The YT Izzo and Canyon Lux Trail are short travel trail bikes built to do it all, from bike park blue runs to epic natural rides. Is this all you really need in a mountain bike? And which is the better all day slayer?
Short travel trail bikes are my favourite genre of MTB right now. Bike tech has evolved so fast and so far that 120mm of travel is really all I need right now to tackle my local trails. Which begs the question, why do I need to carry around excess weight and the kind of flabby travel only a downhill bike should?
The Canyon Lux Trail and YT Izzo fill that niche perfectly. With geometry designed for climbing, cruising on singletrack and trail centre tyre descents, they are perfectly adapted to the kind of riding most of us have in mind on a Sunday morning. That’s competent enough to keep you safe and fast on some proper descents, yet comfy enough to ride all day long too.
But with vastly differing ride feels, which bike has the best compromise of uphill speed and downhill mettle? Does one qualify as the best mountain bike for UK riding? Read on to find out…
The bikes on test
Canyon’s Lux Trail is like an XC race bike, but with plenty of mod cons, like a dropper post and sensitive suspension
Canyon Lux Trail CF6
Canyon brought the Lux Trail out last year, it uses a full carbon frame, flex stay suspension and gets a rapier-like 115mm of rear wheel travel. It sits somewhere between an XC race machine and a trail bike, which means it has a focus on lightweight components to keep the weight low and the rolling speed high. But the Lux Trail gets a ton more comfort than a pure XC bike, with a dropper post, internal frame storage and a deliberately softer suspension feel than the racing snakes demand.
The raw numbers are that the Lux Trail CF 6 costs £3,099, uses a Shimano Deore 12speed drivetrain, flashed up by an XT rear mech, and get Fox Performance-level suspension. check out my full review of Canyon Lux Trail CF 6 to read more about it.
- Frame: Flex stay carbon fibre, 115mm travel (105mm measured)
- Sizes: XS, S, M, L, XL
- Price: £3,099
- Weight: 14.4kg (31.7lb)
- Suspension: Fox Float SL Performance shock,
- Fork: Fox 34 Stepcast, 120mm travel
- Drivetrain: Shimano Deore crankset and 12speed shifter, XT rear mech
- Wheels: DT Swiss AM LN 370
- Tyres: Schwalbe Racing Ralph 29×2.35in
- Brakes: Shimano SLX four piston brakes with 180/160mm rotors
- Components: Race Face Ride stem and 760mm Riserbar
- Dropper: post Fox Transfer SL
- Saddle: Ergon SM10
YT Izzo Core 2 2024
YT Izzo 2024 Core 2
YT is a gravity-orientated brand and as such its shortest travel mountain bike still gets more squish than the Canyon Lux Trail. That’s 130mm front and back, and there are no flex stays here to try and cut weight.
So while the Lux Trail is a beefed up XC bike, the Izzo is more of a pared back trail bike. That’s reflected in its spec, with bigger brakes, an infinitely adjustable dropper post and wider bars.
The Izzo does get a full carbon frame if you’re prepared to spend more money, but this Core 2 bike makes do with a carbon front triangle and alloy back end. I love the Fidlock bottle and cage as standard.
YT Izzo core 2 2024
- Frame: Ultra modulus carbon front triangle, alloy rear. 130mm travel (125mm measured)
- Sizes: S, M, L, XL, XXL
- Price: £3,299
- Weight: 14.4kg (31.7lb)
- Suspension: Fox DPS Performance shock,
- Fork: Fox 34 Performance, 130mm travel
- Drivetrain: SRAM NX Eagle crankset, mech and 12 speed shifter
- Wheels: Crankbrothers Synthesis XCT alloy
- Tyres: Maxxis Minion DHRII 29×2.4in
- Brakes: SRAM G2 R brakes with 200/180mm rotors
- Components: Race Face Aeffect R 35 780mm bar and 50mm stem
- Dropper post: YT Postman V2 170mm
- Saddle: SDG BelAir Overland V3
Canyon’s internal frame storage is a good idea, but poorly executed as it leaks
Canyon Lux Trail frame and geometry
Canyon built internal frame storage into the Lux Trail to make it a more capable all day riding machine. The bike comes with a tube and two CO2 canisters already inside, as well as a trip of tyre plugs and tyre levers, all wrapped up in a tool roll.
Add all that up and Canyon’s made the Lux Trail half a kilo heavier than it needs to be, and that’s before you account for the extra heavy reinforcement the frame needs for a storage door. Worse, the door slowly warped out of shape, perhaps because it has a heavy CO2 canister mounted to the inside, and let water in.
A dinky chain device kept the chain in place despite some fairly heavy landings at times
The rest of the frame is rich in detail, the shock is positioned high up under the top tube and leaves space for two water bottles in all frame sizes, and a multitool. There’s a device to keep the chain on, robust looking chainstay protection, and a steering stop to prevent the bars overrotating if I crash.
In geometry terms the Lux Trail is pretty conservative, with long 440mm chainstays, and a fairly high BB at 334mm. The head angle is steep at 66.9° too. The effect is a bike that’s built to steer perfectly on the climbs and that’s high enough to pedal up techie stuff without catching a pedal too often.
YT’s built in a flip-chip so you can adapt the bike to your terrain, it’ll budge the BB height a few millimetres
YT Izzo frame and geometry
The Izzo frame is five years older than the Lux Trails, and predates the time when YT’s came with somewhere to stash your sandwiches. For the record, the carbon framed Jeffsy from 2023 was the first YT to get it.
The Izzo features internal cable routing, which kept the bike whisper quiet despite its firm suspension
Then there’s internal cable routing, rubbery chainstay protection and a pressfit BB.
You get a flip chip at the upper shock mount, which changes the bottom bracket height by some 8mm and the head angle half a degree.
