You just have to look at equivalent spec bikes e.g.

elite top end:-

Canyon Aeroroad CFR Red Etap £8,699
Specialized S-works Tarmac SL7 Red Etap £12,600

mid range:-

Canyon Endurace CF SL8 Force Etap £4,649
Canyon Ultimate CF SLX SL8 Force Etap £5,249

Specialized Aethos Pro Force Etap £7,900
Specialized Roubaix Pro Force Etap £7,900

I like Specialized bikes - owned a nice 2014 Enduro mtb - but Canyon's pricing is way lower for an equivalent spec bike. Maybe Canyon US pricing is not so competitive, I can only speak for the UK.

Below are the bikes you noted with pricing from the US sites. Canyon's pricing is way lower than Specialized. I suspect you'd find pricing from Trek, Cannondale, Giant, etc to be higher than Canyon as well, but maybe not quite as high as Specialized.

It's also worth noting that most/none of these bikes are actually available to buy from either website.

​​​​​​elite top end:-

Canyon Aeroroad CFR Red Etap = $9,000
Specialized S-works Tarmac SL7 Red Etap = $13,750

mid range:-

Canyon Endurace CF SL8 Force Etap = US site doesn't have a Force model listed, they have an Ultegra Di2 for $4,300
Canyon Ultimate CF SLX SL8 Force Etap = $5,599

Specialized Aethos Pro Force Etap = $8,700
Specialized Roubaix Pro Force Etap = $7,500

The comparison I've always looked at is a regular carbon frame Ultegra equipped bike. This seems like the gold standard for a high-end recreational level road cyclist. From Canyon you can get:

Canyon Aeroad CF SLX 8 Di2: $5,999
Canyon Ultimate CF SL8 Di2: $4,699
Canyon Aeroad CF SL 8 mechanical: $4,399
Canyon Endurace CF SL8 Di2: $4299
Canyon Endurace CF SL8 mechanical: $3499
Canyon Ultimate CF SL8 mechanical: $3,299

The same comparison with Specialized is:
Tarmac SL7 Expert Di2: $8,300
Aethos Expert Di2: $8,000
Tarmac SL7 Pro Di2: $7,800
Roubaix Expert Di2: $5,000
Roubaix Comp mechanical: $4,200

Wife: "I've just this minute come into some money and I'd like to order that Lamborghini now!"

Hmm. If she sold off all my bikes, she might be able to buy a used Honda. :lol:

Specialized may have timed this well for the dealers, then, since nobody has much inventory right now.

Maybe the life insurance policy will kick it up a few notches.

We see it all the time people saying "I built it, I just need help tightening the handlebars" and the bike needs a lot of work. Sure there are some places with inexperienced mechanics and management staff who don't have rules in place to make sure bikes are checked over before going to the floor or being sold.

If only. I was comparing their new Grizzle gravel bikes to Trek's with similar components and frame materials when I posted that, and the difference is far smaller than I remembered it from back when we bought a Canyon a few years ago.

Edit: I see above you are looking at UK prices, so I suspect that is the difference. For Trek/Specialized, the Apple rule applies: You pay in Pounds Stirling what we pay in US Dollars.

One big worry I would have personally with a DTC bicycle market becoming the norm is the liability on the customer with shipping and assembly.

I am good at it. It's 100x easier than assembling a hydraulic lifter cylinder head and shimming that stuff and firing it up with the risk of exploding $5000 on the spot. Not everyone is. Then Specialized is going to say "oh, so sorry, you screwed up" or the box shows up destroyed and "oh, sorry, you go deal with Fedex".

Some of these bikes are into used motor vehicle price territory now. Willy nilly shipping that direct and the customer then has to attach the integrated handlebars or bleed hydro brakes and such.........I don't think this will end up well for the bike industry or customers in the long run.

How will Specialized work around differing costs of labor and shop fees in somewhere like an expensive metro area versus the middle of nowhere? You standardize the assembly price for "ship to store white glove" ? You get $200 to assemble an s-works Venge.........in NYC or in Greenville SC. OK.

If you look back a few posts, the US price differential looks very similar. UK Stirling pricing is very similar to US Dollar, almost 1:1. But UK prices are always quoted with 20% VAT included, while I believe the US prices are not including sales taxes. But Canyon are about as good as it gets in terms of cost/spec right across the range. They were even better value a few years ago, but still very competitive. Stock levels are the biggest problem right now, although I managed to get a 2022 Endurace within 2 months and it actually arrived nearly a month ahead of schedule. But I had to be quick on the order button for the brief time they were available - literally a couple of days to sell out the last batch.

Yeah, I was going to get the Di2 Grizzle for my wife, so had a stock email alert set up. She equivocated too long; they were gone two hours later.

That one WAS a good deal.

Sales taxes differ by state, so it indeed makes price comparisons more complex. (Not to mention the weakness of the Californian dollar.)

These bikes you are talking about. Are they new Canyons or some other direct sales brand? If they are new-build Canyons (and not some bodged together home build) then I don't see how they could need a lot of work. There is no "building" to do unless you count fitting a seatpost and straightening the bars.

We have seen some Canyons with issues and their customer service is not great but it is all number of bikes. Not a whole lot of just random home brew bikes those are pretty rare and usually a customer brings us the whole shebang or eventually is like yeah you might as well just do the whole bike.

