Every so often a bike comes along that promises to revolutionize cycling, but never before has one actually lived up to that promise like the new Canyon Grizl:
Now I’ve been not testing the Canyon Grizl for several months now, nor to my knowledge have I even been anywhere near one during that time, though it’s entirely possible that I have and not known it since all these bikes look exactly the same to me. Nevertheless, I absolutely agree that their “bold reinvention of a key bike component” will indeed win over not only a “growing cycling segment” but the entire word:
So what is it? It’s called the “Full Mounty” handlebar, which is a delightful play on words based on the popular 1990s comedy movie about a group of loutish Dubliners who form a soul band, though maybe I’m confusing that with “The Commitments:”
One of two newly announced Grizl models from the German DTC bike brand, it’s optimized for extended bikepacking adventures.
Toward that end, it packs a number of notable features.
But none stands out more than its wild Full Mounty handlebar, to which the term “pentagonal” most definitely applies.
The “Full Mounty” does nothing that a normal handlebar can’t do, though it does finally eliminate the hated stem, a relatively cheap and easy-to-install component that lets you quickly adjust for both reach and rise:
And the “hand relief” is just a bonus:
With roughly nine million existing options for carrying stuff on your bike, from cheap stuff from the website named after a river to the exquisitely expensive randonneur stylings of Jan Heine, you’ve got to appreciate Canyon’s chutzpah. I mean why not just try to lock you into yet another proprietary system instead? I mean they had so much success with their brilliant Hover bar…
…which they’ve since abandoned, leaving riders wishing to change their bars high and dry (though I guess low and dry would be more accurate since it was basically the world’s most complicated riser stem):
But that was the Grail. This is the Grizl, which looks like a dyslexic trying to write the world “Girlz.” So what’s the difference between the two? I’m not even sure Canyon knows, because I checked their site and found this:
However, there was no article, just some photos and the words “Grail or Grizl: you decide” in the lower right corner:
Fortunately though we’ve got YouTube to help us sort it all out:
Watching that video made me feel like Steve Buscemi listening to the radio in “Ghost World:”
However I was able to discern that the Grizl is exactly like a normal bike, only with more plastic.
For chrissakes, just buy a you-know-what already…