Has anyone bought from Grand Bois Japan?
03-17-23, 07:19 AM
#1
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Has anyone bought from Grand Bois Japan?
I've been looking into building up a 650B wheelset. I have some Mavic 500 hubs and was looking at rim options. Seems like for anything other than Weinmann 519/Zac19, the price is $80+ per rim plus shipping.
The Papillon rims on the Grand Bois site look nice, are apparently good quality and lighter than the VO Voyager, which have a similar look and are roughly in the same price range.
The mystery is shipping costs - you have to buy the rims first in order to find out the cost of shipping. Has anyone had experience with this and can assure me it's not going to be bonkers?
The Papillon rims on the Grand Bois site look nice, are apparently good quality and lighter than the VO Voyager, which have a similar look and are roughly in the same price range.
The mystery is shipping costs - you have to buy the rims first in order to find out the cost of shipping. Has anyone had experience with this and can assure me it's not going to be bonkers?
03-17-23, 07:37 AM
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I bought tires from Grand Bois (IIRC the shipping wasn't bad at all, and surprisingly fast), and have also considered getting rims. I can't remember why I decided against the rims- I think the shipping estimate wasn't too bad, but maybe a VO sale came along which made the Voyageurs a lot cheaper. Anyway- I seem to remember the process is you go through the order, then they'll email you an invoice of what the total is going to be with shipping and then you either approve it, or say 'no thanks'... So you don't actually pay until responding to the invoice.
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03-17-23, 07:44 AM
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There is a US distributor. Scott Davis. francopedia@gmail.com Give him a shot.
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03-17-23, 07:58 AM
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I’ve bought those rims directly from Grand Bois, and the process was as described (and shipping was fast to the east coast US). One example of their attention to detail is that they emailed me before the order went through to confirm that my weight didn’t exceed the rated limits of these rims! They did it in a polite way (i.e., they didn’t ask, “Are you a Clydesdale?”).
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03-17-23, 08:11 AM
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Yes, I have ordered from Grand Bois on a number of occasions. Great, quality products and when you receive your package take a moment to marvel at the care taken with the packaging.
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03-17-23, 08:27 AM
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I bought the Papilion rims through Scott Davis - along with the red Hetre tires for the build of my Gugified 650B build. Back then he was ordering from them annually. I am not certain whether this is still the case or not. What I do know is that those rims are like jewelry.
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03-17-23, 09:07 AM
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With the size of the US market, wouldn't it be good to have a US "distribution point", maybe not for frames and bikes but "smaller" stuff? One dock door, maybe 2000sf and some kid who fills/ships orders after school. YMMV!
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03-17-23, 09:49 AM
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Unrelated to Grand Bois but another interesting data point regarding buying direct from a Japanese supplier:
I bought a Sugino, Alpina crankset from directly from Sugino. It was at my house, Philadelphia PA, in 4 days via DHL. I was also the least expensive option for purchasing that I could find on the Innerwebs. This is the 3 rd crank set I have purchased from them and the experience and the pricing have been great.
I bought a Sugino, Alpina crankset from directly from Sugino. It was at my house, Philadelphia PA, in 4 days via DHL. I was also the least expensive option for purchasing that I could find on the Innerwebs. This is the 3 rd crank set I have purchased from them and the experience and the pricing have been great.
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03-17-23, 11:14 AM
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There is a US distributor. Scott Davis. francopedia@gmail.com Give him a shot.
03-17-23, 12:45 PM
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03-17-23, 01:30 PM
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Jitensha Studio in Berkeley also carries them:
https://www.jitensha.com/eng/tires.html
I have to say though- if you are building a 650b wheelset now, you should really be choosing tubeless rims.
https://www.jitensha.com/eng/tires.html
I have to say though- if you are building a 650b wheelset now, you should really be choosing tubeless rims.
03-17-23, 02:07 PM
#12
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Cool sounds like shipping's not too crazy. I'll reach out to Scott as well. I was also going to get some hetre's.
