Mountain Biking - Question of math

I dont get it - everytime i look at a local online store, the MX Comp ETA retails at the AUD$790 mark. That's USD$553. When i look at a US online store or ebay, i'm looking at USD$350 - a difference of USD$203??!??

is there a plausible reason for this? even throwing in shipping and labour, surely it cant cost that much? are we Aussies getting fleeced by our LBSs?

You guys get ripped.

We in Aus get stooged because there is not enough of a market here. We pay way more, usually you can order something from somewhere like Jensonusa.com and it is still cheaper. One place you may want to look at is phantomcycles.com.au . I have done lots of business with them and they are heaps nice and usually the cheapest in Australia.

Hopper mate, phantom's the one that's quoting me AUD$790 for the MX Comp... check it out: http://www.phantomcycles.com.au/home.php?cat=62&page=6

that's it. I'm ordering ebay.

Also, if you compare to regular canadian prices it isn't tooo bad. USA saves tonnes of money on part even compared to us. But luckily we still aren't as bad off as you guys.

Yeah... you guys get hammered from the backside pretty good for sure. That's one reason I'm glad I live in the US. :p

I wouldn't live anywhere else in the world. Except Whistler maybe.

When I was looking at forks, I could have sworn I saw the MX Comp ETA for around $220 US. Check www.cambriabike.com.

$350 US sounds REALLY high for that fork. I paid $179 for my MX Comp Coil and it's the same fork without the ETA cartridge.

EDITED: Just checked and it's still there for $220. I can't link directly to the fork because of the way they do their frames but check Cambria Bike (http://www.cambriabike.com) fork section. It's on page 2, about 1/3 of the way down.

Don't tell them that. Now they get even more ripped.

$220 !!??sonofa@#AS#$A$#!!!

nah, thanks for the links actually :) i was using $350 to illustrate worst case scenario i.e. even if i bought on the high end. Now my agony is in deciding to buy MX Pro now or TALAS later... which one? arggghh!!!

I have a somewhat related question. I have a cheap "insync" fork on my bike and my friend has a Suntour. When you stand up and pedal, the bob really eats up a lot of your power. I want to know if it would be worth it to upgrade to one of the cheaper forks. Looking through Cambria's selection, they have a Manitou Axel Elite for $100, some forks around $200. I wouldn't mind a rigid fork if I could save some money that way, but all the ones on there are carbon and look like they're more for road bikes.

because they probably are. Kona has the Project Two fork which might work for you and Surly makes some good forks too.

indeed, small market share means we get the sahft in pricing.

I remember a while ago I was looking at a Sony CD plyaer that was $200 here, and $99 USD which at that time would've been about $138 canadian.