Sam Pilgrim Signs with Canyon
Originally from Colchester in the United Kingdom, Sam Pilgrim has been riding competitively for over two decades, despite being a modest 32 years old. He is now globally recognized for his hugely successful Youtube Channel.
 | Hello everyone. 2023 with Canyon is gonna be epic. It’s a dream come true. I'll be riding the best bikes alongside the sickest team which means loads of amazing times, a bunch of sick videos coming your way and I’ll be hitting a few contests over the year, and loving every minute of it. Let's go! |
| He first came to our attention on the international stage at 17 with a victory in Austria's King of Dirt competition. The FMB World Tour Champion title came in 2013 and podium places at Crankworx, Dirtmasters, Red Bull Joyride, and FISE festival followed. His noticeable appearances at X-Games and Red Bull Rampage have since contributed to his legendary status. In 2015 Sam directed his focus into content making and launched the Sam Pilgrim Youtube channel. It grew into one of the biggest channels in the MTB world. And despite the demands of managing a highly popular Youtube channel, Sam continues striving to meet his personal challenge of one podium place per year. Alongside this, his challenges, trips, and adventures inspire a huge number of riders across the globe. As someone who will ride just about any bike, anywhere, anytime, Sam will be repping most of Canyon's MTB range. For freestyle and street riding duties the Stitched 720 and Stitched 360 dirt jump bikes with their 'category 5' abuse rating are perfect. For trail riding, he'll use Canyon's Spectral and Stoic models, whereas for bike park days and big mountain hits the Canyon Torque will be Sam's go-to bike. And when he wants to hit the trails lap after lap, Sam's Spectral:ON and Torque:ON e-MTBs will be the stars of the show. |
| It’s massively exciting news for Canyon and the CLLCTV to be working with Sam. He has a huge reputation for being an incredible rider, and his positivity and down-to-earth approach acts like a magnet to bring more people into the MTB world. We’re stoked to be able to support Sam, and we’re looking forward to 2023 and beyond. |
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Then again, neither does Hyper and they still sponsor athletes haha
In turn you get people whinging online etc while waiting to hear back from canyon, but you wont hear about the people with no issues. - Bike shop brands are first contact for bike shop brands so you generally wont get online feedback about those owners.
ALL brands have issues but its how people share their voice determines alot.
Canyon are bigger than alot of bike shop brands aswell these days. - the company are also well positioned on the end side of covid era - Specialized have clearly seen the light in DTC in the modern era and are moving towards it.
Where i Live, in NZ and Despite having no canyon service centre here They still continue to provide MORE service and support than ANY bikeshop ive ever been to. the Canyon AUS & NZ centre in Australia are excellent, no messing around.
I was part of the FACTORY qc issue around the BB inserts coming loose in carbon frames, They had me a new frame within 2 weeks and paid for the replacedment and my ride wrap.
That said, I have no experience with their products failing.
My point was they aren't terrible bikes, it's just that they charge way too much for the quality and spec that you get when you can get a comparable bike for half the price that wont constantly break on you.
The current Torque, MY2022 and newer, is positively bomb-proof.
I rather have my hanger snap than those 3 derailleurs though lol
Best is just to go back to axle mounted rear mechs. I still have an old fully with an axle mounted Saint mech. Never had issues with that one. But yeah, it has to be able to take a beating.
1. Because most of my mates run 12 speed and only one of them has similar problems with smashing derailleurs, so it might just be a "me" thing.
2. Hangers would ideally break before the mech does, and considering most modern bikes come stock with 12 speed drivetrains, they should give in before the 12spd derailleurs do.
The thing is impacts are unpredictable, could be a twist, a sideways impact, etc. Either way, I think my best bet in the future might be:
1. Going for a gearbox frame
2. Going for 11spd or less (easier to index, while bent)
3. Maybe go linkglide (11/10 speed + a really long-lasting cheap and replace drivetrain overall)
3 wouldn't make sense for performance as unsprung weight takes a big hit, but time will tell what I do. Currently I just bend the hanger to offset the bend on the mech, bent it lots of times and it still hasn't given in.
Why not a fan of Canyon
And why not a fan of Haibike, or stoked he’s on something different?
Haibike make absolute garbage bikes.
Canyon make less garbage bikes (but still not great), but mostly not a fan of the DTC business model with terrible customer support.
