**Diclaimer - I'm still editing and finalizing my thoughts below, if you happen to get here early. Welcome! :)
Canyon recently announced the new Grizl Escape lineup and immediately I was intrigued. I’m a bit of an aspiring bikepacker that has at this point only done a few solo trips near my home in Southwest Missouri. However, recently I’ve found myself yearning for a bigger scale, more rugged adventure.
I did those short trips on a 2019 Trek Checkpoint SL7, and for the most part had a blast. My Checkpoint however was not set up very great for the more gnarly trips that I wanted to do. It was set up with gravel racing in mind - which I don’t find myself doing much anymore. I even failed and bailed an attempt on the Arkansas High Country Route almost halfway through. This was due to the bike, my lack of experience, and overpacking. Honestly the bike was probably not the biggest factor, but it definitely limited me. So I sold the Checkpoint and found myself debating between a Salsa Cutthroat and the new Canyon Grizl Escape.
Limited tire clearance(45mm max), older Di2 back derailleur which would only officially go up to a 40t, not to mention the previous owner chopped the steer tube. Which I loved for racing, just don’t find myself doing that as much lately. Thanks for the memories Trek - lovely bike and you will be missed.
I decided I wanted the Grizl Escape. My road bike is an Aeroad CFR and I bought my wife the Spectral:ON EMTB from the German company. So I had prior good experiences with the company and it’s hard to beat the value for money of their direct to consumer model.
I further decided I wanted the CF8 with their ECLIPS dynamo system. Unfortunately their website just said ‘coming soon’ for this build, the highest end model offered in the US.
“Coming soon”
I reached out to customer support and just asked the question ‘do you have any idea when these will be in stock and ready to order?’
Canyon support was very nice but told me what I expected to hear. With Supply Chain and numerous other factors it could be 1 month, it could be 4 months - or more. I contemplated buying the lower end model that is darn near identical other than a couple of small things and the lack of the ECLIPS system…
Can I build my own dynamo system as well as Canyon for less than $1300? Some people sure, but I don’t know if I can!
As fate would have it though, one night while I was up late I decided to browse Canyon’s Outlet store and there was 1 singular Grizl CF 8 ESC w/ ECLIPS in stock and it happened to be in my size. It felt like fate. I pulled the trigger. The bike was $500 off($4,199) due to minor cosmetic issues. If you’re familiar with Canyon’s Outlet, all sales are final. No returns. Sure hope I like it…
Fast forward about 10 days and I’ve got a lovely Canyon box to open.
Cayon’s shipping was actually quite fast, I think it arrived only 4-5 days after I ordered it. But unfortunately I was out of town on a work trip and wasn’t able to open it up and put it together until I returned.
If you’ve never ordered from Canyon, the bikes come around 80-90% assembled. You just need to attach the handle bars, install the wheels, put on pedals of your choice, and slide in the seatpost. All while putting assembly paste and grease in the proper places of course. If you have basic mechanical knowledge of how bikes work there’s nothing to be intimidated by.
After doing a quick check of all essentials with a torque wrench, and removing some ugly plastic bits like the reflectors and dork disc - I was almost ready for a test ride.
I also decided to try out Canyon’s front rack as I really liked the look of it. I installed that and a Bontrager rear rack I had lying around. Which took some creativity and I ended up using a seatpost ring from an old Rockgeist Porcelain Rocket bag to attach the rack. I probably would’ve bought the rear rack made for this bike, more on that later, but the Bontrager one is performing fine for now.
Ultimately I bought this bike for epic bikepacking adventures and I just couldn’t wait to throw the bags on it and see how it looked / felt. Oh! I also bought and installed the Garmin mount that Canyon sells because I liked how clean it looked on the bars.
I had absolutely no issues assembling the bike other than some minor chain skip on the gears. That however, is completely normal on a new bike with fresh cables that have started to stretch. A couple of spins of the barrel adjuster and it was smooth as butter.
The full Mounty handle bars sure do look strange. But they are extremely comfortable and give tons of mounting points. I kinda like the quirkiness. I REALLY like all the hand positions.
For the first ride I decided to keep it fairly simple and close to home just in case there were any unforeseen issues. It’s also been SUPER hot here so I waited until almost dark to take off. I figured I might as well test out the Dynamo light system while I was at it.
My phone struggled in the low light with the movement - but the lights work great! No flickering, plenty of lumens to see and be seen.
With that we should probably talk about ECLIPS.
I really haven’t put this system through the ringer yet, but ECLIPS or rather Endless Charge & Lighting Integrated Power System… Yeah, let's just stick with ECLIPS. Anyways ECLIPS refers to the Lupine lights, front and rear, the 3500 mAH battery installed under an easy to access panel on the downtube, the ‘Canyon BlackBox’ which is the brain of the system and the SON 29 S Dynamo in the front wheel that generates power for the whole thing while you happily pedal along.
There’s also a neat small multitool mounted to the underside of the panel on the down tube - a neat little bonus.
