Buying bike in US

memorex

Hi folks,

Just wondering if anyone here has had any experiences buying a bike in the US and bringing back to Ireland via Dublin airport. Will be on the west coast (san fran) in November. The prices in the US seem 2/3rds the price here in and then there's a further 20-30% with the exchange rate. Was in the market for a fairly serious road bike (something in the 2k-3k euro range), so hopefully checked luggage weight will not be an issue :-)

Was thinking of buying a bike box in Dublin before I left and using that to transport.

Any tips or advice would be much appreciated...

Cheers,
-mem

uberwolf

I strolled through with wheels before - no issue. 5 years ago though.

Friends of mine are frequently back and forth from the states, one with a US passport, and bringing a laptop or golf clubs through they are always scuffing, or taking it without boxes or manuals (delete as approp)

Around Xmas they keep a closer eye, the NY flights are a favourite

In saying that the number of times I've travelled through and the channels aren't even manned

Membrane

memorex wrote: »

The prices in the US seem 2/3rds the price here

You probably already know this, but just in case: some US bikes have a different configuration compared to the EU models (groupset etc.).

Capt'n Midnight

I seriously hope you are talking about real bikes like cannondale / trek and not supermarket bikes

As it gets closer to christmas customs will be looking closer of course.

The usual stuff of making it look not so new would apply - accessorise , a couple of Irish stickers or a rusty carrier, water bottle

decrrrrrr

On a side note - was in San Fran in September - great city for keeping fit in with all the hills...

Looked up a few sports stores when I was there. Lombardi sports was the best I came across.. http://www.lombardisports.com/

Dandelion6

I did this about five years ago. Had a shop take the bike apart and box it up for me, brought it over on Aer Lingus (free of charge, as a second piece of luggage), got it through customs with no hassle (although they did look at me a bit strangely!) and then brought it to my local bike shop in Dublin to put it back together. Saved a fortune.

memorex

Thanks for the advice. Yes, definitely no supermarket bikes, been riding a beat up vintage peugeot for the last couple of years; a hand-me-down. Been saving for a long time and now salivating at the choice. I'd love to also pick up a funky fixie while I was there, but 2 bikes might be pushing it.

Dandelion - how did you transport the disassembled bits of bike?

crashoveroid

Do what a mate of mine did went over with Bike box and a real piece of crap of a bike mainly all built from crashed parts buy a new bike over and dump the crap bike and bring the new one home. A bit of work not to get caught with an extra bill coming home

daymobrew

I bought a ton of accessories at Sports Basement in SF back in 2005. Great prices.

Itsfixed

crashoveroid wrote: »

Do what a mate of mine did went over with Bike box and a real piece of crap of a bike mainly all built from crashed parts buy a new bike over and dump the crap bike and bring the new one home. A bit of work not to get caught with an extra bill coming home

I'm not quite i understand the logic of this. Why would you bring over a crap bike in a bike bag to just dump?

crashoveroid

Itsfixed wrote: »

I'm not quite i understand the logic of this. Why would you bring over a crap bike in a bike bag to just dump?

The reason he did it so he had a full proof story so customs would not think to check and if they did they would have seen a bike was brought with him leaving country and he is now returning with his bike

Itsfixed

crashoveroid wrote: »

The reason he did it so he had a full proof story so customs would not think to check and if they did they would have seen a bike was brought with him leaving country and he is now returning with his bike

Fair enough. Mind you I can't remember the last time i saw a customs officer on duty at dublin airport. seriously.

decrrrrrr

They seem to be around all the time nowadays for the American flights :mad:

Customs have got a flashy new X-ray machine on the green channel and were randomly stopping people on the way through and asking them to put their bags through the scanner...

Friend back from New York on Saturday said the same. They seem to be getting ready for the Christmas rush and the strength of the Euro against the dollar..

el tel

What was the name of the Irish Radio station who kindly broke the story about customs at Dublin airport only charging duty on goods coming through to the tune of a few 100 Euro each year and went and made a complaint that customs were not doing their job well enough? The Radio show said their report and raising the issue was in the interests of consumers...

My advice to anyone going to the USA to buy bike bits is that even better bargains can be had on US-made products (as distinct from imported gear). I brought some Spinergy wheels which worked out at half price and I was able to sell them on @ double + premium as nobody over here supplied them in the particular colour combo. :-)

Dandelion6

memorex wrote: »

Dandelion - how did you transport the disassembled bits of bike?

That's answered in my post, isn't it?

memorex

Dandelion6 wrote: »

That's answered in my post, isn't it?

Hey - sorry should have been clearer. I was wondering what sort of bag or box you ended up transporting them in? If it was a bike box, grand - makes sense. But you mentioned the shop disassembled the bike so I thought you may have managed to fit it in a large regular shaped bag. That would be interesting to know.

Cheers,
-mem.

