Amt0571

I have a Grand Canyon AL SL 8.0 with around 40 hours of use. At the fourth or fifth ride with it I noticed 2 paint chips: one on the bottom bracket underside, and another on the left chainstay. I didn't worry too much about it as the frame came with a dent from the factory and I'm waiting for them to have stock again and get a replacement (they told me, at the end of summer, and they let me ride the bike while I wait).

Thing is, today I was doing a long really steep climb, riding around 5kph. I was looking down, towards the bottom bracket, when I saw the rear wheel knobs pick a small stone. The stone turned around all the way until it hit the chainstay, I heard the familiar "clunk" that you hear on a mountain bike where things like this happen every 60 seconds, and the stone flew away. To my surprise, it left a "crater" on the red paint, with the exposed grey primer paint (exactly like the 2 other chips).

I've been riding for 20 years and never had a frame that got damaged so easily. My old bike, which was 10 years old and was ridden for 30.000km, had lots of scratches, but it didn't have any paint chip, except on the top tube, where it was hit with a friend's brake lever when carrying the bike on a van. The paint even held itself on the right chainstay after suffering lots of chain sucks on several muddy rides.

Was my old frame really good? or are Canyon painting their frames with watercolours to save weight/money?

prj71

Environmental rules have changed the quality of paint over the years. Paint on new cars sucks just as bad.

Amt0571

I have a 4 year old car. I clipped the parking door sensor plastic reflector. The reflector broke in half and with the pointy plastic that remained, scratched the door to the point that it created a 20cm long crease on the door metal.

I had to repair the crease, but the marks left on the door paint came away after using a bit of car polish with a microfiber cloth.

Maybe Toyota has some secret paint formula that doesn't share with Canyon?

I really like how the bike rides, but I'm frankly tired of dealing with its issues.

Wooderson

When you get your new frame, put some clear film on the downtube.

Like this: https://i.imgur.com/iBwuXu4.jpg

Amt0571

It already has clear film from the factory. The chip appeared on the bottom bracket area, just where the film ends. I know I can tape the whole bike and there's people that do this.

However I've never done it because scratches have never bothered me. After all it's a mountain bike and it'll get scratched anyway. But I have never seen a paintjob that chipped so easily and so bad. To make matters worse, it's only the red color that chips, exposing a light grey primer paint underneath that seems it doesn't chip away so easily.

Frankly, I think thats a crappy paintjob. Totally unacceptable on any bike, let alone on a mountain bike.

Wooderson

Yeah, that sucks. I have a Canyon Lux, but it's flat black. It probably has chips, but I cannot tell.

u235

Crappy paint aside... That's a pretty big jump to classify a paint chip as frame damage...

Amt0571

Well, it's aesthetic damage, obviously not structural. But it's damage nevertheless. The paint of a mountain bike frame shouldn't chip when the wheel throws a bit of gravel to it at a slow speed.

I've been riding for 20 years and never had a single chip where I could feel its depth with my finger and the frame lost the paint colour. Suddenly, I have a frame with 3 of them made in less than 3 months.

Three of this in less than 3 months of riding once per week.

Amt0571

Well... this is definitely the worst paintjob I have ever seen. Last night I put clear tape in the area of the chainstays surrounding the tire, spanning an area 2.5cm back of the tire tread, and 3.5cm forward of it as I considered that a likely area for small stones to hit.

Today I was climbing again and I heard a "bang". I looked down expecting the worst and there it was. A chip 0.5cm in diameter on the left chainstay, 4cm away from the wheel tread ends.

So, this bike has been ridden only for 250km and it already has 4 paint chips of considerable diameter. When I get the frame replaced, I'm starting to seriously consider selling the new one and buying a frame from another brand.