Singlespeed & Fixed Gear - Is this a bit too much?

I was looking through momovelo's site (I have had very good experience dealing with Kai) and I came across these:
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/momovelo/brkefrnjs.html
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/momovelo/brpcnjs.html

I was pretty excited to find that bridgestone is still making bikes. I came across the bridgestone's japanese site which lists the above models:
http://www.anchor-bikes.com/04bikes/04bikes_index.html
http://www.bscycle.co.jp/

What bugs me is the huge price difference between what is available in Japan vs momovelo. Is this kind of markup normal in the bike world?

not much of price difference, really. Bridgestone's price for the complete bike that Momvelo is selling is 195,000 yen. that works out to around $2000 american. assuming the price on Bridgestone's site is their MSRP, and Momovelo's getting some sort of wholesale deal, $2500 sounds about right.

not much of price difference, really. Bridgestone's price for the complete bike that Momvelo is selling is 195,000 yen. that works out to around $2000 american. assuming the price on Bridgestone's site is their MSRP, and Momovelo's getting some sort of wholesale deal, $2500 sounds about right.

But the NJS frame costs 121,000 yen ($1,100). Momovelo list is $2,100. That is almost 100% over MSRP ($1,000 markup). Am I missing something?

For the complete bike, 195,000 yen works out to be $1,770 (xe.com), and that is list price. Momovelo is $730 over list!!

But the NJS frame costs 121,000 yen ($1,098). Momovelo list is $2,100. That is almost 100% markup. Am I missing something?

For the complete bike, 195,000 yen works out to be $1,770 (xe.com), and that is list price. Momovelo is $730 over list!!


once you figure in shipping fees (from japan) and whatever else, who knows? maybe he's buying everything at list. a lot of his stuff has a pretty high markup, looking at his site...

You could just email Kai and ask him, but my guess is that it's worth him putting a healthy margin on those frames simply because it's such a pain in the arse. He might sell one or maybe none of those frames a year, and because of that he probably has the buy the things at or near retail, THEN deal with the insane Japs and their even insaner banking and freight systems. I pay way too much for stuff I get from Japan, and you get shafted at every turn. Seems to me like Momovelo has put the frames on the website to illustrate that they CAN get them if someone really wants one, but they'd rather not.

Spread the word!!! DO NOT BUY FROM MOMOVELO!! I ordered a folding bike from them February 2nd, 2004. My confirmation said it would be shipped within 24 hours but it never arrived. I contacted him after a couple weeks and said he would be in in a month so I opted to wait. The production of the bike (Dahon) has continuously been put back to where they are now forecasting January 15th, 2005. I don't blame Momovelo for the production of the bike but they have refused to respond to numerous e-mails about refunding my money or changing the order to something in stock. They don't have a valid phone number and have a history of horrible customer service!!