Canyon owners, what has been your experience getting work done on your bikes at bike shops? Any push back, negative comments etc, or have they welcomed the business.
Thinking of getting one, and even though i can do a lot myself i can’t do everything and will need help from a mechanic at some time.
To me it would be just like bringing in a bike brand they don’t sell. Another option would be Velofix.
Why do you think that you couldn’t work on everything?
I’ve not had good luck; last year I needed the basebar on my speedmax swapped and I was being lazy so I emailed 2 shops about doing it for me and maybe updating my fit.
1 shop just would not respond to any of my emails, that shop has since gone out of business… The other shop quickly responded with a screenshot of the Canyon business model from Canyon’s website and said they do not service Canyon.
**1 shop just would not respond to any of my emails, that shop has since gone out of business… The other shop quickly responded with a screenshot of the Canyon business model from Canyon’s website and said they do not service Canyon. **
Wow! I thought we might be beyond this somewhat outdated thinking in bike retail, but just when you think that there has been progress made it comes back with a vengence!
I have spent almost my whole working life in B2B Sales - you NEVER turn down a lead, a tip, a reference, and expression of interest. For the life of me I have never understood, retailers who would actually turn down business that would come into their store and spend money with them!
**1 shop just would not respond to any of my emails, that shop has since gone out of business… The other shop quickly responded with a screenshot of the Canyon business model from Canyon’s website and said they do not service Canyon. **
Wow! I thought we might be beyond this somewhat outdated thinking in bike retail, but just when you think that there has been progress made it comes back with a vengence!
I have spent almost my whole working life in B2B Sales - you NEVER turn down a lead, a tip, a reference, and expression of interest. For the life of me I have never understood, retailers who would actually turn down business that would come into their store and spend money with them!
We do quite a lot of Canyon tri and road bikes since we also recommend them to bike fit clients, if the bikes fit. We also tell them the downsides like the long cranks and the labour they need to do or let it be done like in case with the too long length of the current extensions. Heck, we even have customers let the shipmto us after they order.
But lately we are also wondering if we should continue because Canyon displays an attitude that creates hassle we don’t want. As example, a while back we got a bike in with shipping so we contacted the client. When je told them they shipped the bike to us, a shop / fit studio, they actually said there was no warranty because we could have caused the damage. Finally after a lot of discussion they took the bike back
Another example, while working on a tri bike we heard a strange noise in the base bar, unfortunate when we are almost completely done with cutting the extensions and renew the cables. No noise was heard during the proces, but when we took the bike of the work stand to give it to the customer we heard the noise, a rattle like something was inside. Eventually disassembled the brakelevers, had to cut the cables, etc. We found a 10 cm long piece of outer cable inside the base bar. Canyon logo on it. Cusomer was still there eatching the process. Off course we charged him the extra labour and told him to explain what happened and ask Canyon for a compensation of the extra cost. They refused because the part we found was not theirs, he send the pic of the part where you couldn’t see the Canyon logo on it. Still after he send a pic where you could see the logo they still refused…
And i can go on, got one in with di2 wires to short so when the customer turned the front wheel the cables were pulled out, not their fold.
So yes, i can see some shops just don’t want to deal with them. That said, we get a customer in tomorrow for a fit session. Bike first, fit second…hope he got the right size
Jeroen
Pretty much what Fleck said.
The only thing I can think of how Specialized of a part is need for a repair. If it something they need to order from Canyon Bikes they may want to charge you in advance and then hold onto the bike while awaiting the part. All repair parts may not yet be available here in the States so the wait time could be longer. Just my 2 cents.
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I’m going through this now actually. I laid my Speedmax CF SLX down during Santa Rosa 70.3 two weeks ago. Bike got scratched up and needed new bar end shifters, wheels trued, and some other TLC (I also needed a plate and screws in my collarbone, but that’s another story!).
I took it to a local shop in LA (Santa Monica) and they have been incredibly helpful. They took care of the repairs and were very fair with price. I could imagine that it might be a hassle if any of the Canyon proprietary parts needed repair, but in my case the damaged parts were Shimano / Zipp. I’m local to the store, so my sense is they wanted to begin a relationship with a local guy with expensive bikes that will likely need future work - seems like a no-brainier business move for any shop.
fwiw, i’ve also had very good experiences with Velofix. Very convenient if they are available in your area.
Good luck!
I haven’t had issues getting my Speedmax SLX and Ultimate SLX serviced here in San Francisco. Sometimes the LBS guy will make a snarky joke about the bike when I’ve brought it in. I’ve also had good luck more recently with Velofix when I needed a bigger job (stem change on the SLX which required rerunning brake cables with was a real PITA).
That said, I don’t think I’d buy a Canyon again though. I sold my Ultimate recently (never much enjoyed that bike) and have been thinking about selling the Speedmax. I’ve found the spare parts too hard to come by with long waits, no ability for them to forecast arrival times, and just an attitude in general. What’s especially annoying is you can’t preorder parts they don’t have, so you have to keep calling and calling back week after week.
The bikes are nice and well specced for the money, but their US support just sucks too much. I’m over Canyon.
