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Moving to Tokyo

derkes

Warming-Up
Jan 2, 2016
8
2
Hi everyone!

I'm a Belgian cycling enthusiast who will move to Tokyo next week for work.

I'm going to leave/sell my road bike here in Belgium and buy a new one in Japan. After comparing different road bikes, I decided to go with the Canyon Ultimate CF SL 7.0.
I had a lot of questions about getting a bike delivered to Japan but thanks to this forum and especially to @leicaman and his experience, I found answers to most of it. The only thing I need to figure out is which size I need to choose. Canyon recommend me the M size but if I add 0.5cm to my inseam length (86cm), it will recommend me the L one. I'm 182cm and my current bike frame is 58cm but has a completely different geometry (Cube Peloton Race 2015). And to be honest, I'm looking for a more "aggressive" position on the bike this time.

Last May, I had the chance to ride the Shimanami Kaido starting from Imabari. It was raining but it didn't stop me to enjoy the ride at the fullest. When I will be in Tokyo, one of the route I would love to ride is Tokyo to Fuji 5th Station. I already started to look for a route (that's how I found this forum) and will probably ask you some questions in the near future.

Looking forward to meet you and maybe join in on some group rides.
 
Just FYI canyon are having some fulfillment issues with their bikes. You might have to wait until march if there's no stock.
 
Just FYI canyon are having some fulfillment issues with their bikes. You might have to wait until march if there's no stock.
Thanks for the heads up.
I don't know which size I will need yet but according to their website, the shipping date for the M size is 25-30 January and 7-12 March for the L size (if the order is made today).
How accurate are those dates? I read that sometimes, people had to wait 5-6 months to get their bike.
 
Don't really want to slag on them, but there is much wailing and gnashing of teeth on their fb page.
 
When I will be in Tokyo, one of the route I would love to ride is Tokyo to Fuji 5th Station. I already started to look for a route (that's how I found this forum) and will probably ask you some questions in the near future.
You may have already seen my favourite route - up the Takizawa Rindō and down Fuji Subaru Line. This is an easy day trip from Tokyo, taking an early through-train to Fujisan station. There's about 1 km of volcanic rubble to CX across (or hike if you're precious about your tyres) between the two trail heads. There's almost no traffic on the upward leg because the road is closed to motor vehicles. On the downward leg, you can overtake the tour buses.

I plan to do this ride at least twice in 2016.
 
Welcome @derkes . Hope you get your bike sorted soon. I can't speak for their delivery nowadays but when I bought mine, the delivery date was pretty much spot on. Hope to ride with you soon.
 
For 0.5 cm, get the smaller size frame especially as you want an aggressive fit. Welcome
 
@derkes I have a Canyon Endurace and it was a painless great value purchase and has been very reliable, they do now have a Japan operation so I think any issues could be referred to them. The other thing you might want to consider is that outside of the Endurace the SL and SLX only come with a 36/52 chainring, I am pretty sure there is no option on this now. So if you find yourself doing a lot of climbing as it looks like you want to do you will probably end up spending to change to a 34/50.
 
I don't know what their current customer service issues are as I have no personal experience with them, but I did see three guys all on Canyons yesterday. I spoke to them outside a combini and they said their bikes were new. They looked brand new too, and were Ultimate CFs. Not exactly sure how this info helps, other than providing anecdotal evidence that Canyon have recently delivered to Japan, so they are getting here...
 
Thanks everyone for the welcome!

You may have already seen my favourite route - up the Takizawa Rindō and down Fuji Subaru Line. This is an easy day trip from Tokyo, taking an early through-train to Fujisan station. There's about 1 km of volcanic rubble to CX across (or hike if you're precious about your tyres) between the two trail heads. There's almost no traffic on the upward leg because the road is closed to motor vehicles. On the downward leg, you can overtake the tour buses.

I plan to do this ride at least twice in 2016.

Thank you for the route @Half-Fast Mike. I will start from Tokyo so I was thinking to take this route. It also go up the Takizawa Rindo like yours. I will complete it with the Fuji Subaru Line for the way down.
I saw on Google Maps that the Takizawa Rindo road is closed toward the top. I suppose I can cross the gates and not be in trouble?

For 0.5 cm, get the smaller size frame especially as you want an aggressive fit. Welcome

That's also what I was thinking. Thanks!

