There is a bit of a craze going on right now across both the automotive and motorcycle industries. Everyone’s a bit obsessed with taking something off-road, resulting in a slew of cars with off-road packages and new off-road motorcycles. Leave it to those mad engineers in Canada to find one of the weirdest ways to jump in. The new 2025 Can-Am Canyon gets trike riders into the wilderness with a lifted suspension, meaty tires, and the most butch looks this side of a BMW R 1300 GS Adventure.
Bombardier Recreational Products (BRP) is rounding out its August with a flurry of new product announcements. Some of the new stuff isn’t much to write about, like how there are new colors for the Can-Am Spyder and the Can-Am Ryker. Then there’s the official launch of Can-Am’s first motorcycles in 38 years. However, Can-Am has been hyping those bikes for more than a couple of years now, so there’s nothing shocking there.
What did catch my attention was the announcement of another completely new model. BRP’s surprise announcement is the 2025 Can-Am Canyon, and it seems to solve one of the issues I had with the Ryker (below).
When the Can-Am Ryker launched in 2019 it was supposed to be a bit of a revolution for the BRP brand. The Spyder is ultra-cushy, but you don’t want to take one of those on anything more hardcore than a gentle dirt road. The Ryker, especially the Rally version, promised more off-road capability and crazy tire-shredding fun for half of the money of a Spyder. I’m a fan of the Ryker and how it’s just a total hooligan on three wheels, but I’ve always felt that BRP could have done better with the off-roading chops. The Ryker Rally goes way further off-road than you’d expect it to, but is held back by its plastic face and inadequate 4.8 inches of ground clearance.
Clearly, BRP has been listening because the Canyon is designed to be the most off-road capable trike BRP has ever built.
BRP doesn’t say much about how the idea for this trike came to be, but it wouldn’t be too hard to guess what BRP’s reasoning might have been. Slap the term “off-road” or “overland” to just about any product and people will go bananas for it. Are the majority of Toyota RAV4 TRD Off-Road owners going wheeling at their local off-road park? Probably not, but it looks really cool and rugged. Plus, the motorcycle world already has a proven three-wheel off-roader with the Ural.
The adventure segment is one that remains a healthy spot. Adventure bikes — machines that are generally good tourers and decent off-road — are so popular that even Harley-Davidson is in on the game. Now the Canadians have their adventure bike, but like all things BRP, it’s alternative.
BRP doesn’t tell us where the bones of the Canyon come from, but it appears to be similar in size and configuration to a Spyder. One part that’s definitely shared with the Spyder is the Rotax 1330 ACE inline triple. It makes 115 HP and 96 lb-ft of torque. That’s paired with a six-speed thumb shift semi-automatic transmission with a reverse gear. That sounds a whole lot like the Can-Am Spyder F3-T I tested last year and that’s good. I prefer this powertrain over the CVT setup found in the Ryker.
The departures from the Spyder come immediately with the looks. Squares are in right now from overland camping trailers and the Ford Bronco down to the new BMW R 1300 GS Adventure. Even Harley did the square thing with the Pan America. The 2025 Can-Am Canyon copies the homework of other efforts but cranks it up to 11. The Canyon is squares and rectangles stacked on top of squares and rectangles seemingly just for the heck of it. Oh and toss in some exposed hardware to enhance that rugged look. If Halo’s Master Chief rode a trike it would definitely be one of these!
Once you look past the looks, you’ll notice that you can spec your Canyon with more storage than you can get with any other BRP three-wheeler. Being able to carry around tons of stuff is basically a requirement in the ADV space and Can-Am says the Canyon carries up to 656 pounds on its own and it also has 400 pounds of towing capacity for an adorable trailer.
BRP says the real action happens at the three wheels. A Can-Am Ryker Rally has to off-road with 4.8 inches of ground clearance and about 7 inches of suspension travel. In my experience, wheeling with a Ryker Rally involves choosing your lines carefully.
The Can-Am Canyon sits a little higher at 6.3 inches off of the ground and the suspension, regardless of trim level, has 10.2 inches of travel up front and 9.2 inches of travel in the rear. That’s not a huge improvement, but I will also note that this is the size of a Spyder while also being more capable than a Ryker. It’s part of why the Canyon is such a laugh to look at!
The Canyon comes in three trim levels: Standard, XT, and Redrock.
The suspension of the Standard and XT models include double A-arms with an anti-roll bar two Sachs Big Bore shocks up front plus Sachs shock in the rear. Opting for the XT gets you a self-leveling preload suspension. The Redrock is the flagship of the lineup and it gets a pair of KYB Piggyback Smart Shox up front and one in the rear. It also gets a semi-active suspension that adjusts damping based on the riding environment.
