Hi chaps,

I’ve got about 6 months to decide on a new bike for next season.

Looking at all options for something slack, low, lightish.

On the shortlist are:

Canyon Strive
Giant Reign
Pivot Mach 6
Specialized Enduro

The concern with the Strive is the length for someone at 5’11. All reports are quite varying from reviews and riders.

Does anyone have a medium or large, and con comment on the sizing?

Cheers

Ricks

Ridden a canyon strive few times in large, I’m 6ft size was fine. I liked it and wanted one, but. Got put off because three riders I knew who had one their shape shifter kept breaking and had to go back for repair each time, comes with only a two year warranty on the part. So got a YT Capra instead and haven’t regretted it either. Just my experience

Strive owner here. I’m 5ft9″ and the Medium fits fine. I wanted a bike that had similar reach and geometry to the Specialized Pitch it replaced. Hence I went for the ‘non-race’ version. The effective top tube is 600mm so its hardy short.

I’ve had no mechanical issues with the shapeshifter, in fact it’s awesome and I’d really miss it if I changed bike. Getting the correct pressure is key.

I’ve had an issue with the Cane Creek Inline – it packed down and would not extend. Canyon sorted it in 2.5 weeks. They were professional about it and communications were good throughout.

Hope that helps

cheers
Ade

Edit: I have also ridden the new Giant Reign. Its unsurprisingly a very similar bike to the Strive. It felt a bit more solid but the downside was the internal cables did’nt half make a racket over rough trails.

Also consider a Norco Range – those are very capable bikes

My mates got a Range 7.2, might poke him for a razz. The geometry annoys me though. The medium may be a little too short for me, but the large has very long stays and wheelbase, as they get longer with each size.

A few shots to directly compare…

The Giant is a size large and is considerably longer than the Strive:

The Norco here is a size medium and is very similar to the Canyon. Its a bit stiffer, but also a bit heavier.

These are all 2015 bikes and the differences between them is fairly marginal. All about 30lbs, 2×10 and 160mm. I’d be more than happy with any one of them.

cheers
Ade