The reason Sam switched is because they kept on making heavier and heavier bikes and killed off the lighter 27.5 wheeled options that are good for the style of riding Sam does.
then I jumped on it, turned it on, and went to ride it out the front door. first crank of the pedal and there is a god awful creak. I grabbed the brake, quietly got off and handed the bike back to him and told him "thanks for stopping in". said nothing more.
Sometimes, I wonder what that guy is doing, 3 years later.....
Lol, Cube bikes are garbage too. Shitty build quality and hardware, or at least the last time I worked on one, maybe they've improved.
They actually do have a North American presence, but their after sales support is shitty
Oh I've seen a few! No intention of ever riding one though
4 Demos
2 V10s
2 Tues
2 Sessions
And my Canyon Sender is by far the most solid, most fun and fastest dh bike I’ve had to ride Whistler… less garbage then what ? A Ferrari?
A seat tube can be smooth on the inside while still being thight enough to allow a nice fit.
Specialized has this problem aswell where the post will just get scratched into oblivion!
Haibike have been rock solid and ugly af in the past, the new ones (lykke, allmtn, etc) even look kind of decent.
1. What kind of warranty issues here and there are we talking about, that’s a vague way of saying the paint was thin, or threads needed to be chased, neither of which are warranty issues.
2. While I can only assume your buddy is a competent bike mechanic, bearings and their bores don’t become wallered out overnight. I’m willing to bet the linkage, and subsequent bearings were never replaced, or repacked.
3. Canyon wanted the entire bike put back together, this is odd, typically a frame manufacturer is only going to cover the frame, and want it stripped before sending it to them. Not to mention, I’m sure there’s a blurb about not swapping out parts and warranty in their owners manual. If that’s what your buddy did, that certainly isn’t Canyons fault or issue.
4. Why would anyone expect to get a warranty frame from a current year bike, when your trying to get warranty on a 2 year old frame. I recognize this happens, and I consider it a happy accident when it does, but it certainly shouldn’t be the expectation.
5. Obviously, if getting a refund (which I’ll be honest, is a pretty good deal, and something I’ve never heard of in my 25 years in the industry) why is the expectation that he gets refunded MORE than the amount he spent when he bought the bike?
I’m not discounting your buddys experience, I just feel like Canyon met or exceeded whati would think to be reasonable based on your story. Maybe we have some unreal expectations of bicycle manufacturers?
First off, I'm not saying Canyon handled any of this incorrectly. My point is that Canyon had to handle anything at all. My buddy is not hard on his bikes. He doesn't hit jumps or drops and he doesn't ride them hard. My point is that the expectation is to buy a bike that costs $7000 that has been engineered and tested to the point of not needing to handle warranty claims. If he was hard on his bikes I would say it would be normal. And to your point of the frame bearings getting wallered out... Even if he didn't maintain the linkage or bearings at all (which he did), I have other buddies who have 4-5 year old carbon frames that I know for a fact they haven't maintained that well and the linkage was engineered in such a way that the carbon did not fail.
His other warranty issues were not with the frame itself, but he had a complete rear hub failure on the wheel that Canyon spec'd, and at one point his rear shock completely blew the seals out and fell apart (possibly due to Canyon's kinematic/shapeshifter design). Either way... He had multiple issues that kept him from riding his bike for annyoing periods of time.
Again, not saying Canyon did the wrong thing by offering a warranty frame of the same model year or giving him a full refund, the point of including that information is me saying that my buddy went through the headache of investing in a really nice bike, only to have it fail and not have a bike to ride for about 3 months total, when they ultimate expectation is that when you invest in a bike of that quality and caliber and you look after it as intended it does not fail after 2 years of casual riding.
Also, their name is Canyon and their logo is a picture of two mountain peaks. So there's that.
I still think Canyon met or exceeded what I would consider reasonable in this case.
I’m willing to bet, and this is just a shot in the dark, that something was loose on your buddys bike. I am of the belief that it’s our responsibility to do a regular bolt check, I ride 4-5 times a week, and typically do a bolt check every other ride. I have friends that have never done it, we all have different experiences, ride in different areas, on different trails etc, so everyone’s use case is, well, different.
I’m sure you have loads of buddy’s that have never even changed a cable on their bike. In fact, other than the most persnickety among us, most, if not all, don’t do sweet frig all to maintain the things we own.
Being without a bike sucks, but let’s be real honest here, in the grand scheme of things it’s not that big a deal eh, people living much harder lives than us having to deal with a warranty bike, that is more times than not due to user failure.
No argument,
You agree things fail, and have an understanding that all mechanical contraptions will fail eventually.
