I see all kinds of groovy recumbents on U.S. sites and am looking to buy a SWB. I'm reluctant to buy direct due to the duty charged at the Canadian border. My local bike shop can order for me brands which are distributed here. The distributor furthermore would have to be willing to ship just one bike. (They're reluctant to get in more as they're experience is they can't sell ones over $600 of which there used to be just one, a model from Evox which is a spinoff brand of the Canadian bike company Norco).
Anyway, anyone had experience in ordering US brand bikes through Canadian stores?
Answering my own question, Gerry's Bikes in Napanee Ontario (http:// geocities.com/gerrybikes/) still carries an Evox starter model for $550 Cdn.
I test rode one once myself, and can recommend it to anyone looking for a good, inexpensive first bent (maybe only available in Canada). Would have bought it myself but looking for a SWB.
I wouldn't worry too much about the duty. Exchange rates are very good right now. Last fall I helped my Mom get hooked up with a Sun Tadpole trike. I'm in Vancouver. We found prices for this trike to be a few hundred dollars cheaper south of the border and there were plenty of stores selling recumbents in the Seattle area. There is no duty on bikes made in the USA. There is a 13% duty on bikes made in Taiwan. When we got to the border, they didn't even ask where the trike was made and all we had to pay was the tax. Even having to pay the duty, it would have been cheaper by almost $200 Can. Sun bikes are great entry-level bikes and I think they have a new SWB in their line-up, though SunBicycles dot com doesn't show it yet. Might still be outside your budget though. In this area, there are quite a few 'bents on Craigslist so you could check there. Right now there's a Vision SWB within an hour's drive of here for $550. I got my near-new Sun EZ Sport for $600 in there last year. At the time we were looking, we could have got a WizWheels trike for my Mom out of Winnipeg for about half the retail price. I would urge you to test ride as many bikes as possible before buying, if you haven't already done so. There seems to be a great difference between ride-preference from one person to another and a bike that one person doesn't particularly like may be perfect for you. I mentioned to the local 'bent store owner that I found the handling on his LWB (Recumboni) to be much more stable than my own. He sort of smiled and said thanks, but that (in his experience) the next guy in the door could very well have the opposite opinion.
