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"Canyon eMTB Battery Recall"

Posted: 25 May, 2025

I’ve been one of the unlucky people caught up in the Canyon eMTB battery recall. Four models of batteries, used in a selection of their eMTBs, had defective cases that were liable to cracking. Probably not the sorta thing you want in a big-ass battery that’s liable to get wet, or muddy, or muddy and wet.

I tend to ride most weeks, and bar the absolutely shit design of the mounting screws at the top of the battery – which threaded themselves IMMEDIATELY, and have been a liability ever since – I can’t say that I’d noticed anything wrong with my battery. It comes out after every ride, I clean it, and it looked perfectly fine to me. So I had a look on their website. They’d posted close-up photos of the sorts of failures to look out for (micro-cracks along the edges, and especially around the screw mounts) and sure enough, on reeeeally close inspection, I could see some teeny-tiny cracks along the case.

I was pretty lucky. A quick browse around the MTB forums showed some real horror-stories. Batteries with big chunks of plastic missing... It turns out these things could be stupidly brittle. So the advice was, don’t ride, and safely “dispose” of the battery.

I live in South Wales. There aren’t many Canyon dealers in this area, but there is one in Bristol, so I rang them for a chat. They had absolutely no information, apart from that fact that I was the fourth person to call them that day. They had no idea how to safely dispose of a massive eMTB battery, but suggested that it might be possible to do a swap. I’d take my old one in, leave it with them, and pick-up a shiny replacement whenever Canyon were able to ship them out. Fair enough.

A month later, Canyon email again. It’ll be February before replacements might turn-up. Don’t ride, and we’ll sort you out a bit of cash-back for the inconvenience. I called the bike shop, and they’re none-the-wiser, but do say that there’s absolutely nothing they can do with my old battery, as they’ve now got a pile of them out the back that they can’t get rid of. Because, of course, no-one would be willing to ship a crate full of defective 720Whw batteries to Germany. I’m on my own.

It wasn’t too difficult to stay off the bike, initially. I was busy crunching to finish a project, Xmas was coming, and the weekends were easily filled. But by the new year, I was seriously getting the itch. I’d not ridden in the better part of three months. The winter was mild, and the trails were looking lovely and soft. So I did what any self-respecting person would do, and carefully covered all the teeny-tiny cracks, and possible weak areas, with Duct Tape. Water’s not getting through that! Bits of plastic aren’t going to suddenly fall off. And if I was able to pierce the battery, well, I’d have fallen off something so hard and so far, that an unstoppable fire would likely be the least of my problems. And I’ve been riding it ever since.

And I’m glad I did because February came and went, and it wasn’t until the end of March that I got another update from Canyon; a replacement was scheduled for May, and instead of a direct replacement 720Whw battery, I’d be getting a 900Whw one.

It arrived yesterday, and it’s sat behind me, happily charging away.

This entire thing has been a ball ache, for all concerned. Especially Canyon. It must have cost them an absolute fortune, and at points, it’s been obvious how much of a struggle it has been for them. Their website has constantly creaked and flaked as rapidly put together forms and questionnaires were added and then promptly refused to work in Firefox. They’ve not been entirely responsive to emails. And let's be honest, it’s taken a very, very, very long time to get to the end of this story. But…

When I’ve side-stepped the problems, and phoned them, I’ve always got through to a real person. Even at the weekend. No bullshit. Things got sorted. They didn’t have to give me any cash, and they certainly didn’t have to upgrade my battery when they replaced it. But they’ve done what they can to do right by those of us who were affected.

I know, that shouldn’t be praise-worthy, but in 2025 my expectations for dealing with any company are so low, that I’m genuinely surprised when I encounter ones that give a modicum of a shit.

Honestly, I dread to think how much this has ended up costing Canyon. It can’t have been cheap, monetarily, but the risk to their reputation has been enormous, and this is the sort of thing that I could imagine folding many places.

So I want to go on record: Canyon have sorted me out. I would happily buy from them again. I know, that even if the shit were to hit the fan, I wouldn’t be left with a useless bike. I’ve got confidence in their customer service, having dealt with them online and verbally. And under the worst of situations, they’re skilled enough to navigate through to a reasonable conclusion. Even if it takes half a year.

Credit where its due, imo. And I hope Canyon have given their suppliers an almighty slap in the nut-sack.

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