CANYON STRIVE CFR

The all-new Strive aims to be an EWS winner straight out of the box

£6,099 / 29in / canyon.com

IIt’s been fascinating to watch the development of the Canyon Strive over the past nine years. This bespoke enduro race bike was there from the very start, achieving wins under Fabien Barel as a prototype. Then, last year, it really proved its credentials at the very highest echelons of the sport when Jack Moir rode his Strive to the overall series victory.

Job done, one might think. But one look at Moir’s winning bike shows it is very different from the one that arrives to the consumer in a box. He runs a longer-travel fork (180mm versus 170mm on the stock bike) along with a spacer under the head tube, mostly with the aim of slackening the 65° head angle. The team also ran longer-stroke shocks to free up a smidge of extra travel at the rear, while saddles were slammed as far forward as possible to compensate for the (now even slacker) seat angle. But with Canyon’s Torque and Spectral platforms now offering multiple 29er options to recreational riders, the engineering team were finally free to really hone the Strive’s racing DNA.

The result is the MY22 Strive, and it’s massive. The smallest frame gets a 455mm reach while the largest (XL) tops out at 530mm, but by incorporating adjustable headset cups and keeping seat tubes low, there’s a healthy overlap between sizes and riders can choose their frame by handling preference rather than being limited by pure saddle height. The Strive’s new size range does require some recalibration though – you’ll probably need to drop down a frame size, even if you prefer a long bike.

To fine-tune the reach, drop-in frame inserts give +/- 5mm of adjustment.

And the job is fairly quick and simple, requiring nothing more than a couple of hex keys to loosen the stem and drop the fork out. All bikes run a 63° head angle with the stock 170mm-travel fork in Shred mode, while the Shapeshifter steepens this by around 0.7° in pedal mode. Yes, Canyon claims a 1.5° offset between modes, but this is a dynamic measurement, as another 0.7° or so is accounted for by the firmer suspension and reduced sag.

It’s business as usual behind the head tube, as the Strive continues to champion the short chainstays, low BB and 29in rear wheel found on the previous bike. Actually that’s inaccurate, as the effective seat angle has been steepened considerably. In Shred mode it’s a claimed 76.5° which steepens to around 78° in Pedal mode (sagged).

There’s no mullet option with the Strive, simply because it’s a race bike and 29in wheels are faster for enduro racing. They’re ubiquitous throughout the men’s and women’s fields now, and as Canyon offers its long-travel Torque in three wheel size configurations, it decided there was no point in diluting the Strive’s focus on pure speed.

The Strive’s USP has always been