dawnrazor
15th December 2006, 16:10
In a recent thread I mentioned a sweet deal I stumbled upon online for bike gear, I said I would do a separate thread and do a "soup to nuts" of my purchasing experience. At this stage I should say that I am a label whore and have never had bike gear worth a damn before, and damned if I wasn't going to buy something flash for once...god damn it...damn it all to hell.....hot damn...phew LOL
So here goes....
Okay, I initially was looking for a leather jacket (my old one just died on me after 9 years of abuse and has been bequeathed to a fellow KB member free gratis, aren't I nice), then my gloves burst so they got added to the list. At this stage I started to wonder if it was sensible to think about getting pants as well (have never had any), and that maybe the bike shop would do a deal on a bulk purchase like this, as it was looking kinda pricy.
I also didn't want textile gear, most of my riding is commuting and weekend blasts, I don't tour or commute long distances - I wanted the 'fitted' nature of leather over the bulkiness of textile, and at the thin end of the wedge there isn't much price difference either.
Looking around town I settled on Alpinestars. It was hard to find a dealer with a wide range but I found some stuff LIKE the gear I wanted and tried that on instead, as the shop assured me they could get all the sizes and colours in the gear I wanted. Well it turned out the distributors for Alpinestars in NZ didn't have either the sizes, colours or models I was looking for...didn't even get to talk about deals....and an order could take MONTHS....sod that...back to the drawing board. I should mention that all that gear would have cost me well over $2000 here !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A price I'm not sure I would have been prepared to pay, when push came to shove and probably one of the real reasons I have never had good gear is 'cus I'm a tight git....
Had a look online and thanks to google found www.motostrano.com on the west coast of the US, they are a real bike shop not a warehouse. They carry the entire Alpinestars range amongst other brands and they have some wicked sales, when they get rid of their old (previous season) stock for heavily discounted prices.....I found the stuff I wanted and then spotted their sale section and found their '05 stock for half price. Their regular prices work out about the same as NZ for the same item here, but their discounted stuff is as much as 50% off !!!!!!!! Shipping was $100US by UPS couriers...no choice there, but they are bloody good...
So an order was placed for a jacket, pants, gloves and back protector - for less then the price a jacket would have cost me here in NZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I did have a couple of reasons to contact them during the deal, (spelt my address wrong *shame*), but they where really cool to deal with, nothing was a problem. They won't lie about contents on the packaging but they will stretch the truth a little - I had them mark the package up as "MOTORCYCLE PROTECTIVE ATTIRE, RACE USE ONLY" in an attempt to avoid a hefty duty charge for clothing, its a bit of a gray area.
The greenback is weak against the NZ dollar, making the exchange rate bloody good, which sweetens the deal.
There was a two week holding period, for them to check payment from an offshore credit card, but once that was done the order was sent right away by UPS couriers.....the FAQs section of the website is quite witty and did answer all my questions!
Shipping took two days, UPS where in contact with me all the way, they where so cool to deal with, I had to fill out some customs forms 'cus the package was valued at over $1000NZ (just) - which was a bit of a pain, but nothing a fax didn't sort out.......I couldn't clearly workout from the customs website if I was liable for Duty, knew I'd get hit for GST....turned out I didn't get stung for Duty at all, which was great (I had worked out I would have still saved money even if I had been hit for DUTY at 19%, the duty on clothes).
So NO DUTY and only GST payable upon delivery, result.........altogether I saved about a $900....nice
So this deal wouldn't have saved me much if I had bought full priced gear, but 'cus the stuff I got was so heavily discounted I saved heaps, it is older designs, but I don't care one little bit....everything fitted fine, being able to try stuff on here was a plus, but I would have chosen the correct sizes as it happened anyway....also the website has somee pretty comprehensive sizing guides.
So there you have it, over all I'd have to say that I'm disappointed I couldn't buy the stuff I wanted for a fair price in NZ and would have rather have kept the money in the country.
The whole process was so easy, I might have to check out some other stuff I saw there, one tip however is to keep your order below $1000 and the chances are you won't get hit for GST either (not guaranteed though).
