Canyon Exceed front triangle Canyon’s long-running cross-country focused hardtail, the Exceed, has had a refresh for 2025, with its focus shifting from pure XC racing to adventure riding.
It’s fair to say the days of hardtail XC racing have largely passed, with almost the whole World Cup field now on full-suspension bikes, as are most privateer racers, even in national series.
The onward march of technicality in XC means the humble hardtail mountain bike is now rarely the fastest way up and down an XC race course.
Yes, there’ll always be hardcore hardtail fans in XC, who want the stiffest connection from crank to wheel, but those people are in ever-diminishing numbers.
Likewise, the growth of adventure riding and ultra-distance racing seems unabated. The Silk Road Mountain Race , the Tour Divide and other events are pulling in both household names and widespread coverage. Canyon’s new Exceed is a do-it-all hardtail. Roo Fowler / Canyon While the rapid growth of gravel riding has seen events such as these becoming a festival of curly bars, the reality is hardtails offer additional comfort over long, rough rides.
In my own experience, I’m now more likely to pull my cross-country bike out of the garage for a local long lap than I am my gravel bike.
I don’t lose much on road drags, and the slippery technical ups and downs that litter UK ‘gravel’ are simply more fun on a mountain bike.All of the above points have been cited by Canyon as reasons why the new Exceed has […]
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