Canyon Spectral WMN CF 8.0
What the heck is a Spectral? Is it even a thing? The dictionary states that a Spectral is ‘of, or relating to a Spectrum’. How the heck does that relate to a bike? What does a spectrum have to do with cycling? Why did Canyon call it a Spectral?
Ryan Walsch tested a Canyon Spectral CF 9.0 SL about 12 months ago, and since they offer a women’s version of the bike built from the ground up with tweaks in everything from geometry to platform, suspension build and contact points – it was deemed worth looking at. In essence, Canyon have rejected the recent trend of altering the specifications on an existing unisex frame for women, and have built the Spectral WMN from the ground up.
The bike tested, the Spectral WMN 8.0, is the second from the top in the women’s line, and certainly looks the goods, but how will all this tweaking and speccing ride? Will it live up to the claims of letting me ride any trail like I have known it my whole life, allowing me to tackle the toughest trails with utmost confidence?
It’s no doubt that the 27.5”/140mm trail platform is a very popular option; trail bikes are now so light and capable enough to serve you on some of the toughest of descents, while allowing you to pedal up under your own steam without cursing like a pirate as you may have done when riding the trail bikes of 6-7 years ago. If you really want one bike to rule them all (outside of XCO and DH racing), a trail bike
with these sorts of specs is where you should be looking.
INITIAL IMPRESSIONS
Unboxing the Spectral generated similar feelings to Christmas morning. Though it’s not mine, there is something very fresh and exciting about unboxing and building a new bike and the excitement of what its potential is.
Pulling the bike from the box, the colour and aesthetics were an immediate stand out. The aquamarine colour is a show-stopper, and features a two-tones teal/aqua colour combo which is sure to turn heads. For those looking for a slightly more subdued colour the bike is offered in the slightly more subtle black/red hue of the Wild Cherry. The lines of the bike are bold but not overbuilt, and toe the line between form and function in an attractive package. The form of the bike really matches the rest of the Canyon range, from the Lux through to the Strive. The bike is built and packaged in Koblenz, Germany, to be sent, assembled and ridden. There is no rigmarole of trying to build the Spectral from the bottom up, and you need not fear bottom brackets, headset grease or anything else too technical; as long as you are handy with an allen key you should be right. In just a few minutes the dropper was fitted, bars attached, suspension pumped and I was ready to ride. Canyon supply everything that you need to do this at home and there are guides on their website – but if in doubt you can always call your local shop and ask them to do the build.
I was surprised at just how well kitted out the bike was, from cable rub-guards to the provided torque wrench and shock pump, Canyon really has the direct to consumer plug-and-play model dialled. I appreciated the small touches, like the frame protection which doubled to hide the cables on the downtube, and the screw-in frame protector located on the top tube behind the headset to eliminate the woes of having a shifter destroy your carbon frame in case of an epic flip out. These are all small features which really add up to a quality build and I found them quite impressive, having ridden and reviewed many bikes that aren’t so well-thought out.
For $5249, there is a fair amount of bike on offer especially when compared with the more boutique offerings available: the RockShox suspension, Fox Transfer Seatpost and full SRAM GX Eagle 12-speed drivetrain with highend alloy DT-Swiss wheels, aboard a carbon mainframe with alloy swing arm.
The Canyon Spectral WMN’s entirely new frame geometry caters for the typical physiological differences of women: notably longer legs, shorter torso, differences in pelvic shape and upper body strength/shoulder differences. This is reflected in both the geometry and the kit of the bike; featuring RockShox Pike/Deluxe RT3 suspension tuned for lighter riders (Canyon states that on average women are 15% lighter than men of a similar height), and feature women specific saddles, grips, and bars. Coming from a background of a. not having particularly luxuriously long legs (think wombat/corgi/ warthog pins) and b. riding mainly unisex bikes, I was interested to see how the women’s geometry Canyon has chosen translate to ride feel and capability on the trail.
