Call this one of those ‘worst kept secrets’ in the cycling industry, or least in out rumor hunting – Canyon and DT Swiss have partnered to develop an all-new short travel gravel bike suspension fork. We shared several good spy shots and speculated on several details last year when it popped up at the German gravel champs. And then, we got another glimpse when pro riders started sharing pics on their bikes in the lead up to last week’s racing at The Traka.
Now, we’ve finally had a chance to see it in person and even bounce it up and down a bit in Girona. We don’t have a full set of tech details to share yet, or much to say about what’s going on inside.
But we managed to dig up plenty of interesting details in our first look at this all-new player on the gravel suspension scene…
Canyon & DT Swiss 40mm gravel suspension fork project
OK, so we already knew for sure that Canyon & DT Swiss were working together on an all-new gravel suspension fork. And that fact that we’d seen it mounted to the front of their fast Grail confirms that it is meant to be a high-performance gravel race fork.
What’s maybe most distinct about this as yet unreleased fork is its sleek tapered crown. Unlike most mountain bike forks repurposed for gravel with simply shorter travel, the new Canyon x DT Swiss fork strikes an outline more closely resembling the curve of a regular rigid carbon fork crown. And with the reverse arch slightly hidden away, it’s even easier to miss from the front or at an angle.
Of course, here covered in dried-up post-race mud, it’s easy to spot the suspension, if only for those short clean sections of sliding stanchions. But otherwise, the all-black suspension fork blends in quite well.
Canyon x DT Swiss F 132 One gravel suspension fork
OK, let’s get one detail out there first, which also clears up one slightly incorrect guess I made back last September.
The new Canyon x DT Swiss gravel bike fork is officially named the F 132 One. I got a close-up view at a clean fork in Canyon’s pit area, and it was the only place on the fork that I spotted the actual product’s name.
Based on DT’s fork naming convention, that means this slides on 32mm diameter stanchions, the same as their F 232 One XC race fork.
And yes, that QR code will probably eventually lead to a product or service page. But unlucky for us, it points to a missing page on DT’s website for now.
Tech details
We haven’t yet convinced our contacts at Canyon or DT Swiss to let loose the full technical details of the new F132 One gravel fork, or what the suspension is really doing inside. But, thanks to engineers that like to etch the key details of their new tech right on the outside of the new products, a close look reveals a real sneak peek of what’s happening inside. Even if details remain thin…
- 40mm gravel suspension travel
- 700c wheelsize
- unofficially up to 57mm tire clearance, we saw pro Canyon racer Freddy Ovett fit a 29×2.25″ tire into this fork last week
- 56mm fork offset (quite a bit more than the 45-51mm of Fox & RockShox gravel forks, for example)
- PlainGain (presumably hydraulic) damping
- LineAir SL air spring
- PushControl lockout
Mechanical dropbar remote lockout
We don’t have the details to share yet on what the PushControl lockout actually means. But we can see that there appears to be a mechanical wire running next to the left brake hose, under the bar tape to a rocker-style dropbar remote lockout lever (with DT Swiss branding).
There is only texture on the top of the rear-facing longer part and the bottom of the front-facing short part of the remote lever. That suggests that it can be reached from both the hoods and the drops, but it only moves in one direction to lock out (or unlock?) the fork.
Sleek Tapered Crown
We don’t see that mechanical cable anywhere else on the fork, so presumably it goes inside the steerer tube to make it to a control mechanism via the fork crown.
Interestingly, the tapered crown design with flush-mount covers, is quite unique in the MTB or even gravel suspension fork world, but it is a very similar solution to what DT did with their sleek 535 all-mountain forks almost seven years ago. Presumably you can pop those off to adjust air pressure, and maybe access compression damping control. (You can see rebound damping is dialed in just under the disc brake caliper mount, above.)
There are a couple more interesting finds on the back of that traditionally ribbed reverse arch…
Reverse Arch Design
The Canyon x DT Swiss F 132 One gravel fork features tidy aerodynamic brake hose routing. The brake line exits from inside the steerer tube through the tapered crown out a rubber grommet that tucks it behind the fork stanchion where a clip holds it in place on the back of the left leg of the lowers.
There are also a series of bolt-on points on the lowers, where you could attach a number of accessories. The 2 centralized bolts in the back of the arch are most obviously for some fork fender, possibly also connecting to the holes facing the rim at the base of the reinforced arch.
That lower hole looks to go all the way through the fork lowers casting on each leg, suggesting a wide contact point and probably the ability to carry some heavier load? Perhaps this is some kind of mount for a lightweight bikepacking rack?
There are also bolt holes mid-way down each leg (facing back, see below) which could further stabilize a rack, or even provide a mounting point for some full-coverage fenders?
Contrary to most suspension forks, it looks like DT has located the F132 One fork’s air spring in the right/driveside leg, and put the damping cartridge (with rebound control knob) in the left leg. We’re not sure if that was a design choice relative to the reverse arch, to having more air volume room on the side without a disc brake mount to deal with, or some deeper or simpler aesthetic rationale?
DT Swiss gravel fork coming to a Canyon gravel bike soon?
In any case, the result is a pretty sleek looking gravel fork.
We did get a chance to get our hands on a Canyon Grail fitted with the fork for a bit of very first impressions. And we hope to dive deeply into the technical details with Canyon and DT Swiss in the coming weeks, and ideally spend some more time riding the fork, so that as soon as they are ready to offer them up for sale, we’ll be able to share our real world thoughts of whether you will need this new DT Swiss F 132 One suspension fork on your next gravel bike.
So, which is it Canyon.com or DTSwiss.com?
We’ll hopefully know which will offer more details by the end of this month!
