Cyclepump - More expensive than I thought
 

Just ordered a cyclepump after many good reviews

Only $100US (£50 approx).... Bargain I though so happily entered my card details into the site but failing to read the small print "Postage will be calculated and added to final cost"

I didnt think it would be much as I have had many things sent over from the states for less than $20 and a little cyclepump shouldnt even cost that.

Well

Postage to UK £20
Duty (thanks for ticking as GIFT :thumbdown: ) £15
Parcel force "duty release fee" £15


Im not blaming the company as they did it all legally and as it should be done, but just a warning to those buying kit from abroad..

My £50 pump ended up costing me £100 !

I have a CyclePump, an Airman pump, and some other brand of small air pump.

All of these small pumps, costs ranging from almost $100us to about $20us, have pastic chucks on them, the connection from the air line to the valve stem. A high-dollar pump should have a metal chuck, IMO.

Still haven't made the 800 call to buy a Ginzu knife....

I just ordered the cyclepump plus some other bits from their website.. I spent about $150 in total, before delivery.. then yesterday, I got hit with £34 in UK VAT / import duty, including the infamous parcelforce "release fee"... I'm not a happy camper (pun intended) as a result...

Does anyone know if there is a "grey" way around the "gift" checkbox issue? Apparently, in the US, the merchant can be charged with perjury if they check the "gift" box, and it isn't a gift, so I don't really blame them for not wanting go check it.

The chance of them being caught is incredibly low. The chance of them getting fined etc if they get caught is the same odds as winning a double rollover lottery win.

Iv never known an international seller who hasnt ticked the box and iv bought countless things from the states but you cant argue with a company wanted to be fully legitimate. I just wish they would state costs on their website.

Once customs have their hands on it you HAVE to pay duty. Theres really no escape on that one. Parcel force fee is the piss take though. Surely that should be accounted for by the original shipping cost (which isnt cheap by a long way)

Yeah, it's frustrating alright. I'm starting to develop a dislike for Parcelforce as a result though.. this is the second time I've been caught for VAT/import duty and Parcelforce's fee, and the last time, it took me nearly a week to get the parcel after I had paid the fees, because parcelforce were so disorganised.. first they gave me the wrong tracking number, and couldn't locate the parcel, then they were supposed to keep it in the depot for me to collect after work, but they sent it out in one of their vans instead, then they sent me off to a local post-office to collect it (when it hadn't been delivered there at all!), but eventually they came good when I started to kick up a fuss.

It's a pity there isn't a European distributor / supplier for stuff like this for bikers. They would clean up. Hell, I might even look at doing it myself.

C

!
 

Hi all

What's wrong with a bicycle pump or even a car footpump? I'm sorry to say it, but you guys seem to be asking to be ripped off.

KISS! Keep it simple stupid!

Car footpump = too much space !

Have you tried to get a tyre bead to seat with a foot pump or a bicycle pump ?? No thanks... It usually takes about 50 psi to seat the bead.

When you've had 3 punctures in one day, id like to see how happy you are with your bicycle pump..


C02 is good until you run out and sometimes you need constant pressure to seat the bead..

£50 isnt expensive for an electric quality pump (£100 is though :()

Caminando,

Thanks for sharing that with us. It was very helpful and informative.

Colm

Yes it was a great piece of advice which clearly you loved. Are you annoyed at me in some way?

No, I was lamenting the fact that you keep on making it personal. You seem to have made a few other friends in this forum with that same approach.

Lets take this offline. I'm sure no-one else has any interest in reading this, or your poor attempts at insulting me.

US Shopping
 

I've bought quite a lot of stuff from the US over the last year:
electric jacket from WarmnSafe, electric gloves sent back and forth for size, 2 separate orders of DLComfort tights, and various bits and pieces that I could not find in Europe. I was never caught by custom. I had all items delivered at my office though. Maybe this make a difference if you send to a company? Or maybe I've just been lucky?

For me, I've only seen this problem twice in the last 3 months. In both cases, there were multiple items in the order, the order was with a company, rather than with an individual, and the order was delivered to my home address, rather than to work.. I've had a couple of deliveries from amazon, ebay, and from private sellers in the US, and this wasn't an issue either. I'd be interested in figuring out if there's a pattern!

got burned too
 

I too got suckered buying bike stuff off the net from the States and then having to pay GBP 105 to parcelforce for VAT, Tax and admin charge..

delivery was at work address and I had even called the retailer to ensure it was posted as gift (or similar .. can't remember what,) which would have avoided the customs people

--

I wanted to get one of these cyclepumps but never did because of the VAT / import issue..

