[FONT=Verdana]So as my buying a Canyon MTB pricked the interest of a few forum users, I thought it was worthwhile to start dedicated thread on why I went for a Canyon and my experience of buying from this direct sales outfit. [/FONT]
Why Canyon?
[FONT=Verdana]In needed a new bike. My 2012 Intense Tracer VP Frankenbike was well and truly starting to show its age and the thought that it might break at any time loomed large—sch-yeah… how about that![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]After fairly exhaustive research into the different bikes available, from lots of different brands—including Banshee, Transition, Santa Cruz, Yeti, Norco, Giant, Specialized and YT—I decided on a 2017 Canyon Strive AL 6.0, which I was able to pick up on run-out. It had wicked components on it and came in at about 2/3 of the price of those bikes that I could buy locally. I won’t get into the positives and negatives of LBS vs direct sales here; the only thing I would say is that, with the exception of the Specialized Enduro, all the bikes that I was seriously considering were order in only items anyway, and quite a few required pre-ordering.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]So the Strive. It appealed as it was a full alloy frame—say no to carbon!—with mostly external cable routing, threaded BB, holds a bottle inside the front triangle and took regular 650b wheels. (I’m not a fan with the way long travel 29ers descend—whilst bloody quick, as a shorter rider I feel too much of a passenger on them, especially when riding really steep gnarly trails.) It’s also a pretty tidy looking bike.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]My main reservations about the Strive were its use of a proprietary hydraulic piston—the Shapeshifter—which functioning like a dropper post, changes the rear suspension shape from 160 to 130mm, and raises and lowers the BB and head angle by one degree. This component seemed like something of an unnecessary complication to the bike and a potential point of failure; especially as reports on the durability of earlier versions were by no means great. Also with a 66 degrees, geometry wise, its on the trail end of the modern enduro bike spectrum. But I figured as there were aftermarket components available to fix both problems, it was no biggie.[/FONT]
Ordering taking delivery and assembly
[FONT=Verdana]It was just over a week between placing the order and having the box turn up on my doorstep. Not bad at all considering it came all the way from Germany to regional New Zealand.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]The bike was well packed in the box and was mostly assembled with some nice reusable foam and Velcro straps holding the post and handlebars to the frame. The only issue with the packing is that the front wheel was packed rotor attached, facing the outside of the box and thus it got a bent in transit.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]The bike was shipped with nifty little beam torque wrench, shock pump, some small parts such as volume spacers, tubeless valves, a sachet of assembly paste and a brick of a manual which covers most aspects of its requisite maintenance.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]The bike only required minimal assembly: attaching the stem faceplate, dropping the seatpost, attaching the lever to the bar and adding air to the suspension and Shapeshifter. I did however switch around the cable routing as they were obviously intended for general brakes rather than the moto style we run down here, and the routing as it was looked like a bit of a birds nest and the rear brake had some nasty kinks in it. That said when the routing around the downtube was changed I was pretty impressed to see that all the cables were already cut to length. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]I also swapped off the stock Minion SS for a DHR II, dropped in the tubeless valves, some sealant and was able to seat them first time with a floor pump. Too easy.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]The only minor gripes with the install, other than the bent rotor, is that the front wheels did not come with torque caps, so while they physically fit in the fork they have do not match with the alignment tabs and this makes refitting the front wheel a pig. Also they only included a single pedal washer. Very minor but annoying. [/FONT]
Communicating with Canyon and After Sales Support
[FONT=Verdana]Canyon initially were pretty good to deal with getting back to me regarding queries with within a day or so. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]However when I wrote to them about the minor issues I encountered during installations they were a bit less helpful, and gave me some classic bike industry condescension over the phone—feeding me some nonsense about rotors always being warped… WTF! Basically I got the feeling once the sale was complete they were so fussed. They did have me organise for a local bike shop to try and true the rotor and said they would reimburse for costs. Unfortunately the bike shop wasn’t able to complete true the rotor due to the severity and acuteness of the bend, and when I took this back to Canyon they’ve been really bloody slow in getting back to me with a solution. The seem to be very reticent to honour their obligations to replace parts that were damaged in transit. This is in stark contrast with my dealings with a CRC or Wiggle (or my LBS for that matter).[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Also it is worth baring in mind to know that they only ship parts using express DHL which is eye-wateringly expensive and they have any other cheaper forms of shipping available. I asked them to send me a replacement dropout and it was going to cost me $27 shipping on a $30 part (People from Perth also have to pay stupid freight charges on anything from Canyon).Thankfully I have a buddy who is also buying a Canyon so I was able to have her add this to her order before it was shipped out. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]Anyways I’m not going to be a completely unreasonable bastard and jump up and down about my consumer rights but I do think that when you drop over $4k on a bike you think they could helpful in sorting a bent rotor and maybe spec wheels with end caps designed to fit the fork. Like I say minor gripes in an otherwise flawless build which was so cheap for what it was—so yeah, on balance I can’t really be too salty about it. [/FONT]
EDIT: Since writing this Canyon has been back in touch to say that they will reimburse me for the cost of the rotor which I am to purchase locally and the labour costs for attempting straighten the bent one. So clearly my perception of their unhelpfulness was unfounded. So I’m happy to say that they’re not being dicks about it at all, just a bit tardy in responding. Moral of the story, patience is a virtue 
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I had been forewarned by another forum member also based here in NZ, who said that if you go with Canyon you should expect much in the way of after sales support. His advice to me is that a Canyon will only really suit for someone who is pretty self-sufficient and comfortable doing most aspects of their bike maintenance themselves. I think this is bang on the money. Anyway I hope this is interesting for some of you guys. I guess it’s always good to get a review of something like a Canyon bike by someone who is not industry affiliated.[/FONT]
I’ll write a ride report soon. I haven’t ridden it enough to get a true sense of how it does but my initial feelings are very positive. Damn near silent on the trail with a DT Swiss hub. Predictable and stable at speed, and good in the air. Suspension still need some dialing in as it feels too linear. But yep it’s a fun one to ride all right!