I've never used tubeless before but that's something to consider. Jitensha has Pacenti Brevet's for 80 which is a good deal and those are tubeless compatible. 🤔
I've never used tubeless before but that's something to consider. Jitensha has Pacenti Brevet's for 80 which is a good deal and those are tubeless compatible. 🤔
03-17-23, 02:10 PM
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03-17-23, 03:15 PM
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Yes, I've bought tires, lights and reflectors from Grand Bois in Japan. It's very much like buying from a Stateside online supplier, with the extra step of getting a separate email listing the shipping, along with a PayPal invoice. Grand Bois are great to deal with, very nice people and very knowledgeable. Note: let your browser translate for you into English, and be ready for some weird translations such as French words that have been phonetically translated into Japanese, translated back into English that only makes sense when you sound it out slowly and then suddenly the shoe drops, and some odd translations like "hiker" for "bicycle".
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03-17-23, 04:30 PM
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03-17-23, 04:34 PM
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Yes, I've bought tires, lights and reflectors from Grand Bois in Japan. It's very much like buying from a Stateside online supplier, with the extra step of getting a separate email listing the shipping, along with a PayPal invoice. Grand Bois are great to deal with, very nice people and very knowledgeable. Note: let your browser translate for you into English, and be ready for some weird translations such as French words that have been phonetically translated into Japanese, translated back into English that only makes sense when you sound it out slowly and then suddenly the shoe drops, and some odd translations like "hiker" for "bicycle".
Machine translation is improving by leaps and bounds though. So much better now than just a couple years ago. With the application of AI, I expect near-perfect translation may be right around the corner.
03-17-23, 04:53 PM
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03-17-23, 05:44 PM
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Jitensha Studio in Berkeley also carries them:
https://www.jitensha.com/eng/tires.html
I have to say though- if you are building a 650b wheelset now, you should really be choosing tubeless rims.
https://www.jitensha.com/eng/tires.html
I have to say though- if you are building a 650b wheelset now, you should really be choosing tubeless rims.
Tubeless? I thought that the whole idea behind companies like Grand Bois ( and they are few) was to provide an alternative to what The Industry tells us we have to buy….
03-17-23, 06:57 PM
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Wonder and surprise of BF, again
I didn't know Grand Bois, Kyoto, at all.
There are US distributors.
Their distributors page.
https://grandbois.jp/grandbois/original-parts/shop/
jitensha studio
Chapman Cycles
SD Bicycle Garage
Boulder Bicycle
Thompson Custom Bicycles
I didn't know Grand Bois, Kyoto, at all.
There are US distributors.
Their distributors page.
https://grandbois.jp/grandbois/original-parts/shop/
jitensha studio
Chapman Cycles
SD Bicycle Garage
Boulder Bicycle
Thompson Custom Bicycles
Last edited by darkmoon; 03-17-23 at 07:00 PM.
03-17-23, 07:07 PM
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https://cyclesgrandbois.com/SHOP/PACENTI_R650B.html
And also sells tubeless rim tape for said rim:
https://cyclesgrandbois.com/SHOP/panaracer_tlt.html
11-19-23, 12:24 PM
#23
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I am ordering 4 rims 650b (not wheelsets) directly from Grand Bois and got a shipping cost to Europe of 24000 JPY (DHL), that is about 160 USD. Is this normal?? What rates you get to United States?
11-19-23, 03:30 PM
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I ordered two 650B rims about 7 years ago; shipping was 5,000 yen to the US at the time or about $50.
11-20-23, 04:02 PM
#25
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Thanks, nlerner, for info!
I asked Grand Bois about it and they could offer EMS for 9000JPY, but in their experience DHL is faster and more reliable.
Well, it is paid now and I can hardly remember the price anymore, and certainly won't be remembering while riding my 650b conversion
I asked Grand Bois about it and they could offer EMS for 9000JPY, but in their experience DHL is faster and more reliable.
Well, it is paid now and I can hardly remember the price anymore, and certainly won't be remembering while riding my 650b conversion