Has anyone imported many bike parts from the EU since Brexit?
I’ve managed to bag Ultegra Di2 for here £600 (no crankset, chain, cassette) but as my bike is brake disc only and this is the R8050 cable brakes, I need to buy the R8070 hydro shifters.
They’re more expensive here and having found them on Bike-parts.de for around €350 I’d obviously rather get them from there.
Has anyone imported anything of a similar value from the EU recently? If so, were there many costs on top of what you’d already paid?
Ideally, I don’t want any savings to be made wiped out by import fees & taxes but worst case scenario is that I hold off for a few weeks as I’m about to go to France for 2 weeks anyway so hopefully they’d still be available.
I’ve deliberately kept my bike gear purchases from Germany <£100 recently because I have it in my head (source unknown… it was on here somewhere) that this does not incur VAT and import duty. The sprint shifters I recently bought from r2 bikes in DE didn’t cost me anymore than was advertised on their website. They were about €100 inc postage.
Like you, I’d be worried that I’d be hit with import duty, customs admin charge by the courier firm, and 20% VAT on a larger purchase. If you’re going to be in France I’d buy the groupo there. You do run the risk of being pulled up at UK customs though if they randomly search you… but unlikely.
Aren’t you at the mercy of the courier that the seller uses? That’s the point where the import duty is levied.
Do you know somewhere that has the parts in stock in France, or are you just working on the assumption that you’ll be able to find them while you’re there?
Its a German website selling Di2 hydraulic shifters and they have them in stock at the moment. They ship with DHL so if they come to the UK then they will charge, they’re probably too big to take the risk.
Just annoying really. Having said that I’ve moved from the idea of a second hand Ultegra set to a brand new rival set now but have gone down the worm hole of looking at the difference in price on various bikes and components. For a Canyon I want and it’s £1100 cheaper if I have it delivered in France though i cant really blame Brexit for that as it’s just as expensive in Ireland.
Send them an email in German, asking if they can put the official value below the threshold? Worth a punt. I’d make up some yarn about having lived nearby and your child was born there to gild the lily
Just ordered a couple of tubeless tyres & a handful of inner-tubes for my commuter from Bike24. All were heavily discounted compared to UK prices… let’s see what happens .
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