Canyon or giant

Whittled down the new bike list to two. Looking for some pros & cons to help make final decision. The bikes are giant trance 1 27.5 & canyon spectral al 8.0. Cheers.

Test ride them both. Buy the one which makes you smile.

Giant as at least you can walk into a dealer to try it and there’s a face if you have an issue. Plus Giant’s customer service is rather good. (I’m on my 4th Giant)

Just got my canyon spectral 6.0 and it’s very impressive. The Giant can’t match canyon spec wise and personally I think that overrides the test ride. The 8.0 must be an absolute blast.

How big a are you and what size did you buy? Reports are its a little short on reach.

Not got that far yet. 1.8m & 85 kg. Have heard the frame is a bit small. It’s saying medium frame but not sure if I should jump up to the large.

Spec beats test ride? Keep reading the catalogues you fool?

Also look up “canyon warranty”.

I’m 6ft 1 and got the large and it feels bang on. My brother is 6ft 3 and he says it feels perfect too.

If it turned up and felt a little small I would have got a longer stem, if it was a bit big I would have got a shorter stem. I’ve read my canyon warranty and everything seems in order, thanks for that.

What Al said!

If a few baubles are more important than a properly sorted ride for you, you’re sorely misguided.

*Edit – it would appear that you think changing the stem changes everything. Oh. Erm…..

Would go with Giant everytime. Customer service is second to none (Work in a Giant supplied shop) and you get a LIFETIME warranty should anything go wrong.

Most shops are able to offer 10% off too if your nice so this brings it down toward the canyon price range.

I wouldn’t call a reverb, fox shock and forks and xt deraillier baubles. I’d say they make the ride sorted myself. I really like Giant bikes but the frame and parts on a same priced canyon are a mile ahead.

. I’ve read my canyon warranty and everything seems in order, thanks for that

Trust me, there is more to it than small print.

I really like Giant bikes but the frame and parts on a same priced canyon are a mile ahead.

Well If I’m going to buy a bike, I’d base it on ride quality, so a test ride is a must.

Well If I’m going to buy a bike, I’d base it on ride quality, so a test ride is a must

No, no, no. Didn’t you get the memo? It’s all about the spec. Far more important than a mere bagatelle like the ride. XT mechs make a Raleigh Activator all of teh orsumnez.

No, no, no. Didn’t you get the memo?

I laugh in the face of spec, I fart in your general direction, I wave my private parts…you get the picture. 🙂

Laugh, fart, wave at me I don’t care. I’d rather save hundreds of quid to save for any repairs due to my dodgy warranty.

If it turned up and felt a little small I would have got a longer stem, if it was a bit big I would have got a shorter stem.

Al, Flashy I think you’ve been had. Clearly a troll. 🙁

My Canyon is currently being repaired under warranty.

I will never, never buy from Canyon again ever, ever, ever, ever.

Get the Giant. Your mental health is worth far more than a Reverb.

Fair point muggo, I still believe gullible isn’t in the dictionary..

Just to balance out the Canyon poor warranty theme – I had a Nerve XC which had a faulty brake (Formula RX leaking fluid and seized calliper). Sent Canyon an email, and they asked me to send it back, within a week or two they posted me back a brand new brake and covered postage.

However, I did struggle to get hold of the UK office on the phone when buying the bike and it felt a little short (Medium – 5’10).

Doesn’t the trance come with a contact switch dropper anyway? Mines been bang on for a year plus now

A week or two?

Should be almost overnight. Not a week or two.

A week or two?

Should be almost overnight. Not a week or two.

My brother had a similar issue with his Formula brake on his Cube Stereo from a LBS. They still had to send it back to Silverfish to have it fixed under warranty – still took over a week

My Canyon Nerve AM is now nearly two years old, I have had not one jot of trouble with it. I haven’t had to change the bearings in the rear suspension and they are still play-free.

Don’t listen to the odd complainant feeling like they made a mistake, every company has issues at some point. I have known of fails with the majority of them. Why do people give direct suppliers such a hard time? Maybe they are risk averse and resent those who are willing to “take a chance”… I don’t know the answer and I’m no apologist.

Chris

One Canyon bike works.

