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Custom charges to get my bike from India to USA

Old 07-30-15, 05:07 AM
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narendrakumarg
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Custom charges to get my bike from India to USA

Hi All,

I am planning to get my used bi-cycle from India to USA (CA, San Jose) in flight. I will be staying in for couple of years and planning to use it for commuting for my university. Please let me know if I have to pay custom charges to use my cycle for my personal use?

Thanks,
Narendra
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Old 07-30-15, 05:19 AM
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I don't think you'll have any taxes or customs fees to worry about.
I have flown with my bike to the USA from europe as well as to various other foreign countries on every continent apart from antarctica :/ and customs/taxes are a non issue.
A brand new bike still in its original packaging might be another story.
You could check with US customs: Contact Us | U.S. Customs and Border Protection
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Old 07-30-15, 05:50 AM
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Customs is not who you need to worry about.

While bikes sometimes can fly free on international flights, once you are in the US, every carrier is going to charge you a very large surcharge to fly with a bicycle since it is over sized. Unless it fits in a case that measures 62" total for L+W+H. The fees are usually $150 and up per leg.

I don't know what you are bringing from India, but you may be able to buy a bicycle here for the money you would spend on luggage fees.

You should check with the airlines you want to fly all the way to your destination, not just the international flight.
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Old 07-30-15, 06:57 AM
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Custom charges to get my bike from India to USA

Airlines vary incredibly in their charges for sporting goods.
My "go to" is British Airlines who will take a bike box under 23 kg for free as your main checked in baggage.

Do your homework, and beware of "code-sharing"
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Old 07-30-15, 07:31 AM
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Originally Posted by narendrakumarg
Hi All,

I am planning to get my used bi-cycle from India to USA (CA, San Jose) in flight. I will be staying in for couple of years and planning to use it for commuting for my university. Please let me know if I have to pay custom charges to use my cycle for my personal use?

Thanks,
Narendra
If you are staying a couple of years, don't fly with it, have it shipped ahead.

Even if you know nobody on the US end to ship it to, you can call and arrange to have it shipped to a bike shop near your destination.

Even internationally, that should be cheaper and less hassle than trying to fly with it as checked luggage.

An individual shipping personal property should not be subject to customs fees unless you intend to sell the property in the US.

Americans will sometimes fly to Germany or Sweden to but BMW's, Porsches or Volvos, take possession of them in Europe, drive them for 2-3 days there, then have the car shipped to their local dealer, this evades customs fees and import tarriffs since the car has technically been purchased and driven by the owner and is now personal property and not merchandise for sale.

Last edited by ShortLegCyclist; 07-30-15 at 07:35 AM.
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Old 07-30-15, 07:51 AM
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Freight Forwarding will be more likely to use surface, Sea, shipping Vs Airfreight , saving $, but not time.
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Old 08-10-22, 11:03 AM
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Originally Posted by narendrakumarg
Hi All,

I am planning to get my used bi-cycle from India to USA (CA, San Jose) in flight. I will be staying in for couple of years and planning to use it for commuting for my university. Please let me know if I have to pay custom charges to use my cycle for my personal use?

Thanks,
Narendra
Hello Narendra!

It's been a while and things may have changed. But, I am also planning to take my MTB along with me to the USA (CA) for my personal usage throughout the period of my university studies there. I am glad to have found this thread. Would you mind sharing about what the procedure was like and if you had to pay any taxes. Also any suggestions or information you would like to share?

I can take it as a luggage with me (but the box dimensions would exceed the 62 linear inches requirement for max dimension of luggage) or have it couriered. Which one is recommended?

Thank you
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Old 08-10-22, 11:13 AM
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Originally Posted by a.cyclist
Hello Narendra!
The OP made one post seven years ago. Do you think he’s going to respond to you?
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Old 08-10-22, 12:01 PM
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Thanks for replying
Unlikely, but still wanted to try luck with hearing back as i try to find more information and decide on it.
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Old 08-10-22, 06:05 PM
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Originally Posted by a.cyclist
Hello Narendra!

It's been a while and things may have changed. But, I am also planning to take my MTB along with me to the USA (CA) for my personal usage throughout the period of my university studies there. I am glad to have found this thread. Would you mind sharing about what the procedure was like and if you had to pay any taxes. Also any suggestions or information you would like to share?

I can take it as a luggage with me (but the box dimensions would exceed the 62 linear inches requirement for max dimension of luggage) or have it couriered. Which one is recommended?

Thank you
...there are literally thousands of good used bicycles on the Craigslist here in California, selling for ridiculously low prices.
Unless you have something special to you, bringing it along is probably a bad idea, and the college campuses here get hit pretty hard by bicycle thieves.

Honestly, if you've not seen the abundance of used bikes available here, you'll find it hard to believe.
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Old 08-10-22, 11:51 PM
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Originally Posted by 3alarmer
...there are literally thousands of good used bicycles on the Craigslist here in California, selling for ridiculously low prices.
Unless you have something special to you, bringing it along is probably a bad idea, and the college campuses here get hit pretty hard by bicycle thieves.