The Izzo has almost identical geometry to the Lux Trail, despite its more trail bikey looks. The BB height in the low setting is just a millimetre difference, although with more travel to dip into that means the bike effectively sits lower to the ground. Both bikes share the same wheelbase length too, with the same long chainstays.
The Shimano cassette uses something called a beam spider to fit the sprockets together, which makes it lightweight and tough, with replaceable rings
Canyon Lux Trail components
The bottom line is the Lux Trail has some stellar components that are hard to beat on a bike at £3,000.
It’s not glamorous but there’s a threaded BB that speaks for longevity, and the steering block is a great touch.
Shimano’s Deore drivetrain is a class act, the lever is pretty firm on your thumb but the action is crisp and proved reliable over months of testing.
The Lux Trail’s grips are a touch firm for my liking, but the rest of the setup is pretty much spot on
The brakes proved just as trustworthy, the SLX set without the wavering bike point that plagues some higher tier stoppers from Shimano. Whether this is to do with its two piston not four piston calliper, I don’t know. But I do know they were strong enough for a bike of this class, and while I’d have preferred a bigger rotor on the back, the traction limit is definitely the tyres not the brakes.
The bad bit is Fox’s Transfer SL. Most dropper posts let you position the saddle anywhere in their range, something I call infinite adjustment. The SL on the other hand is digital, it’s either fully up or fully down, which means it sometimes gets in the way on techie climbs.
The Izzo uses NX, which proved reliable and offered a good spread of gears with an 11-50t cassette
YT Izzo components
SRAM’s NX Eagle drivetrain doesn’t carry the same spread of gears as groupsets higher in the foodchain, most importantly it’s missing the big crawler ring on the cassette. That’s not the only limiting factor either, because while the shifter is easy to throw the actual gear changes proved less reliable than Shimano’s.
The SRAM G2 R brakes with 200/180mm rotors also felt underpowered for the weight and performance of the bike. I’m pleased to see they’ve been swapped out for the next generation of Izzos, which go on sale in March.
Crank Brothers Synthesis wheels are a touch of class on the Izzo, with good feel and stiffness
YT’s done a great job with the wheelset and tyres though, the alloy Crankbrothers wheels are stiff without being harsh, while premium Maxxis Minion DHRII tyres are plenty grippy enough.
The Race Face cockpit adds even more room to the bike with a too long Race Face Aeffect stem, but the 780mm bar makes up for it. I found the YT Postman V2 dropper worked reliably well and while it did develop some lateral wobbly its infinite adjustment outclassed the Fox Transfer SL on the Lux Trail.
I used the lockout in undulating terrain like this to make mincemeat of trail centres, with the middle Pedal mode perfect on smooth terrain
Riding performance
Canyon Lux Trail
The Lux Trail has a secret weapon, a three-position lockout for the shock and the fork that holds the bike up in its travel. Controlled from a lever on the bars, this means you can tailor the suspension response to the trail you’re on – locked out for fireroad climbs, or perhaps in the middle setting for cruisy descents.
The Lux Trail is no mere XC climbing machine, it’s solid enough to ride like a proper trail bike
Most importantly though, it means Canyon hasn’t compromised in the plush feeling of the shock when it’s in open mode. The result is a suspension feel that’s easy to get into and pillow soft considering the very limited travel here, which I measured at just 105mm. Traction on technical climbs is great then, and with a highish ride position and long chainstays the Lux Trail rips up hills.
Open and active suspension on the climbs also traverses across to the descents too, where the bike generates grip beyond its meagre travel. I definitely ran out of it pretty quickly in some trails, partucualry on rock descents where repeated hits have you too deep into the travel. Or landing a drop too deep had me bouncing off the shock’s bump stop.
The Izzo is a fun bike to throw around, but it’s held back by a too firm suspension platform
YT Izzo
The Izzo’s suspension isn’t balanced in the way the Lux Trail’s is, despite having very similar shocks and forks. So while the Fox 34 on the front remains active and spot on for trial riding, the back end doesn’t seem to move fast enough to take the sting out of lumpy terrain.
This does help the Izzo climb well though, and with long chainstays it’s a match for the Lux Trail on the ups. Its only shortcoming here is that the shock lockout is too low to easily toggle on the fly, and without the bar mounted design of the Lux Trail I just didn’t use it.
The Izzo does feel a more solid build than the Lux Trail though, the combination of too-firm shock and a stiffer chassis means it’s more predictable when you’re really hauling.
The Canyon Lux Trail is a better bike than the Izzo, thanks to better suspension and a lighter build
Which bike is best?
Frame quality, geometry and components all matter on a mountain bike, but getting the suspension dialled is most important of all. And that means the Canyon Lux Trail CF 6 wins my test, lending the bike grip and comfort despite its meagre travel.
I could feel how much more confident I was on the Lux Trail, hitting rough sections faster than the Izzo, and using the brakes less while trusting the bike. There’s also a slingshot effect out of berms and corners, where the loaded suspension seems to fire you out faster than you piled in.
It’s at home in the trail centre for sure, proving an absolute weapon at venues like Swinley and Cwmcarn, or smooth blue trails at BikePark Wales. I did change the tyres to Maxxis Forekasters to generate more grip and puncture protection, and tilt the Lux Trail more towards trail than long distance riding.
The YT Izzo isn’t without merit, the frame is solid and stiff, and the geometry and sizing is good for more aggressive trail riding. It’s currently undergoing an update too, with more fork travel, RockShox and Ohlins suspension options, and better components planned for availability in March. I for one am looking forward to seeing how that changes its ride quality.
Short travel bikes like the Izzo are where it’s at for me in 2025 because they’re so easy to get and maintain speed