German bike manufacturer Canyon has resumed bike sales to parts of the UK, after working to smooth out the process of importing bikes for customers in England, Scotland and Wales. Canyon appears to be covering some of the additional import costs that came into effect at the end of the Brexit transition period, but the rest is reflected in price rises that customers will have to pay.
After an initial price increase towards the end of last year, Canyon has announced that prices have increased again for UK buyers, citing the additional costs associated with the increase in import duties when sending products from the EU to the UK.
However, it appears that Canyon is absorbing some of the additional fees, a measure that is certainly not required of Canyon.
What are the new rules?
The Bicycle Association has summarised the new rules regarding bikes in an article that analyses the implications of Brexit for the bike industry:
“Basically, the ‘deal’ specifies that goods can move between GB and EU with zero tariffs, but only if they “originate” in the UK or EU. Essentially the idea is that only goods which have significant value added in either EU or UK (or a combination of UK and EU) get the zero tariffs. Goods ‘just’ imported from elsewhere do not.”
Under the new ‘deal’, all bikes that aren't electric are subject to tariffs should the value of parts imported from outside of the UK or EU that are used to make each bike exceed 45% of the overall value. For e-bikes, it's 50%.
Given that the majority of factories involved with the manufacturing of frames and components are based outside of the UK and EU, a sizeable proportion of bikes coming into the UK that are ordered from the EU are subject to a new 14% tariff.
Crunching the numbers
Taking the Canyon Aeroad CF SL 8 Disc as an example, the price rose from £3,799 to £3,949 in November 2020, and it has since jumped again for UK buyers up to £4,149. That represents an increase of 9.21% over the starting figure, and 5.06% more than the price it was in November.
Neither of these price increases nor the overall price increase is as as much as 14%. Canyon states that “all duties and handling fees are included in the price of your bike which means you’ll never have to pay any hidden fees when your bike arrives on British soil"; so it seems that Canyon has decided to absorb some of the additional costs to keep prices down for UK customers.
Canyon is also keen to stress that the ordering process for UK customers is made as smooth as possible, and that the reason for the price increases at the point of sale is to prevent any additional costs when the bike arrives with the customer.
Canyon adds: “We’re doing all we can to minimise disruption while we modify our processes to comply with new legislation as a result of Brexit. This includes changes to our pricing format to cover any applicable duties or customs handling fees. The benefit is the pricing you see on our website and during checkout is the final pricing, and there are no additional fees once your Canyon order arrives with you.”
E-bikes
At the time of writing, Canyon is not yet shipping e-bikes to the UK due to “extra conditions of shipment” which they are still working out. Canyon points customers to its special Brexit FAQs page, where updates on e-bikes will be posted.
Northern Ireland
Differences in shipping regulations between the UK mainland and Northern Ireland mean that deliveries of Canyon bikes have not resumed for Northern Ireland. Canyon cites the “need to undertake additional systems changes” before shipping can resume.
Existing orders
Canyon says: “If you had an order in place that was due to ship between the 19th of December 2020 and the 15th of January 2021, we will be sending out further details about your order shortly. This will include an updated order confirmation and any instructions to confirm payment should this be outstanding.”
This could mean that orders placed before the Brexit transition period ended will be subject to additional costs before the bike can be delivered.
If you have an order in place and have any questions, you can contact Canyon’s UK customer service team using their live chat or through the contact form here.
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65 comments
Canyon sell way more frames than Colnago over all bike categories. If Colnago and Canyon both had frame failures of say 1% then it's obvious that more Canyons would be in for repair.
Hmmm. You stick with your Canyon. I'll stick with my Colnagos. The carbon repair shop was categorical in their assertion that Canyon bikes had the highest failure rates...
....Buy a Chinese frame through someone else! Is it not the import VAT (for part assembly in Germany) the issue here?
Have to say, I've never understood the attraction of Canyon - apart from the price - but the carbon repair specialist I used to repair my old C50 said that they were amongst the frames they see most. That is either a function of Canyon ubiquity (which I doubt), or poor build quality (which was the view of the carbon repair specialist).
apart from price they universally review really well and everyone I know with one loves them.
my ultimate disc is the best, most fun bike I've ever had....would've liked an aeroad but the currency fluctuations caused by brexit then brexit itself have pushed the price too high for me
Yep - I've read the reviews too. And I have a (German) mate I ride with who has a (6-7yr old) Canyon that rides well and has survived some serious mileage and hammer (inc. 3-4 Paris Roubaix sportives which is about as much as you could expect to subject a road bike to), so when I asked the carbon repair shop which frames they 'saw most', I wouldn't have guessed Canyon either...
I'm sure most Ducati owners say something similar but the brand has a long history of unreliability. It's possible that there are high-mileage Ducatis that have never given their owner a moment's trouble... but I bet there won't be many!
I don't think Canyon dominates the UK market so if a repairer is seeing a significant number of their frames failing then it suggests that there is possibly an ongoing QC issue or a design fault. However, that's not the same as saying every frame will break.