Honestly, if you've not seen the abundance of used bikes available here, you'll find it hard to believe.
Hi,Thanks for sharing that information and the suggestion!
yes, there seem to be plenty of bikes (at sfbay.craigslist.org/search/bia) but are reasonably expensive relative to my purchasing power. I had a good condition MTB here and am worried that having to buy one of similar specs (even a used one) would be expensive there (seems $100+). My campus has a separate storage facility for bikes so it's pretty safe there. As of now, looks like Qatar airlines will let me have this as one of the allowed check-in baggage. but, i'll rethink this based on this new information about Craigslist lists....
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Old 08-11-22, 09:16 PM
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Originally Posted by a.cyclist
Hi,Thanks for sharing that information and the suggestion!
yes, there seem to be plenty of bikes (at sfbay.craigslist.org/search/bia) but are reasonably expensive relative to my purchasing power. I had a good condition MTB here and am worried that having to buy one of similar specs (even a used one) would be expensive there (seems $100+). My campus has a separate storage facility for bikes so it's pretty safe there. As of now, looks like Qatar airlines will let me have this as one of the allowed check-in baggage. but, i'll rethink this based on this new information about Craigslist lists....
.
...I don't know where exactly down there you're planning to attend school, but bike do-ops area big thing here in NorCal, and the majority of them receive donations of reasonable quality bikes, and sell them pretty cheaply in my experience. But if you can bring your bike for free, you can ride it and see what happens without too much worry about replacement, if the worst occurs. Here are some of the bike co-ops in the Bay Area: https://www.bikeforums.net/northern-...-bay-area.html

If you're going to Davis, there's still a co-op there, but it is much diminished from the olden days. Sacramento, a couple of hours up I 80, has the Bike Kitchen.

I don't remember if that thread I linked mentions the Bike Kitchen in the SoMa area of San Francisco, or the Silicon Valley Bicycle Exchange, closer to Palo Alto. There really are a whole bunch of good to excellent quality used bikes floating around here, if you have some time to shop around. Which you might not. I live in Sacramento, and I used to work at the Bike Kitchen here. I don't get down to the Bay Area much any more, but if I can give you any advice on what's good or not so good, you can PM me if you're shopping.

capnjonny restores bikes for one of the co-ops down there, near Saratoga somewhere.
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Old 08-11-22, 09:39 PM
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Originally Posted by a.cyclist
I had a good condition MTB here and am worried that having to buy one of similar specs (even a used one) would be expensive there (seems $100+). .
If you think a couple hundred for a bike is expensive I think the cost of living in the Bay area is going to be an eye opener.
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Old 08-11-22, 09:54 PM
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Originally Posted by dedhed
If you think a couple hundred for a bike is expensive I think the cost of living in the Bay area is going to be an eye opener.
...the pricing on cronuts has gone up into the stratosphere .
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Old 08-11-22, 10:30 PM
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Originally Posted by dedhed
If you think a couple hundred for a bike is expensive I think the cost of living in the Bay area is going to be an eye opener.
He could be on a government grant for education with tuition, room and board and meals covered but otherwise on a very limited budget for anything else extra, like paying $100 for a used bike
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Old 08-14-22, 11:50 AM
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that's indeed what the scenario looks like
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Old 08-15-22, 12:55 AM
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There was no custom charges when I got my used bike. But things might have changed please cross check.

I had used British airlines, as a student I had 3 checkin bags allowed at that time and I had called British airlines and got it confirmed that my bicycle can be used as a third checkin bag. Standard bicycle length without dismantling was allowed. Again please double check with the airlines.
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Old 08-16-22, 11:09 AM
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Nice to hear that, Narendra. Thanks for replying!
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Old 08-16-22, 12:07 PM
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Fascinating to see the OP reply to a one-time post from seven years ago! That's a rare bird

a.cyclist I think you will be surprised when you get here how little we can buy with our money! The minimum wage for most jobs is $15 an hour. A fast-food meal is about six bucks. So that $100 used bike from Craigslist does not seem like such a bad deal or out of reach. But it's hard to make a living on such money, and for some people it's hard to get or keep a job, so you will see poverty.

The Bay area is one of the most bike-friendly in the USA with all kinds of cycling going on, from hipsters in the city trying to ride the steep streets on fixies, to yuppies bouncing around mountain trails on really expensive carbon fiber e-bikes. The bicycles sold in department stores are dreadful junk but bikes from bike shops are dreadfully expensive so it's fortunate we provide each other with a large market of used bikes.
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Old 08-21-22, 11:19 AM
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Indeed fascinating to hear back from the OP; thanks to them again!
Also, thanks Darth Lefty for your message! I am just reaching SF a while ago. Will post back back shortly..
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