Looking at purchasing a bike to commute back and forth to work on. I will also be doing weekend gravel rides which will be fairly flat and about 30% on the pavement.
I would like to train for a future Ironman 70.3 but would not care to qualify for anything. I would put a better set of tires on the bike for a race.
A road bike is out of the question as I’m not interested in biking along highways or with drivers that don’t pay attention to their surroundings.
I’m interested in the Commencal 365 and the Canyon Grizl 7. The grizl is a 2x drivetrain so it would probably be a bit faster but to me the commencal looks like a more fun bike. I have a commencal mtb and absolutely love it so I’d be comfortable getting another one. I’ve heard good and bad about Canyon so I’m a little sceptical about their customer service..
I’m not good with the geometry numbers… would either of these bikes be what I should be looking for without buying a full road/race bike? Any information is greatly appreciated!!
by Lakerol289
2 Comments
I can speak for the Grizl AL, I just bought one a few months ago. Insanely fun, and the geometry is on the more aggressive side, meaning it’s more similar to a road bike than a typical endurance gravel geometry. It is never going to be as fast as a road bike, but with road tires it won’t be too far off. I think you’d really have to be an elite cyclist to really see that kind of difference though.
Grizl can do 50mm tires which is going to be enough for baiscally anything you’d do on a gravel bike. And 2x is gonna be really helpful when you will do road events.
That being said, if you like trails and want to underbike, the 365 probably is going to be a bit more capable. Though getting an AL fork comfortable ist hard. Drivetrain-wise, running a Sram road cassette with a 10t cog on a second wheelset/for road events is going to get you most of the way there.
Fwiw, both are DTC and from what I have heard the service is pretty similar between both brands.