Wasn't brexthick supposed to free the economy of 'red tap' and 'bureaucracy'?
Reading the comments, I thought I'd been redirected to The Guardian website. This is Road.cc isn't it?
If Rose/Canyon have any sense and the volume supports it they should set up an assembly Center in the UK somewhere.
What's the chances then that the frames end up going through the same sub-contracted assembly centre, probably having originated at the same far east frame manufacturer, and basically get different decals stuck on. OK, an exaggeration, but seriously, how different can they be?
Canyon had already pushed up UK prices on newly released models end of 2020. The new ultegra di2 speedmax CF for example, was listed at £5999. Has gone up to £6299 after leaving. The same model is still available in Euro zone for 5799 euro. With current exchange rates the UK buyer was already paying a c. £800 premium before Brexit, which is now up by a further £300. I would imagine the UK market is massive for them as sometimes every other bike I see on the road seems to be a Canyon, but that price discrepancy is huge.
So if UK brands sourcing from Asia will face 14% tariffs exporting to EU, and EU brands sourcing from Asia will face 14% tariffs to sell into the UK, that will just push UK consumers to UK brands as opposed to European....
The other potential outcome is a Campagnolo renaissance.
Stick an EU made Campy groupset on a bike and it will be a hell of a lot closer to the tariff free category.
The same would be true for any EU or UK made wheels/finishing kit etc.
Most alloy in Campagnolo is made by Tektro in Taiwan with some assembled in Romania . Disc brakes are made by Magura.
This is a cycling forum, it's not a place for this kind of fantasy fiction.
Any reversal in the long term decline of Campagnolo's domination of groupsets will be completely unrelated to Brexit and surely would depend on Campagnolo's business model and R&D (and of their competitors). I am not holding my breath.
If a bike was close to the EU/UK ROI threshold for tariff free import then fitting a Campagnolo groupset may push it above that threshold.
On a 2000 bike the difference could be £200 or more, that may well be enough to get a lot of people learning to speak Campagnolo.
Obviously this all depends on Campagnolo groupsets actually counting as EU made, I thought they were but someone has posted that they're merely assembled here and manufacture takes place in Taiwan.
Reminds me of flood victims picking through the debris of their possessions and smiling as they retrieve a treasure which although damaged might be saved. Sort of sweet but ultimately rather sad.
All the village idiots who voted for Brexit should be taxed at a higher rate that the rest of us sane people to cover the costs.
Why would anyone vote to pay more for things? I's not as they didn't know this would happen, it was common knowledge, but oh no let's listen to Nigel Farage and the rest of the Millionaires, they really care about us don't they?
Talk about gullible, they obviously have feathers in their head instead of a brain
*cough* income tax *cough* London voted against brexit *cough* stamp duty *cough* brexit was voted for by pensioners, not the working pop *cough*
Irony of ironies is that remain voters will pay a higher proportion of the cost of brexit and be the people sorting out the messes.
Id be careful with a cough like that. We might have to isolate you
You should look at the news outside of RoadCC. Fishermen, exporters, job losses, increased trande friction etc, Brexit is going to cost us all, for what exactly?
Care to tell us? No one in the 4.5 years has been able to so far.
Yeah right, the people who voted against this monumental act of self-harm should subsidise those who wanted it
Ah, taxation and representation raises its head. Not being picky, but I suspect that remainers are - on average - taxed at a higher rate than leavers, at least per 'income tax paying' vote. You'd have to net off all non tax payers on both sides to get a closer look, but it would be interesting...
Sorry....I did a political science M.Phil.... a while ago, I might add.
How is brexcrement going thus far?
Fishing for example. Discuss
The Brexit agreement introduced strict quotas on the number of political comments that can be imported into a cycling website per month. Unfortunately we've already hit the tariff ceiling for March.
Can't we just change the quotas unilaterally?
Or would that open us up to legal action?
Steel is real!
What crap Brexiters still talk.
Up yours, fuck stain
Brexit has already given car manufacturers like Nissan and BMW the jitters (thankfully averted after the 11th-hour deal was agreed) while the Ineos Grenadier - whose boss was loudly pro-Brexit before moving to live in a tax haven - will apparently be built in France.
According to an industry chap quoted by Autocar magazine this week "Costs are likely to grow due to longer processes and more authorisations involved," which will "complicate things for the OEMs producing locally, and those exporting to Europe."
That complication is already happening across all market sectors. It seems that around 150,000 Amazon sellers, in a marketplace that expanded rapidly through 2020, are being hit with tariffs. In my own line of work, food importers and exporters are struggling to get to grips with the new requirements while some logistics and warehousing operations have said that they will be reviewing their sites once the revised import & export patterns are better known.
If Giant, Canyon or anyone else with international distribution network thought that the market on this little island, with its exceptionalism and insularity, was worth the extra cost of installing and running the logistical base, they would have done it years ago.
And if running a British manufacturing business was cost-effective and efficient enough to be competitive then we might still have an industry of some magnitude; but invariably it isn't.
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