Canyon has built LeBron James a one-off Grizl CF gravel bike with 32-inch wheels and a bespoke 3XL carbon frame engineered for the 6ft 9in NBA star.
Revealed on September 3, the fully functional bike was designed and manufactured in southern Germany with specialist partners. Canyon said it is neither a prototype nor a display model, although it will not be sold.
James received the bike at his home in Akron, Ohio, before taking a short ride with his former high-school basketball teammates, known as The Fab Five.
“On most bikes I've ridden, I was aware of the bike, where it didn't fit me, what I was working around,” James said. “This is the first one that I didn't have to think about. That's what I love most about riding. It's just you out there and everything else is gone.”
Why Canyon could not simply enlarge a Grizl
The project involved re-engineering Canyon’s existing gravel platform around a bespoke carbon layup, reinforced to handle the loads generated by a rider of James’ size and power – we can only imagine his maximum sprint wattage.
Canyon also produced custom CNC-machined thru-axles with Boost spacing and a dedicated seat clamp. The company said those components were designed around the carbon manufacturing process used for the bike.
“Creating this bike was not merely a case of taking the current frame design and making it bigger,” Canyon lead gravel engineer Wolfgang Kohl said. “The geometry might land in the right place, but the loads don't scale the way the dimensions do. Everything needed to get re-engineered or the bike simply wouldn't function as a responsive system to the rider.”
The 32-inch wheels are proportionate to James’ height, but Canyon also claims the larger diameter reduces rolling resistance and the shock transmitted to the rider when passing over rough gravel – and the expanded diameter has been a talking point in off-road riding for the last few seasons. Tyre availability remains limited, and few production road frames currently accommodate the format.
Other brands are also investigating the larger standard. Scott has raced a prototype 32-inch gravel bike, while Mosaic offers its made-to-order GT-1 i55 32 with rider-specific geometry. Canyon has separately explored 32-inch wheels through its Lux Era cross-country concept.
Canyon said James’ bike helped it test construction methods that could shorten future development programmes.
James has been a Canyon investor since 2022, when LRMR Ventures took an equity stake in the German direct-to-consumer manufacturer. Cycling has remained part of James' life since childhood, when he used a bike to travel around Akron and get to basketball practice.