Dandelion6

Dandelion6 wrote: »

Had a shop take the bike apart and box it up for me

It was just a big box.

surgeon_general

just brought a bike back from seattle, you have to be very careful or you can get charged a lot.

i brought the bike back as a second checked "bag", otherwise you definitely have to pay extra bag fee, about $120 for american domestic flight then additional e80 with aerlingus if you need to re-check bags with the connecting flight.

they are also entitled to charge you that excess if your box is bigger than 62' (height + width + depth), luckily they didn't see that, and let my 115' box on, and also checked it all the way through, so free buzz!

also, i had a local bike shop dismantle and pack the bike for me in a cardboard shipping box, cost $27.

customs in dublin asked me about the bike, but i told them that dublin isn't its final home.

E@gle.

Sorry for bringing up an old thread, im headin san fran for the summer and thinking of buying a bike over there to use for the 3 months.

i have €1000 to spend on a bike so gonna go for a trek or specialized or something along those lines.

Is bringing a bike back to Ireland from the us a big deal? will i have to pay taxes import charges etc, or am i better of getting it shipped back to ireland via courier before i come home

Chips Lovell

I'd say you're better off bringing it back with you and letting on that you brought it over with you in the first place.

E@gle.

looks like british airways accept one travel case of sporting equipment free of charge


http://www.britishairways.com/travel/bagsport/public/en_gb

alastair

Brought a Zaskar home from San Francisco a few years back - just brought it out to the airport on the BART and presented it to the baggage check desk (Virgin Atlantic). They provided a plastic bag and I stuck it in having turned the handlebars, removed the pedals, and deflated the tyres a bit. Didn't cost anything to check it through to Dublin. Flew back via Heathrow, collected bike in Dublin and wheeled it out past the empty customs hall.

Brought a Klein Adroit back from New York last week. Bought off a seller on Craigs List, UPS'ed to New York via a LBS who boxed it up. Kept it in the box - which made it kinda akward to transport out to Newark - where I debated with the Continental Airlines baggage boss lady about whether the box was liable for carriage charges. Continental allow you check a boxed bike as a second piece of luggage - as long as it's under certain dimensions - I won the debate about whether it was allowed as a second checked luggage item, but lost the argument to a measuring tape. I think it was $85 to cover the box.

Was stopped by customs in Dublin. Asked what was in the box. Told them it was a bike, but wasn't actually mine - I was just carrying it for a friend who's just returned home from living in the states for years, and she's got US citizenship now. Not too far from the truth - my missus had helped her bring back various surfboards, snowboards and personal belongings a few weeks earlier. She sold her bike in the US though

Customs man was happy enough with this explanation and let me go on my way. I guess the big Raleigh logos on the box helped convince that this was no top end bike inside. A bit nerve-wracking, but I could produce a recently returned US citizen to claim the bike if I really got into trouble. And the savings to be made with good quality secondhand bikes in the US, combined with the weak dollar make it a no-brainer.

blorg

As el tonto suggests you are best off just bringing it back as if you brought it over there in first place (not that any questions will be asked.)

I work with someone who bought a bike in the states and brought it back, no problems. I have brought bikes all over (not US) but brought back other stuff from the US without issue.

Note incoming flights from the US all merge into a common baggage area with much more common EU flights before customs in Dublin and so presuming you are not arriving at 5am it is generally impossible for customs to see where you came from. Not that it would make any difference, they are not looking for people coming back from cycling holidays in any case.

alastair

blorg wrote: »

Note incoming flights from the US all merge into a common baggage area with much more common EU flights before customs in Dublin and so presuming you are not arriving at 5am it is generally impossible for customs to see where you came from.

Well, you'd need to remove all airline tags from your baggage, as well as any TSA security stickers, and the absence of any labels would make customs suspicious. I doubt that claiming to have flown in from elsewhere is a good strategy for getting past customs tbh. They may not be models of efficiency, but they're not idiots.

peterk19

just bring an old bike bag or case and bring it back in that at least then it looks like you were on a cycling holiday,

im planning on doing this myself in a few months and picking up a new madone

blorg

alastair wrote: »

Well, you'd need to remove all airline tags from your baggage, as well as any TSA security stickers, and the absence of any labels would make customs suspicious. I doubt that claiming to have flown in from elsewhere is a good strategy for getting past customs tbh. They may not be models of efficiency, but they're not idiots.

In my experience flying back from the US customs have never been looking that closely at the stickers. Half the intra-EU passengers go through the green channel too if it happens to be the closer one and I've never been stopped and would need to really rack my brains to recall when I've even seen any customs person there for that matter (I believe this depends on the time of year and that they step it up before Christmas etc.) Just my personal experience.

I'm not saying "lie about where you are coming from," just making the point that the relatively small number of people on incoming US flights is mixed in with a far larger number of people on EU flights before customs in Dublin (many other airports actually keep them divided.) Hence as a matter of practicality you are unlikely to be stopped. I _would_ make at least a half-assed effort to make the bike look like I had brought it over for a cycling holiday, that would go without saying.