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Canyon reduces UK bike prices, citing better exchange rates, shipping costs and customs charges

The German brand has made permanent reductions to numerous models such as the Aeroad, Grail and Ultimate, telling road.cc it has "...been able to reduce the cost of importing bikes to the UK" and pass on the savings

Bucking the current inflation-fuelled trend which has seen the prices of just about everything go up over the past year, Canyon has permanently reduced the prices of most of its bikes in recent weeks, some of them by significant amounts. With the news popping up on numerous Canyon-themed forums on social media and first reported by BikeRadar, examples include the Canyon Aeroad CF SLX 7 eTap, down to £4,799 from £4,949, and the Canyon Grail CF SLX 8 Di2, down to £5,099 from £5,249. 

Commenting on the reductions, Canyon's Global Communications Manager Ben Hillsdon told road.cc: "...we’re always looking at how and when we can offer better value for customers around the world. On this occasion we’ve been able to reduce the price of bikes across the board for UK customers.

"This is due to a combination of things – better exchange rates, shipping costs, customs charges – all contributing to mean we can drop the prices of our bikes in the UK.

"These aren’t sale prices by the way, so yes, we can expect these prices to be stable for quite some time."

2023 Canyon Ultimate CF SLR silver

 

You may remember that we reported the opposite scenario over two years ago now, when Canyon was one of three bike brands we'd noticed had raised their prices, some by as much as 12% in a year. At the time, reasons such as increased costs with supply chains and logistics, currency fluctuations and the general extra costs associated with the pandemic were given, all of which have now understandably eased somewhat. 

To provide an example of how significant Canyon's savings could be due to this more recent combination of better exchange rates, shipping costs and customs charges, as the brand puts it, a 2023 Canyon Aeroad CF SL 8 Disc is now priced at £3,849 on the Canyon UK website, which is £100 less than the 2021 model after that price increase and just £50 more than the 2020 model, even after a year of rapid inflation. 

As far as we know, the reductions only apply to the UK and are not being applied in other territories... so what's the elephant in the room? 

Well, we're pretty sure these UK-only reductions are down to the ironing out of some issues related to one very divisive thing, which is Brexit of course. When asked to clarify which part of the journey from manufacturing in Asia and onto the UK that Canyon has saved on, Hillsdon confirmed that the brand has "...been able to reduce the cost of importing bikes to the UK and we’re able to pass those savings on." 

While Brexit-related red tape - such as the 14% duty applied to bikes arriving in the UK from the EU - was a step too far for Rose Bikes (and even Canyon for a brief period) who promptly ceased shipment of all bikes to the UK in late 2020, there are ways retailers have been lessening the impact of this red tape. 

As detailed on the Brexit legal guide website, EU-based retailers may be able to store goods that are destined for the UK in bonded warehouses: "Customs warehousing is a procedure by which non-EU goods may be stored in EU territory without being subject to import duties. Duty becomes payable when the goods are released into free circulation", the article says. 

While Canyon wouldn't confirm exactly how it had cut its costs of importing to the UK, the brand sells a lot of bikes to UK customers, so this workaround could make sense. Vice-versa, retail giants such as Gymshark and Asos have bypassed Brexit-related import duties when selling to European customers by setting up distribution centres in the EU. 

2022 Canyon Ultimate CF SLX - seat stay.jpg

On a less Brexit-y but related subject, what about Canyon's current stock levels?

While we predicted over-supply as the end stage of the pandemic's impact on the bike industry in our feature and video on the rising cost of cycling, Hillsdon told us: "In terms of supply, customers seem to be loving Canyon bikes more than ever – we’re showing over 20% growth since 2016 – but referring to this Financial Times Article from end-November 2022, you’ll see our CEO talking about supply getting better although one year more to get back to normal. So we’re not immune from the market situation, but, thanks to our direct-to-consumer model, we’re still able to offer customers a wide range of bikes, allowing Canyon to continue in its very positive trend." 

Could bike prices drop even more? While there's never a bad time to buy a bike, it seems like the prices of most Canyon bikes in the UK will be lower than those 2022 peaks for some time yet... 

Arriving at road.cc in 2017 via 220 Triathlon Magazine, Jack dipped his toe in most jobs on the site and over at eBikeTips before being named the new editor of road.cc in 2020, much to his surprise. His cycling life began during his students days, when he cobbled together a few hundred quid off the back of a hard winter selling hats (long story) and bought his first road bike - a Trek 1.1 that was quickly relegated to winter steed, before it was sadly pinched a few years later. Creatively replacing it with a Trek 1.2, Jack mostly rides this bike around local cycle paths nowadays, but when he wants to get the racer out and be competitive his preferred events are time trials, sportives, triathlons and pogo sticking - the latter being another long story.  

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14 comments

Avatar
foundryb | 1 year ago
2 likes

There is no duty applied to bikes imported from the EU because the UK has a preferential trade agreement with the EU that eliminates all import duties.