All trim levels get Sport, Rally, and All-Road riding modes as well as power steering, ABS, stability control, and traction control. All trim levels feature Brembo brakes with 270mm discs up front clamped on by four pots each and a 270mm rotor in the rear with a single-piston caliper. All trim levels also get two 16-inch wheels up front and a 15-inch wheel in the rear, all shod in XPS Adventure tires.
You also get anti-slip pegs, handlebar risers, and various protection devices. BRP says the Canyon has a metal grille, a drive belt protector, and bark busters on your handlebars. The accessory catalog includes extra protection for the headlights as well as a skid plate and a brush-guard-like aluminum front bumper. Finally, everything is capped off with BRP’s signature LinQ attachment system, so you can carry all kinds of equipment with you from extra fuel jugs to toolboxes and all points in between.
In terms of tech, all three modes get a 10.25-inch touchscreen with BRP Connect, Bluetooth, and wired Apple CarPlay. There’s also cruise control as well as a USB port. All up, you’re looking at a vehicle that weighs 996 pounds to 1,036 pounds empty and if it’s anything like the Spyder, riding it will feel like piloting a La-Z-Boy.
So, if all three trims of the Canyon are similar, what are you getting with them? The Standard Canyon (above) is about as stripped down as you can get. There’s just one color, no cases, and the passenger seat looks to be made more for punishment rather than a fun ride. BRP is pitching the Standard Canyon to the solo rider who wants to do their own customization. An example buyer of this one would be someone who already has their own side and top cases.
Stepping up to the Canyon XT (below) gets you heated grips, heated holds for your passenger, a passenger backrest, and aluminum storage cases. The skid plate also comes standard with this one as well as a comfort seat and comfort pegs. As noted earlier, the XT also gets the nifty self-leveling rear suspension.
Stepping up to the Redrock (below) adds the KYB semi-active suspension setup I mentioned earlier plus a customizable drive mode, a backup camera, and a green color.
Another Patented BRP Oddball
I think what I love most about this thing is that like most BRP products, it’s a total middle finger to expectations. Admittedly, I never thought BRP would try to make its own BMW GS, yet here we are and it’s delightfully weird.
Unfortunately, I must point out one major area I think is flawed and if BRP is reading this, I hope they fix this before putting the Canyon on the market.
I have a problem with the skid plate. It looks like metal in press imagery, but a little digging reveals it to be made out of 4mm plastic. A plastic skid plate isn’t going to protect much when you’re doing anything harder than a fire road. BRP is charging a lot of money for these things (more on that in a moment) so I’d love to see more metal underneath. There’s also no mention of other underbody protection which is important when you’re doing any real off-roading. It’s also a little odd because the Ryker Rally has a substantial metal underbody skid plate.
To be clear, I’m not singling out BRP here. I thought the Ford Transit Trail’s plastic skid plate was a joke and David Tracy famously judged the Subaru Crosstrek Wildnerness’ poor excuse of a skid plate. If you actually expect your customers to take your stuff off-road, don’t skimp on protection.
Otherwise, I like the idea of what’s going on here. I thought about criticizing the 6.3 inches of ground clearance and the lack of two (or heck, three) wheel drive, but I’ve also gotten Smart Fortwos some incredible distances off-road with less ground clearance and worse tires. I think the Canyon will do fine so long as you don’t get too crazy.
Still, BRP is still reading this, three-wheel-drive would be so fun with one of your three-wheel vehicles.
So here comes the potential shocker. The 2025 Can-Am Canyon starts at $25,299, and that’s for the standard model. Tossing $29,799 into the pot gets you the XT while a whopping $32,299 gets you the Redrock. That’s about what BRP charges for a Can-Am Spyder RT Limited and less than a Spyder Sea-To-Sky, but that’s still some pretty hefty cash. Consider that a base spec Jeep Wrangler is $31,995 and a Harley-Davidson Pan America is $20,000.
So you really have to want one of these to pony up the cash being asked here. If you do want one, the 2025 Can-Am Canyon begins showing up at dealerships in spring of next year.
All of that being said, I love goofy offbeat machines like this. In a world where almost everything is so serious, I like silly endeavors like this. Yes, the Can-Am Canyon is expensive and the skid plate seems suspicious, but the Canadians sure know how to have fun.
The post The Canadians Have Invented A $32,000 Lifted Three Wheel Adventure Bike And It’s Exactly As Silly As It Sounds appeared first on The Autopian.
