Grail or Grizl: Which gravel bike is best for you?

When riding gravel and rocky terrain, comfort is essential and your tires bear the brunt of smoothing out the lumps and bumps. The first major difference you'll notice between the two bikes is their tire clearance. While the Grail's 40 mm tires make it the ideal choice for splitting duty between tarmac and gravel, the Grizl's standard 45 mm tires really enable you to explore your wildest local trails for the ultimate adventure.

Over the years, our colleagues in the mountain bike department have passionately debated the benefits of various wheel sizes for the rider. Thankfully, most mountain bikers are in agreement that bigger wheels are faster and roll better. However, we’re big fans of creating a bike that handles proportionally to your body size. For this reason, smaller Grail and Grizl bikes (2XS and XS) come with a 650B setup, while the rest of the fleet come with 700C wheels.

Despite the wheel size difference, the maximum tire clearance is the same: 50 mm.

For a long time, the Canyon Grail has been the bike of choice for overnight bikepacking trips because of its capability to ride most surfaces very well. You can strap bikepacking bags to the frame and ride to your heart’s content. Lightweight and compact bikepacking gear means anything is possible.

What if you want to avoid traffic and escape on an off-grid adventure though?

This is where the Grizl comes in. With the optimal number of mounting points, the Grizl can carry everything you need for a multi-day expedition. The fork has three mounting points for gear cages or extra water bottles. Within the main frame triangle, you’ll find mounts for a more stable top tube bag as well as a third bottle cage underneath the downtube (except CF SLX models).

For the launch of the Grizl, we collaborated with renowned bikepacking bag experts Apidura for a unique set of Grizl-specific bags that’ll get you started with your adventure.

Rough terrain requires stability, responsiveness and clearance for wider tires. We launched the Grail with an incredibly balanced geometry to promote speed on the tarmac while providing the ability to cope with gravel and more technical surfaces. A more upright position while riding promotes comfort and control, two very important qualities in gravel bikes.

You heard right! The Grizl is compatible with a dropper post should you wish to explore untamed trails and roads. They’re great for descending and many mountain bikers wouldn’t be without one. Dropper posts allow you to shift your weight even further over the rear wheel for better balance and stability over technical terrain.

A loaded bike can be cumbersome to control if the weight isn’t distributed evenly. On fast technical descents, you’ll feel more confident without the saddle hindering movement around the bike.

If you thought we were done revolutionising gravel riding with dropper posts, we’ve got more where that came from.

Sometimes taking the road less traveled leaves us on some unexpected singletrack. What if we told you that you can switch your rigid fork for a suspension fork and enjoy the unexpected like never before?

Some will say the Grizl could be considered a drop bar mountain bike, but all we’ll say is there’s not much this bike can’t do. If you do end up switching your fork, tag us in your pictures on social media - we’d love to see what this bike is capable of out in the wild.

All things considered, you really can’t go wrong with either bike. Of course we love them both equally but we know where their strengths lie.