A "good" deal or buy Canadian.

Wingboy

Wingboy

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I have bought helmets and other stuff stateside and from Asia.The savings are very real to say the least.I just bought a pair of Pazzo Chinese knockoff's for the Muffin for $80.The same levers go for about $180 retail here.
Buying a helmet from Michigan can save you about $100.It goes on and on.
My point is...should we feel guilty about screwing our economy by buying foreign,or are we just in a slow inevitable ecomomic decline with nothing to do about it?
I need a new track helmet and i'm going to buy local instead of STG.Even if i have to spend another $100.

Discuss.
 
Rick, get your helmet from Blue Streak, snell 2010, around 100 and change. Buying stateside, sad isn't it ?
 
I buy all my gear locally. I prefer to try it on and feel it in my hands before purchasing. I could probably go home afterwards and order the stuff online for cheaper (maybe) but whatever... it just doesn't feel right. All my gear lately has been Dainese and John at Riders Choice tends to give me good enough deals that it makes no sense to order online.

Bikes and other big ticket items are another discussion though. Sometimes the savings are in the thousands. I like Canada and want our economy to be strong, but only a fool would pass up a few grand in savings.

So I guess the answer is: depends.
 
I'm either too rich or too lazy to buy from overseas, but it does help our dying industry to pay more and buy locally.
 
If I have to try it, I will buy it locally. I don't think it's fair to try something in a store, only to order it online.

If I don't have to try it, whoever is cheapest will get my money. I will attempt to negotiate locally first though.
 
I bought a Fireblade a few years back in the US. The local Honda dealers wanted almost 16k OTD for the damn bike. It was under 9 in the states. For that kind of savings I'd gladly drive the last nail in a Honda dealer's coffin. Highway robbery.
 
Tend to buy all my parts locally. Gear i usually buy online, the gap in prices is to much to turn down. If i need to try it on though i will by locally, i don't like wasting peoples time trying stuff on only to leave and buy it from the states.
 
We're in a global economy. Blame the internet.

Local schmocal. As a consumer, we do well to spend where we receive our best value.




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Tony @ BlueStreak has very competitive prices.

There are some good Canadian vendors.

But... there are still certain items where the disparity in prices is crazy.
 
I buy locally for helmets and gear, but where the price difference is over half the price such as accesories (levers, exhaust etc) I go overseas.
 
I always give the local guy a shot. I tell them what I can get it for and what shipping is. They will usually match, if not then I get it from abroad. I do try to make an effort to support those, that support us.
 
mmmnaked said:
. All my gear lately has been Dainese and John at Riders Choice tends to give me good enough deals that it makes no sense to order online.
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Click to expand...

True this.

Used to get all my Dainese stuff from US, til John smartened up and started offering cheaper than US pricing.

I always knew he could do it. :)
 
Ive only been riding for one season and i bought my stuff at the show and at Royal distributing, but now i wanna get a better helmet so im ostly looking online but i really want to know do bike shops usuaply do boxing day sales and are they worth it to check out? Sorry for hijacking the thread but its kinda on topic
 
Hang in there until the January motorcycle show; there could very well be deals there.

I'll buy local whenever I can. But given the tendency for the Canadian major parts distributors (and the bike manufacturers, for that matter) to both lock up the market at retailers AND only offering a small sub-set of accessories available worldwide AND charge high prices for some things (not all) AND take forever to get some things (not all) ... stuff ends up getting mail-ordered.

One of my bikes is originally a US-market bike, but a version was sold here (just not that particular model year and colour scheme). I've had a Yamaha dealer here tell me that a part was no longer available ... which prompted me to order it from BikeBandit, and it was on my doorstep in three days. Nice going, Yamaha. I tried.
 
I usually buy online, states, china, etc. whatever... EXCEPT if I need to try something on. If I need to try it on then I'll buy wherever it is locally... now locally may mean I'm also stateside on a trip where I've bought a helmet at a store that I'm at...
 
Situation dictates for me. Until this season I had a 97 TL1000... no one stocks parts for them anymore and even the January bike show would have nothing... so internet it was. Now I have a KTM SuperDuke... same problem that very few stock parts for it so unless I can get parts for near the same as online, same solution... internet. That said, Colin at Apex in Waterloo is VERY good to deal with.

Generic parts, ie; tires...

casacrow said:
I always give the local guy a shot. I tell them what I can get it for and what shipping is. They will usually match, if not then I get it from abroad. I do try to make an effort to support those, that support us.
Click to expand...

I wandered into Oakville Yamaha one day and they did me a deal for my tires and Kriega bags that I MIGHT have been able to do better with over the internet, but for the possible savings, I'd rather deal with good people and I did that day.

Helmet; I was planning to go to the recent bike show to try on helmets then order from the internet... until this thread http://www.gtamotorcycle.com/vbforum/showthread.php?149887-Killer-Pricing-on-Bell-Helmets. I'm in the process of ordering my helmet from Recidivist now.

So as mentioned above... it depends.
 
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I think everyone would love to support the local guy, BUT, as already mentioned the savings that can be found on the internet are to good to pass up, especially when the majority of people are trying to stretch their dollar as far as it can go for the best perceived value....just comparing to the bike show that just passed i was looking for a shoei and some vendors are still selling the rf-1100's for 5-6 hundo...thats highway robbery, no wonder im going to the internet!
 
correct me if i'm wrong isn't parts canada the same company as the major parts company in the usa only in canada they mark everything up to insane prices?

I've ordered parts from the usa before, saved 33%, ordered tires from pete (though a retailer in ontario offered to meet his prices but he was just as far from me as pete) and i saved 50% ($500) on one piece leathers even after brokerage and shipping ordering from the usa... at the same time i've ordered with in canada because it was the same or better... it's only the middle man and the retailer that are making money here, it's not like most of this stuff is manufactured in canada and in some cases the middleman isn't in canada either so it's just the retailer. retailers that are going to make it are the ones that will provide service, not just goods.
 
I suggest listening to Peter Schiff. He really tells what the real damage of governments on the economy. The main reason you see what is happening is the de-valuation of our dollar, government taxes/intervention, etc.

I used to think bankers were the reason, it isn't. Government is the problem.
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