Looking for a new bike. Which brands have a good warranty and crash replacement policy? Also, good availability for replacement parts.
I’m done with Canyon. The fork of my ultimate cracked. While they said it’s covered under their crash replacement policy they don’t have any available for sale nor they know if they’ll have them back in stock.
“As a gesture of goodwill, we’d like to offer you a 20% discount on your next bike purchase with us (Only applicable on new full-price bikes. Outlet bikes excluded)”
That’s a slap in the face. They can’t make good on their policies and their suggestion is for you to spend more money on them. Let alone that 20% off is around their usual sale prices.
Warranties and crash replacement policies are not “goodwill” acts from brands. They’re included in the price, it’s part of the product/service.
It’s ridiculous to have to replace a whole bike just because the fork broke (or any other nonstandard part). I’m trying to find a used fork but it’s a pita.
So, for my next bike I’d rather go with a brand with good customer service (warranty, replacement policies, good spare parts, etc).
Sorry to hear that. Seems Canyon has trouble making parts available generally, including accessory parts. A friend has a Grail, for 2 years. He has never been able to purchase the Canyon fenders. They are never available in the U.S. But he just bought the Grail 2. Good chance he’ll never see fenders for it either.
As for warranty and crash replacement, my experience is that it depends as much on the dealer as the brand. If your dealer doesn’t have a good relationship with the brand, or doesn’t really go to bat for you, I think it’s a crap shoot with any brand.
My dealer went to bat for me with a Cannondale Supersix warranty. It was the awkward steerer stop on the gen 3 that when over-rotated could damage the frame at the fork. Mine over-rotated in a crash and damaged the frame. Cannondale publicly said such damage is not covered by warranty.
But they issued me a new frame. I have no doubt my specific dealer was instrumental in getting it done.
We have had good experiences with Cannondale and Santa Cruz.
My Topstone cracked on the trainer. My fault. They did not have an exact replacement but gave me newer models to pick from and replaced it at no charge. They also warrantied a repair on a SuperSix that we bought second hand from EF - front derailleur was cracked and not replaceable without carbon repair. They took care of it.
Santa Cruz - A rock took a few layers of carbon fiber out of my downtube in a fall. The front triangle could be replaced on discount but they didn’t have only that piece. So they sent me a complete new frame for the crash cost of only replacing the front triangle ($550 vs 1300)
Seems like people are constantly bringing up issues about Canyon customer service, parts availability, and warranty issues on the Canyon subreddit. Probably best to avoid until they figure themselves out.
Yeah, that’s a problem with Canyon and it’s not new. They had these issues even before the pandemic. Now most brands have recovered and they’re still struggling with their production. I’m not entirely convinced the lack of replacement parts is beyond their control.
And you’re right about the dealer, that’s probably more important. A good one would also be able to tell which brands are better to work with.
What year is your canyon? How much discount did they offer for a crash replacement? Their website just states a greatly reduced cost up to 3 years from purchase. Not all manufacturers even offer a crash replacement. I broke a Bianchi and they offered a 20% discount of msrp.
Less than 3 years. It’s covered by the crash replacement but they don’t have forks for sale. At this point, I’d be ok with paying full price for the fork but that’s not even an option.
Sure, that’s why I’m asking. However, I don’t think a crash replacement policy is a freebie, it’s actually one of the reasons to choose a particular brand. So, it’s disappointing when they don’t deliver.
As for warranty experience, my Specialized Enduro developed a rattling noise in a chainstay right after I bought it. My LBS sent Specialized a video, they sent out a complete bike as a replacement.
A guy I know broke the frame on something like an 8 year old Stumpjumper, they don’t have parts or anything for something that old. They sent him a new modern frame.
I’ve had an near identical experience with trying to get a replacement fork.
Adding to the rant: I recently went to purchase a new (proprietary) headset for my Endurace. The headset is $60, but the shipping is $150. Over $200 for a headset.
Ended up buying direct from Acros. $100 total for the headset & overseas shipping.
I never had any issues with my Canyon and the few times I needed some small parts, Canyon Us had them available.
That said, as noted above, Canyon US is notorious for having a lack of parts / components available. However, many of the proprietary parts can also be sourced from Ali Express.
This is the gamble you run into when buying from a consumer-direct brand….without a dealer network, you can get left high and dry. But then you also can’t get the pricing of a Canyon from an LBS, either.
Question is whether you are willing to gamble on not needing any support in order to pay the lower price.
No right or wrong, IMO, just what your risk tolerance level is.
That’s true. In my case it ended up being more expensive. I lost the gamble.
Also, the price gap between canyon and other brands has been shrinking lately and many brands sell the frameset, which is cheaper than replacing the complete bike because I have all the components.
I don’t think this is a result of their DTC model, it’s just poor customer service. They’d have the same inventory problems if they had retailers but I agree that a retailer might be able to offer an alternative.
Agreed it is primarily poor customer service, but if they worked through a dealer network, the dealers would not out up with the lack of parts. They would either get the. To maintain sufficient supply or the dealers would drop the brand.
I only buy specialized bikes because of how the brand and my LBS took care of me. I had one of their early e-bikes. Lots of problems like broken rear wheel spokes and a dead motor. Everything kept getting replaced under warranty. Eventually, I got tired of my bike breaking and asked for a bike swap….and got a little less than how much I paid applied towards a new specialized road bike.