The Canyon Grand Canyon AL 3.9 offers really impressive value for money, but if your riding aspirations extend beyond traditional cross-country excursions, you might find the handling and cockpit kit hamper more hardcore intentions.
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When it comes to the kit bolted to the Grand Canyon's well-finished aluminium frame, it's easy to see the advantage Canyon's direct sales model brings, with some well thought out components that make many other bikes at this price look a bit low-rent.
Motive force is handled via a decent Shimano drivetrain with a 9-speed block at the back paired with a trio of rings on triple up front. It's more than enough gear range to get you up and down pretty much anything, and considering this is a bike likely to be pressed into duty for everything from city commutes to hauling up proper hills, that's no bad thing. Brakes are also from Shimano, with the M315 stoppers being amongst the best of the budget bunch, despite a rather clunky and overlong brake lever.
Our large framed test bike rolls on 29" hoops, which is a good thing as the larger wheel does a good job of adding a stable feel as well as helping to roll over obstacles and slightly mute bumps on their way to the handlebar. While the Alex rims on relatively cheap Shimano hubs aren't anything flash, previous experience has shown them to be durable, especially if you keep on top of greasing the hubs.
The Schwalbe Rocket Ron tyres are less of an attraction, however. The shallow tread pattern rolls really quickly on hardpacked terrain and there's nothing wrong with them in the dry, but introduce a little water or mud to the mix and you'll need to wear your brave pants if you want to make progress. Once again, the trade-off of a bike that might see everything from real singletrack to tow-path duties is present, so budget for at least a new front tyre if you want to spend most of your time in the dirt.
At the front of the bike, you get 100mm of travel from a RockShox 30 fork. It's coil sprung, which means that it's not adjustable for rider weight without being taken apart and the spring replaced, though the rebound damping is externally adjustable. There's also a bar mounted remote that allows you to lock the fork out on smooth terrain.
Generally, it's a very solid performer, with smooth and well-controlled damping that really does help you through the rough stuff. Thanks to the long, relatively skinny legs and standard quick-release axle, it's possible to get a fair bit of twist through the fork's chassis when wrestling the front wheel in turns, but it's not a deal breaker by any means.
When it comes to handling, the Grand Canyon is very much out of the traditional cross-country bike mould, with a pretty steep 70º head angle paired with a reasonably slack 73º seat angle. While that means it's quite happy to dart from corner to corner on flatter singletrack, aided by the very respectable 13.5kg weight, it's not quite as happy if you want to push a bit harder on steeper or more technical descents. It's there that the overlong stem puts too much weight over the front and starts to hinder progress, despite the 720mm bars being an okay width.
While I'm grumbling, you do occasionally notice that the large diameter seatpost isn't as forgiving as a skinny item when sat down over the bumps, with the odd whallop up the arse if you don't get out of the saddle in time. On the flip side, it does mean moving to a dropper post at a later date is much easier. You'll also want to ditch the push-on grips for some more secure lock-on items as soon as you can afford to, but this isn't really a deal breaker at this money.
Either way, kept to sensible terrain for a sub £600 bike and the Grand Canyon is capable and quick. It picks up speed with ease and those big hoops do a decent job of ekeing out traction, tyres notwithstanding. It'll merrily jink between flat corners and it'll happily cover distance in a head-down, pedal-hard fashion that will feel very familiar to anyone that grew up on classic cross-country hardtails.
It's just a shame that with a less tiller-like stem, more relaxed geometry and maybe a smidge more travel on the fork, the Grand Canyon would have you feeling confident enough to search out technical terrain worthy of its namesake. If your ambitions end at cross-country, then there's much to recommend it, however.