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Canyon bicycles coming to America, direct to consumer

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Canyon-factory-Koblenz_assembly

We’ve heard rumors floating around for a long time now, but Canyon has finally made it official. From next spring 2017, they will bring their direct sales model to consumers in the United States. Cyclists in the states have been eyeing Canyon’s premier road and trail offerings for several years, with promises of competitive pricing. Now with a flurry of other big brands bringing consumer-direct sales options to American bike buyers, it seems that now is the time…

Canyon-factory-Koblenz_exterior
all photos courtesy of Canyon

It hasn’t been an easy step for Canyon, as moving into the huge US market means going head-to-head with a lot of big companies. With Trek and Giant having recently announced Direct to Consumer web sales, the online bike marketplace is blowing up to join Bulls Bikes, Canfield BrothersYT Industries, Mongoose, and many more. Getting into the US market also means needing to be prepared to ramp up production to meet the expected demand, and dealing with a whole other legal and liability framework. Canyon seems to have even had a few hiccups when they expanded Down Under before they had their expanded production up and running, but says that they’ve learned a lot from moving out of Europe, and this knowledge has built a foundation for their expansion to the States.

To make the move work Canyon has teamed up with TSG Consumer Partners, a big US private equity firm, that will bring with them the funding to deal with the growth. As a part of the deal TSG is said to become a minority owner in Canyon. That added capital is what allowed Canyon to more than quadruple their production last fall.

Canyon-factory-Koblenz

Canyon has laid out  a rough timeline to have a USA-targeted website up and running at the start of 2017, and is working now to set up a dedicated customer support and tech service center in the US. Bikes destined for the American market will still be built-up in their recently updated Koblenz, Germany headquarter from Taiwanese frames, and then delivered to the US. Just back in October 2015 Canyon opened up the new modernized production facility in Koblenz, with ample reserve capacity, and has seen record outputs ever since.

Canyon-factory-Koblenz_boxes

Buyers in the US will be able to expect delivery in 2-6 weeks from online order, with some bikes being shipped from US warehousing and some direct from Germany. Like all of their bikes now, US-delivered Canyons will come almost fully assembled (usually just requiring the stem and handlebar to be rotated and torqued into place), with final assembly easy to do by any home mechanic.

Canyon.com

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57 Comments
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DRC
DRC
8 years ago

I’m here for the “downfall of the LBS” comments.

Dave
Dave
8 years ago

life is not getting any easier for the IBD

crank1979
crank1979
8 years ago
Reply to  Dave

You can also return it within the first 30 days if you aren’t happy with it.

Sam
Sam
8 years ago

first of all I would not buy any of the current companies that offer direct sales.. I would consider a Canyon, although still don’t think I still would not buy a bike from direct sales, if I am dishing out $5k+ for a bike i want to ensure the fit is perfect, and not all 52cm or medium frames are the same..

traildog
traildog
8 years ago
Reply to  Sam

see: geometry chart

dr_lha
dr_lha
8 years ago

Great, now we get to also wait 3 months for a bike that shows up the wrong size and with the wrong parts.

i
i
8 years ago
Reply to  dr_lha

since this announcement means Canyon will become the only bikes available in the US, you probably should just take up another hobby now.

Stendhal
Stendhal
8 years ago

Yes! This is excellent news.

myke2241
myke2241
8 years ago

Delivery in 2-6 weeks! This not going to affect lbs. average consumer walks away from that kind of wait time.

Burton
Burton
8 years ago

Bring it on! Although I’ll reserve judgment until I see Canyon’s prices. Bikes aren’t getting any simpler to work on. I don’t see LBS’s going the way of the passenger pigeon.

Colin
Colin
8 years ago
Reply to  Burton

I agree, if you have been riding long enough you should be able to look at a geo chart and tell if a bike is going to fit properly. I buy bikes all the time, sight unseen. A lot of times shops cannot carry all the models, so you have to order it, cross your fingers, and hope you guessed right.

