[Closed] Canyon bikes

Excellent value, design and build. Post sale service is rather weak but if you want that then buy something from your LBS.

Consistanly rated best in class by the German magazines.

Have you ridden one Schwelz?

I have 2 - A carbon Spectral AX9 and a Torque FR. I've ridden Nerve AMs and Grand Canyons as well as some of their road bikes.

The Grand Canyon is a great ride. I assume you are looking at the female specific model?

I'd get the 15" 7.0 (non W) as I am planning on riding it too some times when I want a bit back to the basics riding.

I find the sizing and ride of Canyons to be very "forgiving". Since they are mail order only, I suppose they are designing them to suit as many people as possible straight out of the box.

Cadel Evans won the world Road Title on a Canyon last year!!

One of the reasons I didn't get one as I said was sizing actually. At 5' 4" the Nerve XC 16.5" was too big for me according to their guide and they only seem to have 16" on the female specific models.

BTW Am I right to assume that the female specific models aren't all that different geometry wise? I am guessing they use a female anatomy friendly saddle and slightly lighter parts? In which case a W might be a better option overall if we try to avoid the overly girly colours? 🙂

I used to have one. It was a very good bike, BUT I would advise you to steer clear for a couple of reasons:
1) The company's customer service is frustratingly bad, you cannot get in contact with them and when you do they don't speak brilliant english. Very difficult to get through on the phone.
2) The reason I changed my frame was that the swing arm bearings wore out AND THERE IS NO WAY TO REPLACE THEM!! (Other than sending the frame back to Germany).

See:
http://www.bikeradar.com/road/forums/viewtopic.php?t=12622377&highlight=
(especially the penultimate post, from me)

I also had to get the downtube swing arm threads in the frame helicoiled:
http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/has-my-frame-had-it

basically the big bolt that holds the swing arm to the seat stay is the big nightmare - it's proprietary. No way to get it off.

The other thing is that I would say their sizing guidelines is fairly XC oriented - i.e. it will tend to, if anything, recommend a frame slightly too large than too small. I had a 20" one, I have now got an 18" cove hustler and the difference in handling ability is marked. I didn't know I had too large a frame before I'd known better, it's not that pronounced, but now I ride a slightly smaller one, it's obvious to me that it was too large.
I had a Nerve ES 5 (discontinued) which is similar to what's now either the Nerve XC or Nerve AM, but both those frames look slightly different to mine. (better in the way that the down tube and top tube are welded to each other as opposed to being independently welded to the headtube)

I have heard of the support not being all that before actually but seen as I am after a hardtail at the moment I was hoping to avoid needing their support. I have a good bike mechanic (built my Anthem X) near me so I should be able to sort out most issues without having to resort to their service.

Thanks for the heads up regarding the FSs though.

oh and good luck with remaining patient waiting for it to get delivered as well.

Yes that was the other reason I avoided them... 4 months lead when I checked back in October for a small Nerve XC no matter what colour. Is their availability thingy accurate though? Currently it says week 7 for the x small 7.0W . So end of February I am guessing which is okish since in this weather I don't even ride.

I think there are tales of long delivery times and crap customer support on Weightweenies too. Frankly if you are going to have a mail order bike company then your communication, support and warranty should be better or at least as good as the traditional sales models. And it looks to me like Canyon's isn't.
I'm also a bit suspicious of the reviews in German bike mags.
Magazines like Tour always seem to give top marks to German companies, often in contadiction to others findings on stiffness, rolling resistance etc.
Either Products are being specifically made to pass the German mags test bench or there are 'brown envelopes' passing between the mfrs and the editors.

07 Nerve ES 8 here ..... Great bike, great value. I got mine when the exchange rates were more favourable, and from the discount store thingy on their website. After sales can be sketchy, unless you speak german... or french! They were happy to talk in french cuz i dont know german!
Never really had any issues with it... apart from the crazy DH wheels and 120mm stem that were specced on it. And the 2010 range looks ace.

Nerve XC 5.0 owner here. There is now a UK support center for Canyon in London, easy to get hold of. I'm selling my bike as, after 3 months of riding, it isn't what I'm looking for. Having said that, its good quality and good value. The ordering and delivery was easy. Comes with tools etc. The waiting list is purely down to luck - whether they have your model/size/colour ready to go.
Not sure about the warranty side as nothing has failed on this bike. I do know that they offer what they call a crash replacement scheme, where you are given a frame at a discount price which increases annually from 1 year after purchase up to 3 years.Not cheap tho - starts at 50% of total frame cost.

cant speak for canyon but my wimmin specific cube and giant have shorter top tubes for a given frame size than a blokes bike to accomodate general differences in body sizes. Most W/S bikes should have a tweaked geom rather than just a big saddle, pink stickers and "miss" or "girl" printed on it...

I have a Canyon road bike. It's great! The only problem I've had is that they sent it with the brakes connected up the wrong way round despite me asking them not to. Easy enough to fix though.