calyth

Any suggestions for getting a dynamo hub without paying through the nose for it?

This isn't a typical roadie item, so places like PBK won't have it...

Doohickie

$50 cheap enough? The owner of the LBS I go to is into randonneuring and this is the type of dynohub he prefers.

calyth

I'm sure $50 is cheap (and I'm gonna check that out). I just need to make sure that they use USPS instead of UPS. Otherwise I get a high chance of them ripping me off with the custom clearance, and $50USD item costs me like a $100 after S&H plus UPS crap...

Doohickie

Ah, Canadian.

Check with a local bicycle shop. I got equipment from Peter White Cycles, but I went through my LBS. They got the stuff from him, and charged me the same prices shown on the site (he charges wholesale prices when selling to shops). Or see if you can find an LBS that carries Sanyo hubs.

rgpg_99

I hear you about those fees. FedEx does the same. I got an invoice from them 2 months after I received the item, claiming import fees that were almost the value of the item. There was no fighting it.

I used to buy a lot from Niagara Cycles online (their store is just across the Canada/US border), but after they decided to not USPS anymore when shipping to Canada, I had to stop buying from them.

Now I see a lot of eBay vendors charge import fees upfront, promising you won't get any further import charges. I hope that practice doesn't catch on. As it is now, when using USPS I have only been charged import taxes twice in a whole year (getting 8-10 bike-related items from the US every month).

Even if no import tax is charged, the customs brokers working for UPS, FedEx, etc., still charge a fee, some misc items, and then sales tax on the fee and the misc items. So in those cases you pay the broker just to be told no import taxes were applied. Unbelievable.

ksisler

OP: easy to find as hub or complete wheel on Amazon and other on-line sites

Tanhk

For personal items up to 1600 CAD there is a program that allows you to clear customs yourself and forgot the brokerage fees by ups or fedex. It's a bit of work but it saved me a lot when I bought a tankless heater from the us valued 1500 CAD.

If you're really interested here's a blog about it.

https://trueler.com/2010/11/24/self-c...brokerage-fee/

If you search that post for Sophiep, my name, you'll find my story in the comment section.

You're gona need a few documents from the seller/shipper so tell them you're gona clear before hand and ask them to email those copies to you. If you ask UPS you'll likely get the runaround. And remember not to take possession of the item at the door and immediately process it after they attempt delivery.

May be worth it for a 50 CAD dynamo hub but I bought mine off ebay from a John and told him to ship USPS. Cheers

calyth

Well I at least found a bike shop in Canada that would have dynamo hubs. Mighty Riders in Vancouver could order the Schmidt hubs. Not what I would call cheap per se, but not going to be completely screwed over by UPS brokerage either.

Tanhk

Schmidts are very nice hubs and definitely worth the extra cost as they will pay for themselves with longevity. Not cheap though as you mentioned. Here's one that's not the cheapest but would ship usps. You still have duty and taxes to pay though.

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Sturmey-Arche...item5659e2cc25

If you don't mind used. You can probably ask seller to mark as gift and reduce value for customs.

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Sturmey-Arche...item2a30cce21a

If you don't mind number crunching here's a read about their efficiencies. You'll notice the shimano being the best bang for the buck.

hub comparisons

clasher

Many bike shops in Canada can order sturmey-archer stuff from Babac and it's not terribly expensive, but they don't make a dynamo without drum brakes as far as I know. I imagine a local shop in Ottawa can sell you one of the shimano models, otherwise I've had good experience buying stuff from the big UK discount sites without onerous fees and brokerage, just normal duty once in a while on things.