Surprised that amongst a large group that you’ve only had 1 bike failure, I’ve had several just in my own history.
Again, expectations, I don’t think I’d consider a single failure to be reasoning to dislike something, especially how Canyon handled the failure (a refund on a two year old bike), but obviously you’re allowed to like or dislike whatever you want.
Most of your original comment was about how poorly you think Canyon handled the issue, what do you think they could have done differently?
And you never did mention what the original small warranty items were that your buddy was dealing with.
And I did mention the other warranty issues.
Tongue in cheek comment about Mech engineers, I work with them daily, several of them, and while id trust them to design a mechanical system, or provide me with calculations, being a Mech engineer certainly doesn’t mean they are adept at turning wrenches.
So, you believe that Canyon should have, from pictures alone, provided your buddy with a new warranty replacement frame, that’s what you think is acceptable customer support? And that a refund on the bike, parts and all, was t acceptable? Again, the idea that Canyon wanted the complete bike, doesn’t seem right to me.
I’m going to call you out a bit on the Yeti story, somethings not 100 on that.
There’s a process, for both quality control and accounting that go into replacing frames under warranty. I’d be very surprised if any of that happened “the next day” and didn’t require a trip to the bike shop, a RO number, etc.
You ever read a customer review online where someone gives a product a 1 star review cause the product was damaged in shipping, or the company they bought it from sent them the wrong product. That’s not a fair assessment or review of the product, there’s shades of that to what you’re saying.
I also appreciate you calling me out about the Yeti story. Until now I had no idea that my friends were lying to me about that situation and in turn I have now inadvertently lied to the entire comments section.
Honestly I wouldn’t have initiated this conversation if I had known that your knowledge and experience was the ultimate authority on people’s individual experience-based bike preferences. Now I know at least.
@i-like-toytles:
I'd like to respond to you both, also as somebody with around a decade in the cycle industry working as a mechanic with big reputable brands and having seen MANY warranty frame issues, the fact that Canyon insists on pretty much every warranty frame being shipped back to them (in GERMANY) for inspection is NOT the norm, in my experience at least.
Most of the brands that we deal with can process and close out a frame warranty on photo and video evidence alone, very occasionally requiring in-person inspection, and often warranty cases are resolved within a week or two - whether that's a new frame, rim, whatever. I would not be at all surprised if Yeti could resolve a warranty case that quickly given that they're a medium-sized north american based company (ie they're not too big to have millions of warranties, not so small that they don't have parts to hand). Either way, I've worked with brands that look after brands that look after their customers, Canyon in my experience is not one of them. Yes they technically met expectations in the example above and no, parts warranties are not considered Canyon's problem, however having to ship a frame overseas on your own dime for warranty inspection is unacceptable in my book when you claim to have a presence in North America.
A note on the component warranty in my friend’s situation that was also odd - Canyon handled the rear wheel warranty by having my buddy send the wheel to them for inspection, THEN Canyon sent the wheel to the OEM manufacturer and without even communicating about what their resolution was going to be, eventually sent the wheel back to him. Upon arrival he discovered that they had rebuilt the wheel with a different brand and model of hub (not the worst deal because they replaced it with a Hydra hub) but nonetheless, that’s a weird way to resolve issues with your customers. Not to mention this all happened within the first few months of him owning the bike.
I’m don’t work in the bike industry, but I design and manufacture for a small guitar/music company. When our customers have a product that fails (ours or a third-party component) we send them a new one and provide them with a shipping label to return the bad one. If the issue requires more complex repair, we give clear communication about what we are doing and what the timelines are.
In my opinion, Canyon handled everything in an odd way.
Code for: "I don't know any mechanical engineers nor do i know anything about machanical engineering myself..."
You’re right I haven’t. Don’t need to when I’ve worked on them enough to know that I wouldn’t own one.
Same reason I wouldn’t have a YT either.
Canyon, a direct to consumer brand, much like YT, etc do not offer the same level of customer service as brands you’d find in brick and mortar shops, it’s literally part of their business model. So expecting different is misguided?
So @i-like-toytles: expectations are, in my opinion, a little misplaced.
Here’s the breakdown as I see it
-Buddy bought a direct to consumer bike, on clearance, so Canyon made diddly squat on that bike.
-buddy has somehow warrantied rear shock, and hub through Canyon, I wouldn’t expect Canyon to have done that, so that to me, seems like a positive.
