buying a bike in the US

rkdj

i am going on a trip to the us and am thinking about buying a bike whilst i am there - any tips for getting it back to the uk - i already have a bike bag so could take my bag with me and just bring it back as 'luggage'?? as long as i clear it with the airline??

andrew_s

American flights charge quite a lot for bike carriage.

It used to be the case that if you booked in America you got charged, but if you booked in Europe you didn't, even with the same airline on the same route. If that's still the case it might be worth taking a scrap bike on the outward flight so you can book a return bike flight here.

ralex

Chances are you will be ok but watch out for being stung with customs and duty charges when you bring it back into the UK. Best to ride it around a bit and get it a bit worn looking just in case they decide to take a look at your baggage when you come back through customs

Steven Martin

ralex wrote:

Chances are you will be ok but watch out for being stung with customs and duty charges when you bring it back into the UK. Best to ride it around a bit and get it a bit worn looking just in case they decide to take a look at your baggage when you come back through customs

Seconded. Also, make sure that you have cycling kit in the luggage or they may get suspicious, import duty is 20% or so plus vat!

bikergirl17

admittedly i am american, but i have never been stopped by UK customs taking my bike transatlantic. i *have* been stopped by US customs coming into the US for a short trip and inspected, more i think as they didn't believe i have a bike in the box.

not sure what airline you are taking, but BA is still pretty reasonable fee wise; the US airlines like united want about $175 each way -- thus it would be rather expensive to take a 'decoy' bike over from the UK.

it is likely cheaper sending the bike UPS back to the UK (although def have to be careful about it not getting caught up at customs that way).

alan_sherman

Check with the ailine what is allowed. I was surprised that I could take a bike to Brazil as part of my cargo hold allowance of 2 23kg bags! That is a lot of wax......

Leadballoon

You might also want to confirm that it will be right hand drive.

chameleonsvox

Well if you can get it past customs without having to pay import duty then it's got to be wortth a shot. A standard Surly LHT for example, which included Shim XT spec,
is going in a shop here in LA for $1,090, whereas in England they're asking around £1000.

I just bought an 08 Dahon touring folder that I'm going to attempt to bring through in a suitcase. I got it here new for around £450 brand new. The only model I could find in England was a grey import and they were asking around £890 for it.

andymiller

chameleonsvox wrote:

is going in a shop here in LA for $1,090, whereas in England they're asking around £1000.

Does that price include California Sales Tax/local sales taxes? I suspect that once you take sales taxes into account, the comparisons aren't as favourable as they look at first sight (although I don't know whether there are any ways non-residents can avoid paying sales taxes. You can get LHTs over here for £949, so there's a potential saving of between £150 and £200 - it's probably worth the gamble if you can bring it back with you (if you had to have it shipped over it's almost certainly not worth it).

chameleonsvox

It probably doesn't include sales tax, but at 9.75%, one would still save a couple of hundred on the UK price and if you pay cash you'll probably get a cash discount, worked for me when I bought my bike here.

No if you ship it you'd get hit with import duty for sure, that would it futile.

dilemna

What would be the position if you had a warranty issue? Would you have any come back?

Would it then become apparent that you hadn't paid taxes/VAT on it?

Even if you could potentially save £100-200 I don't think it's worth it. Too much to go wrong and turn it into a nightmare.

andymiller

dilemna wrote:

What would be the position if you had a warranty issue? Would you have any come back?

Would it then become apparent that you hadn't paid taxes/VAT on it?

Even if you could potentially save £100-200 I don't think it's worth it. Too much to go wrong and turn it into a nightmare.

Surly do prohibit US retailers shipping bikes to the UK (or at least according to JensonUSA they do), but if there genuinely was a manufacturing defect I doubt any mnufacturer is going to refuse to put it right.

And if you bought a bike in the US why would they care about the issue of tax?

The only risk really is the risk of being stiffed by Customs on the way back. For me, the saving probably isn't worth it.

crankycrank

bikergirl17 wrote:

it is likely cheaper sending the bike UPS back to the UK (although def have to be careful about it not getting caught up at customs that way).

I'm not a big expert on import fee's but in my experience UPS is the worst at charging special "import agent" fee's in addition to any taxes. This has been shipping UK to US a few times so not sure if the reverse would apply. Fed Ex and USPS were definitely cheaper but I don't know if USPS do packages that large.

andyh2

I think the import duties on bikes are;
Bike parts 4.7%
Complete bikes 14%
Then VAT 17.5%

The import and then VAT are calculated on value + shipping costs

And then some shippers add handling charges.

If you were able to bring it in your luggage a Big Dummy frame from Jenson would be a great deal even if fully declared it would be about £480 compared to £765 - £850 over here.