Don’t buy CANYON

Last year i bought the very sexy looking, and very lightweight CANYON Exceed CF SLX 9.9. (Yeah i know this is more of a roadie forum, but hopefully the aftersales service bit will be helpful to riders of all types!) The bike was well priced, arrived quickly, and didnt require too much building, and as hoped it was a good looking and initially good performing XC bike. It wasn’t until 7 months in that i got to experience the other side of Canyon. The rear framestay snapped after 7 just months of usage, Canyon diagnosed this as being caused by a marginally bigger than provided rear tyre (a standard winter mud tyre recommended and fitted by local MTB shop) rubbing the frame when under heavy compression. Not ideal to hear you’re not going to get the warranty, (despite there being zero advice in the handbook about max tyre size), and as such having to buy a crash replacement frame, but can’t help think that the real problem here is that in chasing such light weight,Canyon frames are very thin, and as such not particularly robust. Fine for the pros in the sunny Alps, not so good for someone giving the thing a good workout in the mud of a Surrey Hills Winter! But I digress – it was the subsequent level of ‘service’ that really underwhelmed and left me in no doubt that’d i’d never buy Canyon again. Despite having the very same frame in stock they advised at least a 4 week turnaround to order from their special ‘crash replacement frame warehouse in Germany’. This after taking 3 weeks of me calling every day to get an explanation of their warranty verdict, and this after having to wait 2 weeks to get the frame inspected. At no point was any consideration given to my future potential customer value (I own 6 mostly top end TT, road & mountain bikes), and to be honest the attitude of the ‘manager’ was at best brash, and at worst indicative of him really not giving a damn ‘these are our policies and you’ll just have to accept them’. At no point was there even a hint of empathy, or even the smallest of gestures to help cushion the blow of the replacement cost. In contrast friends who purchased good brands from bike shops have had very much better experiences, particularly with Santa Cruz who seem to pretty much warranty everything, withijn just a few days. Guess where my next purchase is going?