Don't Buy a Canyon!

cphale1968

last year i bought the very sexy looking, and very lightweight CANYON Exceed CF SLX 9.9 Mountain Bike. The bike was well priced, arrived quickly, and didnt require too much building, and as hoped it was a good looking and initially good performing XC bike. It wasn't until 7 months in that i got to experience the other side of Canyon. The rear framestay snapped after 7 just months of usage, Canyon diagnosed this as being caused by a marginally bigger than provided rear tyre (a standard winter mud tyre recommended and fitted by local MTB shop) rubbing the frame when under heavy compression. Not ideal to hear you're not going to get the warranty, (despite there being zero advice in the handbook about max tyre size), and as such having to buy a crash replacement frame, but can't help think that the real problem here is that in chasing such light weight,Canyon frames are very thin, and as such not particularly robust. Fine for the pros in the sunny Alps, not so good for someone giving the thing a good workout in the mud of a Surrey Hills Winter! But I digress - it was the subsequent level of 'service' that really underwhelmed and left me in no doubt that'd i'd never buy Canyon again. Despite having the very same frame in stock they advised at least a 4 week turnaround to order from their special 'crash replacement frame warehouse in Germany'. This after taking 3 weeks of me calling every day to get an explanation of their warranty verdict, and this after having to wait 2 weeks to get the frame inspected. At no point was any consideration given to my future potential customer value (I own 6 mostly top end TT, road & mountain bikes), and to be honest the attitude of the 'manager' was at best brash, and at worst indicative of him really not giving a damn 'these are our policies and you'll just have to accept them'. At no point was there even a hint of empathy, or even the smallest of gestures to help cushion the blow of the replacement cost. In contrast friends who purchased good brands from bike shops have had very much better experiences, particularly with Santa Cruz who seem to pretty much warranty everything, withijn just a few days. Guess where my next purchase is going?

JGTR

Yes this is a downside when buying direct and not going through a LBS, we all want cheaper bikes but at what cost.

Also quite clear that oversized tyre weakened frame so I can't really see what your gripe is? Tyre sizes vary from manufacturer to manufacturer so impossible to state a max size, but if it's rubbing the frame then obviously too big!

mamba80

When my Canyon Grand Canyon CF SLX cracked around seat tube, Canyon replaced immediately, i sent them pic's and they sent me a new frame and 3 sets of bib shorts in lieu of me building up the bike.

when my daughter realised her Aeroad was a size too big, despite the bike being 72 days old and used (alot) Canyon sent a new 2xs as she was a junior racer - because the original bike was late being delivered (2 weeks late), they gave her a set of aero one piece bars.
To our shame we ve yet to fit!!!

Non std tire weakens frame, Canyon say bog off, they re not a charity.

yeah mates mtb a alot, say SC are fantastic on warranty.

robertpb

JGTR wrote:

Yes this is a downside when buying direct and not going through a LBS, we all want cheaper bikes but at what cost.

Also quite clear that oversized tyre weakened frame so I can't really see what your gripe is? Tyre sizes vary from manufacturer to manufacturer so impossible to state a max size, but if it's rubbing the frame then obviously too big!

I don't think cheaper comes into an £8,000 bike, I would hope they were a little more forthcoming than the cheaper bikes.

These frames that are built for speed usually have a lower rider weight limit than most MTB's which means they are on the fragile side.

Still it's clearly not a bike for the Surrey Hills with mud

reformedfatty

Be glad they offered a crash replacement, it's your own fault for installing a tyre too large for the frame!

milemuncher1

A frame failure / stay failure on a Canyon you say? Well I never.