Hell, if you’ve been doing this long enough you should have an idea of how it will handle from the geometry.

Also N+1 is my personal motto, not just for bikes.

anonymous
anonymous
8 years ago
Reply to  Colin

LBS almost never carries bikes my size anyways. Mostly mediums, and mediums all have similar geometries to each other. It’s the smalls and XS where they start making compromises, like steep STAs and slack head tubes to maintain front-center and shorten the top tube and stack doesn’t go down linearly with size and reach barely goes down at all.

Bazz
Bazz
8 years ago
Reply to  Colin

Ditto XL and XXL. In fact many brands (especially on the carbon side) don’t always go bigger the large.

Burton
Burton
8 years ago

If you can’t figure out your bike size from the length of the top tube, then you might want to consider taking up another sport. Also, waiting several weeks for a bike is no big deal if it’s an N+1.

JBikes
JBikes
8 years ago
Reply to  Burton

Length of the tope tube? That is not a great metric as it doesn’t take into account heat tube length, HT angle, ST angle, BB drop.

Stack, reach, and seat tube angle are really all anyone should talk about with regards to fit comparisons between bikes. Maybe HT angle will come into play, but the change in reach due to spacers will be minimal.

pgm
pgm
8 years ago
Reply to  Burton

If you still think top tube length is the way to fit a bike, then you might want to consider taking up another sport.

Veganpotter
Veganpotter
8 years ago
Reply to  pgm

Well, as a fitter,once you have a good fit, it’s pretty darn easy to compare the tube lengths and angles to what you are already riding. And yes, you should have a decent idea of how a bike will handle too. (deleted)

***Canyon doesn’t really bother me compared to many online companies selling junk. They’re just different and really do design their own, high quality bikes.

thesteve4761
thesteve4761
8 years ago
Reply to  Veganpotter

Well, as a fitter, you should know that stack and reach are truly what matter for accurate comparison of fit between models. (deleted).

***Fitters don’t really bother me, but those who go out of their way to talk down to people do.

Michael Wagner
Michael Wagner
8 years ago
Reply to  thesteve4761

With headtube length and top tube length, you can get pretty good numbers. Especially if you have your existing bike to measure off of for comparison.

Veganpotter
Veganpotter
8 years ago
Reply to  thesteve4761

You do know the mass majority of that can be made up for with stem choice right?

AK Ben
AK Ben
8 years ago
Reply to  Burton

Wow, that’s just about the most elitist wanker comment I’ve ever seen on BikeRumor, and that’s saying something. Also, it’s just not correct, as top tube length is only one of the variables to consider for bike fit,

Tyler Durden
Tyler Durden
8 years ago
Reply to  AK Ben

TT length is still the single most important metric for whether the fit will be correct (ie. what size to buy). Now, maybe the rest of the geo won’t suit the type of riding you’d like to do, but that’s a different subject…

JBikes
JBikes
8 years ago
Reply to  Tyler Durden

No its not. Take for a Trek Domane H2 fit, size 56, tope tube c-c length of 55.4cm. A Felt F1 56cm: 54.7cm. Close right?

Reach for each of these is 37.7 and 39.7, the Z1 being 2cm longer even though it has a shorter top tube. Further to the point, stack on both of these is 59.1 vs 54.8. VERY different bikes yet the TT dimension alone tells you almost nothing.

TT length only made sense back in horizontal TT days when everyone ran nearly the same HT/ST angles because there were only so many lugs to go around. Even then it wasn’t great as you had square and non-square frames. It only makes sense if one can’t understand the basics of a cartesian coordinate system.

bbb
bbb
8 years ago
Reply to  Tyler Durden

TT – most popular
reach – most important.

Bog
Bog
8 years ago
Reply to  bbb

Another vote for stack and reach first. Then I’ll look at STA, HTA, followed by the others. Top the length doesn’t even factor into it really.
Tyler, disappointed that you would use TT length.

spike
spike
8 years ago
Reply to  Burton

This method is what I’ve been using for years, but I started realising I need to change. I get super discouraged when I see a L bike with a 25 + inch TT (long legs short torso), but I need to remember to look closer at these new measurements and go from there.

