There are a number of reviews on this site of high-end bikes that are pretty rare in the UK. All of these bikes were personally imported by us from the USA, in fact our regular group all ride bikes we have imported from USA. The purpose of this article is to describe what we have done and pass on our experience of the process. We do not work in the bike trade or import/export trades. I used to live in the USA and have a lot of experience of moving my belongings between the two countries.
Why Import from the USA, cost. The exchange rate is almost U$2.00 = £1.0 and has been for the past couple of years, saving money is the only reason. Importing for personal use is 100% legal and with the explosion of e-Bay during the last few years I believe that it will become increasingly common. Do not buy and import the whole bike as this has significant tax and duty consequences (see below for details). There are horror stories of warranties etc but we have never experienced a problem and have had shocks in Santa Cruz frames replaced under warranty in the UK for items imported from the US. With the cost savings we can afford to send the frame back to the US dealer if anything serious needs done under warranty eg one of us sent a cracked frame back to the US dealer and had it replaced under warranty.
What to do?
You need to know exactly what you want, make, model, size and colour. It is best to go to a UK dealer to check out the options and see if you like your favourite option in the flesh. Make the dealer an offer that you think is reasonable, ie on a full bike offer to pay 50% of the list price of the frame on top of any inducements he may suggest. It is likely he will refuse, don’t be deterred come home and get on the internet. E-mail all the dealers in the US that you can find for the item you want. Go to the manufacturers website and search the ‘Dealers’ section and also check e-bay for US sellers advertising bikes as these guys will ship to the UK. In the E-mail be very specific: will they invoice you and ship a frame to the UK or will they invoice to the US and ship to the UK. Many will say no as doing so will invalidate their dealer status in US if the manufacturer finds out. All the major dealers (Jensen, Supergo etc) will say no. Someone somewhere (usually a small one-man shop) will say yes. Alternatively if you have friends or relatives in the USA ask the shop to invoice and ship to them (all shops in US will do this) and they can post it on to you. If you visit the US you can carry the item back and pay excess baggage. I would recommend declaring it at UK customs, each time I have declared an item I have paid the minimum import tax and duty they could charge.
Ordering and Paying for it.
Get a brand new credit card. Call the shop and get the price (note US price quotes do not include state tax so ask if this will be charged) for exactly what you want, (US made headset, stem & seatpost stuff is silly cheap) and pay a deposit for the goods on the credit card. You will have to use U$ as all prices quoted to you will be in the currency. Tell the shop to e-mail you when everything is ready and pay for it (together with shipping cost) with the credit card. Destroy the card, call the credit card company and tell them not to authorise anymore payments on the card.
Shipping, Taxes and Import Duty
The cost to ship a frame is approximately U$70 or about £35-00, a fork is about U$ 50 or £25-30. These costs are for regular priority airmail, this is 5 day delivery to the UK, this is delivery to UK not delivery to your door. It can take around another 5-10 days for it to either be delivered to your door or notification for you to collect it from the post office. Get the shop to fax or scan and e-mail a copy of the shipping documentation as this numbers that can be traced. Items sold out of the US do not usually have a US state sales tax applied, if they charge you tax they will send you a form to claim it back, bin the form as the process is so long and complex it is not worth the hassle. Do not import a complete bike as this is subject to 17.5% VAT. A frame with headset, seatpost and stem is classed as bike components and these have only 3% VAT duty not the 17.5 % for a full bike, import duty in total is about 10% of the value written on the ticket. We have imported three bike frames during the last two years and have not been charged either VAT or import duty on any of them. I understand that the law was changed 18 months ago and anything with a value of £1000-00 or less is not subject to import taxes and duty. I would budget to pay the tax and duty and hope you don’t get charged for it.
Get out and ride your pride and joy.
During the past years we have bought a brand new Intense 5.5 EVP for £800-00, two Santa Cruz Blur frames for approximately £800-00 each, three Santa Cruz Nomad Frames for approximately £850-00 each, Avid Juicy 7 brakes for £150-00 the pair, 10 watt nickel-metal-halide lights with lithium ion batteries for approximately £150-00, FOX talas and vanilla 36 forks for approximately £300-00 each, a pair of Chris King hubs for £250-00 etc etc. These are massive discounts on the UK prices you just need a little patience to wait for it them to arrive.
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