The dollar is incredibly strong right now

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European and US distributors often have different pricing. That and the exchange rate between the euro/pound and US dollar can sometimes make goods cheaper over there.

PBK free shipping is slow. I have orders that took 2 weeks to get and others that took over a month.

Keep in mind that you may be hit with customs duties when the package gets delivered. Its doesnt happen all the time but it can. I've had it happen once out of maybe 10 orders from the UK.

I got my scicon bag from chain reaction cycles in the UK. They had a great price and I had an additional coupon.

UK dealers I have dealt with are PBK, CHain reaction, and Merlin cycles. Other than slow shipping I haven't had any issues.

Wiggle is the best mail order bike/triathlon site in the world.
Fast, free shipping, great prices.

I always get screwed with PBK so I stopped buying from them.

Just ordered a $290 triathlon skinsuit from Chain Reaction Cycles for $167.

In Canada Wiggle wasn't the greatest for me. They shipped super fast for sure, but they told me ahead of time they would send Royal mail but ended up with UPS. Royal Mail would have meant no customs (in Canada bike parts get no customs). UPS wanted to charge me customs and a brokerage fee of $30 for a $100 package. It took 2 weeks of back and forth to return the product. If I had wanted it fast the premium may have been worth it, but I wanted the deal and lower price and was willing to wait.

PBK and Merlin use Royal Mail and even show that upon ordering. Wiggle said (in my contact with them) that they use which ever they want and whatever they deem will get me the package faster. Nice and all, but not of much use for me planning on the bill at the end of it. I ended up buying the same package at Merlin for the same initial price and no customs or brokerage fees (it came in 10 days).

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Ian

Bought lots from:

WIGGLE
CHAIN REACTION (SPONSOR OF ITU)
PRO BIKE KIT

I bought my sons road bike from wiggle... came super fast by DHL

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2020 National Masters Champion - M40-44 - 400m IM
Canadian Record Holder 35-39M & 40-44M - 200 m Butterfly (LCM)

Ribble is the best.

Ribble is awesome FAST shipping to CA. From order to delivery just over a week. They use Royal Mail (gets handed off to USPS) for smaller packages. Larger packages get handed off to DHL I think? Again, fast delievry.

Wiggle is also awesome; pretty quick delivery, usually within 10 days.

PBK was great, but then they started getting packages stopped at customs and the hostage/ ransom custom fees fees started happening where the brokerage entity won't allow the package to continue the delivery chain without paying customs(understandable) plus THEIR FEE (no fucking way) I won't order from them again.

I got my Scicon TT bag at a crazy price from a Spanish site. Delivered no issue by DHL, but then I got a customs bill from DHL. I told them no one told me about customs on the order at billing or at delivery thus I'm not paying it. They never contacted me again.

I bought a saddle from wiggle a few weeks ago, no issues and it arrived quickly.

While it can be assessed on any import item, I've read on good authority that the threshold amount is $200. If your order is under this amount you won't get hit with the duty tax. In truth the tax isn't really that big of a deal, but what is is annoying is the $15 processing charge on top of it and having delivery held up for days under the best circumstances.

Not quite true as I ordered a DA di2 derailleur that was $375ish and didn't have any hostage fees at customs. This was from Ribble few weeks ago. I think PBK is the one you need to keep it under $200. Perhaps it comes from how much the retailer claims the item's worth?

I ordered my Scicon from PBK and was delivered fast with no issues. However, lately, I've been hearing more and more about the custom issues.
Wiggle and Merlin Cycles are also great.

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SmartBikeTrainers.com || YouTube || My Twitter

Merlin was fast and painless - ordered a cassette and had it in roughly a week in S. California.

PBK was a hassle. I ordered a groupkit and cassette. They sent to the wrong address (they used my phone number as an address) which caused a delay and it was already very slow to begin with. When I wrote asking what was going on, they told me it was my fault. Box finally arrived damaged and some of the parts were not in original packaging, but rather in plastic bags with zip ties. Very odd. Their customer service made no accommodations of any sort and is a bit of a hassle because you can't get a running dialogue on an item. Every time they would respond to my e-mail, I would have to go back to the site and launch a new comment rather than simply replying to a person handling my issues/questions. Meanwhile, my buddy ordered the same groupkit from Merlin a few days later which arrived 7 calendar days later and roughly 3-4 weeks ahead of mine.

I've used both Ribble and PBK. I quit using PBK after buying two Scicon cases and fighting with them for two months about only one case arriving. They sent the second case, but it took me doing all the investigation. They are not set up for customer service.

