Скачать или смотреть Canyon Grizl CF SLX 8 Di2 test, Tahko MTB-route!

Quick unboxing and assembly of the Canyon Grizl CF SLX 8 Di2 Gravel bike. After that, test rides partly following the Tahko MTB 60km route. Let's see what surfaces the Gravel is suitable for and where the bike's limits are?

0:01 Unboxing and assembly of the bike
1:27 Start of the riding section from Piazza (Tahko MTB route)
3:20 Kinahmi 1 climb
5:06 Descent from Kinahmi back to the road
6:20 Välimäki trail section and close chase
8:30 Remaining descents of Välimäki and end of the road section

Longer background: The idea of purchasing a Gravel bike had been on my mind since the beginning of the year, and I had already thought of a model: Canyon Grail. However, due to the very limited availability of bikes at that time, I decided to let the matter simmer and continue riding longer routes on my road bike (Canyon Endurace). In July, however, I decided to switch bikes, and as my well-maintained Endurace quickly found a new home, things progressed surprisingly smoothly.

During the spring, Canyon had released a new Gravel model, the Grizl, and I had initially set my sights on this model instead of the Grail. I was prepared for a 6-month wait to get the new bike, but surprisingly, one beautiful evening, the Canyon website showed stock of the Grizl in my size, XL! It was a more expensive model than I had previously considered (CF SLX 8 Di2), but since I valued the quick delivery in addition to the better parts, I decided to seize the opportunity. So, in less than two weeks, the idea of changing bikes materialized in the form of New Bike Day, with the handsome Grizl arriving at its new home!

Since the bike's arrival coincided nicely with our family's vacation week in Tahko, I decided to put the new bike to the test by riding a version of the Tahko MTB 60km race route. In the future, the bike will mainly see a "normal" mix of road and gravel riding, but this test ride was intended to find the bike's limits. On what kind of route would I encounter a situation that I often ran into while riding a road bike: not this way, need to find a detour? During the test ride, I got a good answer to this question; with the Grizl, such situations don't come up very easily! In Tahko, I rode a wide variety of routes with different levels of difficulty, and only a few sections required special precision or walking. For example, the Kinahmi climb, Välimäki, El Grande, and the final descent were quite comfortable on the bike, even though those sections might not be the most optimal playground for this bike.

Based on the test, the bike seems to be exactly what I was looking for: there's hardly any need to look for detours, and yet the bike is very fast on the road, gravel, and easy trails. In my opinion, Canyon makes a marketing distinction between the Grizl and the Grail (Grail = Fast, Grizl = Slower "touring bike"), but in practice, the Grizl doesn't lose to the Grail except in terms of its tires. Geometrically, the bike is even more aggressive than my previous road bike, the Endurace, so I'm looking forward to the opportunity to test the Grizl as a "road bike" with 28mm slick tires.

In summary: The Grizl seems to be a very good bike, and I suspect it will become one of Canyon's most popular models among "road-like bikes."