RIDE TIME
The first outing on the bike took me on a three hour trip around the trails of north Brisbane, seeking the sneaky routes less travelled for a little bit more spice to test the Spectral. I immediately felt comfortable on the bike, but did notice that the reach seemed shorter than many other bikes in the trail or all-mountain category. In fact, in the women’s bikes the medium frame reach was 409mm, 10mm off the unisex version in the medium size at 419mm. The difference in the standover height between the two frames is approx 20mm, with the unisex at 763 and women’s frame at 741, and the wheelbase of the women’s frame is over a centimetre shorter. The unisex Spectral also sported an extra 10mm travel front and rear, spruiking 160/150mm respectively.
What does this mean? Well it means that for riders with what’s touted as the ‘typical’ female physiology should feel more comfortable and centred on the bike that caters for a slightly shorter reach while maintaining the a similar stack height. From the numbers alone, I was a bit unsure of how it would ride; a steady and planted enduro shredder or a lightweight trail whip, and the first ride really put this to the test. The bike excelled in the loose scree of Brisbane’s northern pirate trails: the big, fat delicious Maxxis tyres really sealed the deal for optimal traction right until the limit in the extremely dry and blown-out late summer conditions.
On the fast, steep and loose rocky descents, when it comes to speed and stability the 27.5”
Spectral would be outgunned by 29” bike of a similar travel, or something with a lower, longer geometry; but it would be debatable if this change would really add value to the funfactor on your ride unless you exclusively ride gnar; in which case you’re probably looking at the wrong rig. In those dicey situations where you did overcook it a little, the SRAM Guide RSC Brakes with burly 200mm rotors had phenomenal power and modulation to pull you up in time. It tolerated little ‘passenger’ riding and required a good amount of stability in contrast to the current batch of long, low, and deadly enduro bulldozers on the market at the moment.
The bike really excelled in the tight and twisty trails, begging to be pinned quickly between trees, and thrown around on some atypical high-lines and features. In essence, the bike was one that wanted to play, one that begged for input. In the narrow twisty trails of Bright, for example, the bike danced and whipped through the tight trees and pine needles like a dream. There were glorious moment of flow state on short, tight sections of trail. The dream.
In the bike park of Falls Creek, the 150mm/140mm platform was enough to hit everything on the black runs pretty fast, blind, with only a handful of brown-pants moments, but if I was to be racing the same trails I’d look towards a 160mm or a 29” build that’s a bit longer to make the most of the fast open trails. But Canyon pitch the Spectral range as trail and all-mountain – not an Enduro race rig.
Once dialled in, Canyon’s ‘triple phase suspension’ provided a stable pedalling platform and small bump response, while ramping up to take the bigger hits in its stride. I managed to reach the bike’s limits pushing off some 4-foot or so drops when set up with 30% sag, which I felt was reasonable for a bike in this category. I never had an awkward full bottom-out moment.
The bike was notably light for a steed of its build, aided by the lightweight DT Swiss XM1501 Spline One wheels with the just-right 30mm inner rim width. The SRAM GX build ain’t no slouch and is a reliable workhorse, though it’s far from SRAM’s halo offerings. The Canyon WMN felt incredibly quick under acceleration and climbed the long hard fireroad slogs between runs with eagerness, assisted with the small 30T chainring with the burly 10-50T cassette making spinning a breeze. There was very little discernible bob in the rear and I rarely reached for the lockout lever, it really was surprisingly efficient.
Where it was less happy, however, was climbing the more technical, steep singletrack climbs. It lacked the sure-footedness and stability or plantedness of, for example, the Yeti SB45 or even the Rocky Mountain Altitude when the gradient turned uphill. This is likely due to the slightly shorter, more upright position of the bike compared to the longer
“THE BIKE WAS ONE THAT WANTED TO PLAY, ONE THAT BEGGED FOR INPUT.”
geometry of other bikes in this category, in addition to the slack 65.9 degree head tube angle. The technical climbs required a lot more input, and a lot more wrangling of the front end, it gave you no free tickets if you chose your lines poorly. At times I was quite frustrated that a bike that had such a good climbing capacity for long firewood slogs and less technical trails was so unwieldy when it got a little tougher going up.
