Canyon Strive rolls out in 29"
Canyon's popular enduro platform has had a facelift - and it's rolling large in 2019.
The Canyon Strive has been championed as a big-travel bike that did things a little differently. Thanks to their ShapeShifter switch, riders could make sure their enduro/all-mountain bike could not only descend with the surefootedness of a long and slack gravity bike, but it could be steepened and firmed up for the climbs as well.
Here's our review of the original Canyon Strive.
Times change, and the Canyon we rode in 2015 looks a bit out of date when compared to a modern all-mountain or enduro bike. And that's why Canyon took all the good bits from the Strive and updated the geometry and suspension, and improved the ShapeShifter technology.
The shape of the new Canyon Strive
So there are a few big changes. The obvious is wheel size, as the Strive moves to 29". Bigger can be faster and plenty of people prefer it. Canyon made the switch after extensive testing with their enduro team.
Canyon also rejigged the geometry, extending the reach, and slackening the head angle to 66 degrees. The seat angle is 73.5 degrees and travel is 150mm with chainstays at 435mm across all four sizes. Axle spacing is Boost, which is an update, and forks run shorter offset for 29" bikes – 44mm on Fox-equipped models and 42mm on the RockShox equipped model. The ShapeShifter steepens both the head and seat angle by 1.5 degrees, drop suspension to 135mm and lifts the BB height.
WTF is ShapeShifter?
The ShapeShifter is a switch that lets you change the position of your rear shock within the linkage. Basically you open a hydraulic spring when pressing a lever, that moves the position with another alloy link. So it's not really anything to do with your shock exactly, more with how the shock sits within the link and therefore how the suspension performs and the geometry of the bike.
The previous ShapeShifter was an over the bar lever, and you needed to press it and compress the suspension and shift your weight back to get into the DH setting. Now, you press the under the bar lever and the first thing you hit pushes the shock into the DH position. Getting it into the XC position needs a push of the lever and a weight shift forward. The dropper lever is just underneath the new controls.
There are a few changes throughout, like wide rims, all bikes come stock as 1x and with clearance for long dropper posts.
Canyon Strive models
There are 6 models of Canyon Strive available, plus a frame set. Pricing starts at $4349 for the Canyon Strive CF 5.0, and goes up to $10199 for the Canyon Strive CFR (it's a 300g lighter frame) 9.0 LTD. That same frame can be bought for $4349.
There's a whole lot more details on the Canyon website, but the pricing is sharp and the changes to this model makes the new Strive look really promising.
