Canyon Goes All-In On Women’s Road Frames

Canyon WMN

More women are riding bikes than ever before and while many have no problems finding the perfect frame to fit them, others struggle. Wanting to offer women the same breadth of choice as their male riding counterparts, Canyon decided to build a range of road frames to cater to those underserved women out there. And in doing so, they did the exact opposite of shrink it and pink it. Canyon started from scratch on everything from geometry and handling, to construction and aerodynamics in the new WMN models — the Endurace WMN AL, Endurace WMN CF SL, and the Ultimate WMN CF SLX.

Everyone (including men) feels comfortable riding in a different position on the bike. To accommodate these preferences, Canyon split the frames into various categories based on stack-to-reach (STR) — the Endurace represents a Sport Geometry characterized by a higher STR value for a more relaxed, upright riding position. The Ultimate line follows the Sport Pro Geometry, with lower stack and longer reach for a slightly racier riding position.

To make these preferred riding positions more natural for women, Canyon played around with geometries. In general, women have shorter arm length and shoulder width, meaning if I was to sit on the same exact bike as a man my height, I would end up in a more stretched out position. While this can be remedied by swapping out stems and even handlebars, Canyon is basically saving women from having to make any cockpit alterations.

Canyon Ultimate WMN

In terms of frame sizing, your average male measures 178–184 cm (5’10” – 6′) tall — so this is where Medium size frames are usually set. By comparison, the average woman is 166–172 cm (5’5″ – 5’7″) tall, so an XS frame now becomes the focal point for sizing up and down. With 2XS and even 3XS frame sizes, Canyon is now able to cater for riders down to 152 cm (4’11”) tall.

To make the smaller frames as agile and responsive as the larger ones, Canyon ditched the 700C wheels in favor of smaller 650B ones on the 2XS and 3XS frames. This makes for better handling as Canyon was able to reduce trail, steepen the head angle, and shorten the wheelbase to match the smaller wheels.

As larger gear ratios are also necessary when dealing with smaller wheels, the size 2XS and 3XS models come equipped with a semi-compact instead of a compact chainset to give the same effective gear range on the road.

The majority of the components are similar for the men’s/unisex and women’s bikes across models. All the Canyon WMN bikes are available now — note that Canyon is readying its direct-to-consumer sales for the US as we speak. I can’t wait to test one of these out.

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