Buying an EBR bike in Canada?
- Thread starter grendel
- Start date
Timpo
Well-Known Member
You mean EBC..
Allroads
Member
Hi, I am a Montrealer with the M2S All Terrain Sport R500 . I purchased this in 2019 in Florida and brought it back home.
There are many options available for CDNs . Check out your local bike shops which offer ebikes.
Also Rad, IGO are in Canada, there's a reseller in Calgary WILDERNESS EXCURSIONS which offers Frey bikes a more premium product. There are many choices with varying levels of quality at your fingertips.
theemartymac
Active Member
If you figure out why the shipping is high, you can potentially find a way around it. A few things to examine:
1. Is it the Fedex/DHL/UPS cross-border fees? If so, they are the biggest scam in shipping right now. They charge a percentage of the item value plus a huge number of fees so the value of the shipping and brokerage ends up being easily anywhere from 50%-to-nearly-equal the value of the product. You can avoid all this by refusing courier delivery and "Self-clearing" the product at any CBSA office. https://bc.ctvnews.ca/how-to-avoid-extra-fees-for-international-delivery-services-1.3280694
2. Another option if the manufacturer has a flat fee in the lower 48 (or free US shipping), is to ship to a border clearing house with cross-border delivery. I live on Vancouver Island, so I use a company called Air Express from time to time. They take delivery in Blaine Washington, and then deliver it to the Victoria Airport (By Truck) and I clear the item myself at the CBSA desk at the Victoria Airport and then bring the receipt next door to the AE warehouse for pickup. Super easy, and relatively cheap.
3. And option 3 is to use a similar US side receiver, and then pick the item up yourself inside the US. Obviously this is restricted due to Covid at the moment, but normally it's the cheapest and easiest if you live anywhere near a land border, and you simple declare the item when you cross back (Or simply assemble the bike, get it dirty, toss it on the rack and STFU on the way home, but I did NOT just suggest you break the law and risk a fine... ;-) ). When I lived in the SE corner of BC, I used a receiver in Eureka Montana for these things, and took advantage of the duty-free and cheap gas/groceries/alcohol while I was over there.
Any of these are complicated by potential returns for warranty replacement or major service of course, but if you are a self-maintainer, or plan to use your local LBS for service, the risk is possibly worth the hassle.
And you can use this calculator to determine the duty and taxes you'll have to pay the CBSA desk. https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/travel-voyage/dte-acl/est-cal-eng.html
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Thanks for all the feedback and yes i meant EBC 
I know about the options in Canada, as a matter of fact i have an IGO myself but my wife was interested by this model and it was cheaper than other options since she only wanted to use it on weekends.
RAD as interesting as well but she's not convinced by the design (can't say i disagree).
We will see where this goes, maybe having it delivered in a city ner the border will be an option, depending on when Covid decides to leave us alone .
Anyway, thanks again for your comments.
I know about the options in Canada, as a matter of fact i have an IGO myself but my wife was interested by this model and it was cheaper than other options since she only wanted to use it on weekends.
RAD as interesting as well but she's not convinced by the design (can't say i disagree).
We will see where this goes, maybe having it delivered in a city ner the border will be an option, depending on when Covid decides to leave us alone
.Anyway, thanks again for your comments.
