Sourcing Shimano Parts in Canada

Posted by: coolatt

Posted by: Xorrox

Posted by: Couch_Surfer

Posted by: Xorrox

All I want is to do is go on a website, find what I need, confirm price, ship/pickup and lead time and order it, all without wasting any time on phone calls with people that don't know what they are talking about or are going to lie to me because they don't actually know.

100% agree.

La Bicycletta seems to have put their inventory online. Was able to order some replacement brake pads for my gravel bike sent to me via Cdn Post (there was an option to save 13$ and go pick up at store).

More bike shops should be doing this. I don't want to drive down to a store for stuff like wear and tear replacement parts like brake pads, cables, housing, derailleur jockey wheels etc...

Yeah, I just found that out as I was looking for a Rockshox digital shock pump 2 weeks ago; bought it from them because they had it available online!  Simple, quick, easy...local pick up in West Van so no shipping.  Will look at what they have online further.

Careful. My first order with them was great, they had what I needed in stock and shipping was reasonable and quick. Second time I ordered some shimano parts, the lead time was supposed to be 7-10 days. After 36 days I cancelled my order. Customer service never reached out to me once to let me know what the delay was.

This was in July/Aug this year

Good to know.  I only order if the site says 'in stock', none of this 'special order - should be 7-10 days nonsense'.  

Wife just destroyed her Rear D.  Trying an order from https://www.thebikeshop.com/ as 1> they had the exact replacement i wanted 2> looks like they have three physical locations 3> it was an 'in stock' item.  Will see how that experiment goes.

So glad I had ordered a box of housing and cables last year. I am tight on housing ends but if I get desperate I'll spin my own with some stainless on the lathe. 

Now I do need a drivetrain for my commuter bike...so we'll see how fun it is to source cassette and chain in these out of stock times.

looks like jenson has the best inventory currently. tbs has good pricing, but very limited stock; need to jump on it when it arrives. sucks that the euro supply got shut down; bike discount shimano pricing was ridiculously cheap (not to mention the home of $40 schwalbes). alas...

Schwalbe's are still in play.  We had a $1200 order in this year that came through without taxes or fees.  Our Magic Mary's cost us $53 per vs. $136 here.

For the record, I still try and buy everything here... from hubs to bottom brackets to grips, the only thing anyone had in stock was the top chain guide thing for an e*13 bash guard.  Trying to find a 32-hole, 6-bolt, 150mm, XD drive rear hub was absolutely fucking hilarious.

One wrench monkey at a store here that shall remain nameless gave me an open box of just raw-cartridge bearings and said, "Here is an e*13 bottom bracket".

bike discount has completely stopped shipping to north america, but bike24 is good to go with 36euro schwalbes; firing up the credit card...

bike-components.de

Bd.de not shipping to NA due to the Rona or other reasons?

Posted by: Endur-Bro

Bd.de not shipping to NA due to the Rona or other reasons?

yes, that's it. This is the response I got

Dear Dave,
due to corona-related delivery problems of our logistics partner DHL, we have temporarily deactivated Canada as an option. As soon as the shipping is possible again, we will activate the option in our shop again.

Thank you for your understanding!

Best Regards
Olaf Wendelken

_H&S Bike-Discount GmbH
Wernher-von-Braun-Str. 15 - 53501 Grafschaft
Tel. 02225-8888-0 - Fax 02225-8888-199__

Posted by: trumpstinyhands

Germany has over twice the population of Canada and is part of a trading group that currently has 445 million people. Plus companies have huge economies of scale. It stands to reason that they can ship product faster and cheaper than Canadian set-ups.

While this is true now, it doesn't fully explain why there aren't any decent mail-order bike shops in Canada (or more of them in the US). 10+ years ago, the German shops were quite small and didn't really ship outside the country. But they were well stocked, successful and relatively inexpensive. Even the MTB-specific ones, despite MTB as a sport being a lot less popular in Germany back then. I'm doubly puzzled by the lack of huge, cheap and thriving mail order bike businesses in the US, which could ship to Canada (due to NAFTA). They are home to f*ing Amazon, how is it possible there is nothing similar for bike parts? I suspect that it has something to do with distributors or the way their channels are set up?

Posted by: DaveM

Posted by: Endur-Bro

Bd.de not shipping to NA due to the Rona or other reasons?

yes, that's it. This is the response I got

Dear Dave,
due to corona-related delivery problems of our logistics partner DHL, we have temporarily deactivated Canada as an option. As soon as the shipping is possible again, we will activate the option in our shop again.

Thank you for your understanding!

Best Regards
Olaf Wendelken

_H&S Bike-Discount GmbH
Wernher-von-Braun-Str. 15 - 53501 Grafschaft
Tel. 02225-8888-0 - Fax 02225-8888-199__

Thanks for that. 

Successfully ordered from both bike24 and bike components at the end of August. Was worried my supply chain was shrinking. 

I’ll order big ticket items such as suspension, droppers, wheels, helmets from LBS.

Grabbed an XT8100 drivetrain kit from TBS in Kelowna... was super fast shipping, ordered Friday night arrived Monday night. Wish TBS had bigger stock as they have decent prices now and again.

I've used TBS a few times now; fast turnaround & shipping, solid pricing (albeit limited stock). otherwise, jenson seems to have the best shimano inventory / pricing currently.

I have hope for bicicletta as they move to being more online oriented (although it's a bummer they're closing the west can shop in the process). That's said I just don't get why the distribution model in north America has so much more markup built into it vs Europe, for many brands. 

I just can't see myself ever buying tires locally. I mean I don't think it's the bike shops' fault but at basically twice the price versus the German online shops that get stuff to me in a few days, it's just not happening.