Ribble customer service is a little better. But basically you should just assume if you buy it and they screw it up, you are keeping it and reordering if size, color, etc is wrong. Of course this depends on total cost, but I'm talking about clothes, tires, etc.

Lately, EVERY Ribble order I've placed over $200 has gone to FedEx for customs processing:( items under $200 ordered at the same time go by something similar to DHL. Those bastards at FedEx have my employer's FedEx account and just bill the customs and processing fee to them. This happens even after I've asked FedEx to confirm no charges:( Frustrating! I'm prolly done with Ribble after the last order. Customs was 27% plus $7 FedEx processing charge. They claim they can charge up to $75 for processing if they want and as a courtesy are only charging me $7. Sucks because prices are great and shipping is under a week.

I believe it is partly due to the competitions act whereby companies are not allowed to dictate what another company sells it products for.

In the UK the competitions act demands that the retailer can sell their product for whatever price they deem fit and to whoever they see fit. They can buy in bulk, sell low and pass on that saving to the customer. I believe that the US and Canada have a more 'price fixing' model where they get dictated to a little more in order to keep retail prices inflated. Which is why UK (and possibly Euro) stores are able to supply the US / Canada a lot cheaper than US or Canadian retailer might be able to.

I think (again, I am not sure) that it would be illegal for companies such as New Balance to demand that the UK not sell to the US and or tell them how much to sell for, whereas New Balance can demand the US not sell mail order to Canada or that prices have to be a certain amount.

All that may or may not be correct, or may or may not be right to some degree but I was told something along those lines by a retailer.

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https://www.pbandjcoaching.com
https://www.thisbigroadtrip.com

How quickly did you receive your bag?

couple weeks

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SmartBikeTrainers.com || YouTube || My Twitter

Thought I would let everyone know...I order the scicon bike box from Wiggle and I received it in three days, i was schocked!!! I had to pay 70 dollars in custom fee as well.

What part of the country are you in? Mine from probikekit took 1 week to dispatch and it's in route still. Will let you all know when I get it and if there are custom fees.

I am in Colorado

I've used probikekit.ca to ship to Canada multiple times and my items always arrive. I take free shipping and it's not quick, but there have never been any customs charges.

If I know the exact item I want and have time to find it online then wait for it to ship, I'll buy it online if it saves me money overall (once you include the exchange, tax, duties, shipping, etc). Since the bottom fell out of our dollar it's made online ordering from the US much less attractive.

Some items are still worth it even with the crappy exchange. I just bought a new Garmin HRM-Run and when all said and done it was still 1/3 cheaper to buy from eBay in the US and ship to Canada than to buy local.

I just ordered an ISM Attack from PBK and received it in one week. Saved about $35 also.

I've ordered a number of things from PBK over the years and haven't had any problems w/ delivery and/or customs. I've always tried to keep it less than $250 so it doesn't raise any "red flags."

I just received my SciCon Aerocomfort Tri bag from PBK. Here's the timeline:

- Ordered on 7/28
- Dispatched 8/4
- Picked up by Courier on 8/5
- Delivered on 8/13

Not bad once they got the item dispatched.. It came from Neitherlands and arrived in San Diego! No custom fees either. Strange.. the bag came with a Scicon Mini-pump.. not sure why but I guess I'll take it!

I've found prices/shipping/customs often varies by item and retailer. Sometimes cheaper in the US, sometimes not. Have to take into account any shipping, handling or other customs fees.

Wiggle does a good job of explaining the customs/duty fees:
http://www.wiggle.com/.../international##duty

FWIW, I got a great price from ProBikeKit on the Vuka Stealth during a sale. Ordered 8/8; shipped 8/10; received in the US 8/18. Was shipped via NL Post.

I was a bit concerned about shipping, but had the time to wait if problems developed. Glad I took a chance. If price is right, I would definitely go through them again.

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No coasting in running and no crying in baseball

To nobody in particular:

I recently ordered from bike24.com

While their shipping was a little high, their prices on the items I purchased more than made up for it.

Items were delivered in a timely fashion like Wiggle and ProBikeKit.

jaretj

I've ordered from Bike 24 as well and had the same experience. They were also good at responding to email questions.

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No coasting in running and no crying in baseball

I live in Germany and order more or less everything triathlon related from Wiggle. It is normally free shipping or something like €5 for next day from the UK to Germany.

If I am not sure about colour / size etc. i order multiple sizes try them and return the stuff i don't want. I literally ordered 8 wetsuits a few months ago, tried them all on, wasn't sure about any, and returned them all free of charge. A week later the €2500+ was refunded no question asked.