LS
LS
8 years ago

Finally!

BC
BC
8 years ago

I wonder if they’ll have an active demo program trucking around the US. Go for a ride, order a bike from your phone…

adrian
adrian
8 years ago
Reply to  BC

There’s a lot of riders out there that would prefer to be able to test ride under real (not parking lot) conditions. If they’re gonna do factory-direct model, this is probably something that they will need to do to have decent success.

Thesteve4761
Thesteve4761
8 years ago
Reply to  adrian

Does everybody miss the fact that they are enormously successful globally already? Perhaps they have a clue?

Andy
Andy
8 years ago

I had a Canyon and it was crap. 21mm tires still rubbed on the chain stays no matter the wheels. Customer Direct is for brands that can’t open dealers. Once shipped the customer is stuck with it or has a huge hassle returning the bike. With no professional help setting the bike up, its potentially going to ride like crap. We’ve all seen these guys on group rides in the horribly uncomfortable position raving about the deal he got online.

Customer direct is happening and will happen fast, but its not good for the industry. Online customers will be disappointed with cycling and quality help/staff in the IBD will decline leading to even more bad experiences. In a time when we need to work to boost cycling participation, this is going the wrong way.

Coffeemonster
Coffeemonster
8 years ago

I’m looking forward to Trek and Specialized having to adjust their pricing models to compete with Canyon.

thesteve4761
thesteve4761
8 years ago
Reply to  Coffeemonster

Like they already deal with in Europe?

Ivan
Ivan
8 years ago
Reply to  Coffeemonster

I’m actually curious to see whether Canyon bikes sold in the US will add on the cost of duty as it would be an imported bike. If it’s the equivalent price as in Europe, specialized and trek will have to react. If they have the added duty, then it will likely be comperable

thesteve4761
thesteve4761
8 years ago
Reply to  Ivan

Not quite. All of the big brands already sell imported bikes. Trek, Giant, Cannondale, and Specialized already pay import duty and roll that into the price (aside from the top level Trek’s). Biggest difference will be freight cost for 1 bike shipped at a time, and potentially higher assembly labor costs in Europe. Probably heavily offset by not having to support a dealer network. Though, Canyon will have to set up a strong support network for Customer Service with no physical dealers.

Michael
Michael
8 years ago

I’d be interested in buying a Canyon but there has to be a way to test ride a demo bike first. I just could not commit to buying without trying it.

BicycleRFun
BicycleRFun
8 years ago

FINALLY!!!!

Thank you Canyon for listening to the consumer and making a business decision that is in line with current shopping habits. I, for one, am stoked to hear this and will be buying the day they are available.

Thank you!

JD
JD
8 years ago
Reply to  BicycleRFun

Spot on, Ryan. I have an LBS in the same block as my house and I don’t so much as buy tubes from them because they are, to a man, (deleted). On the other hand, I go out of my way to go to the shop that actually takes the time to provide service. I’d buy from them if it means paying a few hundred more, that’s for sure.

AK Ben
AK Ben
8 years ago
Reply to  BicycleRFun

We’re you also really excited when Olive Garden came to your town?

ryan
ryan
8 years ago

Good LBSs with good customer service have nothing to fear from direct to consumer internet sales, but if their business model is built around snotty kids “servicing bikes” and “serving” customers, yeah, they’re gonna have problems. After working in 4 different shops over a period of about 3 1/2 years I’m convinced that most of the problems that LBSs have are their owners’ fault for hiring the aforementioned snotty kids to mind the store while they drink, do drugs and dodge creditors. When I go into a bike shop I don’t expect to get my ass kissed, but I also refuse to be talked down to by a kid who wasn’t even jumping out of a schoolbus when I was jumping out of a C-130 with a rifle and parachute. Direct to consumer internet sales let me avoid that crap. If I can’t get good service I might as well buy online where I can at least get a good price.

