A while ago a friend of mine said he had a friend who worked at Cannondale and was willing to give me a pretty good discount on a bike when I (finally) had the money. Suffice it to say, he's no longer with the company and thus my "in" has fallen through. Oh well.

I'm looking to get a pretty good touring bike for my trip to St. John's, NL next summer, as well as general riding around the city. Naturally, being a recent post-secondary grad, I have little money to spend and am looking for a pretty sweet deal (without sacrificing quality).

So my question is: Would I be saving any money by driving across the border and picking a bike up in the US or am I just better off to order a bike locally? How is the mark-up in the Canadian market?

I've also been reading countless threads on which bike to get and the various benefits, but I'm definitely open for any suggestions (I'm about 6ft, 140lbs, male, if that helps).

Moderators: Haha, oh man, I must be tired and must not have been paying attention to which forum I was in. Totally my bad. Definitely feel free to move this thread.

You could try posting this in the regional Eastern Canada forum.

I live in the US but recently visiting Canada and thought bikes were marked up more than I'm used to, but then saw some pretty reasonable price on KHS bikes at one LBS. So my conclusion is that you could shop around and might find some surprises.

Only problem is that Cannondale is a US-manufactured bicycles and the US dollar is running a lot higher than last year.

I have never looked at anything other than mtn bikes up here in Canada, I found the prices are better in the U.S..

My friend just came to visit and she observed that a lot of things here were actually much cheaper although we weren't shopping for bikes... just parts.

You don't pay 14% taxes in the States, and prices are better down south as well. It's worth making a few calls for. There are a couple of complications though: if you don't know which size you need, you'll have to go twice unless they happen to have your size in stock. Finally, you'll have to make it back across the border with an "old" bike, or you'll be taxed.

don't buy a bike in Mexico you might get the swine flu from the seat ... lol