Thought this would interest a few people.

For more expensive components you can't beat the prices of the UK retailers like Merlins, Ribble, Wiggle, CompetitiveCyclist etc. However, they don't always stock cheaper components.

Amazon also doesn't directly stock cheaper components but you get them through their 3rd party sites which don't always qualify for prime (2 day) shipping.

I was pleased to see JensonUSA has a larger variety of cheaper components and with free shipping with $50 orders and I can get them to CA in about 3 days.

Here's an example.

I wanted to redo a loose ball BB for a hybrid with a better crankset and cartridge BB and decided on the Shimano M361 in 48/38/28 since its lightweight, has replaceable rings etc and the UN55 BB.

All the UK retailers don't seem to stock these cheaper cranksets.

Amazon does buts its $44 with prime from a third party vendor and the UN55 BB with prime is $24 and the UN26 BB is $22!

From JensonUSA the M361 is $29 and the UN55 just $15 (if I wanted to wait a week I could have gotten the UN26 for $9). Add in a seat clamp for $5 and I have free shipping and it will get here in 3 days.

The only downside I see is the return policy is not as good as Amazons in the you have to pay return shipping.

CA sales tax and shipping usually make it not worth it to me, same as Nashbar. If I need a cheap component or tool for a project I'm probably not spending $50. I still find absolute best price for those things on ebay

I like Jenson USA for parts, too, and for the same reasons mentioned by the OP. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them.

Another satisified Jenson customer. They have had parts that others dont with some incredibly good prices.

-SP

I'm also happy with my dealings with Jenson. As noted, they are significantly more expensive than the UK dealers on big ticket items but often have very good closeouts at nearly give-away prices. I cherry-pick them frequently.

UK prices no doubt up a bit with recent decline of $, main problem with UK is you can get great prices on groupos but not so easy
with a single item or two and sometimes you only get 172.5 or 175 but not 170 cranks or 52-36 but not 50-34 or 11-25 cassette
but not 11-32 etc, varies. I have used Jensen as well for select items.

I know people who swear by Ebay, but in my experience (as is this case) they are quite expensive.

The m361 crankset was $43 and the UN55 BB was $30 in the standard sizes I needed.

Amazon seems to now not be stocking much themselves and relying on third party vendors.

So are there are any other good domestic vendors?

NiagraCycles has a huge inventory with good prices but they are far from me and the shipping really adds up.
BikeWagon has a huge inventory but MSRP pricing on most Shimano components.

Nashbar has free shipping with a minimum order ($50) and their prices are usually pretty good. Nashbar does charge sales tax if they (or more commonly, Performance) have a retail outlet in your state.

Amazon, with Prime, has free shipping on many items but you have to be careful that the item is included in the Prime category. Also, I found a few times that even with free shipping Amazon isn't as cheap as others vendors including paying for shipping. You have to do the comparison. Amazon almost always charges sales tax but the outside vendors may not.

I've had nothing but great things to say about Jenson, one of my TRP Spyke brakes didn't come with the 20mm PM adaptor. It wasn't their fault, it was a sealed box, so TRP screwed up, I called Jenson to tell them it was missing. They never questioned me, they just apologized and had one shipped out the next day. That's a sign of a great business.

Don't rule out the local shops. Seriously. Some of the better ones have stock available locally, will order and have other pars in a day or two, and will match an online price if you ask. They also provide a lot of knowledge to be sure you are buying the right part in the first place so you do not get stuck with an incompatible part. They probably will not charge you for shipping and do not have minimum order amounts. And if you buy from them some will install free for you...

Sometimes I think people are so quick to order online that they forget about how helpful an LBS can be.

If that LBS was near me, I'd go to them for sure. But matching online prices, installing for free and taking the time to help you is too much and I suspect such a store would quickly go out of business.

All these online vendors can offer cheap prices precisely because they don't have the overhead of employing a tech and sales people.

They go out of business when no one shops there anymore. Good, well run shops have a variety of income sources that allow them to keep good staff on hand to offer service like assistance in finding the right component, etc. Online sellers can have significant selling costs as well like shipping, and marketplace selling fees (ebay, Amazon, etc.) which can scrape off nearly 15% of the sales price and keyword advertising expenses that can take another 10% or more of potential margin. Some good local shops CAN be a great and economical resource as long as they have a decent amount of business to cover their overhead. They do go out of business however when no one shops there...

I'm on your side with this one, but the complete lack of LBS with the qualities you mention in my area indicate its very difficult. Maybe its because I live in an expensive area where the rent costs must be astronomical and you'd need a huge amount of business to cover the overhead.

+1 for Jensons, my package ordered on Monday 10pm is here this morning at 8am! LA to SF Bay Area.

Mountain Equipment Co-op also has pretty good prices on some of what they have - not terrific selection of bike stuff, but they do have cheap SS cables (teflon or non), cartridge BB's, 7speed indexed shifters, etc.

Welcome to the shopping channel.

Yeah, that is often the issue. If rent is high and they need a lot of space for a lot of slow moving bike inventory it kills the economics of the retail space. Independent shops that are better off now are in the low-rent space off the beaten path. That way they can afford everything else. A lot of shops are going out of business so it is leaving more foot traffic for the ones that are left though.

Isn't Jenson a LBS that sells parts online ? I believe they have 2 stores in CA.

Correct. They are based in San Diego if I recall.

Corona and Riverside. I used to live in Riverside and they were local to me.

Ah, given you were local were they a great LBS like the ones [MENTION=126124]dwmckee[/MENTION] described.

I'm guessing Riverside isn't a high rent area?

It's a total ****ing **** hole. I couldn't wait to leave and was celebrating when I did.

Yeah, I like them as well.

After being burned by Probikekit once again, I'm done them and likely with UK based retailers. I don't mind paying the extra $5 for peace of mind going forward.

Did you post your experience in this thread? https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycli...-thread-7.html It's always good to balance out the great results with bad ones.

I think only stuff bought from Amazon or fulfilled by Amazon gives you true peace of mine. No return shipping on returns, no need to give a reason, open packages are fine etc. So there is no barrier to returning anything.

I've had nothing but good experiences with Merlin and Chain Reaction. Jenson USA are good, I order a lot of stuff from them.

so JensonUSA and Nashbar are the cheapest online places to shop for bike components? How much is the sales tax? The same rate applies if it is shipped to California or North Dakota?