2025 Can-Am Canyon First Ride Review

Photos: Align Media

Adventure motorcycles, made to haul a rider and their gear on- and off-road, are the current trend in the two-wheeled world.

But riding a motorcycle comes with risk, and that risk increases once you leave the pavement. It takes skill and experience to keep a heavy bike upright in sketchy gravel conditions. It’s even more difficult when you add a set of stuffed saddlebags — but BRP has addressed this issue by taking its existing three-wheel design and beefing it up for off-tarmac adventures. The result is the 2025 Can-Am Canyon.

All Roads, Not All Terrain

The Canyon is made to travel off the beaten path, but BRP is adamant it’s not an ATV, nor is it intended for true off-roading. Instead, it’s billed as an “all roads” machine made for fire roads, forestry tracks, or other easy terrain, so don’t expect to hit the rough stuff.

All three versions use the same frame, brakes, wheels, bodywork, and engine. The difference is mostly down to suspension; the base model uses a conventional rear shock, while the XT uses a self-levelling unit, and the top-of-the-line Redrock uses semi-active KYB Smart-Shox at both ends.

The XT and Redrock both come with 120 L of luggage capacity (top and side boxes). All three versions are capable of carrying any of those accessories, and if you want to add other pieces, Can-Am’s proprietary LinQ attachment system — the same as used on BRP’s watercraft and ATVs — will allow you to clip on a cooler, extra fuel storage, and other useful accessories.

Can-Am’s three-wheeler is neither eye-catching nor revolting, at least not to these eyes. But the Redrock looks the best of all the models, with a bit of orange flare thrown into those 12-spoke cast rims. Contrast stitching on the seat also adds a nice aesthetic touch. Overall, it’s a beefy machine that looks like the rider means business, with a utilitarian flair that Can-Am’s sportier three-wheelers don’t have.

A Unique Experience

The only way Can-Am could have made this machine more safe would have been by adding an airbag (which is possible — Honda has it on the Gold Wing). With three wheels underneath you, a sensible rider won’t tip this trike unless you’re clowning around on very uneven terrain.

Even then, it would be hard to flip this ride over, because the electronics package stops you from getting too far out of line. The Canyon models have sport, all-road, rally, and normal riding modes, which govern the traction control system and the responsiveness of the engine. In normal mode, if you’re off the pavement, you can try to whip the Canyon around as much as you want but the traction control will kick in and neuter your anti-social riding efforts. The same happens if you’re on a slippery hillclimb.

Changing to other ride modes will lessen the interference of the safety system, and the Redrock has a user-defined ride mode where you can dial down the nanny effect, but the general feel is that Can-Am went to great efforts to make sure its riders don’t do anything terribly stupid on these machines and hurt themselves as a result.

That’s probably for the best; if you want to be a hoon, you can buy a two-stroke dirt bike. If you want a machine that’s easy to ride on slippery dirt roads, the Canyon will do the job nicely. Case in point: one particularly greasy clay track on our test ride would have been very difficult on a two-wheeled bike, but the Canyon made it easy.

The brakes on these trikes are certainly powerful enough for any sensible user’s needs, and this 470-kg (1,036-lb) machine is able to slow down in a hurry, no doubt helped by its three contact patches. It’s also worth noting that the Canyon can haul a lot of luggage without the rider having to worry about dropping the bike — or even worse, picking it back up afterwards.

Minimal engine vibration and adjustable windscreen, seat, and foot pegs provide room to get comfortable, and wind-cutting bodywork and other creature comforts made for a surprisingly pleasant ride despite rain, fog, and other unpleasantries during this test. However, a heated seat is optional.

With 115 hp and 96 lb-ft on tap from its three-cylinder Rotax Ace engine, the Canyon lineup has enough jam for highway touring, and more than enough power for easy “all-roading” once you leave the pavement. I might have eventually wanted more hustle if I’d spent more time aboard the Redrock, but as it was, I wasn’t unhappy with the amount of power on-tap; my complaint was more about the watered-down delivery.

But that’s the nature of the beast with three-wheeled vehicles. Inherently stable at rest, they become inherently unstable when they’re in motion, and Can-Am had to carefully program the safety electronics to stop riders from binning their ride because they wanted to do silly stuff under power.

My suspicion is that in the years to come, Can-Am will package more muscle into the Canyon lineup, but that most riders will find out that the current engine realistically has more than enough.

The Canyon feels much different from a motorcycle. You can’t counter-weight the pegs to rush the steering; leaning your body out to the side doesn’t do as much as you might think. It’s actually quite fun to ride, but the whole time you’re aboard, you know you aren’t on a bike. I enjoyed cutting some figure eights in the dirt and trying some hill climbs aboard the Canyon Redrock to see what it could do. With more time to dial in the user-defined riding mode, I suspect this trike would be even more enjoyable. And for someone without a two-wheeled background, the Canyon could be a genuine thrill, offering a much more accessible take on the knees-in-the-breeze fun.

Plenty of Features

The Canyon comes with everything you could want on a modern luxury motorcycle (or it’s at least available as an accessory). The base model comes with a semi-automatic gearbox, cruise control, power steering, an anti-theft system, and a 10.25-inch digital display that allows you to easily flip between the various electronic features. The upgraded suspension, added luggage, and heated grips on the XT and Redrock models bring them in line with top-tier touring bikes. All models feature Apple CarPlay. The only feature some riders might find wanting is a lack of Android Auto and no adaptive cruise control.

The paddle shifter on the left handlebar shifts up and down through the six-speed gearbox; you must upshift, but the bike will automatically downshift if you don’t want to use the shifter. Better still, the system is intuitive, and there’s no clutch lever to master.

There’s no brake lever, either; both front and rear brakes are controlled by a foot pedal. If you’re worried the three-wheeled dynamics might be different from other vehicles, that’s true. You’re steering the bars, not counter-steering like a motorcycle, but it’s pretty similar to an ATV or snowmobile.

The electronics menu is fairly intuitive and much easier to navigate than what you get from some mainstream motorcycle OEMs (*cough* Suzuki *cough*). Having never been on a Can-Am three-wheeler before this test ride, I had no difficulty with any systems.

Serious Sticker Shock

The Can-Am Canyon is offered in the choice of three sub-models: the base ($30,999), XT ($36,999), and Redrock ($40,499). It’s not exactly a value leader, but it isn’t out of range of top-tier touring motorcycles, either. That’s about the same price to start a Honda Gold Wing, and about $3,000 less than a Harley-Davidson Road Glide.

The more expensive versions compare much less favorably, though. At more than $40,000 for the Canyon Redrock, you’re looking at a trike that’s more than a Harley Ultra Limited tourer. And the numbers skew against the Can-Am next to top tier adventure bikes, too. BMW’s R 1300 GS is the bar by which they’re all measured, and it has an MSRP around $19,000 in Canada — less than half of the Redrock. Ouch.

Final Thoughts

Can-Am did an excellent job creating a vehicle that combines the all-roads capability of an adventure bike with the ease-of-use of a three-wheeler. It’s an incredibly exciting machine for Canadians who want to explore beyond the beaten track but have physical restrictions or concerns about the safety of a motorcycle. And even for an experienced motorcyclist like myself, it’s different to ride, but it’s fun.

However, its price tag is what’s holding the 2025 Can-Am Canyon back. Knocking even $5,000 off the base model would make it a much more appealing buy for many adventurers. But then I’ve been wrong about this sort of thing before, and it’s possible that even with its high sticker price, the Canyon is going to be the ADV sleeper hit that nobody saw coming — least of all me.