Like most people who’ve handed the half-century mark, I flip between fantasy and actuality in terms of my bodily health. My fantasy is that I’m as match and powerful as I used to be after I was 25. The actuality: I’m not. And whereas I wish to suppose that I might by no means change my human-powered mountain bike with an electrically powered model, Canyon’s new Spectral:On makes me really feel like I’m 25 once more. And who wouldn’t indulge that chance?
The first technology of e-MTBs I examined years in the past had been heavy beasts that felt arduous to handle on the path. But like the remainder of the ebike multiverse, off-road machines have steadily developed with lighter and smaller motors, extra highly effective batteries, and extra balanced body shapes (or a “relaxed geometry,” in bike nerd parlance) that makes for an general higher using expertise. These evolutionary steps make e-MTBs more and more tempting, particularly if I need to undertake long-haul hut journeys via the Utah backcountry into my eighties.
There are 5 variations of the 2022 Spectral:On. Compared to the earlier Spectral fashions (the unique launched in 2018), all of those new bikes have extra vary, extra energy, and a stiffer, stronger, full carbon body that seats the rider nearer to the middle-rear of the bike, an association that gives extra stability and steadiness. All are mullets, which means that they pair a extra secure 29-inch entrance wheel which may roll over absolutely anything with a 27.5-inch rear wheel that provides playfulness to the journey.
Photograph: Canyon
Canyon additionally tilted the bike’s motor—a 5.7-pound, magnesium-clad Shimano EP8, which gives 63 foot-pounds of torque, quadruple the pedaling energy—to a 30-degree angle. This repair allowed Canyon to tuck the battery decrease into the body, which in flip lowers the bike’s heart of gravity, a serious motive the bike handles extra like a motorless mountain bike.
Canyon then absolutely carbonized the body, together with the rear triangle, making the entire thing lighter and stronger; grew the attain by 25 millimeters per body dimension, slackened the pinnacle angle by a level and added 5 mm to the chain keep, all of which provides stability within the saddle. Then Canyon took 20 mm out of the seat tube, permitting the set up of the longer dropper seat posts preferable on burlier descents.
Then there’s that exact German consideration to element: The battery has a magnetic charger plug, which makes it simpler to lock in even in a darkish, crowded storage. The wiring is routed via the bar and stem, which reduces cockpit muddle. Best of all, the dashboard is color-coded, so with one straightforward look, the rider is aware of which of three pedal-assist modes they’re in; and with one push of a button, they’ll scroll via mph, distance, odometer, obtainable vary, max pace, common pace, cadence, and time of day.
The solely decisions the patron should make in deciding between the 5 variations are the body dimension, the standard of the elements, and the battery dimension. You get to choose between a 720- or 900-watt-hour battery, and the size-small body comes with solely the 720-WH battery choice, as a result of the bigger 900-WH battery doesn’t match inside it. All of those choices decide the ultimate value, which ranges from $6,000 to $10,500.
