Foldable Bikes Party: Canyon Spectral AL 9.9

Thursday, 8 October 2015

Canyon Spectral AL 9.9

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Canyon was one of the first brands to deliver buy-direct bargains in a big way, and its experience with this business model is apparent. But while the 650b wheeled Spectral has become immensely popular, the 29er version has dodged the limelight by comparison.

Highs: Impressively fast; Pike fork and Cane Creek shock perform brilliantly; top-end parts for the price
Lows: Geometry is conservative; noisy 2x10 gearing can be offputting; shock has proven unreliable in the past – though we had no issues
Buy if: The fit works for you and you're not all about aggressive cornering

Frame and equipment: flashy kit but geometry won't suit everyone

The Spectral uses a Horst link four-bar design to deliver its 130mm (5.1in) of rear wheel travel in a controlled and pedalling-efficient manner that works well with the Cane Creek shock. The hydroformed frame felt plenty stiff throughout testing, and ISCG-05 tabs allow for a chain guide to be fitted. Canyon’s own rear thru-axle design keeps weight down but requires fiddling with an Allen key to remove. The frame reach is on the short side, and at 545mm in the XL size, the seat tube is tall, which prevents upsizing.

Even a 70mm stem wasn't enough to alleviate the too-short cockpit

The combination of Canyon’s huge buying power and direct sales approach ensures the Spectral is decked out with a flashy spec for the price. Highlights include a market-leading RockShox Reverb Stealth dropper, superb Pike RCT3 fork and powerful SRAM Guide RS brakes. The Cane Creek DBInline shock is a top performer once set up properly too, though it has had reliability issues in the past.

DT Swiss’s XM 1501 SPLINE wheels are surprisingly stiff, but the 2.4in Continental treads fitted here are prone to carcass roll when pushed hard. The 2x10 SRAM X0 gearing gives a huge range of ratios, and the integrated chain guide kept our chain on track throughout the test period, though it did rattle when battering over rough ground. The 740mm bar could be wider but the 70mm stem is a necessary evil due to the short reach.