Ryan_M

Just wondering what's going on with them... getting parts here is near impossible now. It's not that they dont exist (due to shortages from covid), I've found the parts abroad, they just wont let distributors send them here. I can, and have been, getting them from China though I'm not sure why that's Shimano's marketing plan. It doesn't make any sense, they're making a deliberate effort to kill the LBS industry but also not letting on line retailers (other than China) get the parts here either. I'm not a business major so I can't understand how not allowing your parts to be shipped or sold helps in any way. What am I missing here?

dsaul

It's not just Canada. They stopped allowing International sales of their products to the US, as well. The idea seems to be to preventing European online retailers from undercutting the prices of North American retailers and LBS. China doesn't follow anyone's rules and they may not be selling actual Shimano products.

dedhed

Apparently you're unclear on the worldwide supply chain issues across most industries.

Dan Burkhart 

As noted above, the world wide supply chain is broken, but even in normal times, cycling is not the primary focus for Shimano in Canada. If it was, their Canadian headquarters would be in Quebec with the rest of the major industry players.
As it is, they situated themselves in Peterborough in the Kawartha lakes region, because, well, fishing.

1974jim

Factories closed everywhere due to Covid taking out employees. Automation means relatively few employees but with very specific skills that cannot be quickly replaced. Factories are scattered around the world, a problem in one place can create a stoppage somewhere else. Raw materials in the same situation.
Shipping a complete mess. Containers stuck in wrong places, containers waiting to be unloaded in backed up ports,
Every business is making decisions based on prioritizing what is the most profitable.
Meanwhile all their global customers were used to not having to have substantial inventory, which is no longer a viable strategy. So what is available is being snatched up in its entirety by the businesses closest to where the factories are.
Patience.

Crankycrank

+1 to everything already mentioned.

Iride01 

If it's only Shimano that you are having trouble getting stuff from, then you have more than we do down here.

Trevtassie

Welcome to Shimano's brave new world of Geoblocking. I went from buying maybe 500+ bucks of Shimano products a year to effectively zero, because the local range is limited, not in stock and expensive.

Russ Roth

EU laws are different from US and the parts manufacturers can basically require everything go through third party distributors and fix prices which they can't do in the EU which is part of why Europe's prices are better than ours, so Shimano and Sram have banned the sale of their products to the US and by extension, Canada from the EU. Canada's laws must be similar enough to ours to allow this to happen. I've often wondered if this wouldn't be a class action against the manufacturers for not allowing these sales but I'm sure the whole system is skewed in their favor. This is the reason I've switched my bikes to Campy for the nice stuff, its just cheaper to buy and import than buy shimano/sram locally. For the entry level stuff I use microshift or buy from China, microshift has proven every bit as good and often better than the equivalent shimano/sram.

Troul 

Parts are just not being produced as it once was. Unless it's truly broke, just clean up the old stuff & reuse it.
the whole change they did has put a real bad taste in everyone's mouth. I find myself looking at bicycles & decreasing its value if it's equipped with there shhhtuff. it's probably not going to impact profits much to care, & I am sure my view is just a speck of dust to them. 5+ years out from now will paint a better picture with regard to the changes.

ClydeClydeson

It is my understanding that Shimano Canada (Peterborough ON?) is basically a satellite office for Shimano USA, And their priority I am sure is USA customers.

pdlamb

fify.

3alarmer 

...I am reminded of the old joke about a woman needing a man, like a fish needs a bicycle.

3alarmer 

...
...FWIW, the replacement cassette cog sets sold by alternative manufacturers, like Sunlite, work well and seem to be still around, mostly. I started using them when the Shimano ranges in 7 and 8 cassette that I use simply disappeared, long before the Covid supply chain disruption. I'm probably not a good sample customer, though, because once a project bike gets finished by me, there are so many different ones to ride, stuff rarely wears out on one of them.

And I'm stuck back in the 70's, 80's, and 90's as far as what I ride. So Shimano hasn't been interested in my needs for a long time now.

icemilkcoffee 

Well OK then. Let's keep that quiet lest they cut this remaining channel off.

Phil_gretz

Would you mind specifying which parts you are having trouble sourcing? Maybe the rest of us can help you. I'm not having any trouble, other than shipping and customs delays.

Ryan_M

I'm not denying this at all, I said in the OP that I'm not a business major so I don't see how it's good practice to withhold your parts being sold/shipped to a particular country (and it appears multiple countries). Since you know, care to share?

Oh wow U.S. too huh? I have read that argument but I can't see it... unless Shimano is taking it upon themselves to challenge our country's import taxation. Also 'helping' LBSs seems suspect. I was looking for a chain that I would have bought but they didn't have it and told me they're not even going to try to order is for me because they won't ship it to him. Not back ordered, unknown when we'll get it, could be a while... but they won't ship it to him. So I ordered a Sram chain, LBS and Shimano both lost out.

Rick

In 1981 I purchased the new Shimano group for A bicycle I put together were I was stationed in Germany. I believe it was an 11 peace set. I shipped stateside several months later and that same group was more expensive than my complete bike I had put together in Germany. Pandemic is not the cause of a huge price difference. In the late 70s some genius convinced our politicians to put a taxation on imported bicycles and parts. I believe it was called the double eighty. The reason for this was to protect the likes of Huffy and Schwinn. My goal when I had my custom touring bike made was to not have anything on it made in Asia. I believe the only part still made in Asia is the crank and I will be replacing it with a 160mm crank arm length one, made in the USA in the near future.

dedhed

[QUOTE=Ryan_M;22219784]I'm not denying this at all, I said in the OP that I'm not a business major so I don't see how it's good practice to withhold your parts being sold/shipped to a particular country (and it appears multiple countries). Since you know, care to share?/QUOTE]

You can't ship what you don't have. Shimano is much more concerned with getting product to OEM manufacturers to keep up with new bike production than getting a dozen chains to your LBS.
Container ships are stacked up waiting to unload , then the containers are waiting for trucks to carry them to distribution centers, and again trucks to carry product to final destinations.

Not a business major, I'm in underground construction, I've had 75 fire hydrants on order since May. I might see them by the end of this month. Ordered valves 2 weeks ago, quoted 8-12 weeks instead of the usual 4, anticipated ship date is 10/29. Domestic fitting production is being eaten up by projects that would normally use imports because they are on those container ships, making the supply I can get smaller. All my manufacturers are running full bore, or so they tell me. Just real life experience trying to get the items we need to get pipe in the ground in a 9 month construction season.


https://www.bike-eu.com/production/n...-2021-10139522

https://www.wsj.com/articles/cargo-s...ts-11629229285