My experience with my Canyon grizl cf sl 6

I’ve been riding this bike since 2022 so this should’ve been the 4th year. Main use was for bikepacking, gravel roads and -especially- tarmac. I find the bike the best choice for an all-in-one machine. The only issue I’ve found -which is well known if you own a canyon- is the steerer tube of the fork. Since I’m a bike mechanic I’m very precise on maintaining the bike in the best condition possible. Yesterday during a cleaning routine I decided to fit a new v13 stem that I purchased on their website (110mm vs 90mm). And what I found was a damn vertical crack on the steerer tube. I’ve always been careful on using a torque wrench and always set it to a max of 5 Nm. I did some research here and there online and guess what? I’m not the only person that have had this issue.

But back to yesterday: first thing I decided to do was to open a claim on their website. Since the bike was purchased in 2022 and I still have 2 years left of conventional warranty (6 years) I’m eligible to apply for it. My concern is that I’m not the only one and that they probably had several claims opened. Now I’m really worried they will blame me of overtorquing and whatever but even if that happens the other problem here is how to replace this fork. If their reply is negative I’m thinking of cutting right under the crack. In that case the steerer would maybe be too short (with no spacers installed) and I’ve done some math and If I were to cut it it would end by the upper screw. Maybe you have a better solution but really I’ve rode this bike for miles and It would be a shame to just throw it away just because there’s no replacement or solution.

I also found some documentation on how to fix a fork that has been cut too short but I’m not sure if it works with carbon fiber.

For those who have this bike or in general a canyon bike with a carbon fork please install a proper expander (like the 50mm pro) because the one that comes preinstalled is just not going to help the carbon tube to counteract the force applied by the stem (even if you follow the 5Nm rules). Moreover the expander is more than 3cm down the tube so no way that this has been designed for that purpose.

I guess the engineers at canyon thought that a 1” 1/4 steerer tube can handle the clamping force by itself with no proper expander.

If you have anything to share (similar issues or even solutions on how to save it) I would be very happy to hear your experience.

Thank you

Umberto

Ps: I’ll update this post so there’s a trace on how things turned out