I cannot recommend their service enough - my only grumble is that they don't stock brands i like e.g. XLAB and Specialized, which i look elsewhere for and usually end up at sigmasports.co.uk, who i would use more if they didn't charge postage.

I read reviews that these are legit sites but takes a few weeks to get your product.. how are they so cheap?

I blame it on the bike part distributor cabal in the US. European shops obviously get the products for a lot less money than US shops. All the stuff comes from Asia so the fact that the US$ is stronger compared to the Euro shouldn't factor in. At any rate, UK shops were still cheap when this wasn't the case.

Look at Ribble. Best prices, free shipping over $100, and good service IME.

PBK started doing this thing where that if your order exceeds a certain amount (it appears to be $250 USD) that they automatically turn over your package to an intermediary who holds the package until you pay the duty, then they will release the package for its standard 10-17 day shipping.

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Proud Representative of Slowtwitch Anti-Atheists Society.

do any of you know what the freight and duty turn out to be if you buy a bulk pack of, say, conti 4000s? can you give me a sense of the transaction?

for example, you can buy this tire for about $46 at PBK. i went to one online store in the U.S., found it for for $56, no freight, no tax, and $5 in lucky bucks toward a future purchase. so, pretty good savings at PBK, but some risk involved in a long wait + customs flagging.

what will PBK do if you wait? what kind of bulk price might i expect? what time of year? how many tires? does the bulk buy exceed $200 and if so what bad things might happen?

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Dan Empfield
aka Slowman

Merlin cycles. Ordered a SRAM Force 22 groupset, paid about 300 less than US based stores, also got a stem, handlebars and some tires, free shipping via UPS. Placed the order on Monday morning, had the stuff Wednesday afternoon. Can't really beat that.

Their shipping is too slow for me.

I ordered the product on 10/9 (Dura Ace C24 TL wheels) - and it is 19 days later and I still don't have an expected delivery date. Their website says 4-6 days to the US for tracked-shipping. I have called three times, and they asked me "What seems to be the problem?" I don't feel like they have done enough to work with their shipping company to help the package through.

Now true, it seems like customs was a significant part of the delay... but, if you look deeper into it, other shipping companies don't seem to have such issues with customs. I got my stuff from Merlin in 5 days. I get stuff in ePacket from China pretty quickly. ProBikeKit just uses a shipper that seems to have poor relations with customs.

I ordered a saddle from Chain Reaction recently; good price, fast shipping (DHL) but I ended up returning it & ordering another saddle. Cost a fortune to ship back to the UK. Just make sure you'll be happy the first time when you order from overseas. So, saddles, clothes (if you're not sure of the fit), I'd be a little leery of ordering international. P.S. ended up seeing the same saddle on sale domestically for about the same price - d'oh!

I buy from both of them, as well as Merlin and a couple of other UK based outlets. Certain products come out cheaper, especially Shimano and Mavic stuff - their Euro pricing is bizarre, and the strong dollar helps. Generally, things go smooth unless the customs fuck it up.

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Next races on the schedule: none at the moment

Hear more expensive (200+) PBK orders tend to get customed.

I would really like to know the relationship between PBK and the customs broker. I suspect that there is some sort of kickback scheme between the two. As other, larger, UK shippers don't use the a customs broker it can't be for standard trade/import reasons.

I live in the ME and when I'm here, the UK or France I make all of my purchases through Wiggle, CR, Merlin - have never used PBK.

Shipping internationally, I aggregate orders to pay no shipping and outside the EU I pay no VAT.

All my stuff arrives within 4-6 days, I think they're awesome

Hey Slowman

if you're interested in a really good price for the conti tires, check out bike24.com. I guess the fact that they are based in Germany allows them to offer the lowest price for contis I've see so far.
Can't tell you anything about shipping and taxes if you order from the US though as I benefit from living a neighboring country and pay no shipping for orders over 250€.

I bought some Schwalbe tires from Bike24.com last summer and was happy with the transaction.

I'd buy from them again.

I've also purchased items from Wiggle and PBK, they were all about the same experience...good, and the delivery time was not unreasonable.

jaretj

When I buy online it is almost always from bike24. Once in a while I buy from Wiggle but I find that bike24 has the better prices compared to Wiggle.

