months.

You can't use the bike for 30 days and then send it back. Canyon offers this 30 day return policy for acceptable usage. I drove 27km on it so they can still sell it as almost unused. What they will not allow is riding it daily for a month and then conclude that the bike isn't a good fit.

 

Oh they will as I have been waiting for almost 1.5 years for this bike to be released. Can't be long now.

Oh man, I am going to be utterly disappointed if the bike is nothing of my liking haha.

 

According to Canyon they are not planning to bring the new bike to the Bikemotion fair in Utrecht next week (yet).

It's becoming a joke really how long this takes.

 

No and they start to be secretive about it again which isn't a good thing. Can't understand why it's taking them two years to deliver on a promise and release the damn thing.

Maybe they are waiting on a new SRAM "road" groupset?

 

Well well well after two years of waiting it's finally here. The Canyon Grail, gravel bike.

No 1x SRAM groupsets, no aluminium version until the 2019 year, hideous looking cockpit (unless it starts to grow on me). But a good looking bike if you ignore the first part of this sentence. Very affordable also but ... meh...wow...meh...wow.. Can't decide.

Your thoughts?

 

I am on the fence at the moment. From certain angles the bike looks absolutely amazing and from other viewpoints the handlebar looks hideous.

In my point of view it's missing quite a few things for a gravel bike. No 3rd bottle mount under the downtube. 700c tires can only take a tirewidth of 42mm, no 1x drivetrain from SRAM or Shimano, no aluminium version either. I really fear i'll wreck carbon with my giant body.