My Dad owned a bike shop for more than 30 years. He made the majority of his money servicing bikes, not selling them. He would never refuse to work on a brand that wasn’t sold in his store, that’s probably why the snobby stores mentioned in this thread went out of business. He did have a no huffy/murray without upfront payment policy because he repaired too many that the customer never came and picked up because the repair was worth more than the bike…but he wouldn’t have refused to work on a Canyon if he were in business today.
My Dad owned a bike shop for more than 30 years. He made the majority of his money servicing bikes, not selling them. He would never refuse to work on a brand that wasn’t sold in his store, that’s probably why the snobby stores mentioned in this thread went out of business. He did have a no huffy/murray without upfront payment policy because he repaired too many that the customer never came and picked up because the repair was worth more than the bike…but he wouldn’t have refused to work on a Canyon if he were in business today.
This!!
The money is in service, parts, and accessories. My LBS works on my Ceepo all the time without complaint (they are a Trek store). This is even after I went in looking for a Trek roadie, but ended up with one off eBay. He services that too (although that thing has been bulletproof unlike the Ceepo).
This is the truth. Customer experience for a small repair or help with anything that is done well and done friendly will bring people back through the door. LBS’ should be annoyed major brands sell nice bikes with garbage wheels. This is Canyon’s biggest advantage. You can buy a well spec’d bike with some decent hoops. That said, I just purchased a Cannondale several months ago because the LBS was great to work with on another bike I did not purchase from the store. Customer experience is key.
there are some jobs i don’t have the tools for, other times i don’t want to risk messing something expensive up, and perhaps most common - those jobs i could probably do with help from youtube and a lot of time, but a typical bike shop mechanic will do in a fraction of the time for a modest cost.
thank you everyone for the replies. Definitely a mix, and enough to make me think seriously before buying one. The thing that prompted me to ask the question was a blog i read where a shop owner was basically saying that they will service any brand that follows the standard retail model, but not those sold direct to customers because the customers that support DTC should live with the consequences of the model they have chosen. Seemed a bit odd in this DTC age, but apparently there are several out there.
I’ve got a mechanic at a well-known bike store in Orlando, Orange Cycle. He is my go-to mechanic for anything I can’t do myself or don’t want to do myself. It’s a Specialized store but he’s worked on everything for me: my Cannondale F-Si, my Trek Fuel Ex, built up my Culprit gravel bike for me. I could go on and on.
I spoke to him a few months ago about a Canyon bike I was looking at and he told me he would gladly send someone down the street one way to buy a Trek or another way to buy a Cervélo before he ever told someone to buy a Canyon. He said that if you need to replace a proprietary part it’s a pain to get and takes forever. He recounted a customer who tried to warranty an integrated road base bar that had cracked near the hood (mechanic found it replacing bar tape) and Canyon tried to make it out to be the LBS’s fault. This seems to echo what others here have said.
LBS owner told me they don’t make much more than 10% margin on selling a bike. They stay in business by servicing anything that comes through the door. Being snobbish about what they service would put them out of business.
We have had zero issues with our LBS. We are long time customers and they don’t sell tri bikes. So when we added the Tri Rig front end, we had Velofix do the assembly. Our LBS has done any other work since the parts are Shimano, which they deal with on a daily basis. I guess it really depends on your relationship with your LBS. We are pretty fortunate. They don’t care about the brand. They make their living on service.
My LBS is the bomb. Mechanic treats me and my bike with respect and care so he’s getting a lot of business from me and my friends. There’s always a shop like that so don’t limit your bike because of that. Speedmax is my dream bike and I will buy it in a heartbeat if I can afford it.
I’ve not had good luck; last year I needed the basebar on my speedmax swapped and I was being lazy so I emailed 2 shops about doing it for me and maybe updating my fit.
1 shop just would not respond to any of my emails, that shop has since gone out of business… The other shop quickly responded with a screenshot of the Canyon business model from Canyon’s website and said they do not service Canyon.
Honestly, in 2019, other that taking an appointment shop should not reply to random email… The reply to business ratio is probably really bad.
Most bike shops, at least in the UK, still operate via an agreed distributor model and it can cause headaches when you need specific parts from the likes of Canyon. Basically a shop shouldn’t be ordering in parts from outside their agreed supply network even if that part is readily available online. Canyon won’t be involved in these distributor networks making it harder than it first appears for a shop to get a set of integrated Canyon bars etc.
As a practical example my Garmin Vectors 3 are currently in service getting a new battery door. Its been a real hassle because the battery door is easily available direct from Garmin online, but if I buy it, fit it it, and strip one of the little screws my warentee will be invalidated. My LBS, who I bought the pedal from, cando the work but only if they buy the part themselves through an official Garmin source. They are legally obliged to get Garmin parts through thier offical distributor and it turns out thier distributor doesn’t sell the battery doors. So I have had to make a warentee claim and ship the pedals back to Garmin which has involved time and cost for the LBS all over a £25 part. When you apply the same situation to a Canyon specific part you can see why an LBS doesn’t want the hassle.
On the flip side if all the maintaince is on standard parts then you should be fine. Headsets, pressfit BBs and other parts that many home mechanics don’t want to tackle should be bread and butter for the LBS.