I'm sure you've seen issues with ALL bike manufacturers. But with Canyon those are not going to be issues with "I built it", they are going to be issues with "Canyon built it". It's not like a Canyon arrives on your doorstep as a box of parts. It's literally a complete built bike and IME built very competently. At least as well built as a Specialized or Trek or whatever major brand bike leaving a typical retail shop. Better in some cases. That's one of the main reasons I like Canyon, apart from the obvious cost saving.

Maybe so, having put together a large number of bikes in a box, I cannot have any faith any bikes come as a complete built bike even those that come actually nearly complete roll out of the box nearly ready still need some tuning. You may have had some great luck and maybe Canyon is doing a better job of things than others (certainly they understand torque and include torque tools in their boxes which is a step)

The ship to home bikes are not going to be the same as what is typically sent to a dealer. They will be prebuilt by specialized at some other location. I saw a different article to addressed this.

From the linked article:
Regarding customers who go the direct-sales route, Specialized said: "With our Ship to Home option, we’ll help you choose the right bike and ship it right where you want it, pre-built. With just a few parts removed for shipping, your new Specialized will be ready to roll in a matter of minutes."

Well it's either luck both times or Canyon just build their bikes properly. As their direct business model depends on it, then I would bet it's the latter.

I remember when Canyon first hit the scene in the UK and some bike shops refused to service them out of principle. But I haven't come across that attitude in a long time.

Agreed. Funny how shipping direct-to-customer should reduce costs as the middleman (i.e., your LBS) is no longer part of the equation, yet I predict Specialized bike prices won't drop 1 cent.

I also predict all the other major brands will follow-suit within the next 2 years and we'll start to see LBS's start to close :( I'm a child of the 1980's and there were all sorts of specialty stores I loved to visit as a kid that were killed-off by the Internet, including skateboard shops, snowboard shops, hobby shops, inline skate shops, etc.

As a person who does my own "wrenching" on my bikes, I personally don't visit the LBS very often. However, the general public is often not very mechanically inclined and simply changing a flat tire is a challenge for some. It'll be interesting to see if squeezing-out the LBS results in losing a large swath of customers that finds bicycle maintenance too complicated and thus decides not to buy a bike. Heck, I'm a software programmer and mechanically inclined, yet understanding how to setup and customize my bike's Shimano Ultegra Di2 system had quite a learning curve that I'm sure "Joe-shmo Public" isn't going to want to do.

"Joe-shmo Public" isn't riding around on Shimano Ultegra Di2

I'm not really understanding the argument or concern about customers screwing up their bikes by doing final assembly themselves.

Specialized says Ship to Home bikes will first be fully assembled and tuned, and then re-packed into a specific oversized box that will require very minimal re-assembly once it arrives at the buyer’s location. If Canyon is any indication, it'll involve:

1. attaching the handlebars to the stem (4 hex bolts)
2. adding paste and sliding the seat post into the frame and tightening the clamp (1 hex bolt)
3. Attaching front and rear wheels with QR/Thru bolt axles
4. screwing on pedals
5. Pumping up tires

Canyon includes a torque wrench, paste, grease for the pedal threads and even a pedal wrench. I assume Specialized will do similar. The skills required are roughly on-par with assembling Ikea furniture. It shouldn't take someone more than 10-15 minutes to go from opening the box to riding the bike. They also include detailed instructions and have online videos for every type of bike.

If customers find all this to be too complicated, Specialized offers several other options that they call "Specialized Delivery":

A. Bikes can be bought online and shipped to a dealer for final assembly. The customer will come pick the bike up and it will be fully assembled, ready to ride.
B. Bikes can be bought with "white glove delivery" where a local dealer assembles the bike and then delivers it to the customers door.

I don't see how, from a shop owners perspective, it's a problem if customers are coming in with new "ship to home" bikes that they've unboxed and somehow screwed up assembling, or found the process to be too complicated for them to complete. Reading through the Specialized delivery options, it's made pretty clear to customers that if they select "ship to home" and then decide to bring their bike into a shop for assembly, they will need to pay the shop for that service.

Agreed.
Also the Di2 on a ship-to-home bike is already going to be installed, adjusted and ready to go. I don't think the customer would have to do anything unless they wanted to change the standard shift settings.

If Joe Shmo Public owns a Di2 bike, it's probably hanging on a wall like a trophy.

Agreed. Didn't even have to fit the rear wheel on my last Canyon. Only the front wheel, seatpost and bars. Hardly a challenge for anyone. I half expected the gears to need indexing, but they were nicely tuned out of the box (Force eTap in this case). My Neuron mtb was also set up fine out of the box. No issues at all. At the end of the day it's just a matter of having a good factory build procedure and QC. It's not an inherent problem with the direct sales model.

People find it funny that big S won't reduce prices despite reduced costs. I find it funny that people think they're in a position to negotiate. They're just sellin' what people are buyin'

I guess what does that mean though? As in not ridden a bike since childhood and they buy a Di2 bike? As a person who does the C group ride? What's the limit?

Plenty of folks drive hopped up models of Corvettes and Porsche with zero track experience.

I've always found the difference in bicycles interesting. If they want it, I don't care. Either way, there are some truly clueless even bike racer folks. They want to hammer bikes, not wrench them. Some, not many. But they exist. Had a guy do the Merckx instead of TT bike class at regionals on our team because his TT bike was still getting a tune up at a bike shop.