Canfield Bikes has recently made Mesa County home by moving their production facility to Fruita, Colorado. The company was founded after Lance Canfield, a mechanical engineer with hotrod experience, started racing downhill mountain bikes in 1994. Lance was not satisfied with the bikes available at that time, so he went to the drawing board and began designing his own bike.

The earliest Canfield design made it on paperin 1996. He had never actually built a bike, so Lance set his design aside and continued to race other bikes. During a long drive home to Utah from a race in Big Bear, California, Lance was disappointed with his race results — he knew he would be faster on a better bike, and he knew he could build a better bike.

Lance and his brother Chris enlisted a local welder and developed what was the original Canfield Brothers bike, the Big Fat Fatty Fat. The original bike was built around a parallel link design, based on the articulated performance of a suspension for a trophy truck, a vehicle used in high-speed off-road racing. The bike was a monster, featuring 12 inches of travel front and rear. It also had a revolutionary rearward axle path that delivered uncompromising downhill performance and stability.

Both Lance and Chris put the Big Fat Fatty Fat to the test. Lance competed in his first four Red Bull Rampages while Chris chased World Cups around the globe. Some true, comprehensive and hands-on research and development. This bike was designed by riders for riders.

Canfield Bikes officially made the move to Fruita in January. With a love for Colorado from past rides and races since 1994, and past employment as an engineer and product designer with White Brothers Suspension/EKO Sport, now MRP, it seemed like the best fit for their new facility.

“Colorado has always had a special place in my heart. I have fond memories of working and riding here,” shares Lance. “The bike community is so amazing and I’ve made so many friends here. With a like-minded talent pool, I can’t think of a better location to grow our team and the brand in the coming years.”

It is centrally located for shipping as well, and has the benefits of year-round riding, great access to high-country biking and lift-served bike parks in the summer.

Canfield Bikes has always built bikes they want to ride. As it turns out, other people want to ride them too.

“The focus is on geometry that is fast and fun,” Lance explains. “Our bikes offer up confidence-inspiring stability mixed with playful, nimble handling. We’ve always been a bit ahead of the curve in that respect — long front centers, slack head-angles, short rear ends. Back in 2011, our Yelli Screamy hardtail was the first 29er with sub-17-inch chainstays.

“The bike had big wheels and was actually fun to ride,” he adds. “It felt like you were in the bike rather than on top of it, and it was agile and descended like an all-mountain bike.”

Suspension is another thing that Lance says has set Canfield apart.

“We’ve been refining parallel link suspension designs since the 90s, from the rearward axle path of the Formula 1 suspension found on the Jedi, to the patented CBF suspension we developed a few years ago that’s currently on all our full-suspension bikes,” he says.

It’s the first suspension design to maintain near 100-percent anti-squat throughout the entire range of the bike’s travel, which makes it extremely efficient while remaining active and plush.

All Canfield Bikes are designed to be durable and low maintenance so you can spend less time wrenching and more time riding. They’re built tough and tested to high standards — even their trail bikes are built to downhill standards.

By the time you are reading this article the first-round of 2020 bikes will be in-stock and ready to ride and ship. Canfield Bikes is excited for people to get out for a ride, and selfishly they want to ride them too. They are also working on some new bikes and can’t wait to share those with the world.

“There’s just something special about riding a rad bike from a small rider-owned company that produces in small batches that stands apart from the other mass-produced bikes on the market,” says Lance. “Canfield riders are like a family.”

Originally published in the Summer 2020 issue of SPOKE+BLOSSOM

Gear Profile: Canfield Bikes