Every year Specialized makes the SX, a 100mm travel baby brother of the SX Trail, and never manages to get it to these shores. And every year I lust after one…

This year, I really want to get my paws on one.

Has anyone got any experience of bringing (Spesh) frames in from the States? I'm headed to New York sometime before summer. Am I going to get stung for import duty if I try and hide it down my trousers?

Alternatively has anyone tried getting a Spesh frame shipped over here? Did it hurt your wallet?

http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bc/SBCBkModel.jsp?spid=45846&eid=4346&menuItemId=9250

Take the swing arm off and pack it in a suitcase. What's the worse that could happen? – assuming of course you keep all the paperwork handy.

Maybe a bit off topic but when I used to work for a MX shop, there used to be a shortage of bikes. So to get team bikes cheaper and quicker, we used to get them from Europe and build them up there and take them for a litle spin. If we got stopped by customs, then we were just training over there and got away with paying VAT and duty!
So if you went to the states, maybe if you brought it back as hand luggage you could put a bit of dirt on it? 😉

Buy cheap flight to staes avec cheap bike in bike bag.

Dispose of cheap bike as soon as touching in down..

Purchase said new bike.

Post all docs back home.

Return to UK avec bike in bike bag.

Problem sorted.

Possibly?

Worth risk taking for such a sexy number 🙂

It'd only be around 20% anyway so just get a low priced receipt ~$500 – post the proper one back to yourself – if you get stopped the worst case is a £70 duty & VAT bill

ride home via alaska and russia

A mate did it with a top end road bike a few years ago when the pound:dollar was somewhere about 1:2, he got the bike SO cheap! No probs bringing it back although you're more likely to get away with it by taking a cheap bike out there, ditching it and bringing the new one back as suggested ^^.

who exactly is keeping records of people flying with bike bags that means it makes sense to go with one bike and back with another purely for appearances sake?

If you must, then get some dirt (Californian dust) on it before you bag it up for it's return journey so that you can say that its was taken with you for a holiday ride.

Even better, get a US friend to purchase from an on-line discounter that's forced to post only to US addresses and no hotels, and then get them to forward it to you with USPS as a present.

Have a look at:

http://www.myus.com

I've used this service in the past with no problems.

myus.com quite interesting reading through their site.

Didn't get as far into it to find out what the costs are, or what they do about value deceleration…

I also don't get the 'take an old bike with you idea' – why exactly?

myus + loads of other US post box services

https://www.parcel2go.com/Rent-US-Address.aspx
http://www.bongous.com/

are only there to circumvent the US address issue for credit card companies
It'll be no different when it comes through UK customs, you may get lucky, you may not

I looked at trying to get Specialized by post from the US. I could not get a single US Specialized dealer to do mail order, even using a relative's address in Boston.

Does anyone know of a dealer that will do mail order?