2024 Canyon Spectral CF
Wheel Size: 29’’ front / 29’’ or 27.5’’ rear wheel (size XS is mixed-wheel only)
Travel: 140 mm rear / 150 mm front
Geometry Highlights:
- Sizes Offered: XS, S, M, L, XL
- Headtube Angle: 64° / 64.5° (adjustable)
- Reach: 475 mm (size Medium)
- Chainstay Length: 437 mm (29’’) / 429 mm (Mullet)
Frame Material: Carbon Fiber
Price: Complete bikes starting at $3,699
Intro
Since Canyon launched the prior-generation Spectral back in 2021, Enduro bikes have only become more specialized, and they’ve grown in travel, wheelbase, etc. in pursuit of that goal (the latest version of Canyon’s 170mm-travel Strive being a prime example of that).
The prior-generation Spectral could moonlight as an Enduro race bike, but given how bikes have evolved since then, Canyon has decided to make the new Spectral CF more of a dedicated all-rounder Trail bike. And to go with a slight reduction in travel, they’ve added a bunch of new features, tweaked the suspension kinematics a bit, and much more. So let’s take a look at what they’ve been up to:
The Frame
The overall silhouette of the Spectral frame hasn’t changed a ton, but it’s an all-new bike, and the familiar shape belies a lot of notable changes on the new model.
For starters, it’s dropped in travel by 10 mm at both ends, to 140 mm rear / 150 mm front. Canyon says that, with their Strive and Torque models sitting above it in the Canyon lineup, they wanted to pull the Spectral back slightly to make it more of a true all-rounder Trail bike, instead of one that blurred the line between that class and bigger Enduro bikes to some extent.
[Canyon athlete, Jesse Melamed, raced the old Spectral at a couple of EDR World Cups last year, and he talks about his decision to do so on Ep.171 of Bikes & Big Ideas. Canyon says unequivocally that the team won’t be racing the new Spectral, but note that the frame still passes the Category 4 standard for Enduro use.
Canyon also says that they’ve dialed back the stiffness of the rear triangle a little bit to help improve ride quality, and by slimming down the new Spectral CF’s stays, heel clearance has been improved by a few millimeters. Canyon has also apparently refined the pivot hardware (which still features secondary sealing) to make it easier to reassemble, and the Spectral CF frame gets rubber protection on the chainstay, seatstay, and downtube, plus a built-in fender to keep gunk out of the main pivot area. The bottom bracket shell is still threaded, and the cables route internally, but mercifully not through the headset.
All the new Spectral CF models also come with Canyon’s Keep It Stable (K.I.S.) system. In short, the system features a pair of springs hidden inside the top tube that connect to the steerer tube via a clamp-on bracket, which help pull the bars back to center when they’re turned away from it. The spring tension is adjustable via a sliding bracket on the top tube, and while Canyon says that the overall function of the system hasn’t changed from the version they launched a little while back, they have reduced the spring tension slightly on the new Spectral CF to make the adjustment range more useable for more folks.
The K.I.S. system is fully removable and Canyon includes a blanking plate for the top tube with all Spectral CFs, should you want to do away with the whole thing. For our initial thoughts on how it performs on trail, BLISTER+ members can check out our Flash Review of the K.I.S. system.
Canyon has also developed a tool holder that attaches to the underside of new Spectral CF’s stock stem. For the time being, that tool holder is only offered as a downloadable file to 3D print yourself, but Canyon says that an injection-molded version might be available sometime down the line.
Fit & Geometry
Canyon has added an XS size to the Spectral CF size range (XS was previously only offered on the 27.5’’ version), filling out the lineup to five sizes. All get a 64° headtube angle (same as the outgoing bike); an effective seat tube angle that’s around 76.5°; and reach starting at 425 mm on the XS and growing by 25 mm per size, up to 525 mm on the XL frame.
The results of these geometry and sizing changes are that the new XS Spectral CF is a little smaller than the outgoing Small, but if you compare the same nominal sizes of each version, the new bike is a little longer in terms of reach, effective top tube, and stack than the outgoing one. The new Spectral now runs quite long in terms of reach and effective top tube if you go purely off the nominal sizing (e.g., the Large Spectral would be closer to the XL in a lot of other brands’ lineups). A bunch of folks are probably going to want to size down from their usual nominal size on the new Spectral.
Those stated numbers are all in the Spectral CF’s low flip chip setting; the high one steepens the angles by 0.5°, raises the bottom bracket by 8 mm (from 36 mm of drop relative to the front wheel), and presumably lengthens the reach slightly, though by how much is not stated.
The wheel-size flip chip at the dropout pivot toggles between a 437 mm chainstay length (29’’ rear wheel) and a 429 mm one (27.5’’ rear), while leaving the geometry otherwise unchanged. Those numbers are short-ish as a 29er (especially in the bigger sizes) and very short with the smaller rear wheel. But, by and large, the geometry of the Spectral CF looks pretty normal and well-sorted for a modern all-rounder Trail bike.
The Builds
Canyon is launching the new Spectral CF in four different builds, all of which can be had with either a 27.5’’ or 29’’ rear wheel (apart from XS-sized bikes, which are mixed wheels only).
Canyon is currently only offering the Spectral CF7 and CF8 CLLCTV in the US, and only in the 29er variants (which means that XS folks are left out for now). The other versions will be available elsewhere; you can check the Canyon website in your country to see what’s on offer.
The highlights of the builds are below:
- Drivetrain: Shimano SLX
- Brakes: Shimano SLX 4-piston w/ 203 mm rotors
- Fork: Fox 36 Rhythm, 150 mm
- Shock: Fox Float X Performance
- Wheels: DT Swiss M1900
- Dropper Post: Canyon G5
- Drivetrain: Shimano XT w/ SLX cassette and cranks
- Brakes: Shimano XT 4-piston w/ 203 mm rotors
- Fork: Fox 36 Performance Elite, 150 mm
- Shock: Fox DHX Performance
- Wheels: DT Swiss E1900
- Dropper Post: Canyon G5
- Drivetrain: SRAM GX Transmission
- Brakes: SRAM Code RSC w/ 200 mm rotors
- Fork: RockShox Lyrik Ultimate
- Shock: RockShox Super Deluxe Ultimate
- Wheels: DT Swiss XM1700
- Dropper Post: Canyon G5
- Drivetrain: SRAM XX Transmission
- Brakes: SRAM Code RSC w/ 200 mm rotors
- Fork: Fox 36 Factory
- Shock: Fox Float X Factory
- Wheels: DT Swiss XMC1200
- Dropper Post: Canyon G5
Some Questions / Things We’re Curious About
(1) How much has the on-trail performance of the new Spectral CF changed compared to the outgoing one (which we liked quite a bit)?
(2) How much does the Spectral CF’s swappable rear-wheel size change the character of the new bike? We’ve found mixed-wheel size bikes to make chainstays feel shorter than full 29ers with similar measurements, so does the fact that the Spectral CF’s chainstay length drops substantially with the smaller wheel feel like a big change?
(3) And how noticeable are the tweaks Canyon has made to the new bike’s suspension kinematics and frame ride quality?
Bottom Line (For Now)
Canyon looks to have given the Spectral more of a sensible refresh than a dramatic overhaul, but they’ve added a bunch of new features and made tweaks that seem well-considered for their goal of making the Spectral more of a true do-it-all Trail bike. It’ll be interesting to see how those changes have panned out, and we’ll report back if and when we’re able to get on one to find out.
These look like nice “swiss army knife” trail bikes, but they are coming in seriously heavy.
Question the need to build a trail bike frame to EWS standards.