OUR TAKE
The Spectral certainly was a bit of an enigma and difficult to categorise, but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. The bike played in the trail like a puppy; but like a puppy could reach the point of biting off more than it can chew when it really gets a bit too wild. It handled the gnar well until a point, and with perfectly tuned suspension I managed to find the limits on a few stacked rock features and large drops made for burlier rigs. In the tighter, looser descents the bike whipped through the trail like it was on rails, but when the going got steep and fast there are definitely faster or more stable bikes on the market.
Despite this lack of long, low enduro style palmares for the Spectral, the bike excelled in less steep, more playful and tight, technical trails. It would urge you to take unorthodox lines, jump over things that could be ridden around, and launch from side to side with giddying speed, no doubt supported by the exceptional Maxxis tyre set-up and the 27.5” wheels. This, in addition to it’s lightweight nature and solid climbing ability, especially on smoother, less technical climbs, made it the ideal ride-all-day trail bike.
It would be interesting to ride the unisex version of the men’s bike and see how that compared to the women’s specific frame, certainly it was the case that we were able to set my seat height and ride away pretty pleased with the fit – and that means a lot when dealing with a brand that send you the bike directly. At 168cm Canyon recommends a small frame, yet when reviewing the geometry I selected the medium, and this was optimal, meaning that it’s important to do your sizing homework before checking out your cart full of Spectral.
Despite the shorter reach and comfortable length of the bike, the seat tube, at 440mm for the medium (these are variable each frame size) protrudes above the top tube, and thus reduces the capacity for riders with shorter legs and longer torsos to fit well on the bike. With my seat height of 70.5cm, there wasn’t much room to reduce the height of the 150mm Fox Transfer dropper; once again this is something to check before ordering.
I loved that the bike came out of the box with the goldilocks of trail riding bar widths (740mm, for me anyway) and smallercircumference Ergon grips which felt like a dream. The SDG Allure saddle was adequate, and props to Canyon for choosing a women’s specific saddle that isn’t overtly padded and angled towards the recreational market.
There were few bug-bears with the bike, everything just worked straight from the box. One small remark would be that the medium, the largest women’s frame on offer, struggled to fit a water bottle over 600ml, and even then I used a side-pull cage and did continue to rub the underside of the shock. It did seem quite a reach to the bottle for those on-the-go drinks, which, as mentioned is just a small gripe.
In the end, I realised why it was called a Spectral; this bike has many different qualities and could be your one-bike for all IF you’re not dedicated to cross-country or enduro, but happy to dabble in a little bit of everything, and enjoy riding tight technical descents and allday rides. The bike is happy to be pushed hard, but has its limits for speed and stability, and in these situations a dedicated enduro bike would be the pick. Similarly, the bike is efficient enough to get you through local cross-country loops if you’re not looking for a dedicated cross-country bike, as it climbed the tamer trails and fireroad ridiculously well for a 13kg 140mm trail bike.
I would caution riders to assess their size needs with the Canyon geometry chart in addition to their height recommendation, as our experience and most feedback we’ve had from others who have ridden the same bike is that sizing tends to be on the small side, especially when the long seat tube is taken into account, but they can rest assured that when their bike arrives, they can be on the trail in a matter of minutes with a complete build that needs no tweaking, bar cutting or major spec adjustments to get you shredding as soon as possible.
Overall, I think that the Spectral is a fantastic bike for most women: the everyday riders that enjoy a mixture of cross country as well as gnarlier trails, but will trade absolute speed on the gnarlier stuff for a package that you can ride all day.