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New Canyon Grail:ON is an electric gravel bike you’ll wish you could afford

Canyon Cycles has just introduced their premium new electric gravel bike known as the Canyon Grail:ON. Situated in the quickly growing category of electric gravel bikes, it rocks enough high-end components to draw the gaze of even the staunchest of non- e-cyclists.

Canyon Cycles is a direct-to-consumer bike company, a business model that has been popularized by leading e-bike companies in the US for over a decade.

But unlike most other direct-to-consumer e-bike companies, Canyon Cycles offers very high-end bikes with some very high-end prices.

Take the company’s newest gravel e-bike, the Canyon Grail:ON.

Canyon Grail:ON electric gravel bike announced

The Canyon Grail:ON features a carbon fiber frame and weighs as little as 35 lb (15.8 kg) in its lightest form.

While that’s still portly for a standard gravel bike, it’s extremely light compared to most electric bicycles that usually weigh at least 50% more. Heck, I’ve ridden e-bikes weighing 100 lb (44 kg) and quite a few that were close to it.

For power, the Canyon Grail:ON is rocking a Bosch Performance Line CX Gen4 motor, the newest powerhouse from Bosch that pumps out 85 Nm of torque. The motor also provides assist at up to 340% of the rider’s input.

The maximum powered speed is 20 mph (32 km/h), which keeps the bike legal as a Class 1 electric bike in the US. Riders can hit higher speeds with additional pedal effort, but the motor won’t give any extra assist past 20 mph.

The Bosch motor gets paired with a Bosch 500Wh Powertube battery concealed in the bike’s downtube.

Canyon claims the battery will provide up to 80 miles (128 km) of range. That might be possible in the very lowest pedal assist mode, though range is notoriously variable, especially when riding in the off-road conditions that the Canyon Grail:ON was designed for.

Speaking of off-road, the Grail:ON doesn’t feature frame or fork suspension, which is true of nearly all gravel bikes. But it does use an innovative seat post sporting leaf spring suspension, so at least you and your valuables get some suspension relief.

The bike also features high-volume tires, another staple of gravel bikes that helps take some of the shock out of rougher trails.

Unlike most e-bikes, the Canyon Grail:ON is available in a wide range of sizes from 2XS all the way up to 2XL, and the smaller sizes feature smaller 650b wheels to keep the handling snappy in a smaller form factor.

I hope you’re sitting down for the price, though. The Canyon Grail:ON starts at US$5,799 for the Shimano GRX drivetrain-equipped model, and reaches up to US$6,999 for the Grail:ON CF 8 eTap that comes with electronic SRAM Force AXS eTap shifting and carbon fiber wheels to match the carbon fiber frame.

Electrek’s Take

Sure, it’s expensive. But it’s also a rockin’ bike that I’d love to ride. Gravel bikes are a ton of fun and combine the feel of a fitness road-bike with the unbridled joy and tearing it up on trails.

Until a few months ago, when COVID-19 turned the bicycle industry on its head, gravel bikes and e-bikes were the only two categories of bicycles not seeing declining sales. Instead, sales of both were the only two signs of growth in the cycling industry.

And so the merger of the two has proven quite popular, with many brands rolling out interesting new gravel e-bikes.

One of my favorites so far has been the Yamaha Wabash, seen in the video below. The freedom of riding anywhere, even when the road ends and the trailhead begins, is just so much fun. That’s a huge part of why gravel bikes have become so popular. And so if enough people are willing to shell out for a high-spec gravel bike like the Canyon Grail:ON, then we could be seeing many more like this soon.

 

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Author

Avatar for Micah Toll Micah Toll

Micah Toll is a personal electric vehicle enthusiast, battery nerd, and author of the Amazon #1 bestselling books DIY Lithium Batteries, DIY Solar Power, The Ultimate DIY Ebike Guide and The Electric Bike Manifesto.

The e-bikes that make up Micah’s current daily drivers are the $999 Lectric XP 2.0, the $1,095 Ride1Up Roadster V2, the $1,199 Rad Power Bikes RadMission, and the $3,299 Priority Current. But it’s a pretty evolving list these days.

You can send Micah tips at Micah@electrek.co, or find him on Twitter, Instagram, or TikTok.