Eurobike 14 – Canyon Strive CF
We took a blast round the woods of Southern Germany on Canyon’s game changing Strive CF.
At first glance the Canyon Strive CF looks a lot like the other bikes in the Canyon range – sleek lines and superb components at an even better price, but look a little closer and you’ll see something strange going on at the top of the shock. This is the “shapeshifter” technology that allows you to move where the bike would sit in a catalog, at the touch of a button and on the fly – the stuff that Canyon had hidden under a cover at the first couple of rounds of the EWS earlier this year.
Hidden within the linkage at the top is a mini “dropper post” style gas shock, actuated by cable from a lever on the handlebars. This moves the top pivot of the shock by 15mm, totally changing the geometry and travel of the bike. In the top photo the bike is in XC mode – 140mm travel, 67 degree head angle and a relatively high BB. In the lower photo the bike is in DH mode – 165mm, 65.5 degree head angle and a BB nearly 20mm lower. Changing between these two modes is very simple – to go to DH mode you just squat the back end a little while pressing the lever on the bars, and to revert back to XC mode you press the button and it pops back. This took all of half a second to learn to do, and became second nature within a minute.
We were a bit concerned about how extra tech would hold up in through a British winter and quizzed the Canyon guys on the service intervals. Luckily they have all this in hand – not only have they created a rig that blasts mud and grime at their parts, but they say that when it does need a service (about once every year, perhaps longer if you look after your bike!) you get in touch, they send you a new shapeshifter, and only when that has arrived do you post your old one back to them. For the keen recreational mechanic, Avid bleed kits will fit and servicing looks pretty straightforward.
The Strive is available in CF (Carbon Fibre) and AL (Aluminium) versions to suit all needs and budgets, as well as them offering two different lengths in each size. For example, Small Race has a longer effective top tube than Small Regular, but the same back end and same seat tube height.
We’d have loved a bit longer on the Strive as it was a superb ride, and effectively two bikes for the price of one.
Tom Laws