I have a MET Trenta helmet that I’m happy with but needs to be replaced soon. I’d like to replace it with another MET helmet, but they’re hard to find in Canada. This happens more often than I’d like, so it’ not just about this particular product. In the past I’ve ordered from various online retailers in Europe, but these days I’m not sure which to trust. For example, I rate r2-bike.com and bike-components.de. I’m in the middle about bikeinn.com, and lordgun.com kind of creeps me out.
I would love if the community had a list of trustworthy online retailers for cases like this where my LBS isn’t an option.
I’ve always been very pleased with competitive cyclist. Sometimes a bit pricey, but their service if you have questions or need something in a hurry has been top notch.
I’d throw in Bike 24 as well, since you’re considering those few German retailers. I’ve been told that Bike 24 also handles regional distribution for some brands in the EU, hence the more competitive pricing. I’ve heard this from a few EU/UK retailers, but can’t confirm if it’s just a rumour (or not).
Most recently, I’ve also started shopping from Varuste. net, which somehow offers quite competitive pricing, and same week delivery to Singapore (where I’m at), for cheaper than the German sites.
UK: I ordered a very obscure part from Lordgun, and it arrived no problem, but I agree that something about their website just seems off. I’ve bought lots of stuff from Merlin Cycles.
USA: Competitive Cyclist, Bike Tires Direct (soon to be under the same umbrella), Modern Bike (good for cheap and some niche parts). It’s been ages since I ordered from Colorado Cyclist—they always seemed reputable but expensive.
bike24 is in europe probably by far the biggest online shop for bike stuff. bike-discount, rose, bike-components, r2, delta bike, biker boarder, bike mailorder are all very trustworthy online shops from germany. I have ordered from all of them previously without any troubles. and i guess they are getting their goods from manufacturers directly or from official distributors. so no worries with legit stuff
My main issue with bikeinn is that they allow you to order things that are not actually in stock, without making it particularly clear that’s the case. Maybe not a problem with something that’s ready to go in their supplier warehouse, but I waited a month for some cranks and then had to cancel as it was not clear they were actually going to receive them. Otherwise though, bikeinn (Tradeinn) more broadly have been fine.
Lordgun have been ok too. There was a vague suggestion in a previous comment that Lordgun is UK based - they are actually Italian.
I’m uk based and have used Merlin quite a lot, but obviously can’t comment on their overseas service.
JC1979 is spot on. BikeInn will let you buy a non-stock item. It will hold your entire order captive if there is just one non-stock item. I like bike24.com, their stock inventory is spot-on, they always send you the right item (unlike BikeInn), and they have a price guarantee policy they actually honor (I’ve used it myself).
In Canada, bici and fortnine are probably the biggest online store presences but most of the major shops have decent online shops as well (Woodcock, Racer Sportif, Primeau). Mike’s Bike Shop in Dieppe NB had a major presence on Amazon a few years ago. Not sure if that is still true.
Fortnine also have a fantastic YouTube channel that’s mainly motorcycle focused but does have cycles and recently boats. They also motorcycled around the world in 16 days, and made a film while doing it called Yalla Habibi.
Most of the European-based have been already mentioned. The 2 I’d add are Bike-Discount.de and mantel.de. I believe Mantel are dutch and should have other online stores for different countries
I am in Australia, so different jurisdiction for import duties and VAT. But I have ordered successfully (& with no extra duties or the like) from Bike24 (my favourite, Germany), Ridewill (Italy), Wiggle (UK, although they have much less range than a few years ago), SJSCycles (UK, especially for parts not available elsewhere), MerlinCycles (UK), BikeInn aka TradeInn (Spain), Hibike, Pedalon (UK), R2-Bike (Germany). I have also ordered thru Cicliomattio (Italy), but as others have noted they have a habit of taking orders for some items they cannot supply. Geoblocking (especially for Shimano, but also high end wheels & other products) is a regular limitation, some websites do, some don’t, depends on destination & as I stated above I am in different country to yourself. Good luck, hope this helps.
Just to flag, Wiggle went bust a few years ago and the IP got bought by Frasers Group, a company who have a reputation for enshittification (a bit like the Bending Spoons of retail). They’re still “legit” and should be fine to buy branded products from there, but don’t expect good customer service any more, and be wary of own-brand products.
Yeah, “timely” and Bikeinn don’t belong in the same sentence, their delivery estimates are usually total dada (but might hold if everything you order happens to be actually in stock). Still an okay choice if you’re not in a hurry.
Mostly it’s Bike24, Bike-Components, Bike-Discount or Bikable for me as well (mostly dictated by availability and product selection, occasionally price, the pricier stuff I usually check on Idealo.de first).
I think Wiggle’s own-brand products are mostly old stock from before the bankruptcy, there were some news for instance about dhb coming back some time ago but I don’t think any actually new products have materialized since.