Product news: Canyon Spectral WMN – women's trail bike with new geometry and kinematics

Product news: With the Canyon Spectral WMN, the direct seller from Koblenz presents the women's version of its new trail bike for 2018. With new geometry, adapted kinematics and five models in aluminum and carbon, Canyon shows that they are serious about the WMN models.

It's only been a few weeks since Canyon gave their venerable Spectral trail bike a complete overhaul for the 2018 model year. Completely new frame with kinematics derived from the DH-Boliden Sender, mid-fat tires and of course a modern geometry. Now, before the real start of the season, the Canyon Spectral WMN is being pushed along: five models that are specially tailored to the requirements and needs of women.

While women's bikes elsewhere are often nothing more than the well-known men's models with clichéd floral patterns, in Koblenz a lot of thought has been given and cuts have been made in several areas - from the rear end to the geometry to the equipment. The wheel size has been retained: 27,5″ with 2,6″ tires in all configurations except one should offer the right balance between traction and propulsion. Everything stays the same when it comes to spring travel – 140mm at the rear, 150mm at the front.

Canyon Spectral WMN 2018: Adjusted geometry

With every fully there are two factors that have a decisive influence on the riding experience: Geometry and rear end. The interaction of both gives the bike its individual character. In terms of geometry, a lot has happened in the MTB market in recent years; Flatter steering angles and long main frames are all the rage. However, the topic is extremely complex and, strictly speaking, there is no such thing as good or bad - just a suitable or inappropriate geometry. On the one hand suitable for the area of ​​use of the bike, but on the other hand of course also for the rider. With different frame sizes, the manufacturers then try to offer suitable bikes for the widest possible group of buyers.

However, it can be said in general that men and women have different anatomical requirements: Women generally have a slightly shorter upper body in relation to the step length, narrower shoulders and shorter arms - in addition, they are also on average below the men in terms of weight. Of course, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t any women out there who can feel comfortable on a men’s bike, but the dimensions of men’s frames are simply not optimal for the majority of the female sex.

For the development of the Canyon Spectral WMN frame, the designers at Canyon were able to access numerous data sets from the in-house sizing tool on the Canyon website. Here you select your sex and enter the most important body measurements into a calculator, which in turn spits out a size recommendation. In the past, nearly 70.000 women have used this tool and it is precisely this data that helped the developers of the Spectral WMN to precisely identify the crucial size differences between men and women and to adjust the geometry of the frame accordingly.

The result: The frame of the Spectral WMN should of course have the same playful and potent basic character of the men's Spectral, but it has been adjusted in a few crucial points.

1. reach: Since women have shorter arms in relation to their torsos, the frames of the Spectral WMN are shorter overall.
2. Bottom bracket height: The bottom bracket is lower in the smaller frame sizes: This means that small riders can also enjoy a low center of gravity.
3. standover height: With a lower top tube, even small riders still have enough room to move the bike under their body on the trail

Brand new for 2018 is the 2XS frame size, which appeals to Canyon riders taller than 148cm. The data collected by Canyon has shown that almost 80% of women are somewhere between S and XS in terms of frame size - for the outliers above and below, the new size 2XS and the M frame are still available.

Canyon Spectral WMN 2018: Space-saving kinematics for lightweights

However, the low top tube just mentioned creates some space problems for the rear shock mount. However, there was no question that this would have to be redesigned for the WMN models of the Spectrals, because the goal of the development department was to create characteristics adapted to women. The three-stage basic principle of the rear end is of course retained and is similar to that of Spectral and Torque: Nice and sensitive in the first third with a stable platform after the sag point and with a lot of progression in the last few millimeters to prevent bottoming out.

With the WMN models, however, fine adjustments have been made and a few screws have been tweaked. The rear end is a little more degressive at the very beginning of the shock absorber stroke, so it releases the spring travel faster. In this way, even light riders get a sensitive response without having to reduce the air pressure in the damper too much and risk sagging or bottoming out.

Canyon Spectral WMN 2018: models, equipment, prices

With five basic models, four of them in two colors, Canyon goes full throttle with the Spectral WMN. There will be two models made entirely of aluminum, two hybrid variants with a main frame made of carbon and rear triangle made of aluminum and the top model Spectral WMN CF 9.0 is made entirely of carbon. All models are available now directly at Canyon ordered.

Canyon Spectral WMN AL 5.0Canyon Spectral WMN AL 6.0Canyon Spectral WMN CF 7.0Canyon Spectral WMN CF 8.0Canyon Spectral WMN CF 9.0

Material main frame: Aluminium
Material rear triangle: Aluminium
suspension fork: RockShox PikeRC
Mute: RockShox Deluxe RT
Drive: Shimano SLX 2 × 11
brakes: Shimano Deore
impellers: DT Swiss M1900 Spline

Weight: 14,2kg
Price: €2.199

Material main frame: Aluminium
Material rear triangle: Aluminium
suspension fork: Fox 34 performance
Mute: Fox Float DPS Evol Performance
Drive: Sram GX Eagle
brakes: Sram Guide R
impellers: DT Swiss M1700 Spline

Weight: 13,4kg
Price: € 2.599

Material main frame: Carbon
Material rear triangle: Aluminium
suspension fork: RockShox PikeRC
Mute: RockShox Deluxe RT
Drive: Sram GX Eagle
brakes: Sram Guide R
impellers: DT Swiss M1700 Spline

Weight: 13,3kg
Price: € 2.999

Material main frame: Carbon
Material rear triangle: Aluminium
suspension fork: RockShox Pike RCT3
Mute: RockShox Deluxe RT3
Drive: Sram GX Eagle / X01 Eagle
brakes: Sram Guide RS
impellers: DT Swiss XM1501 Spline

Weight: 13,0kg
Price: € 3.699

Material main frame: Carbon
Material rear triangle: carbon
suspension fork: Fox34Factory
Mute: Fox Float DPS Factory Evo
Drive: Sram X01 Eagle
brakes: Ram Guide RSC
impellers: DT Swiss XMC1200 Spline

Weight: 12,2kg
Price: € 4.999

Web

www.canyon.com