I took a punt on a Canyon Spectral 8.0. Whilst I was waiting for the delivery I demo’d a Nukeproof Mega TR, Orange 5 and a Yeti SB75 to have some benchmarks. The FS bike it was replacing was well over 5 years old so not a fair test to compare against. Happy to say the Canyon climbs nearly as good as the Yeti and is as fun as the Mega IMO. Think it is quicker than all 3 but that might be new bike bias as there is no science to base that on! I am 182cm/6ft and went for the large – I was hoping to put a 50mm stem on but it seems to fit like a glove so will leave the 70mm stock stem on for now. Was worried about a high front end due to the long head tube but not an issue at all for me.

Warranty questions aside, I am very happy. Good response times from Canyon UK via email IME. My friend has had a Nerve for 3 years and no issues, been a great bike for him.

Mate has the Trance and loves it but I haven’t ridden it.

The Giant can’t match canyon spec wise and personally I think that overrides the test ride.

Jesus wept.

I can honestly say I’ve never ridden a bike and thought “Wow I can really feel the slickness of the M771 cassette over that rubbish M671”. I have bought a bike without demo-ing and had some regrets.

One Canyon bike works.

I have a torque frx, never had a problem with it, know a couple more people with trouble free torques, and a couple of people with strives also trouble free. I also know people with canyon road bikes that seem to be considered among the best available, not just because of the kit.

Although when I was buying a 29er hardtail, I found the canyons did a bit of a silly sizing jump from L to XL, so bought a SC highball instead.

Jesus wept.

I can honestly say I’ve never ridden a bike and thought “Wow I can really feel the slickness of the M771 cassette over that rubbish M671”.

Jesus wept. So you are saying inferior components are no different to better components?

Functionally, many of the “upgrades” will make chuff all difference.

Depends on the bike, I bought a Canyon road bike. If the frame was rubbish I’d flog it and buy a different frame. It’s still cheaper than buying a big brand name.

On the mtb front, I love the way people jump straight to comparing meaningless components like cassettes. I’m sure the weight, high end forks, rear shock and wheelset would make a noticable difference. The Giant is more in line with the £400 cheaper AL 7.0.

I think I’m bitter though, I ride XL bikes and no where ever stocks them anyway. To Canyon!

The problem you might have is that all of the Medium and large Spectral 8.0’s are currently showing as sold out, so decision made!

Haven’t read all the posts, but I have a new Canyon Spectral.
I did a test ride on a mate’s, which was an L rather than XL, but gave me a good idea of the quality of the bike. I really like the bike, but the BB has started creaking like a nonagenarian’s knees on a singlespeed. Canyon are paying for the lbs to fix it, I’m impressed with the service offered.
That said Giants are generally good solid, great value bikes.

They only do a L frame size with the 27.5 wheel size – if you wanted XL you’d have to have a 29er.

I think leythervegas is getting a bit of a hard time here.
You’ve only got to look through the classified front page to see how much value we* place on spangly parts.
Not saying everyone agrees spec trumps test ride, but you can’t dismiss the spec sheet as an irrelevance either.

(*we being a generalisation for the majority of the STW populous. Feel free to consider yourself not representative of this)

good luck trying to get a spectral – they’re sold out

Stuff like mechs/shifters etc don’t make that much difference really but forks/shocks do.

The Giant can’t match canyon spec wise and personally I think that overrides the test ride.

It was the quote above which obviously caught people attention followed by

If it turned up and felt a little small I would have got a longer stem, if it was a bit big I would have got a shorter stem.

The fact is some components will have an impact on the performance of the bike, but there really is no point having a bike with a cracking spec that is either too big or too small for you and fitting a longer/shorter stem isn’t going to change that.

Yes I understand that but I was trying to make the point that if it does feel a little small or big a different length of stem can make a difference. Its obviously good if you can test ride a bike but in my case and evidently in a lot of other peoples cases they’d rather take their chances with the sizing guide and advice on the Canyon helpline (admittedly only when they answer!) and save a few hundred quid. You can also send your Canyon back if it doesn’t fit when it arrives, not ideal I know but to some its worth that risk.

I bought the spectral AL 6.0, it’s lovely. But I still haven’t taken it to play in trail, just tried on going down the stair, so I cannot say too much on the performance, but I would say it is stable, and the rear end is more controllable than Giant suspension system… (I had Giant Anthem 27.5 few months agao)

Riding in the pavement/on road is nice too. I dunno if the fox CTD or the suspension system of the bike works, but the rear end doesn’t bob and even doesn’t move during climbing when I switched to climb mode. Oh, and the bike is lighter than I expected, especially during riding (I owned the Giant TCX SLR2 cyclocross bike, but I felt heavier than Spectral when riding on them).