Canyon’s carbon Dude fat bike has been around for years mostly unchanged. But for 2021 it gets a facelift – moving to larger diameter 27.5″ wheels with a new wheelset developed with DT Swiss, and a longer travel suspension fork option. More capable across a wider range of terrain – the new Dude doesn’t have to stick to the snow, although there is still plenty of winter fun to be had…
2021 Canyon Dude carbon fat bike goes 27.5 x 3.8″
This new iteration of the Dude certainly isn’t the first fat bike to move to 27.5″ wheels vs. the original fat 26″, but it follows a long running trend to make fat more fun across a wider range of conditions. In fact, we broke down the difference of legacy 26″ fat tires sizes vs. the more recent crop of 27.5″ fat tires in detail three winters ago, explaining just how they all measure up. That’s a good place to start if you are considering buying a Dude, as Canyon’s fat bike has made this exact transition from 4″ on the first Dude we test rode back in 2014 to more recent 4.8″ spec to 3.8″ tires now, just like Zach explains in the fat bike Tire Tech feature.
Canyon calls their two latest Dude builds “more awesome.. more capable and more fun than ever before.” And that pretty much boils down to two things: larger diameter but narrower 27.7 x 3.8″ tires and tweaked geometry for a longer travel suspension fork.
Fat Dude – Tech updates & Geometry
Canyon says the carbon Dude frame is essentially unchanged since its original launch, keeping key features like the two-position 439/455mm chainstays to adjust its ride between nimble trail handling or soft-terrain stability, plus Canyon’s headset-mounted steering stop, and simple full-length external brake/internal shift routing… now updated with full internal stealth dropper routing.
Geometry is said to be the “exact same” as before, but the numbers suggest some incongruous changes like: 7mm extra BB drop but 7mm less frame stack; 7mm shorter reach & 7mm shorter wheelbase, but 3mm shorter toptubes; headtubes are also 0.5° steeper even with a longer travel fork, yet seattubes are 1° slacker seattubes.
What is sure, the larger diameter wheels rollover obstacles better, with less bounce thanks to shorter sidewalls of the smaller tires, yet retain pretty much all of the same float & grip that make fat bikes a blast to ride over snow, sand, mud & other extremely soft terrain.
Just like with the first Dude in 2014 when DT debuted their Big Ride 2250 26″ fat bike wheels, Canyon & DT have again worked together for an exclusive set of 27.5″ DT Swiss BR 2250 wheels with 78mm internal width. Those tires are wrapped with the popular 3.8″ wide Maxxis Minion FBF & FBR tires.
2021 Canyon Dude – Pricing & availability
Two complete builds are available of the carbon Dude: Pick from the 2200€ Dude CF 8 with the rigid carbon Rude CF fork, or the 3000€ Dude CF 9 with a 120mm Mastodon Pro fork. Both get a 30T SRAM Eagle 1x 12 builds with wide 11-50 cassette, and Iridium dropper posts.
Each bike is available in two color options: Volcano gray for either, or Deep Forest green for the 8, Aurora blue for the 9.
