I’ve written before about my own experience as a 2nd-hand owner of a Canyon bike after breaking my frame, but I thought it would be interesting to document another story. This time, the story of someone who is actually covered by Canyon’s crash warranty. This is the story of a Local Apex Predator and his Canyon Ultimate CF SLX. Here goes.
The damage in the photos below was caused when the fully bar-taped handlebars made contact with the top-tube in a low-speed accident. I wasn’t there when it happened, so I can’t say how “low-speed” it was, but generally when someone crashes there’s an incentive to play up the speed, instead of down, and since it doesn’t matter to Canyon how fast you were going, I’m very much inclined to believe it. Does it matter? Not really, but…
It’s not relevant to the crash warranty experience, but frankly, I’m a bit surprised by the extent of the damage. I’ve definitely dumped bikes into the ground in similar circumstances, and had the bars strike the top tube without anything more than a grime mark (I should probably clean my bar tape, but that is also irrelevant :)). Maybe the Ultimate CF SLX’s status as a super lightweight climbing bike played a role, with the top tube one of the places where weight is shaved. Who knows. I digress.
Interestingly, either Canyon has become much more transparent about what the replacement price is recently, or I missed it last year when I was looking for it, but they actually have a full list of what you should expect to pay here. Kudos Canyon. Interestingly, the $1,299, quoted on that page isn’t what he was offered though; with Canyon coming back with $1,200 for the frame, or 15% off a new bike.
Either price isn’t that bad for a naked frame; if you totaled the bike, or wouldn’t consider getting it fixed. But, there were two catches. First, getting a full back-to-perfect repair from Carbon Doctor is less than $600, and second, there’s a 3-4 month wait on a replacement frame from Canyon (maybe why they offered the 15% coupon?).
Given the three options, I completely understand why he opted for the repair. $1,200 is 2x what the repair costs to end up at essentially the same place, add in that crushing wait time, and it’s a no-brainer.