Can you believe that a Cervélo soloist Team 2003 costs 4’500 swiss francs over here (=about 3’400 $). It sells only for about 2’000 $ in the US.
Gerard, can I come pick one of these CSC Team Soloists in the first Truck at the end of the season ?
Can you believe that a Cervélo soloist Team 2003 costs 4’500 swiss francs over here (=about 3’400 $). It sells only for about 2’000 $ in the US.
Gerard, can I come pick one of these CSC Team Soloists in the first Truck at the end of the season ?
You’d have to do a bit of research but quite likely Canada might be the cheapest place to purchase a Cervelo since it’s a Canadian company and the Canadian dollar is so low at present. Even paying shipping costs and duties, you’d likely still be saving money. Alternatively, some of the American states(Maryland for example) have no sales tax, so it might work out even cheaper buying out of one of these states.
Well, let’s start with real numbers first, and lets assume you play by the rules. I.e., if you smuggle a bike into your country and break the local laws by avoiding duty or tax, I am sure you can save some money. You can save money on anything that way, but obviously cannot compare that price with the price of a bike that has duties and taxes paid. Furthermore, you start off with the wrong prices, any argument can be won that way. The Soloist Team is US$2300, and that is excluding sales tax (which is the way prices are quoted in North America, unlike Europe). To get the bike into Europe requires 16% duty. I don’t know the exact sales tax in Switzerland, but in most European countries it is close to 20%. These two charges get the price to US$ 3200. This is without factoring in any of the costs of transportation and distribution. So as you can see, the prices are quite close, and the real solution is as simple as it is complicated: Convince your local government to lower sales tax (VAT) and the duty charges.
I’m in Adelaide and the CS team iss competing in the Tour Down Under here at the moment - the Cervélo soloist Team 2003 with Zipp 404s look pretty awesome. Cant find any great shots of them but here a few OK ones.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2003/jan03/tdu/?id=stage3/TB14
http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2003/jan03/tdu/?id=stage1/TB8
http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2003/jan03/tdu/?id=stage3/CN4
For good shots (especially of Arvis Piziks and Lennie Kristensen), go to our website and check the CSC page in the ATHLETES section. We’ve made arrangements with Graham Watson that he will send us all the CSC shots he takes this year. We won’t post them all (he sends five or so each day) but the best ones we’ll post.