spart

Hi,

Was just wondering if anyone knows of any good online stores that operate inside Canada (to avoid duty, extra high shipping fees). For things like accessories / tools / apparel it'd be nice to have a good and cheap Canadian webstore (for full bikes and the like I like to go to my LBS).

Thanks.

SpongeDad

Try https://www.labicicletta.com

Have no idea about Canadian taxes, but at least they have a Canadian presence so that may take care of your issues. Not sure if they're cheap though.

baxtefer

www.bikeroom.com
but beware, there have been many reports of poor service from them recently.

for parts, it's still cheaper to order from the states and pay shipping. (no duty, GST only in BC)

thewalrus

they also sell a lot of stuff on ebay at lower prices than their website store - last year's team jerseys and such...

there aren't really any canadian stores that can complete with jensonusa/nashbar/performancebike on price, if you live near a border and can get an american mailing address, order online from the states and save a lot of money.

baxtefer

hey walrus,
doesn't nashbar/performace/supergo ding your with washington state tax (8.5%) when you ship there? I considered going that way with my last nashbar order, but it turned out to be cheaper just to pay the canadian shipping and the $5 canada post fee, rather than the WA tax.
What was your experience like buying your Allez in the states, and bringing it over the border. Did you just pay GST? or did they hit you with the 13% duty on complete bikes?

thewalrus

Nope... You only pay sales tax on inter-state shipments within the USA if the company sending the product has a business presence in your state. (This is why you pay the WA sales tax on Apple and Dell, but not on mail-order computer stuff from stores like newegg.com, or from JensonUSA which is based in California). There are some things Jenson and other stores will not ship to a canadian address, or even buy if your credit card has a canadian billing address. This has something to do with contracts they've signed protecting "exclusive" canadian distributors for certain component lines. I've encountered this with previous-year closeouts of Marzocchi forks for example. Another I can think of quickly is Race Face MTB components, which are manufactured in Canada but actually 20% cheaper to buy in the USA.

I paid neither GST nor 13% duty - As long as you're *riding* a bike across the line I don't think the border cares about duty, as they will assume if you live in canada that the bike came from canada. You might have trouble taking a whole bike across if it were boxed up or you had >1 bike on a rack on top of your car, and they looked brand new.

Same deal with other sports gear - taking a few valuable snowboards north to whistler in the winter season seems to be no problem, but you'd have trouble if you had a bunch of boxed-up brand new snowboards.

The border doesn't really know a lot about bikes - I don't think they would be able to tell the difference in MSRP retail price between a Trek 1500 and a Specialized S-Works Tarmac w/ Dura Ace.

hmai18

I've ordered from Performance a few times and Fullcycle once. Even with shipping and the conversion rate, it still came out to cheaper than buying locally.

thewalrus

Here are some of the many:

https://bb.nsmb.com/showthread.php?t=61236

baxtefer

There's a performance store in seattle, I think. So perf/nashbar/supergo charge WA sales tax. good to know about jenson.

brilliant! why didn't I think of that?

Maelstrom 

Do a search here, many more complaints. I defended them on nsmb a number of times and now will never buy from bikeroom again. David used to offer incredible service but is really dropping the ball now. I don't intend to purchase from them again. What I will likely do is buy stuff from jenson, get it shipped to my buddies place and he can bring it up for me when he visits.

operator

www.bikeophile.com free shipping to boot. I'd forget about bikeroom.