My thoughts are that they couldn't make it any more difficult to buy one of their bikes... unless you live in, or import one from, Japan.

I was seriously looking at buying a frame a couple of months ago, but gave up because I couldn't source one (okay, there is a certain US dealer - but they want faxed copies of your passport before they'll ship to the UK... yeah, right).

Have GIOS fallen out with ALL the dealers in Europe?

I don't understand what's going on.