Veganpotter
Veganpotter
8 years ago
Reply to  ryan

I’d prefer a kid that knows bikes over a guy that knows guns… unless I’m buying guns

JD
JD
8 years ago

(Sorry that was a reply to the wrong person).

Dude
Dude
8 years ago

Competition is good. The players will adapt and the best shops will find themselves winning.

matthew moseley
matthew moseley
8 years ago

anyeone notice all their pro team bikes turned white. definitiely makes them more noticeable.

i sure hope they give Specialame a run for their money

matthew moseley
matthew moseley
8 years ago

ryan –

our great war is a spiritual war.
our great depression…is our lives.

Will
Will
8 years ago

Awesome! If it isn’t for you, keep buying at the stores, if you know enough to work on your own stuff this is fantastic news! I love these bikes and even conceived a plan to have one delivered to a hotel in europe while i was there but couldn’t make it happen. More great products without a middle man!

KK
KK
8 years ago

I can see that for some people this would be an awesome prospect, I just hope it doesn’t carve more profit from the IBDs so that they disappear. I personally wouldn’t be interested buying on line, I need the feedback and personal contact of a dealer where I can try different brands for feel and fit. I don’t do my own repairs and tune ups so it’s good to know I can get service from the shop that sold me the product and can fine tune any fit issues. I also hope that the people who buy on line wouldn’t go to their local bike shop and take up their time and effort by using their demo bikes and gleaning information and THEN go buy online. I also wonder about timeline for shipping damage and warranty.

satisFACTORYrider
satisFACTORYrider
8 years ago

it’s a choice. good to have ’em, yeah?

Norm
Norm
8 years ago

Excellent news! I buy stuff from local shops, local builders, big online retailers, little online retailers… I am fortunate to have seven bicycles, but I’ve never owned a carbon frame bike. I’ve been waiting for the Canyon. I’m hoping they delay a little while though, so I’ll have more time to save up some money.

Tom
Tom
8 years ago

Great another Chinese bike with a cool sounding “American” name. I guess that worked for Germans but wtf makes it different from anything in America? Trek, Specialized……don’t they offer enough? Is there something missing that Canyon provides? I don’t think so.

Veganpotter
Veganpotter
8 years ago
Reply to  Tom

Ever think there may be Canyons in Europe? They do have mountains

Robin
Robin
8 years ago
Reply to  Tom

Since everyone doesn’t ride a Trek or Specialized in the US, it’s pretty obvious that Trek’s and Specialized’s offering don’t meet the desires or needs of every cyclist. The US bike market would be a sad market if the only choices were Specialized or Trek. As someone mentioned above, more choices are a good thing. More competition is a good thing.

bbb
bbb
8 years ago

Have they managed to sort out all the gigantic mess with unfulfilled/delayed orders in the UK already?

traildog
traildog
8 years ago

Yes! Sign me up for a strive and a spectral!

Magnuki
Magnuki
8 years ago

Can’t wait to see americans buy a Canyon just because it’s a german brand and it feels so exotic…lol..

Durian Rider
Durian Rider
8 years ago

Ive ridden Canyon and Ive ridden the Bikes Directs carbon and titanium and the quality was better on the bikes direct AND now I understand why Canyon have such a short warranty as their quality is far less than Motobecane etc.

I do prefer the Canyon paint jobs though. They did well there.

Either bike will be fine though but if you ride hard and long and keep your bikes then stick with something with a decent warranty.

Concerned
Concerned
8 years ago

Well for buyers it may be good news, but what about the American made market?, what about the inner commerce and the bicycle industry people investing on it? What about the shops?, What about everything that goes around the bicycle in america?. Remember that every action, is followed by a big reaction, that could be as good for some and as bad for others… now ho many American families live from the bicycle industry? ask Detroit how it went with the cars…, and now we’re exactly doing the same with bikes…

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