The system as a whole is really neat. I’ve never owned or ridden on a bike with a Dynamo so I didn’t really know what to expect. Hop on the bike, start to pedal and boom - lights come on. It really is super convenient to know I’ll never have to plug these lights in. The SON 29 S Dynamo is also really efficient and only takes away around 3 watts from your pedal stroke to power and charge the system. Canyon says you’ll barely notice it and I can confirm. If I didn’t know I was losing 3 watts to the hub - I don’t think I would’ve noticed.
There’s a button mounted next to the front light to toggle between a high and low beam so as not to blind traffic when riding on roads. A longer press will swap it to a more dim ECO mode, and an even longer press(~3 seconds) will turn the front light off all together. I haven’t tried anything other than nicely manicured pavement in the dark yet, but I’m impressed by the front light. It gives a lot of visibility especially in the high beam mode. The light itself is a Lupine Nano SL which is mounted very nicely to the front of the Full Mounty bars.
The rear light is a bit of a different story. There’s nothing wrong with it, except for where it’s located. As soon as you strap anything to the back of this bike it’s essentially invisible. I may experiment in the future by running the wire further back and swapping it out for a light that can mount to my rear rack.. But honestly the point of buying this bike with a preinstalled system was so that I didn’t have to do things like that myself. For now - if I have any rear luggage on at all I’ll be reaching for my trusty Knog rechargeable rear light.
Yeah…. It’s turned on..
Another distinct thing missing from the rear light is a strobe mode. The Lupine C14 rear light has a small button on it that simply toggles the red light on and off with a short press. No pulsing or strobing modes. If they iterate on the Grizl Escape with ECLIPS I imagine this will be one of the first things they change fix. The location and features.
It’s nice and bright when it’s unobstructed!
There is a 2 way USB-C port on the stem. It is very conveniently located and easy to run a cable from to one of your bags, or to your GPS unit to recharge while you ride. You can charge devices using power from the Dynamo while riding, or from the 3500 mAH battery when not.
You can also recharge the internal battery by plugging it into a wall or other power source using the same 2 way port.
The app / I have no idea what my battery level is at.
The Canyon app can connect directly to the bike’s ECLIPS system via bluetooth. They even made connecting a breeze. You open the Canyon app, add your bike to your garage and it will immediately prompt you to connect to the system. You do so by following the prompts and then scanning a QR code placed near the battery access panel on the downtube, or one located on the quick start guide provided with the bike(The one on the downtube can be tricky to scan once you have a bottle cage installed, depending on frame size).
This however has been one of my main complaints about the bike so far - I CANNOT get my phone to connect to the darn system. I am a very techy guy. I know I’m not just doing something dumb. I’ve tried the troubleshooting steps repeatedly with no luck. I’ve reached out to Canyon Support but haven’t been able to get anything deeper than the included troubleshooting steps and a few things that seem very AI generated - not to mention they told me to try their AI support which I did for giggles and of course got nowhere useful. Honestly the only thing I want the connectivity for is to monitor the level of the internal battery when on longer trips. The lighting controls I can do without, I’m fine with pressing buttons. So for now I guess I’m just flying blind on battery level. I think this is how most Dynamos work anyways? I think?
I’ll update here if I get this issue sorted - if you had this issue let me know, especially if you found a fix.
Let’s talk about accessories.
Canyon has made some SUPER cool things to go along with the unique Full Mounty handle bars, and several other cool accessories for elsewhere on the bike.
There are Aero Extensions, a neat little bag with a Garmin/Wahoo mount on top that mounts perfectly into the hole on the Full Mounty bars, a bracket for strapping a dry bag securely underneath the bars, the neat and simple front rack that I purchased, GPS mounts, a rear rack, and even a custom frame bag that attaches with a unique fidlock system allowing you to quickly take it on and off the bike.
Fantastic. Personally I GOTTA have aero bars on longer gravel trips so I’ll definitely get those. Maybe I’ll pick up the rear rack and custom frame bag as well. OH WAIT. They aren’t for sale yet in the US. *Cries*
Canyon, you made some super cool looking accessories for this bike. Please let me buy them.
I literally cannot install my existing aero bars on this bike and I can’t buy the ones you made for the bike. Guess I’ll just not go on a long trip until I can buy them? I am not a patient man…
When talking to Canyon Support about the ECLIPS connectivity issues I asked about this, unsurprisingly they couldn’t tell me when these would be available in the US and just advised me to subscribe to the Canyon Newsletter to be notified when they are available.
If you’re not in the US this is a non-issue. These accessories seem to be readily available to every other market that I’ve checked including Canada.
Components
Frame
Alright I’m mostly done complaining. Let’s talk about the components, which are one of the main reasons I choose the Grizl Escape. The bike as a whole weighs a claimed 22.05 lbs (Size Medium) before starting to bolt things to it. Which is quite light for how robust this build is. 2-3 pounds lighter than most Salsa Cutthroat builds I was comparing this to.