I have only discovered 3 downsides of bike24.
- Limited choice when it comes to size 13+ (UK) shoes
- No mavic products shipped outside EU (doesn't affect me)
- No Specialized products shipped outside Germany (My favorite LBS sells Spec anyway, so no problem there)

So far I have been lucky as I have never made any bad experiences with buying bike/tri stuff online. (PBK, Bike-discount.de, Bike24, Wiggle, FLO and Power2Max)

I have been using Ribble as well lately. I have an APO address at the moment and stuff from the states takes 7-10 days to get here with priority shipping. Ribbles stuff takes a bit to dispatch from their stores, but even with that being said it takes about the same amount of time to arrive as stuff from the states.

I bought a set of DA cranks and a set of DA pedals from Probikekit and received them with no issues, shipped to South Carolina.

Ribble seems to be my go-to online retailer these days also. I ordered a set of 6870 brifters on 10/20 and received them on 10/27. The trick is to keep the value under $250 to breeze through customs and avoid any import issues.

That is partly correct. You'll still have to pay GST and PST (if applicable) and a brokerage fee if it comes through Canada Posts, unless you are lucky and get a lazy customs officer. Unfortunately, that has never happened for me and I have always paid taxes on packages from bike retailers. It still ended being cheaper than anything in stores locally.

I've ordered from Wiggle, Chain Reaction, PBK. Wiggle is by far the best experience I've had.

My order from 10/9 came today.

So 20 days from when I placed the order on a Friday, and 17 days if we spot them the weekend since maybe nothing happened on the first weekend.

I bought a TT frame and headset from Chain Reaction and It got to the US in maybe 10 days. The headset was missing the bottom race and I called them and got a complete (2nd) headset in 5 days.

Updating this thread again...

I ordered a 2015 Orca Alpha wetsuit from Wiggle on the night of Thanksgiving (11/26/2015).. great deal and also used a $60 off coupon :)

I just received the package from DHL this afternoon (11/30/2015). Looks like it shipped from the England.. pretty impressive ! Also, no duty or custom charges.

I ordered a LOT of stuff from chain reaction cycles, ProBikeKit and ribblecycles. I'm in Canada where everything is overpriced and ribblecycles is usually the best place for groups, it's incredible, half the price year round than what it is in town... I get hit by customs every once in a while but it usually isn't much and the total usually is less than what I would still pay for in town.

Usually I wait one to two weeks. And that's about what I have to wait at the lbs because they often don't have the parts in store...

Bike24 are great, but seem a touch slow, to me. I've waited upwards of a month from them before.

Counterpoint: I ordered a set of C24's on saturday from one of the UK retailers and tracking has them arriving tomorrow with their free shipping option.

Just ran into my first issue with using a foreign shipper..

So that ORCA wetsuit I got.. turns out it was just too big so I returned it.. Had to pay $50 to get it returned via USPS... all other carriers were over $100... Then I ordered another ORCA wetsuit one size smaller.. well its on hold at DHL right now and I had to log on and pay a duty of $58. I asked DHL why the first order didnt have a duty and the second one has a 13% duty and they're the exact same item.. she looked at the customs forms and all she could say is that she agrees they are the same item but for whatever reason, customs charged this one at 13% and didn't charge the other one.. She said they could file a dispute with customs but they would hold my shipment for a few weeks until its resolved.. I just ended up paying the duty...

So long story short.. duty is hit or miss, sometimes u get it sometimes u dont... and obviously, make sure the item fits you well if its a size thing.. otherwise, returning it could be expensive!

Duty is completely hit or miss. I placed two separate orders from Chain Reaction on consecutive days. They arrived on consecutive days but I was charged duty on one and nothing on the other. Both had the exact same entry on the customs declaration "New bike parts".

So here is my (bad) experience with ProBikeKit:
I needed a bike case for an upcoming flight. Decided to wait for Black Friday/Cyber Monday (the flight is at the end of Dec) to see whether I can find a good deal. I had narrowed my selection down and #1 on the list was the Scicon AeroComfort 2.0

I indeed found a few good deals and PBK had the best offer for a bag with some team logo which I did not mind.
So I placed my order, on Friday the 27th, received an order confirmation and my cc was charged.
I was expecting the item to leave within a few days as the item was shown as in stock.
Everything seemed fine.

On Tuesday(!) after Black Friday and Cyber Monday, after all other deals have expired I received an email informing me that the item is not in stock and no longer available! No apology, no explanation. They would cancel my order.

I wrote back and complained and asked whether they could work with me on the identical non-logo bag that they were showing as in stock but now at the regular price. Short apology this time, but the answer was a simple "no".

First and last time I was dealing with PBK. They don't seem to care about customer satisfaction and don't mind to screw you out of a deal.