How to Buy a Bike Part 2: Buying a bike online
Buying a mountain bike can be confusing so we break down what to look for when buying online!
Words: Mike Blewitt
Getting a new bike can be a great experience. With more options than just visiting your local bike shop, we take a look at the pros and cons of buying from a shop, buying from a website – or even buying second hand.
How to buy a bike Part 1: Bike Shop
How to Buy a Bike Part 3: Buying 2nd Hand
Part 2 – Buying online
What does buying a bike online mean? We’re talking about buying direct and having the bike sent to you. Buying online is only going to grow, with brands like Giant and Specialized already offering a click and collect service. This means you can browse their range via your computer, laptop or smartphone, and order your bike to be delivered and built you a local dealer.
While this adds a huge amount of convenience, such as being able to browse the product range whenever and wherever you like, avoiding peak times and not having to travel anywhere, you still need to travel to a shop to collect your bike, where it will be built and ready to go. Suppliers like Bicycles Online, Canyon, YT, Commencal, Intense and others send bikes direct to riders to build and ride, and this has its own benefits.
Check out instalment one of How to Buy a Bike looking at buying from a shop HERE
Convenience
Forget about opening hours, finding a parking spot, avoiding busy periods or even being disrupted by conscientious sales staff – when you’re shopping online, you set the time line. It is hard to escape the internet sometimes, but when shopping online its presence is instead a huge convenience. From reading a manufacturer’s spiel to quickly reading reviews or feedback on forums, this is something you can do anywhere you have phone reception and a few minutes.
“Buying online you have industry reviews, customer reviews, comparison charts, detailed specifications and more. These aren’t often available out of the store,” explains James van Rooyen from Bicycles Online.
A broad range of options and sizes
Mountain bikers come in all shapes and sizes, but if you are on the short or tall end of the spectrum you will be familiar with the difficulties in finding bikes in stock or even available.
“We draw from global stock, so there is no reduction in choice,” explains Darryl Moliere, from Canyon Australia. “This means we don’t have to cut the extreme sizes.” On a global scale, Australia is a small market for the mountain bike world and many major brands won’t have a whole lot of stock available in those extreme sizes. With the likes of Canyon or YT who sell from their global stock, you might just have a larger range to choose from.
There are some limits, for example Canyon produce more models than are available in Australia. Given the costs of sending a bike box from Germany to Australia is about a week, their bikes at lower price points aren’t as viable given the flat rate shipping cost.
But can I test ride a bike bought online?
If you’re dropping a wad of cash on a new bike, whether it’s a $399 Polygon or a $10199 Canyon Strive CFR 9.0 LTD, it’s totally understandable that you’d want to know if you’ll like it, or even if it’s the right fit. Major online retailers like Canyon and Bicycles Online (who sell Polygon and Marin) have fit guides for every bike model they sell, and Canyon incorporate a calculator to do so. Plus, there is always help via an email or phone call.
Commencal are offering bikes to hire as tests via select bike shops. There aren’t a huge amount of options right now, but this presents an opportunity to confirm whether the bike you have been fact-checking and Google image searching every free minute is the right bike for you.
You might see test events around the country, where there can be an opportunity to get on a bike or two from online retailers. Darryl from Canyon says they will continue to do this with big events like the Ignition MTB Festival in Falls Creek, but they also plan to expand their global Shred City concept to Australia.
“We have a new van setup and will start between Melbourne and Sydney,” explains Darryl. “We want to connect with riders and have people come to go riding with us on our bikes. And we want existing Canyon owners to come out and ride with us on their bikes.”
What if I don’t like it?
You actually have a bit more flexibility here than in a bike shop with some direct to consumer sellers.
Canyon offer a 30 day returns policy for unused bikes. So that doesn’t mean shred for 29 days then say you don’t want it anymore. But if the fit just isn’t right once you got it out of the box, or maybe you just don’t like it, you can return it. “If you work out that it’s just not the right bike for you, you can return it for a full refund,” explains Darryl from Canyon.
