Originally Posted by
Calsun
Over the past 6 months I have bought a great many bike parts online from various bike retailers and most are really out to lunch in terms of providing accuate in stock status and so I have spent a lot of time phoning one shop or web store business after another. A notable exception and why I am writing this post is Performancebikes.com. I found the best price by a considerable margin for some Endura bike trousers and placed an order with them on Wednesday. Today the US Postal Service delivered the trousers and shipping was free. This is a small business owned by a husband and wife team and I do like to keep my money local and not send it to Bezos or the Waltons.
Over the past three weeks in particular I've ordered quite a few cycling items, including components and tools from eBay, totalcycling.com, merlincycles.com, enroute.cc, chainreactioncycles.com, primeauvelo.com, lafo.com and mec.com. Shipping has generally been good, though one of the eBay items seems to be being delivered by horse and buggy. Duty is inconsistent. Some times I pay, sometimes I don't. A lot of items though are in scarce supply, even at the big UK e-retailers, some of which I mentioned above.
If I had my way, I would have purchased everything from local bike shops, but it just wasn't possible. I was able to get Campagnolo carbon brake pads and the handlebar tape of my choice from one local dealer, and a couple of Park tools from two others. Beyond that, that's it. The main store in Toronto that carries Campagnolo components has basically nothing in stock and they don't know when they'll be getting anything in. I took to the Internet and was able to get everything I was after. I'm happy I was able to give a couple of Canadian businesses my business, but many of the things I was after came from the UK and two from US based eBay sellers. Sometimes you gotta do what ya gotta do.