The frame also has an abundance of mounting points, including 3 packs on the forks, plenty on the top tube, a spot for a bottle cage under the downtube, rear rack mounts, a fork crown mounting point, and plenty of extras within the main triangle.
Also I dig the Green color scheme with the camo-esque pattern. Likely not for everyone but I like it a lot.
Drivetrain
The heart of this Bikepacking machine. A mullet 1x setup with gravel GRX 40t chainring and comfy GRX Shifters alongside a GRX RD-822 12 speed rear derailleur with a 10-52 cassette.
I’m wanting to spin this rig up some mountains loaded with gear and the range on the rear derailleur is very welcome. I may even drop the front chainring down to 38t or 36t before any extremely mountainous routes.
Brakes
Not a ton to say here. Shimano Hydraulic 2 piston GRX with 160mm center lock rotors. They are strong and confidence inspiring. I expect they will be the same on steep descents loaded with gear. I’ll be testing that soon enough.
Wheels & Tires
The new aluminum DT Swiss GR1600 wheels are on this package. They aren’t going to break any weight weenie records, but they seem burly and spin well. The rear is laced to a bombproof DT Swiss 350 hub and of course the SON 29 S dynamo is in the front. They have a generous internal width of 24mm.
The included wheels are by no means bad. 45mm tubeless ready Schwalbe G-One Overland Performance tires come with this package and I think will likely suit most people looking for just a gravel bike. This bike however is marketed as a Bikepacking Beast - I wish it came with tires that were more suited to that task. I have now swapped these out for 52mm WTB Nano tires that I’ve setup tubeless. There was a puncture in the preinstalled tubeless tape that gave me some issues. I can spare a bit of my tubeless tape seeing as I got a $500 discount on the bike for cosmetic issues I can’t even find.
On the 24mm internal rims the 52mm WTB Nanos measure out to 53mm wide and there’s still room for slightly more. Canyon says max is 54mm but I’m wondering if I can squeeze in some 2.2s….(I’ll report back if I try this down the road… I’ll probably try this down the road)
Saddle & Seatpost
I don’t love the included Fizik Argo Terra X5 saddle. Not something I fault Canyon for. It’s honestly a fine saddle, but I’ll be swapping to my trusty Ergon of choice. Saddles are such a personal choice that I’m surprised they aren’t treated like pedals and don’t even come in the box.
That said, the seatpost is incredibly nice. I like how simply the saddle itself mounts to the post and you can easily adjust front/back, or up/down on the go. Tilt is a little harder to adjust with this setup. You remove the post from the bike and loosen the bolt at the end of the post that is normally inside the bike. You can then slide the two carbon pieces to tilt the saddle forward or back before locking it back in place with the same bolt. Slide the post back into the bike and you’re off. Honestly I thought I’d hate this but I actually kind of dig it. I find myself adjusting forward/back, up/down somewhat frequently on a new bike but the tilt is almost always locked in for me immediately. Just slightly nose down. Barely. This lets me set that and lock it in. Now I don’t even have to think about tilt while I play with the other variables.
Weird new(to me) system to adjust tilt that I like a lot so far!
This seat post is also raved about for being quite compliant. I can’t say that I’ve noticed that specifically - but this would be the main reason I’d buy Canyon’s Rear rack for this bike once it’s available. It may or may not, but in my mind I’ve convinced myself that the metal ring I’ve put around the seatpost for the Bontrager rear rack is hindering some of that sweet carbon flex. Canyon’s rack mounts nicely to hold on the frame instead.
How does it ride?
OK. I’m coming from a very aggressive positioned Checkpoint that was setup for racing. This thing is RELAXED. You’re quite upright in a comfortable position for all day adventuring. Which is exactly what I want, but it’s not fast. The position and everything about this bike is rugged and built for comfort and capability. If you’re looking to go fast at your local Gravel Grinder - I don’t think the Grizl Escape is what you want.
But boy is it comfy. If you’re looking for long gravel roads, some single track and adventure while being able to carry all your camping gear. This bike is worth considering. Especially when you consider Canyon’s great value. I often find myself pushing myself to my limit non-stop and not slowing down to enjoy the moment. This bike begs to be ridden at a slower pace and reminds me that it’s ok to take my time sometimes(It’s about the journey right?). I save the rest of my compliments for the conclusion.
Alright here’s where I try to put all of the things that actually stick out in my mind, good or bad, into one paragraph and summarize what I actually think about this bike.
Conclusion
I really like this bike so far. The riding position is excellent and comfortable for the type of all day riding I plan to do. The handle bar is weird but also weirdly practical.
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Mounting points are numerous.
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Large gear range out of the box.
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Powers your devices while you ride.
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Generous tire clearance.
So far I’m enthralled by these positive things to the point that my negatives aren’t weighing me down too much.
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Let me buy the accessories. Canyon please!
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Rear light placement is a bit odd(Useless).
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Stock tires don’t quite match the advertised purpose.
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Personal issues connecting to the darn app.