Originally Posted by
jfranci3
As I understand it there was some loophole that allowed online sellers to buy/sell you OEM parts at much cheaper prices if they were an OEM bike maker. As a result, all these global bike stores started selling their own line of bikes so they could sell OEM Shimano groupsets for 1/2 the price. Shimano is just getting this under control, so buy what you want now. Look up "Shimano grey market'
https://www.pinkbike.com/news/chain-...a-no-sell.html
Shoot. Those deals on Shimano groupsets through CRC, Wiggle, and the like were the only way I was able to make the economics of building up a frameset work out. It was still a bit more than buying a complete bike, but when you factored in all of the customization that was required after a complete bike purchase, it wasn't so bad.