Oh god why!? Raleigh RX 2012....
 

I went online searching for bicycle to increase the amount of candidates I have for buying a Cyclocross bike. And I found Raleigh RX 2012. Its design was totally my type, and although it's Shimano Sora parts, I think I'm pretty fine with it. I could upgrade the whole thing if I want to in distant future.

Unfortunately, it's not sold in Japan!!!!!(I live in Japan) Oh god why!? I went to REI.com to see if I could buy it online, but due to their agreement with Raleigh, they cannot ship their bikes to home. (They only ship to local REI stores) I live in Japan and how can I get it? That's tough.


Does anyone have suggestion? Or should I just forget it that life is unfair?



Also, I want to know whether Raleigh RX 2012 have eyelets or not for racks...hard to tell from the picture.

EDIT: Sorry is this in the wrong section?

EDIT2: Nevermind about eyelets. I found them in larger picture.

Why was the Raleigh so special?

I do not really understand the point of the question, but it was within my budget range; it wasn't ridiculously pricey.
Considering I live in Japan, $1099 is Around 84500 yen under current currency rate. But bicycle of those spec usually cost around 95000yen to 105000yen over here in Japan.
And also because I have never bought a sport bicycle yet. I don't need Ultegra or 105 parts as a newbie, perhaps I don't need Tiagra neither. Sora is good enough (according to other guy on this forum). It also had eyelet for racks. That's important because I also wanted to use the bicycle for touring.

However, what caught me the most was the fact that there were two brakes. Obviously, there are always brakes on the shifter part, but it also had brakes on the flat bar part of the drop handle. Since I haven't really used drop handle before (only flat bar), it's a great tool to get used to unlike most of the other drop handle bicycle that only has brakes that are perpendicular to the ground.


And I personally liked the design. Some people like the "classical looking" ones from the older design of Raleigh, but I like more of those bikes that looks like Specialized. This one really caught my heart.

I just got a Kona Jake... same price range - better components... LOVE IT... I'll bet they have them in Japan

If the part that caught your eye most was the cross levers (the "second set of brakes"), then you could get just about any cyclocross bike and have them put on. They're $25US or up for the levers plus whatever it takes to install them. If you can do that, labor costs don't matter. If you can't, your LBS shouldn't charge too much to put them on. It's only a matter of cutting the cable housing and readjusting your brakes.

Choose an available bike that you like the looks of and feels good to ride. Add the cross levers and I'm sure you'll be very happy with whatever you end up with.

Moneywise, the Raleigh would probably cost about the same as any other bike available to you if it was imported into Japan. Tariffs have a way of doing that. Ordering it from another country will insure that it costs the same, if not more than locally available bikes. Unless you want it for the status or want to visit another country to pick it up personally, go for a locally available one.