NoWhammies

During my travels I came across a pretty good deal on a S-Works Tamrac. Trouble is, the bike is located in the UK and the shop won't ship to Canada.

I have a buddy who can act as a proxy for me, so that isn't a problem. The problem is ordering from the UK and the warranty involved. Due to the distance I wouldn't have the opportunity to test drive the bike and if anything goes wrong, I'm boned as far as warranty claims go. Also, while shipping is free within the UK, I am not sure how much shipping will be to Canada. Not to mention potential damage with an international shipment. So with all this in mind, I'm 95% learning to just letting the deal slide.

I am curious though. Have any of you ever ordered a bike from the UK? How did it go?

Thank you.

Iride01 

Specialized is having a sale starting in the next couple days. At least for the USA. Not sure if this is just a drop in prices that only the LBS will see or if you'll see this on their website too. Go talk to your LBS that sells Specialized and find out. The shop mechanic at my local Specialized dealer clued me into this event. All though I'm not certain this included their top tier S-Works Tarmac.

I'd rather buy local for a full bike. But that's just me.

Russ Roth

I can tell you that UK to US was 150£ so probably 200 Canadian and I made my payment with a cc that did the exchange rate on the whole purchase and saved me 20. Box was shipped DHL and showed up fairly quickly and in really good shape. My limited dealings with DHL has shown them to treat packages better than ups/FedEx. I'd assume it wouldn't be that much difference to Canada with the exception of you country's determinations on what should pay an import duty which hopefully someone here knows.
another issue is packing the bike, some shops will box a new bike as part of the purchase, others won't and some people know how to box them and others 😱. How someone can build 6-9 bikes a day all winter long and not know how to put one back in a box I don't know, but I worked with plenty of them.

eduskator

How much $ saved from ordering there VS your local bicycle shop are we talking about?

Make sure your local bicycle shop is not able to price match it first. Support your local economy

Also keep in mind that there might be horrible delays due to the COVID-19 crisis right now. I don't believe it's a good timing for international buying right now.

saverin

I've purchased a bike from Merlin cycles, and the shipping time and experience was fine.......but the packaging itself was very poor, and the bike was very poorly protected. I was lucky in that the bike was not damaged during shipment, but I would err on the side of caution and make sure the bike is heavily protected in whatever box you end up shipping it in.

Here is a photo of the rear derailleur and the lack of padding used and the subsequent indent it left in the box - The box will get manhandled!

eduskator

Oh crap! Was your RD OK? Was it still aligned?

NoWhammies

Iride01 Thanks for the info re: Specialized sale. I'll keep an eye out at my LBS. I'd prefer to buy local if I can too. Cheers.

WhyFi

Just got an email about the sale a few minutes ago - https://www.specialized.com/us/en/sh...purchases:desc

zatopek

1.5 years ago, I ordered a Pearson’s All Mod Cons complete bike from the U.K. No problems at all. IIRC, shipping ended up being about $95 U.S.

saverin

fortunately, Yes. Still not what you want to see when you open the box.

eduskator

Nop... They should have put at least a 1-2'' thick padding between the cassette & the box. I hope you sent them a few pics so they can adjust in the future.

Makes me wonder if this was the bike's original box? If I was to purchase a brand new bike on internet, I wouldn't want the bicycle shop to open the box at all. Just ship me what was delivered by your supplier! lol

saverin

It was not the original box. They had actually put cut-up portions of the bike manufacturers box inside as separators