Welcome. Riding from Tokyo to Fuji 5th station is easily doable in a day, though getting the train back is a very good idea.

One more recent story about Canyon customer service: http://weightweenies.starbike.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=137010

If you are not that tall there are many decent bikes to be had here. If you are tall maybe consider mailing your bike here.

After the ride, I was thinking to spend the night in a Ryokan near Kawaguchiko and ride the way back to Tokyo the next day. But taking the train back is also a good idea. My future me will thank you @GrantT !

I'm not considered tall here in Belgium (182cm) but it might be different in Japan. If I don't have any luck with Canyon, I will try my chance with the Giant TCR SLR 2 which was my second choice.

@derkes I have a Canyon Endurace and it was a painless great value purchase and has been very reliable, they do now have a Japan operation so I think any issues could be referred to them. The other thing you might want to consider is that outside of the Endurace the SL and SLX only come with a 36/52 chainring, I am pretty sure there is no option on this now. So if you find yourself doing a lot of climbing as it looks like you want to do you will probably end up spending to change to a 34/50.

Good to know! Thank you for the information @kmartin.

I don't know what their current customer service issues are as I have no personal experience with them, but I did see three guys all on Canyons yesterday. I spoke to them outside a combini and they said their bikes were new. They looked brand new too, and were Ultimate CFs. Not exactly sure how this info helps, other than providing anecdotal evidence that Canyon have recently delivered to Japan, so they are getting here...

Well, that makes me more hopeful. Thanks!
 
I saw on Google Maps that the Takizawa Rindo road is closed toward the top. I suppose I can cross the gates and not be in trouble?
No you won't get in trouble. Most of the hundreds of thousands of kilometers of gated-off rindō around Japan are tacitly (but never explicity) OK for bicycles.

I suggest that you let someone know where you're going if you're going alone; if you get into trouble on these roads you cannot count on help from a passing motorist and you also might have no cellphone signal.
 
Hi everyone!

Just a little update. It's been 3 weeks I'm moved in Tokyo now and last week, I finally had the time to look for a road bike. I went to different bike shops like Narushima Friend and Y's Road but didn't find something that made my heart race (I'm a little picky when it comes to design and colors). So I decided to try my chance and go with the Canyon Ultimate CF SL 7.0 (Black/Red). Luckily, the bike was marked "in stock" on the website and I made an order on February 18. I had some issue with the payment because they don't accept a foreign credit card when you try to buy on the Japanese website. After messaging the support service, they told me to choose the pre-payment method during my order and they will change it after to credit card method. Today, I got an email with my order confirmation and a link to enter my credit card information.
The estimated delivery date is 03/07/ - 03/11/2016. Wish me luck...
 
Nice bike. Hope Canyon have smoothed out the problems they were having and that it arrives on time. I certainly haven't regretted buying my Canyon.
 
I asked Canyon Japan about import duty and consumption tax.
Canyon Japan said:
Japan Customs may charge import duty(関税)and consumption tax (sho-hi zei 消費税).
Regarding bicycle and bicycle parts, import duty is 0% so they will charge 8% of consumption tax for total invoice amount (including shipping cost).

The bike will be shipped by DHL or UPS (Canyon will automatically choose) so you will need to pay the amount to local courier driver by cash when you will receive the bike.

Ouch! Was not expecting to pay more than 5%...
 
I asked Canyon Japan about import duty and consumption tax.


Ouch! Was not expecting to pay more than 5%...
In my experience, I only paid a percentage on part of the value of the bike. Not to get your hopes up but I paid about 3% of the total cost of the bike (but that was when consumption tax was 5%).
 
In my experience, I only paid a percentage on part of the value of the bike. Not to get your hopes up but I paid about 3% of the total cost of the bike (but that was when consumption tax was 5%).
Thanks for the info.
After reading this post by @bird and If the rule of the 60% taxable is still applicable, I think I will probably have to pay about 5% of the total cost (8% of (60% of purchase price) ≈ 5% of purchase price).
Let's wait and see. Didn't get a shipping confirmation email from Canyon yet even though my credit card has been charged...
 
My bike is on its way!

Canyon said:
Your order was handed over to our logistics partner UPS Deutschland Inc. & Co. OHG earlier today and will be delivered to you within the next few days.
 
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