Talk:Canyon Bicycles

Edit request (2021-02-08: Update)
  Hello all,

here comes a comprehensive proposal for an update (paid edit). It is necessary because the article is outdated in parts and templates point out deficiencies, especially deficiencies of the sources/references.

A few important comments on the direction of the improvement proposal:


 * 1) The proposal is not intended to advertise Canyon, which is not what Wikipedia is for. Individual bike models are therefore not listed. Instead, the bike types are briefly addressed with a photo. Also important in this respect: the history section is expanded, based on reliable sources.
 * 2) If there are changes in key operational figures or management personnel, it may be that Canyon's website or financial statements are used as evidence.
 * 3) I avoided superlatives. (I hope I didn't miss anything there).
 * 4) Canyon supports cycling teams and riders. This is now presented more systematically.
 * 5) The section on "controversies" is outdated. There was an IT problem. That has been fixed, criticism has been responded to. In my view, this is nothing worth mentioning; such things happen sometimes in companies during change processes. That's why it no longer appears in the revision proposal. More important, in my view, is the brief mention that the company was subject to a hacking attack.

I would be happy if the improvement proposal would be implemented. Many thanks in advance. Atomiccocktail (talk) 12:20, 8 February 2021 (UTC)

Proposal of 2021-02-08



Canyon Bicycles GmbH (abbr.: Canyon) is a German bicycle manufacturer headquartered in Koblenz, Germany. The organization sells its bikes under the Canyon brand, and is a manufacturer in the sport of cycling. The company’s bicycles, parts, and clothing are exclusively available in the Canyon online shop, via a direct-to-customer sales model.
 * Red information icon with gradient background.svg Not done for now: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y". Chrisfilip (talk) 18:39, 10 August 2021 (UTC)

1985 — 2002
Roman Arnold (born July 7, 1963 ) was a bicycle racer in his youth. After the early death of his father, Roman and his brother Franc Arnold (born July 10, 1965 ) took over his bike business and founded a new company, Rad-Sport-Arnold GmbH. In 1985, they opened a bike shop  in the city center of Koblenz. Their business filled a gap in the market, making it possible to order bicycles, frames and accessories directly from a mail order catalogue.

In the second half of the 1990s, Canyon started manufacturing their own bikes. In 1996, the first Canyon-branded mountain bike went to market. In 2001, the company stopped selling bikes from other brands.

2002 — 2016
In late 2002, company shareholders approved the change of the company's legal name to Canyon Bicycles GmbH. In 2003, the company started selling bikes online to customers directly. This marked the start of a period of significantly growth for the company – also driven by the increased internationalization of the business. In the 2014 financial year, revenue was greater than €100 million for the first time (€119 million)) and the number of employees had exceeded the 400 mark. The company exceeded the €200 million revenue threshold in the 2017 financial year with a total of €226.6 million.

This development led to the expansion of Canyon’s premises in Koblenz. In 2008, the company started building its current headquarters (Canyon Home), then a new production facility in Koblenz (Canyon Factory) and finally the Canyon Warehouse, where bikes are shipped from. Since September 2018, Canyon have had a showroom in Carlsbad, California.

After standardizing its IT infrastructure, which began in November 2015, Canyon expanded its production facilities at the end of the year. During a transition phase, delivery dates could not be met and were repeatedly postponed. The response to customer service also faltered. In February 2016, the company apologized, named concrete improvement measures and thanked customers for their loyalty.

2016 — present
In 2016, the American private equity company TSG Consumer Partners acquired a minority interest stake in Canyon Bicycles GmbH. One goal of this was to drive Canyon's expansion into the United States, and the company entered the US market the following year.

In 2018, the company launched its first e-bikes. The company produced a total of 100,000 bikes that year. In late December 2019, Canyon was the target of a cyberattack that affected large parts of its IT system. In early October 2020, Roman Arnold transferred to the company's newly formed advisory board. Armin Landgraf, until then serving as COO, was subsequently appointed as the company's new CEO.

In mid-December 2020, Canyon announced that Belgian investment company Groupe Bruxelles Lambert (GBL) had acquired a majority stake in Canyon Bicycles GmbH together with co-investor Tony Fadell, former Senior Vice President of the iPod Division at Apple. This meant that TSG Consumer Partners would withdraw their investment, as planned, after a period of around four years. Roman Arnold, the Founder and Chairman of the Advisory Board at Canyon, remains Canyon’s largest individual shareholder with 40% of the company’s shares. Canyon's value was reported by Handelsblatt to be around €800 million at the time, and Canyon’s profit was said to have been €50 to €55 million. This information was not confirmed by Canyon.

