Social media generally is a horribly poisonous place these days, however often, it throws up one thing helpful. In this case, through a video posted on Threads by Canyon-sponsored athlete Mateu Cavallé, exhibiting one thing very helpful certainly. It seems to indicate an unreleased new Canyon gravel bike, presumably a brand new Grail, the German model’s gravel race bike, that includes a Canyon branded entrance suspension fork.
While the adjustments to the present Grail body look like modest, the addition of not solely a suspension fork however an own-brand mannequin is definitely important. This is the model’s first foray into its personal suspension techniques, although it has previously specced the RockShox Rudy XPLR fork on its Grizl Trail and E-gravel gravel journey bikes.
Canyon-branded suspension fork
We might as effectively kick off with what’s clearly probably the most important improvement, a Canyon branded, reverse arch, gravel-specific suspension fork. We can’t inform an amazing deal from the photographs, however given the racy leanings of the Grail mannequin, it’s a comparatively protected guess to imagine having the fork arch behind the steerer is for aero causes.
It seems to have journey of the same size to present aftermarket gravel suspension forks, so count on to see one thing within the area of 30-40mm of journey. Why go to all the difficulty of growing in-house suspension merchandise then? Well, that is hypothesis, however the shoulders and crown of the fork do bear a resemblance not solely to the present Grail fork, but additionally these of the Ultimate and Aeroad highway bikes, and it is fully potential Canyon could also be cooking up what might grow to be the primary aero suspension fork. The tube shaping of the body is much like that of its highway bikes, notably the Ultimate, and the fork crown of that bike is designed aerodynamically to work with that body.
We additionally realized that long-time suspension guru Jose Gonzalez, formally joined Canyon as director of suspension know-how final month. Though the model’s press launch targeted on the event of MTB suspension platforms, it additionally mentions collaboration with suspension manufacturers like Rock Shox, Fox and DT Swiss. It could also be honest to imagine that Gonzales had a hand in growing this new gravel fork, or on the very least that growing in-house suspension tech has been a precedence for Canyon for a while.
Is it a Canyon product fully? Well, maybe not. Back in September 2024, Bikerumour ran a narrative about DT-Swiss and Canyon collaborating on a gravel fork. The mannequin on the bike we see right here is barely completely different, with a cleaner-looking fork crown. The photographs had been of one other Canyon-sponsored athlete, Peter Schermann, who has additionally handily posted some photographs of this earlier iteration of the fork. His bars appeared to indicate an additional lever, and as he wasn’t working a dropper put up we are able to assume this was to actuate a distant lockout for the fork.
The newer photographs from Cavallé’s posted video seem to indicate this lever remaining, so we are able to infer {that a} distant lockout will likely be a characteristic on this fork.
Modest body adjustments
The fork goes to take the headlines, however can we see or infer the rest in regards to the new Grail? My colleague Tom not too long ago reviewed the present Canyon Grail, and whereas he praised it very extremely, the utmost 45mm tyre clearances do now appear a bit dated. The fork definitely appears in a position to take a bigger tyre, and whereas it might be a bit tighter, it seems that the rear finish has better tyre clearance too. Given that our personal tyre testing confirmed that wider tyres are sooner this will likely be a boon to gravel velocity fanatics.
There will undoubtedly have been some geometry tweaks over the present Grail in order that the extra size within the fork doesn’t unduly have an effect on the dealing with, however visually, these are unattainable to discern.
While the interior downtube storage appears to be remaining, the bosses into which an built-in body bag will be bolted have gone.
The cockpit additionally appears comparatively unchanged, with exterior however neatly routed hoses till the pinnacle tube and inner thereafter. This is one thing Tom praised on the previous mannequin, so it’s heartening to see it remaining.
Beyond that, it’s exhausting to inform what else is likely to be new, so for now, we must sit tight.
