Voodoo Canzo review

You could (and should) save up just a little longer and spend the extra £400 on the Pro model.

• Brand: Voodoo
• Product: Canzo
• Price: £,1400
• From: Halfords
• Tested by: Hannah Dobson for 8 months

Pros

• Wise, budget-conscious component choices
• A dropper, at this price
• Playful and poppy

Cons

• Needs sturdier grip/bar plugs
• Most adults should buy the Canzo Pro
• An underbar dropper actuator would be better

In a world of ‘you could buy a car for that’, the Voodoo Canzo seeks to win you over with wallet friendly pricing. But can you be cheap and still be cheerful on the trails? There are a few caveats, but I’d suggest the answer is: quite possibly.

The Canzo tested here is the plain old straight up just Canzo version. There is also the Voodoo Canzo Pro – a slightly higher specced version – available. The Pro also comes in a very fetching Electric Denim colour. Or perhaps it’s Peacock. It’s one of those paint jobs that looks different from every angle. Whereas the Canzo just comes in black. £400 separates the two models. My thoughts on whether that’s a difference worth having or not will be later in this review.

The Canzo is a 29er. 6061 alloy frame. 140mm travel front and rear. 65° head angle, 77.5°seat tube angle. 455mm reach on this medium test bike, and 435mm chainstays across all sizes. 170mm cranks across all sizes too. The Canzo model comes with the RockShox 35 Silver R fork, which is a coil fork with rebound adjustment – but no compression damping options to play with. If you don’t sit in the ‘very average medium sized goldilocks middle of everything’ zone, then your experience with this bike may differ. For me – a medium sized person on a medium sized bike – this bike delivers an on the whole happy experience. My suspicion is that taller but light riders will also be OK, but that those long-ish cranks and one-sized fits all chainstays and especially the fork spring may be a little lacking for smaller riders.

The fork is fine. For the purposes of your average teenager or new-to-MTB adult, it will deliver a decent amount of comfort. More than that, it can be set up to be quite poppy – something which I think the teenage jumps and social-clips crew will enjoy very much. This bike is a hoot to ride along a hard pack trail, hopping puddles and hitting little rock kickers. Exactly like riding many of the UK’s trail centres, then.

If you’re a bit heavier, I think you’ll find the fork lacks support and particularly on descents you’ll feel it sinking into its travel. For me, around the 75kg mark, it was OK. Not buttery smooth, but it’s a margarine price, so this is to be expected. It’s when you get into repeated hits that the lower spec of this fork is really noticeable. On terrain with rocks, setts and cobbles, steps and bouldery tracks – the rebound adjustment lets you choose between ‘increasingly hectic’ and ‘increasingly wallowing’. The middle ground here feels like a tradeoff – what feels more in control on a technical descent loses playfulness on easier sections. If you don’t do a bunch of ‘natural’ riding, and you’re not trying to race enduro, or you’re not a bit old and achey, then I think you’ll be fine with keeping the pop and occasionally having a hectic moment. If you really wanted, you could buy a different spring to match your weight, and you could buy a damper upgrade – but then you could also just buy the Canzo Pro version with the upgraded RockShox Pike fork.

The 2-pot brakes are also fine. I don’t love the lever shape, which is quite flat – I like more of a hooked shape. But at this price point you probably haven’t previously developed expensive component proclivities and won’t mind so much. They’re not super sharp and stoppy, but they’re fine. On longer descents the brakes and fork – and possibly handlebars – are going to cause you some hand and wrist fatigue. Paired with this fork, I don’t think you’ll be doing the kind of tap and schralp turning or endless Alpine downs that would make you yearn for sharper brakes. And if you think you might, the Canzo Pro comes with 4-pot brakes.

The Canzo comes with a dropper post – a brilliant addition for the money, and a change that was rolled out after we took delivery of this test bike. The over bar actuator is better than no dropper, but quite difficult to use on the fly. It also has a rather vulnerable cabling/stalk arrangement, which I can see getting ripped off when your teenager’s X-Up efforts result in a F-Up. Or indeed your own efforts – old dogs can learn new tricks, etc. During the test period, the post has remained pleasingly functional and hasn’t developed any distracting play or waggle.

The rest of this basic build is pretty great – I have zero complaints about the Shimano Cues gears, the RockShox Deluxe Select rear shock does the job, and the Maxxis Forekaster (the ‘old’ version) tyres are totally appropriate for the kind of crushed stone surfaces that you’ll find at a trail centre. The cable routing is internal, but not a complete octopus of a thing, with sturdy guides on entry and exit points meaning things stay neat and secure. A proper metal head badge. Paint that has stood up to riding and grinding. No daft little mud shelves, nooks and crannies, or bits of plastic to loosen and lose on the trail.

Spec and price make it the kind of bike you can send your kid off to the woods to play with and not be having to worry about too much. With that in mind, as well as swapping the rather vulnerable over bar dropper, I’d like to see sturdier grips. The supplied ones have soft ends – the kind that are vulnerable to wearing away quickly when placed on the ground or crashed. Grips with some harder rubber or plastic ends that will stop your teen taking core samples of themselves would be nice to see.

For adults – who are less likely to grow out of a bike, and perhaps will want to keep their bike for many years – the Canzo may also be a good deal. If you’re only wanting to do ‘light trail’, and you’re not a particularly heavy rider, then this Canzo would do you fine. But, if you’re likely to do more natural riding with rocks, mud and steeper descents, or head towards the enduro end of things, I think you’d feel the benefit of the upgrades offered by the Canzo Pro.

Overall

Nuances of component choices aside, the Canzo has impressed. It feels very natural to ride, nicely balanced and comfortable to pedal). It’s only when hitting descents that the lower spec fork and brakes combine with my aging spec body to bring out the fatigue and aches. Your teenager is not cursed by such issues: buy them the Canzo. You could (and should) save up just a little longer and spend the extra £400 on the Pro model for yourself.

Voodoo Canzo specification

• Frame // 6061 Aluminium, 140mm
• Shock // RockShox Deluxe Select
• Fork // RockShox 35 Silver R, 140mm
• Wheels // Voodoo Alloy
• Front Tyre // Maxxis Forekaster 29×2.35in
• Rear Tyre // Maxxis Forekaster 29×2.35in
• Chainset // Prowheel Charm, 170mm, 32T
• Brakes // Shimano BR-MT201, 180/180mm
• Drivetrain // Shimano CUES, 10 speed, 11-48T
• Stem // Voodoo Alloy 31.8mm, 45mm
• Handlebars // Voodoo Alloy 31.8mm, 780x15mm
• Grips // Velo Lock-on
• Seat Post // Voodoo Dropper, 150mm
• Saddle // WTB Volt
• Sizes Available // S, M, L, XL
• Size Tested // M

Geometry of our size Medium

• Head angle // 65°
• Effective seat angle // 77.5°
• Seat tube length // 430mm
• Head tube length // 110mm
• Chainstay // 435mm
• Effective top tube // 602mm
• BB height // 34mm BB drop
• Reach // 455mm