I'll chime in as I deal daily with the many customers who got a "deal" on their canyon. Last week a dealt with a guy who was on his fifth failed canyon.
I this case canyon reimbursed him to have us fix his broken, brand new bike.
Bikes these days are not simple. Most of the drama that these bikes carry is based on pulling a bike shop out of the financial equation, but still relying on bike shops to clean up the mess that is created in the original purchase.
I know this sounds like sour grapes coming from a shop guy, but the fact of the matter is that most (or at least many) riders are not equipped to build and maintain their own bike. This is especially true in a case where all the technology on a modern bike is foreign to someone who last bought a bike over ten years ago. (this is most canyon buyers btw)
On the road side, fit is severely compromised with canyon. Most will use their fit guide. (I just used it and it recommended an
EXTRA SMALL for me, where my experience says i would need a Med or LG). Customers come in with a poorly assembled bike (which we charge them to repair) and then come for a paid fitting service, where 9 out of ten times we discover that they have ordered the wrong size
. If they have the right size, they usually have a bike with a one piece bar/stem combo. This means that in order to change either or both the bar width and stem length, they have to buy a new bar & stem and pay someone to rerun the hydro lines etc. (think $500++) Most people will reject this expense and deal with a bar/ stem that's "close enough". After the dance that occurs to make this "deal" of a bike work, most if not all the savings is absorbed in paying to make it work.
Losing your advocate:
What most people don't see is that bike shops are now spending at least 1/2 of their days chasing warranty claims. This is from bike brands, suspension brands, tire brands, bike part mfgers. etc. In most cases, we do not charge for our time advocating for someone who buys a bike from our shop. If you buy a canyon, you become your own advocate and in my experience, they can't and won't go to bat for you.
In the case of our shop, we are selling bikes at retail. This is why we are called bicycle retailers. In this model, we buy bikes at wholesale (which is what canyon basically is charging btw) and we re-sell these bikes at retail pricing. This means that we earn a margin from the selling process. Those earned margin dollars are used to pay our rent, insurance, payroll, and various unseen costs that are not insignificant. We this in mind we often can't be be competitive on the initial buy, but the initial buy isn't the true cost.
Since you are paying more at a LBS you would hope that you would get more, and you would be right.
I can't speak for other shops, but here is what you might get in our shop as compared to canyon.
We sell more than a few brands of bikes. One reason for this, is that each brand has a unique or slightly unique geo for their bikes. This means that among a series of brands, one will stand out as a better fit for your body shape. Some will be way worse. (This is why I ride a custom geo bike btw. ) A part of our fitting process it determining an ideal stack & reach and figuring out which of a variety of brands is the best possible combo of those. We include this in a bike purchase from our shop.
Most bikes need some level of follow up service after a few rides. We include follow up service for the first year with a bike purchase. Canyon does not and can not.
In our case, we are doing advocacy and trail building work locally to make something more of our local cycling scene. Canyon does not.
We support Jorba, Nica and a variety of local charity rides. Canyon does not.
Each bike we sell ads to our cycling scene and cycling community. Canyon could GAF about that.
At this point, many shops have leftover bikes on hand that come close to what a new canyon will sell for. If a shop includes a detailed fitting (this should be 1-2 hour btw), follow up service etc, the true price should be pretty darn close.
I'll end by saying that IF you are comfortable working on tubeless tires, wireless shifting, hydraulic brakes, fitting your own bike ( or paying someone $100s to do so), doing your own warranty work (good luck) and basically showing every bike shop employee you ever meet that you don't care to contribute to their lifestyle and ability to support their family, then by all means buy one.
As a comparison to the original bike mentioned, this Cannondale synapse is a lot more on paper ($4500), but considering we have them at 20% off right now ($3599), it comes fully assembled, includes powerful F&R lights, with a 2 hr fitting and includes a year of free service.. it's not that far off.