Innovation and safety
Canyon is recognized as an innovator in cycling. The company’s innovations include; Canyon regularly collaborates with designers, technicians and professional cyclists. It has also collaborated with universities.
 * Projekt 3.7, the development of what was then lightest road bike in the world (2004)
 * Use of CT scanning technology for nondestructive material testing processes on carbon parts, to increase safety levels for riders (since 2012).
 * MRSC Connected, the development of a bike with integrated emergency call system, in collaboration with Deutsche Telekom (2014)
 * Project Disconnect, which completely decouples the drivetrain from the chassis, enabling mountain biking without pedal kickback, presented at Eurobike (2016)
 * The Future Mobility Concept, a car-bike hybrid concept vehicle developed as an alternative to both the automobile and the bicycle for inner-city transport (2020)

Structure and employees
The company is headquartered in Koblenz, Germany. The company premises include a central office, a showroom, a production and logistics center, and a dispatch building. According to an company press release, as of February 2021, approximately 1,000 people were employed by Canyon.

Product range
Canyon delivers bikes direct to the customer rather than wholesale or bricks-and-mortar retail activities.

The company’s products include road bikes, triathlon bikes, mountain bikes, city bikes, hybrid bikes, e-bikes, gravel bikes, as well as other categories (such as mountain bikes for children). All models are sold under the Canyon brand. Canyon also sell in-house developed accessories and clothing.

Financial performance, revenue, and markets
The company's financial year ends on 30 September.

Canyon delivers its products to over 100 countries. Approximately two thirds of the company’s revenue comes from outside Germany.

Road
Canyon's involvement in professional road cycling began in 2007 with the sponsorship of Unibet.com Cycling Team. From 2009 to 2011 Canyon supplied the UCI ProTeam-level Silence Lotto team (renamed Omega Pharma Lotto from the end of 2011). In 2009, Cadel Evans, one of the team’s riders, won the UCI Road World Championships.

From 2012-2019, Canyon was sponsor and supplier of Team Katusha (later Team Katusha–Alpecin). During this time, Alex Dowsett set a new hour record. Movistar Team have also been riding Canyon bikes since 2014. In 2018, Movistar rider Alejandro Valverde won the Road World Championships.

In female cycling, Canyon sponsors the women’s Movistar Team, and has sponsored Canyon SRAM Racing since 2016. Canyon SRAM Racing celebrated their greatest success to date by winning the team time trial at the 2018 Road World Championships in Innsbruck.

Cyclocross
Canyon SRAM Racing rider Pauline Ferrand-Prévot won the French National Cyclo-cross Championships in 2018. In January of the same year, Canyon started sponsoring team Corendon-Circus (renamed Alpecin–Fenix in 2020). Mathieu van der Poel – in addition to his success in road cycling as well as mountain biking – secured victory at the 2020 Cyclocross World Championships. Alpecin-Fenix have also been successful in women’s cyclocross, with Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado also becoming Cyclocross World Champion in 2020.

Triathlon
In 1985, Rad-Sport-Arnold signed up triathlete Jürgen Zäck. Through his experience in the sport and training camps in the USA, he inspired multiple new innovations in the sport. Imogen Simmonds, who races on Canyon bikes, was trained by Zäck up until autumn 2020. German Canyon triathletes include Boris Stein, Nils Frommhold, Markus Fachbach, as well as Jan Frodeno und Patrick Lange, between them winners of every Ironman race between 2016-2019. American athlete Lionel Sanders also rides Canyon. The female Canyon triathlete roster includes Sarah Crowley, Laura Philipp and Daniela Bleymehl.

Mountain biking
In mountain bike racing, Canyon is active in multiple disciplines; downhill, enduro, slopestyle, freeride, and cross-country olympic (XCO) and marathon (XCM). Notable riders include Lado Fumic and his brother Manuel Fumic.

Roman Arnold and Franc Arnold backed the Topeak Ergon Racing Team for many years. In early 2018 it was renamed to Canyon Topeak Factory Racing. The team was disbanded at the end of 2018. The outfit, whose ranks featured such riders as Alban Lakata, Robert Mennen, Kristian Hynek and Irina Kalentieva, achieved consistent success, with honors including an olympic medal and multiple European and World Championships.

Former high-profile pro Fabien Barel was also formerly a Canyon-sponsored athlete. The Frenchman won the Downhill World Championships in 2004 and 2005. Since he retired from racing, he has worked as a mentor for Canyon’s pro freeride and enduro teams.

In cross-country olympic mountain bike racing, Canyon athletes include multi-discipline riders Mathieu van der Poel, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, and Ceylin del Carmen Alvarado.

Awards
In 2005, the company won a special prize in the Science/Business Cooperation category of the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of Economics Innovation Awards. In 2015, Roman Arnold, founder and long-time leader of the organization, was voted NEO Personality of the year,  and Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Canyon bikes have won design prizes, including multiple iF Product Design Awards, Red Dot Design Awards and the Design Award of the Federal Republic of Germany. In 2017, the Canyon design team was named the Red Dot Design Team of the Year.

