Originally Posted by
Tourist in MSN
I understand. I never look very hard at bottom bracket height off the ground, I do not corner very fast so that is not much of an issue to me. I have a vintage (early 60s) Italian bike where I often scrapped the pedals in corners, but that is the only bike where that was an issue, and I cornered a lot faster on that bike several decades ago than I do now.
Plus my Nomad Mk II has a bottom bracket that is quite high compared to other bikes. And that is the only bike where I have run that big of a range of tire sizes.
Different topic, what is the customs duty on having a new bike shipped to USA from EU these days? I bought my Nomad Mk II as frame and fork, not as a complete bike. I expected that to be 4 percent but was charged 6 percent plus a flat fee. You might consider a trip to Europe to make your new bike used instead.
I have been lucky in that I have ordered bikes, lots of parts (Rohloff, SON hubs, etc.) and never had to pay a tax. Plus if you buy from Europe and have it shipped to the USA, the seller waives the expensive VAT (tax) which can be as high as 21%.
That said, I am booked to go to Europe for a couple months this summer. Ideally, I would buy a used bike like I want but since there are very few, I may not have that option. This would be the first new bike I have bought in 3 decades as I strongly prefer to buy a used bike and let someone else take the massive depreciation bikes have. Covid sort of ruin that model. Normally, I would not be as rushed but since my Americano was stolen, I am looking for a new bike. My Thorn Nomad MkII is totally disassembled, including the wheels, so I may have to just rebuild it and take it and be patient.