With a Marin or Polygon from Bicycles Online, they have a 14-day free test ride. So if the bike you bought hasn’t met your expectations, they’ll refund you and pick the bike up free of charge. Of course there are conditions to do with fair use, returning it clean and packing it up, but it’s a very fair policy. And James van Rooyen says while it helps you, the rider, it keeps them in check too.
“It is important for us to be able to share in the perceived risk of buying online as it is still fairly new in Australia. What the real benefit is however, is that it keeps us on our toes in all aspects of the delivery – we have to ensure the customer has a great experience otherwise it is rather costly for us to then have it returned.”
“Compared to many stores, riding a bike around the car park often doesn’t give a good impression of what its like hucking off a jump. We feel its necessary to ride it on your local trails.”
How long do I need to wait?
Once you have pressed ‘buy’ and spent your money, you want your bike. So how long will you wait? With bicycles coming from Sydney, Bicycles Online claim delivery times of 2 days on the East coast of Australia. But if you’re not sure for your location, they have a delivery calculator on their website.
Coming from Germany, Canyon is faster than you might think. While they say to allow 14 days, due to recently improved warehouse processes, the time frame to reconfigure your bike to right-to-front braking has been reduced substantially and Canyon Australia are confident that you will probably see your bike in about 5 business days for delivery to a metro region in a major capital city. With Specialized an Giant claiming 4-8 days for click and collect, this delivery times aren’t something to be put off by!
How do I build it?
If you’re not handy with a set of tools, this may be a concern. Retailers who sell direct understand this and their bikes are prepped before packing so they are easy to build when they land at your door. Most brands have videos online, and instructions. From the direct to consumer bikes we have built to test here at AMB there have been no nightmares. It’s usually a case of fitting a front wheel, handlebars and attaching the dropper post. Gears and brakes are set, but you still need to adjust your suspension, tyre pressures and do your bike fit.
Canyon are based out of Koblenz, Germany. All of their stock is hand built, test-ridden, and re-packed so it’s easy to build once it arrives on your door step. The same goes for Sydney-based company Bicycles Online. With our experience from Bicycles Online with Marin bikes, all we have had to do is fit front wheels, handlebars and dropper posts and everything else is done.
“Anyone should be able to do it” states James from Bicycles Online. “Typically it’s only the front wheel, handlebars and pedals. The bikes have gone through a very thorough build process by our heavily trained mechanics. In the past, online bike stores just shipped out a bike as it would normally be delivered from the distributor. However the industry has come a long way and it’s quite a different process in delivering a bike direct to a customer.”
If you’re not confident, a proper bike fit and the build can be done via another provider. You might choose a specialist physio for the bike fit or a trusted store. The bike build can be done by a local shop or a stand alone mechanic service. Here’s a tip though, don’t stand for poor service because you didn’t buy the bike from that shop. You’ve come in to be a customer, and if they don’t want you, go elsewhere.
What about warranty?
Your warranty is with the bike brand, or importer. If you buy a bike from a shop your contact will be with the shop – but they still put the case to the importer or bike brand. So there is no real difference when buying direct.
“There’s a team of five of us here in Melbourne,” explains Darryl from Canyon. “So it is no different to any other brand in Australia. If you have a problem, just get on the phone and call us, or send an email if it’s after hours.” In a sense, this might be faster than going via a shop, as like in the purchase, you have cut out the middleman. Without going over every scenario for a warranty claim, you may need to call on a local store to fit something for you, but Canyon have a range of stores they work with and refer riders to around the country. Bicycles Online have their team in Sydney ready to assist, whether you’re on the phone, dropping them an email, using Facebook or have a live chat window open. In fact they feel it’s faster than a normal shop experience because as highlighted above – you’re going direct.
Doesn’t import duty and taxes make it more expensive anyway?
This is all covered in the price you will see, and it’s part of the service that is offered by brands selling you a bike from overseas.
