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EB14: One Ride Review on Canyon’s fat Dude

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We caught up with the Canyon engineering team this afternoon at Eurobike, and they were very psyched to show us their new fatbike project that they are bringing to market.  The four-person product development team got so excited as the project developed that it ended up being the fastest carbon frame to make it through their total development process. Now they like to call the finished bike a trail bike, since it doesn’t really need to be held aside to wait for sand or snow.

Float on past the break to see the lightweight wheelset they developed with DT, some cool frame details, pricing, target weights, and our first impressions….

Canyon_Dude_Fat_bike_DTswiss_big_ride_BR2250

They figured one of the most important issues to make the bike fun to ride was to chop some weight off the wheels, so Canyon partnered with DT Swiss to develop the lightweight BR2250 rim with crazy machined out bits and the Big Ride hub. Combined with the new Jumbo Jim tire from Schwalbe (available in both 4″ and 4.8″) they were able to whittle more than 1kg out of the rolling stock without affecting durability.

Canyon_Dude_Fat_bike_DTswiss_big_ride_BR2250_machined_rim

The initial thought in developing a fat bike had been to keep it cheap and go aluminum, but after weighing the cost of developing the aluminum forgings and hydroformed tubing needed to meet the fatbike demands they realized the cost savings vs. carbon was minimal. Plus, by going with a carbon frame they were able to shave 300g off of the target aluminum bike weight. The resulting bike incorporates a bump stop headset to prevent over rotation of the bar, and has a unique dropout design to maximize tire clearance and tire compatibility, while minimizing chainstay length.

Canyon_Dude_Fat_bike_two_position_dropout

A 2-position dropout lets you run a 4″ tire in a shorter more trail friendly chainstay length, while also building in the option to run a 4.8″ tire. The ear disc brake mount also allows either a 160 or 180mm rotor, since the project engineers realized that the larger rotor ran into problems with icing in winter riding, while with the smaller rotor braking can keep it heated up enough to ensure consistent braking.

Canyon_Dude_Fat_bike_headset_stop

So what did we think of it? The lighter wheels and (relatively) shorter wheelbase with a 4″ tire really took away some of the slow feeling typical to fatbikes. Losing 1kg/2lbs of rotating mass really does make a big difference, and the extra traction of the wide footprint and low pressures is a bunch of fun. Even on wet trails the bike climbed remarkably well, and it really was a blast on flowy trails. The geometry works well, and rails turns as good as any hardtail.

Canyon_Dude_Fat_bike_E13_crank_tire_clearance

The Dude will be offered in 4 trim levels; 2 with a rigid carbon fork, and 2 with the RockShox Bluto. All bikes will come with the light DT fat wheelset and the E13 crankset which keeps Q-factor 2cm narrower than any other major option. With these key high-end bits of kit on each bike spec, the retail price range will be narrow from just less than €2000 up to ~€2500 max. The weights they quoted for the bikes were 11.8kg for the rigid bikes and 12.9kg for the Bluto-equipped. Availability is planned for the first of the year, and we expect to have a sample to test around the time we have peak snowfall in Central Europe.

More info will be available at soon Canyon.com

 

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reverend dick
9 years ago

The sound of shorter stays, versatile dropouts, clearances, and bump-stop headset(!) is musical. The new rims smell like Specialized. The bike looks fun.

California Condor
California Condor
9 years ago

Did you ask them why they refuse to enter the US market?

I can’t imagine they would be anything but wildly successful here.

gringo
gringo
9 years ago

2 grand for carbon frame / fork with DT wheelset and 5 inch tire compatibility?

sign.me.up.

makes a lot of the other recent Fat entries look pretty weak.

D Bonham
D Bonham
9 years ago

Just stop with the punny names “fat this, fat that”
All I ever hear is fat fat fat
I’ll buy a Salsa just bc they DONT use a F@t @ss name 😉

Wayne lee
9 years ago

California. They have not entered the us market because they cannot supply Europe. Their business plan calls for selling direct to consumer.

CXisfun
CXisfun
9 years ago

So Felt’s fatbike is called “Dude”, Canyon’s is called “The Dude?”.

Duder
Duder
9 years ago

Good looking bike and Spec. Are these sliding dropouts or flip chip style? I can’t tell from the photos, running SS option would be nice.

Jeff K
Jeff K
9 years ago

@California Condor, it’s a work in progress. I can tell you this much….Canyon has been in the USA as of recent looking for a place to call ‘home’. Wayne Lee is also spot on.

joseph
joseph
9 years ago

because of the consumer right in USA and New Zealand,Canyon quit from this 2 countries.

Nelson Muntz
Nelson Muntz
9 years ago

I gonna bet that price is WAAAAYYYYY off.

Charango
Charango
9 years ago

I heard a rumor that CompetitiveCyclist was going to be Canyon’s US distributor, which makes some sense, but that was over a year ago and I haven’t seen anything…

WhiteMike
WhiteMike
9 years ago

Why not make the dropouts a sliding dropout? There is a market for that, internal geared hubs and singlespeeds! Makes me angry because it’s so close to being something I would buy.

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