There is, however, import duty due on products manufactured in China, even if they are imported to the UK via Germany.

Both the EU and the UK have almost precisely the same import duty on Chinese goods because the UK tariff schedule was copied from the EU tariff schedule, and divergence is a pain because of the Northern Ireland Protocol (invented under Theresa May and then substantively copied and passed into law under Boris Johnson), which installs a politically sensitive tariff border between GB and NI.

Note that this duty on Chinese imports existed before Brexit.

What Canyon might have done is change their import procedure to import direct to the UK from China, avoiding the double import tariff problem (China->EU import tariff, then China->UK import tariff), or, as suggested in the post, use bonded warehouses to avoid the China->EU import tariff.

Note that this probably explains the Rose bikes situation.

The problem is not "Brexit" per se. The problem is EU and UK governments taxing EU/UK nationals for importing from China. Or, alternatively, that Canyon/Rose refuse to stop manufacturing in China, depending on your POV.

Avatar
Rich_cb replied to foundryb | 1 year ago
0 likes

Haven't the UK recently cut bike import duties though?

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foundryb replied to Rich_cb | 1 year ago
0 likes

I don't know. I saw there was a proposal to cut e-bike duties, I think.

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pablo | 1 year ago
0 likes

I'm gonna post this again because it either didn't post or got deleted.
Rose have 45000 framsets supposedly they do not have all the parts for. They have likely ordered all the parts and are probably waiting for them. When all those parts do hit it will be slow sales based on current demand.
Giant have change payment terms with the suppliers.
None of this is related to shipping costs the market is drying up but reduced shipping will help.
Most bike brands don't own factories they use contract manufactures they had to book production slots this time last year or earlier without being able to predict demand. Those frames are now starting to hit and wait times for bikes are reducing. Demand is drying up.

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cqexbesd | 1 year ago
0 likes

If I heard correctly in the news this morning, shipping costs for a container delivered to the US has fallen 80% since last year. Assuming the same holds for containers to the UK then that must have helped.

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Rich_cb replied to cqexbesd | 1 year ago
0 likes

That's definitely the major factor but it's interesting that the article mentioned customs charges.

The UK recently cut import tariffs on bike frames so I wonder if that is also having an effect.

Avatar
Just-A-Cyclist | 1 year ago
1 like

Another piece of non-journalism click-bait. Think we are stupid?

An article about an earth shatering 4% price reduction whilst there are tons of deals out there from 10 to 25% as shops are trying to get rid of their 2022 collection. 

Avatar
Jack Sexty replied to Just-A-Cyclist | 1 year ago
1 like

Well these are reductions in RRPs not sale prices (even if they are small reductions), so it is more unusual and maybe a sign of things to come as I alluded to in the article. If you wanna read about big discounts on 2022 bikes then check out our dealclincher website
 

 

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Surreyrider replied to Jack Sexty | 1 year ago
0 likes

More to the point, by the time any bikes are available on their website the price will have gone back up by that 4% and more!!!

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Secret_squirrel replied to Just-A-Cyclist | 1 year ago
4 likes

Just-A-Cyclist wrote:

Another piece of non-journalism click-bait. Think we are stupid?

An article about an earth shatering 4% price reduction whilst there are tons of deals out there from 10 to 25% as shops are trying to get rid of their 2022 collection. 

And yet you felt the need to both click and comment on it thus validating the clickbait (in your words), then additionally waffling off about an unrelated topic....almost as if your comment was clickbait.  From a 2 post wonder too 

I thought it was usual enough to be worth an article.  Thanks Jack!

Avatar
Rik Mayals unde... | 1 year ago
7 likes

Wow, £200 cheaper. Regarding an almost £5,000 bike, does it really matter? Will it make buying this bike a deal breaker? All bikes went up to ridiculous prices during covid, the reduction doesn't bring the prices back to anywhere near where they should be.

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check12 replied to Rik Mayals underpants | 1 year ago
0 likes

Not even £200, 25% less only a £150 discount! 

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EddyBerckx replied to Rik Mayals underpants | 1 year ago
1 like

Biker Phil wrote:

Wow, £200 cheaper. Regarding an almost £5,000 bike, does it really matter? Will it make buying this bike a deal breaker? All bikes went up to ridiculous prices during covid, the reduction doesn't bring the prices back to anywhere near where they should be.

The point is that while everything else is pretty much skyrocketing, they've not only held their price but cut it slightly.

No, it's not gonna make a difference to people paying 5k on a bike but it's better than nothing I suppose. Not sure what the cheaper bikes have fallen by if anything - that might have been more useful?

Avatar
Rich_cb replied to Rik Mayals underpants | 1 year ago
0 likes

Factor in inflation and it's a near 15% drop on some bikes.

That's pretty significant in most people's books.

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