The new Canyon Grail caused a big splash on release, equipped with its futuristic hover bar (officially, the Grail Cockpit), it turned heads and got the keyboard warriors madly thrashing their keys. Once only sold in carbon, the Grail is now available in alloy form as the Grail AL and we've got one in for test, here's our first look at the new gravel bike.

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The alloy form of this bike was announced back in October 2018 with prices starting at just £1,099 with Tiagra and hydraulic disc brakes. Dave over at road.cc said on the release that "the launch of the Grail AL, with its regular handlebar and versatile and practical details, and not to mention the £1,099 price, mean it’s a much better choice for those looking for a do-everything road and off-road bike. It’ll be ideal for commuting, touring, Audax, gravel riding, bikepacking, just about everything and anything." 

The bike we have in for test is the Grail AL 7.0 which is priced at £1,349. For that price it is equipped with a Shimano 105 11spd 2 by drivetrain, 105 hydraulic discs, a DT Swiss C 1850 Spline wheelset, Schwalbe G-One Bite 700x40c tyres (with tan side walls) and a lot of Canyon finishing kit. The handle bars, Canyon say are newly designed by them,  provide a modest flared drop and comes in several widths right up to 46cm.

Canyon Grail AL 7.0 Detail brakes, by Dave Arthur

The frame has been constructed from double-butted 6061 aluminium and features a carbon fork, rack and mudguard mounts, fully internal cable routing, an integrated headset and press-fit bottom bracket. There are two regular water bottle mounts and a third under the downtube and there’s ample space in the front triangle, even on the smallest XS size, for a frame pack.

The geometry is largely similar to the carbon bike, but the alloy framed grail gets longer chainstays which still differ across the size range, a longer wheelbase as a consequence and different stack and reach numbers. As you can see there is a huge size range from 2XS to 2XL with the smallest bikes (2XS and XS) getting 650B wheels and 40c tyres rather than 700. Our bike is a medium and we weighed it in at 9.5kg, that's 20.7lbs in old money. 

You can read a full review of the carbon bike with all the details on the hover bar here on road.cc. For now, this alloy one is off to Dave Arthur for a full test, Dave has also ridden the carbon version of the bike so it will be interesting to see what he has to say of the two bikes. Check back soon for a full review.

• www.canyon.com

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