Australian Cycling Forums - Bicycles Network Australia

So I've hatched a plan to buy myself a Canyon road bike while I'm in Europe later this year. As many of you might know Canyon don't ship bikes to Australia and there's no real foolproof way of getting one here.
Here's my plan and I'm hoping for some advice or holes picked in it from you.

Basically I'm going to be in Europe for about 3 weeks in July (yes catching some of the tour) and I'm hoping to use this opportunity to pick up a Canyon during a brief stopover in Germany.
Ideally I'd like to just buy a frame - Aerode CF which retails for around 1700 euros. Is there anyway I can avoid paying duty on the frame when leaving the EU - I'll be taking the bike to France before I fly out - and can I also avoid paying duty when I arrive back in Aus (i'm thinking this is impossible).

As far as I can tell, and from visiting Germany particularly before, as long as I can get Canyon to fill out a VAT form I can claim the tax back when I leave Germany/EU. So as long as canyon are willing to play ball this part should be relatively simple.

Getting it back into Aus without paying I'm thinking won't be possible as far as I know I have to have used it for it not to be liable and as I'm planning on buying a frame only and not planning on using it this wont be easy. Though perhaps I could take it out of the box run around with it pretending it's a wheel-less cyclocross bike - that'd count right?

Let me know what you think.

That sounds like a plan.

On reclaiming the tax (Mehrwertsteuer / MwSt) give yourself time at the airport. I have never done it but here is the info from Frankfurt Airport how it works.
http://www.frankfurt-airport.com/conten ... funds.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Fraport wrote:Please note that you must request a tax refund check when buying items.

On the purchase, consider that you will have difficulty with warranty should this situation arise. I don't see any issue with eligibility, but it will be a tougher process and the brands responsibility for covering transport costs outside of the EU will be limited.


On Australian customs - for items over $1000 you will be liable to pay tax and I would be prepared to do so. Of course there are situations where the customs offers may then not request the tax.

Yeah I went through the process last year while I was over there, I guess the complication is that Canyon only sell from an online store. That said the MwSt in Germany is 19% so if I'm slugged the full 10% GST I'll still be ahead depending on how much it costs to bring it on the plane. The only complication is that I'll be flying out of Paris but I'm hopeful that won't cause too many problems.

How about buy a whole bike (as they are pretty keen value), have it delivered ahead to contacts/addresses where you'd be staying, use it during the tour and bring it back as used bike?

Good luck with it, I was pretty keen on them too a few years back while I was looking for my next upgrade.

What are you going to use on your tour?

slian wrote:How about buy a whole bike (as they are pretty keen value), have it delivered ahead to contacts/addresses where you'd be staying, use it during the tour and bring it back as used bike?

Good luck with it, I was pretty keen on them too a few years back while I was looking for my next upgrade.

Yeah that's the other plan, however it depends on me having enough cash to buy the bike outright.

TLL: It's not a tour so much, more a holiday bookended by the tour. I'm only planning on riding once and should be able to hire a bike for a reasonable price. Obviously if I went down the road of buying a full bike. I'm also not that keen on my first real ride on a bike being up Alpe d'Huez.

First time poster. This is a process I went through last year, though unfortunately not for a Canyon bike. As you'll be travelling from Germany to France (ie still inside the EU), you'll be claiming your tax refund at the airport in Paris when you depart for Australia (ie leaving the AU). It's the method the various country tax authorities use to make sure that goods where the non-EU resident refund is given are actually taken outside the EU. You don't get a refund at the departure point, it is applied to your credit card. Bearing in mind you're in Europe during peak holiday period, allow a fair bit of time for the inevitable queues at CdG airport while you sort your paperwork. I also found that the whole refund process was a bit hit and miss. I made several claims - some we're refunded and some were not.

So after hearing back from Canyon they've told me that because the mailing list is in Germany they won't provide me with the tax free documents. This sounds like it scuppers plans to try and get a discount on it but still keen to pick up one of their frames. After speaking with a couple of mates, they said just declare the bike but list the price as under $1000. Sounds like it's worked for plenty of people before.