Re: Edit Request
- Hey there. I think this looks good and I'm willing to make this edit. That said, I don't feel comfortable removing the controversy section as the sole reviewer in this situation. I'm sure you can understand that, and as you mentioned in your request, it's small. Nonetheless, it leaves a weird taste in my mouth to be the sole decider. I'm happy to implement these changes now and leave the section in, or once someone else takes a look, they could help make the call. What do you think? // I also think capacity for innovation also stems from years of collaboration with renowned designers, technicians, and constructors is maybe just a tad heavy on tone. --allthefoxes (Talk) 00:53, 12 June 2021 (UTC)


 * Hi, thank you very much for your feedback. Let me think more intensively about your interesting hints next Monday. I will get back to you asap. Atomiccocktail (talk) 17:51, 12 June 2021 (UTC)


 * Dear, Regarding your considerations that concern controversies: We should put that as a new last paragraph in the “History” section, “2002 – 2016”. The suggestion is:

After standardizing its IT infrastructure, which began in November 2015, Canyon expanded its production facilities at the end of the year. During a transition phase, cutbacks in customer service and spare parts deliveries occurred. In February 2016, the company apologized, named concrete improvement measures and thanked customers for their loyalty. [Source = https://www.bike-magazin.de/mtb_news/szene_news/lieferverzoegerungen-bei-canyon--update]

To the section „Innovation and safety“. Feel free to shorten that. My proposal is here:

Canyon is recognized as an innovator in cycling.[29][23] The company’s innovations include;

* Projekt 3.7, the development of what was then lightest road bike in the world (2004)[30][31][32] * Use of CT scanning technology for nondestructive material testing processes on carbon parts, to increase safety levels for riders (since 2012).[45][7][16][46] * MRSC Connected, the development of a bike with integrated emergency call system, in collaboration with Deutsche Telekom (2014)[33][34] * Project Disconnect, which completely decouples the drivetrain from the chassis, enabling mountain biking without pedal kickback, presented at Eurobike (2016)[35] * The Future Mobility Concept, a car-bike hybrid concept vehicle developed as an alternative to both the automobile and the bicycle for inner-city transport (2020)[36][37]

Collaboration of designers, technicians and constructors as well as former and active professional cyclists are considered important factors for these and other innovations.[12] A further factor is collaboration with universities [30] [7] [44]


 * What do you think of these suggestions? Best regards - Atomiccocktail (talk) 14:49, 14 June 2021 (UTC)

,, I'm currently attempting to work through the backlog at CAT:EDITREQ. It would be great if we could finalize this edit request. To the extent that it is helpful, here are my suggestions for the last disputed suggestions:
 * After standardizing its IT infrastructure, which began in November 2015, Canyon expanded its production facilities at the end of the year. During a transition phase, delivery dates could not be met and were repeatedly postponed. The response to customer service also faltered. In February 2016, the company apologized, named concrete improvement measures and thanked customers for their loyalty. [Source = https://www.bike-magazin.de/mtb_news/szene_news/lieferverzoegerungen-bei-canyon--update]
 * The proposed language about collaborations still reads like promo material. It is sufficient to state Canyon regularly collaborates with designers, technicians and professional cyclists. It has also collaborated with universities.. JBchrch   talk  15:15, 28 June 2021 (UTC)

, Thank you for your precise hints. I will implement them and also look again in the source code, so that it is up to date. Atomiccocktail (talk) 16:04, 28 June 2021 (UTC)


 * Hello, hello . I have implemented your hints. Thanks already for the critical objections and the support. Atomiccocktail (talk) 15:36, 29 June 2021 (UTC)

For the controversy section: local bike shops refusing to work on Canyon bikes
Apparently Canyon's marketing rubs local bike shops (at least in the USA) the wrong way.

Two examples from Reddit - there might be others out there. A good article would be nice to mention but I can't find one yet.

[Https://www.reddit.com/r/CanyonBikes/comments/v6u1hk/lbss dont like working with my canyon/ https://www.reddit.com/r/CanyonBikes/comments/v6u1hk/lbss_dont_like_working_with_my_canyon/]

[Https://www.reddit.com/r/CanyonBikes/comments/13vbrho/my right crankset pulled off during weekend ride/ https://www.reddit.com/r/CanyonBikes/comments/13vbrho/my_right_crankset_pulled_off_during_weekend_ride/] Breadteam (talk) 01:31, 31 May 2023 (UTC)

https://forum.slowtwitch.com/forum/Slowtwitch_Forums_C1/Triathlon_Forum_F1/Bike_shop_attitude_to_canyon_bikes_P7001619/