-buddy “wore out” the pivots, apparently overnight, which must be the case since he has a“ degree in mechanical engineering, is an aerospace CNC machinist/programmer, who builds and maintains off-road vehicles, his race car, and a multitude of bikes that I can assure you get bolt-checked and regularly maintained”. Bollocks
-Canyon somehow wanted the bike put back together to be sent to them (which seems a stretch to me, but I could be wrong) and this is an issue, and somehow another black mark for Canyon, as buddy has used the parts on other bikes? Damn you Canyon, shakes fist in anger!
-this process took 3ish months, which is apparently unacceptable for a bike that Canyon made little to no money on, likely in the middle of riding season which prolly wasn’t busy (I’ve been in the industry for 20+ years, our go to for warranty was 3 months, if it happened quicker, happy accident)
-another buddy, who, through user error, catastrophically broke his Yeti, Yeti had that “warranty” turned over THE SAME DAY, from a pic, no questions asked, easy peasy….
We all know when someone is embellishing a story, 75% of this story is bollocks.
If Yeti had turned that over in a week or two, you bet, that’s plausible
If the friend had just been a guy, sure, but when he’s a nasa astronaut, that has invented space/time travel….prolly not (embellished, see, it’s fun)
Now, I love a good bullshit session, it’s great fun, but then make it fun, no sense in trying too hard to make it real..
Add to that, man, if you break your frame overshooting a big jump, or through lack of maintenance, or just being stupid, take responsibility for that. Part of the price we pay for bikes is rolled into warranty, so your bs warranty claims just raise the cost of stuff for everyone.
Get after it my man!
If you don’t dig their bikes, that’s cool, no sweat.
I posed the question as a poke to see what people have to say.
I have no allegiance to either brand, outside of if a company makes bikes, I’m cool with that.
We seem to get wrapped up in the marketing, and hype, and brand loyalty to the point that we dislike other brands for simply not being the brand we do like….you know Ford vs Chevy, when in reality their both prolly shit cause they’re not Dodge.
And I say WE, cause I’m guilty of it as well.
Apologies if I pushed or poked too far, you’re prolly super cool, and I’m just being a bit of a d$@k
I'm not saying I expect different, I'm just saying I wouldn't buy one.
That said, if I didn't work in the bike industry I might be more tempted since their pricing is more competitive (though less than it used to be)
1. He was the poster boy of NS bikes and was killing it with them
2. Canyon's marketing is full of bullshit I will not disclose who but they sponsor "the best thriathlete in world" and I've seen their marketing scheme from up close because I used to collab with his coffee shop for charity events
3. The only reason Sam went away from Ns was because haibike gave him good money and didn't need to put much effort cause he was pilot number 1
4. Canyon requisites aren't much higher because of how big they are they give a shit toker who I used to ride with a full blown sender and a top of the line torque just for making 3 videos a year, only cause he is the poster boy of the coffeeshop mentioned above
basically a huge f*cking bodge, just to keep from recalling all of the bullshit frames they sold. was super dangerous and I knew right then, I would eventually quit or get fired for not keeping quiet about their practices
On to bikes…damn thats rough! Good choice
and no. I lived and worked in the UK for a few years. The regs are only better if you're a jobsworth or layabout. worse for everyone else.
Such a great brand ambassador for whoever sponsors him. He spent 5 years making a Chinese E bike seem like a reasonable choice for backflips and 360 barspins at the jump park. After every one of his videos I wind up thinking 'I should go to the jump park with a Haibike/folding bike/bike made from a bed frame.'
The video he did last week revealing that he was ending his relationship with Haibike is a blueprint for sponsored athletes maintaining professionalism in any sport.
aka getting paid for riding marz
That's why they're using it!
lmao. I love Sam.
do you own a canyon? have you ridden a canyon?
i feel like this hate on the brand is just from reading other haters comments
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s smn wh wll rd jst bt ny bk, nywhr, nytm, Sm wll b rppng mst f Cnyn's MTB rng. Fr frstyl nd strt rdng dts th Sttchd 720 nd Sttchd 360 drt jmp bks wth thr 'ctgry 5' bs rtng r prfct. Fr trl rdng, h'll s Cnyn's Spctrl nd Stc mdls, whrs fr bk prk dys nd bg mntn hts th Cnyn Trq wll b Sm's g-t bk. nd whn h wnts t ht th trls lp ftr lp, Sm's Spctrl:N nd Trq:N -MTBs wll b th strs f th shw. —Cnyn
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Consonants remover is even funnier