Buy a complete bike... Ship it to me, I will do you a deal on the components, strip it and you can take the frame home

Mmmm tempting. I'll see what their next update says, apparently there could be some issue even with an Aussie billing address! That said if I do buy a whole bike I'll probably just take the whole thing home!

TLL idea sounds like a plan to me.

Only cause I want a new groupset .

If Canyon is being so pig-headed and uncooperative, why are you gracing them iwth your hard-earned?

Give it to someone who actually values your business.

trailgumby wrote:If Canyon is being so pig-headed and uncooperative, why are you gracing them iwth your hard-earned?

Give it to someone who actually values your business.

Not so much being pig-headed they made the point that because their bikes are cheaper already because of not having wholesalers etc Plus I really want one of their bikes. I'm not sure what the reason they can't sell to Australia but I assume there's a good reason for it.

Ill be in the uk also around that time and seeing the start and the first 3 days of the tour,I have also been thinking about buying a used canyon via gumtree/ebay (no look yet been a few but none my size) to use while over there if I have time between visiting family/friends and visiting the home of Downton Abbey (for my wife honestly ....lol) then was going to bring it back to Perth to either sell it on or keep it

haven't told my wife about the buying the bike part yet .........

Sounds like we're doing very similar things Yeti, I'll be around there as well. Though my missus knows about this plan, she's just sick of hearing about it.
Def pick up a 2nd hand one in the UK i looked at getting a new one sent there and they're quite a bit more expensive ($3-500 on a $4k bike).

You've had a good look at Canyon's old stock list as well... They can sometimes have really good deals on those.
I see quite a few of them around, they seem to have good back up service here as well.

trailgumby wrote:If Canyon is being so pig-headed and uncooperative, why are you gracing them iwth your hard-earned?

Give it to someone who actually values your business.

I tried to buy one a few years back and gave up which is saying something as giving up is not something I generally do.

They are a nice frame for sure but there is pleanty of nice frames you can buy without the headache.

On Canyon in Australia, I talked with Canyon directly about this and at a time where there was still sufficient association with Cadel Evans who won the world road racing championships on one in 2009 when he was riding with Silence Lotto.

I told them about the Australian cyclist interest in Canyon Bikes and they actually had a genuine interest however they cited the legals as being too much of a hurdle and specifically with their business model, the customer service and warantie which would be costly outside of Europe. This is coupled with the size of the Australian market - while it wasn't mentioned specifically, Canyon Bikes would automatically prioritise on high-volume markets such as the USA.

Canyon are also not the online factory direct type of brand in Germany / Europe - in fact these brands are very well known and also enjoy a good reputatio however find it hard to make the leap to Australia.

Any update to how you went with the purchase? I'm thinking of doing similar and am keen to hear how it went for you.

I ended up buying one from someone in Aus who'd bought it over there. Not much help unfortunately.

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I'm considering buying an Ultimate CF SL Frameset at some stage and getting it delivered to a friend in the UK, then getting him to forward it onto me. At the moment it would be around $1800AUD to get it delivered to him. Then of course postage from the UK to here + GST. How does it work with him declaring how much the item is worth...would it be possible for him to fudge the figure below $1000???

mogwaiboi wrote:would it be possible for him to fudge the figure below $1000???

"Happy Birthday!", I hope you like your present!

Sent as gift, declared as a $ Amt to be less than $1,000 AUD. Be Aware postage is included in the $1,000, so $1,000 - Postage from the UK = $ Amt of frame.

Official paperwork to be sent a few weeks latter.

Fitzroy wrote:

mogwaiboi wrote:would it be possible for him to fudge the figure below $1000???

"Happy Birthday!", I hope you like your present!

Sent as gift, declared as a $ Amt to be less than $1,000 AUD. Be Aware postage is included in the $1,000, so $1,000 - Postage from the UK = $ Amt of frame.

Official paperwork to be sent a few weeks latter.

Nice! Thanks for that Fitzroy

Be aware that false customs declarations carry tough penalties.


Take a look at the exemptions available on complete bikes.