Anyone fancy doing a similiar purchase and have any questions, just PM me and I'll try to help...
Now All I have to do is break everything in, if it was winter I could sleep in them LOL
Cheers
DR
So here goes....
Okay, I initially was looking for a leather jacket (my old one just died on me after 9 years of abuse and has been bequeathed to a fellow KB member free gratis, aren't I nice), then my gloves burst so they got added to the list. At this stage I started to wonder if it was sensible to think about getting pants as well (have never had any), and that maybe the bike shop would do a deal on a bulk purchase like this, as it was looking kinda pricy.
I also didn't want textile gear, most of my riding is commuting and weekend blasts, I don't tour or commute long distances - I wanted the 'fitted' nature of leather over the bulkiness of textile, and at the thin end of the wedge there isn't much price difference either.
Looking around town I settled on Alpinestars. It was hard to find a dealer with a wide range but I found some stuff LIKE the gear I wanted and tried that on instead, as the shop assured me they could get all the sizes and colours in the gear I wanted. Well it turned out the distributors for Alpinestars in NZ didn't have either the sizes, colours or models I was looking for...didn't even get to talk about deals....and an order could take MONTHS....sod that...back to the drawing board. I should mention that all that gear would have cost me well over $2000 here !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A price I'm not sure I would have been prepared to pay, when push came to shove and probably one of the real reasons I have never had good gear is 'cus I'm a tight git....
Had a look online and thanks to google found www.motostrano.com on the west coast of the US, they are a real bike shop not a warehouse. They carry the entire Alpinestars range amongst other brands and they have some wicked sales, when they get rid of their old (previous season) stock for heavily discounted prices.....I found the stuff I wanted and then spotted their sale section and found their '05 stock for half price. Their regular prices work out about the same as NZ for the same item here, but their discounted stuff is as much as 50% off !!!!!!!! Shipping was $100US by UPS couriers...no choice there, but they are bloody good...
So an order was placed for a jacket, pants, gloves and back protector - for less then the price a jacket would have cost me here in NZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I did have a couple of reasons to contact them during the deal, (spelt my address wrong *shame*), but they where really cool to deal with, nothing was a problem. They won't lie about contents on the packaging but they will stretch the truth a little - I had them mark the package up as "MOTORCYCLE PROTECTIVE ATTIRE, RACE USE ONLY" in an attempt to avoid a hefty duty charge for clothing, its a bit of a gray area.
The greenback is weak against the NZ dollar, making the exchange rate bloody good, which sweetens the deal.
There was a two week holding period, for them to check payment from an offshore credit card, but once that was done the order was sent right away by UPS couriers.....the FAQs section of the website is quite witty and did answer all my questions!
Shipping took two days, UPS where in contact with me all the way, they where so cool to deal with, I had to fill out some customs forms 'cus the package was valued at over $1000NZ (just) - which was a bit of a pain, but nothing a fax didn't sort out.......I couldn't clearly workout from the customs website if I was liable for Duty, knew I'd get hit for GST....turned out I didn't get stung for Duty at all, which was great (I had worked out I would have still saved money even if I had been hit for DUTY at 19%, the duty on clothes).
So NO DUTY and only GST payable upon delivery, result.........altogether I saved about a $900....nice
So this deal wouldn't have saved me much if I had bought full priced gear, but 'cus the stuff I got was so heavily discounted I saved heaps, it is older designs, but I don't care one little bit....everything fitted fine, being able to try stuff on here was a plus, but I would have chosen the correct sizes as it happened anyway....also the website has somee pretty comprehensive sizing guides.
So there you have it, over all I'd have to say that I'm disappointed I couldn't buy the stuff I wanted for a fair price in NZ and would have rather have kept the money in the country.
The whole process was so easy, I might have to check out some other stuff I saw there, one tip however is to keep your order below $1000 and the chances are you won't get hit for GST either (not guaranteed though).
Anyone fancy doing a similiar purchase and have any questions, just PM me and I'll try to help...
Now All I have to do is break everything in, if it was winter I could sleep in them LOL
Cheers
DR