Re: Bike Gear in Shanghai
Nice sleuthing, Fred. Thanks for posting.
Taobao may be sh*tlisted by the US Commerce Department for tolerating (encouraging) pirated stuff, but it's an awesome resource in a country where the only other way to find stuff is word of mouth or sheer serendipity.
You mentioned in your other post that you're planning to get naked and oily at a Honda shop. You've decided what to buy? Somehow I thought you'd bought a bike already.
cheers
Re: Bike Gear in Shanghai
Quote:
Originally Posted by
euphonius
You mentioned in your other post that you're planning to get naked and oily at a Honda shop. You've decided what to buy? Somehow I thought you'd bought a bike already.
cheers
Oh well, believe me, I would have so loved to have it already... But China being China...
I had to go several times to the Honda-Sundiro shop on Zhongshan lu / Wuyi lu, as they didn't know they coudl register the bike and the plates with my chinese name, they absolutely wanted me to give them an ID card of a Chinese, any Chinese...
I had to teach them myself how to do, so now they know but it's again a new delay as they didn't start the process to get the plates.
The bike is at their shop though, saw it, started it and checked it yesterday, it felt goooood ! But I won't have it until next Saturday (not this week, next week...), I was pretty pissed yesterday at their shop... They certainly never had a foreign customer before, which I find very surprising considering their location, or maybe they already registered many bikes and plates under Chinese names for foreigners...
So yeah, I'm still on foot, and believe me it gets annoying very fast when you can even touch your bike but not ride it... TIC...
Re: Bike Gear in Shanghai
Re: Bike Gear in Shanghai
Thanks for the taobao links Fred. I'll defo be checking them out. You did well to get in friendly with the manager of the BMW shop. Haha.
Don't worry mate, you've done all the hard work now. Only 2 weeks to go....
Re: Bike Gear in Shanghai
Since this topic is about buying motorcycle gear... there's a great website called getgeared that has all kinds of riding gear and accessories at phenomenal prices, and there are often loads of specials going on. I've used them and bought a jacket, trousers and a pair of boots and got them into China without any issues. The quality of the gear is top notch, and the service I received was A+ I know it's not inside China, but since I have 3 sets of jackets. trousers and as many pairs of boots I wanted to get some alternative stuff that would work well on all of my rides, particularly my maxi scoot.
Re: Bike Gear in Shanghai
Nice tip, doc. you've jogged my memory about a similar site in the US, called motorcyclecloseouts. I've no direct experience with them, and don't know how they'd do getting stuff to China, but I've got friends in California who rave about the deals they've gotten there.
Have you had anything shipped into China in the wake of the Shanghai Expo? Not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I've been hit with import duties for stuff based on the declared value, and the duty was collected by Fedex or UPS, who then returned a few days later with a government fapiao. Brave new world, and not a particularly welcome one...
cheers
Re: Bike Gear in Shanghai
Quote:
Originally Posted by
euphonius
Nice tip, doc. you've jogged my memory about a similar site in the US, called
motorcyclecloseouts. I've no direct experience with them, and don't know how they'd do getting stuff to China, but I've got friends in California who rave about the deals they've gotten there.
Have you had anything shipped into China in the wake of the Shanghai Expo? Not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I've been hit with import duties for stuff based on the declared value, and the duty was collected by Fedex or UPS, who then returned a few days later with a government fapiao. Brave new world, and not a particularly welcome one...
cheers
Hey Eu... :D
I've only had medical books (nearly 20) sent from UK & USA which were received via Abebooks and their sellers several months back, and had no issues other than one cheaper text never arrived (this was the only copy the seller had so they refunded me) - no duties at all though. I'm awaiting another text to arrive at the moment, so am interested to see what the situation will be this time though as I'm aware that Chinese Customs are cracking down and applying duties on things they never used to, though admittedly the value of the text is like US$1 while shipping is US$15 (not bad for a 2009 text). Also agree with your aforementioned changes of late, and others likely to be implemented, don't offer much appeal... so it's a matter of time before I seriously vacate these lands. Just trying to finish of my last psychology paper to take out my fourth degree, which ironically will join the others unceremoniously banished to my certificates collection folder (bursting at the seams) instead of taking pride of place on my office wall - framed in all its glory. Seems I'm a slave to the inner workings of academia... though I digress.
Re: Bike Gear in Shanghai
Quote:
Originally Posted by
euphonius
Have you had anything shipped into China in the wake of the Shanghai Expo? Not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I've been hit with import duties for stuff based on the declared value, and the duty was collected by Fedex or UPS, who then returned a few days later with a government fapiao. Brave new world, and not a particularly welcome one...
cheers
I can help you with that question : I just had a lot of riding gear delivered to me in a big box, from France. I used this store (sorry only in French I guess : www.icasque.com ). Because the delivery address was abroad, all the prices were without VAT for me. When the box arrived in China, it was clearly opened by the customs, closed with "EMS" tape but nothing was missing and no import taxes whatsoever !
So it means I got all the gear (Bell helmet, Spidi back protection, Spidi gloves, intercom system and Spidi knees pads) without VAT, which, considering the total price, was a really really nice saving.
Maybe I was lucky, I don't know...
Re: Bike Gear in Shanghai
That's a happy ending indeed. Are you referring to the European VAT, or China's VAT?
Looks as if all you need now is a bike!
:lol8::lol8::lol8:
