Buying bike in USA and shipping to BKK

[arkom]

Has anyone has done this before and is it something worth looking into?

A friend of mine said he bought a Cannondale MTB from the US for about 50,000 and paid about 3,000 for shipping including customs fee, told me the same bike was selling here for 100,000 however it took about 2 months for it to be delivered.

I'm guessing for certain brands and models this would be true, but for the most part are prices really that much different?

[Spacer]

Bring it back in your airline baggage and not pay any fees.

[impulse]

Go to Bahtsold.com and craigslist for Thailand.

You'll find excellent deals on bicycles from folks that are leaving Thailand for various reasons (some in a big hurry to sell), or have tried bike riding in Thailand and given up due to pollution and crazy traffic.

I read recently that the Thai import duties on bikes and bike parts were reduced to help generate more interest in bicycling, but don't have a link. (If anyone has one, I'd be appreciative)

If I had a seriously expensive bike that I had already bought in the USA, and planned to stay in Thailand a long time, I may import it. But for a normal bike- or one that I had to buy, I'd suck it up, buy it here, get properly fitted and have somewhere to take it if it needed service.

But then, I'm old and out of shape enough that the delta between a 20K baht bicycle and a 200K baht bicycle is wasted on me... I bought both of my mountain bikes (Trek and Merida) on Craigslist and paid 7-8K baht for each. Both in great shape, and both sell new for 15K-25K.