---

but if you guys came up with a way to avoid that it would be great

Invoice seperately
 

Hi , I buy quite a bit of stuff from the US , the best guy I deal with is Mike's XS who sells Yamaha parts .He always sends the invoice ahead in a separate envelope and always understates the value .This saves me a lot of hassle and expense ,plus it means a loyal customer and repeat business .

If the value declared is less than £25 they wont bother. so maybe split a package ??

Remember when woolworths charged 6d for everything, a pack of card s was 6d, but then so was the packet :)

There are a whole range of catagories for imported goods. with different rates of duty/vat. Books for instance are free of both. Agricultural machinery has very low duty, so the harley people should be alright. ( Apologise, just could not resist that one :) )

Replacements/repairs under warrantee are also excempt, but you either have to have teh customs people seal the paket, or see the original is destroyed.

Looking at the box, they marked it as a "commercial sample"

They tried I guess !!

What I dont understand is, i paid sales tax in the US and duty in the UK...

Surely they both cant tax you ?

I know this is pretty trivial on small items but imagine buying a full luggage set etc.

Absolutely wrong of them to charge you sales tax stateside !
I've never had to pay that for exported items .

Hey guys,
The Cyclepump is just a Chinese electric air pump in a fancy box IMHO. I am sure you can buy the same thing in Europe. Just strip the plastic off it to make the package smaller and you have the same thing. I attached my guts to a heavy piece of cardboard with a couple of plastic ties. There have been many threads on how to do this on Adventure rider and so on.

If you use cardboard, make a little well in the cardboard for the rotating wheel on the pump.
It is very simple. I run mine in the lid of my Touratech aluminum pannier.
The pump costs around $15usd at Walmart in the USA.
Try to find one with a decent air chuck.
bill.

Hey Bill

Usually I would agree with you but i have tried these cheap pumps and they are CRAP but I guess you can get lucky.

Iv had 3 and thrown 3 away within a couple of weeks of use. I know the cyclepump is expensive for what it is but it does come very highly recommended and at the $-£ exchange rate, its VERY cheap for us Brits (unless customs catch us :()

I have to say that I'm delighted with mine. It's built like a little brick shithouse, and pumps like a mad little m***********. For some reason though, the cigarette lighter connection to my socket is a little dodgy.. I need to jiggle it occasionally to get it to start. I must see if I have a loose connection in the socket, or whether the cyclepump plug just doesn't make a good connection. It uses the universal DIN (BMW) / cigarette lighter combo type plug, so maybe thats the problem.. The fallback option is the battery connection with crocodile clips, which is a great option to have. I could always just re-wire a regular plug into it, but then I wouldn't be able to use it with my R1150RT :(

Review: Out of 10

Quality: 9 (caveat.. not yet used in anger) - brass whatucallits, solid hoses, heavy ally box. bulletproof. feels a bit weighty for it's small size, but I wouldn't be afraid to drop it.
Aesthetics: 9 (hey, I like aluminium box panniers, so it fulfils my definiton of stylish)
Value for money (given that I got a bit shafted by UK customs): 6

I'd like to see some of the sharp(ish) edges on the foldable legs rounded off though.. they keep on ripping my latex work gloves.

Chinese?
 

Hi Ted,
Well maybe I am wrong. I will try to find the link on Adventure rider.
Have you had the lid off your pump and looked inside?
Do you find plastic gears and Chinese manufactured components?

Check this thread out...page 3 has the good info.

Tire pump recommendation - ADVrider

I know its nicely done but that is a $90 box.
I zip tied my stripper to a heavy piece of cardboard and found little bag to store it. I run it in the lid of my Touratech aluminum pannier.
It works very well.

bill





bill.

[url=http://www.motopumps.com/]

I got mine from this guy off ebay, about $30 or so, much cheeper than the more expensive cyclepump. Been a life saver several times on my trip of the americas. No problems so far after 5 1/2 months of regular use.

Packs up small in a neat little zip bag and mine came with tubeless tyre repairs. I´m now looking for an inline tyre guage though as those little pen type guages pack in pretty quickly.

Tiny Tyre inflator
 

I just bought this last week from Infinity Motorcycle:

Sime Power Sport Tyre Inflator

Cost me £29.99 and it is really small!

It comes with pressure gauge pen like and all the cables required. I have not tried yet but could be an idea rather than order in the US and pay a fortune in customs?

Small is beautiful
 

Maria but there too many tales of small/cheap compressors breaking and/or not being capable of re-seating a tyre. Many overheat fast and seize up and/or can take ages to put any air in- more noise than pump!!
It is likely to be a false economy and a real disappointment when you find out on the road.

I'm a big fan of the Cycle Pump - quality kit which used it each day in Africa- & never let me down - just make sure not to put it anywhere where it can suck up 'crud'!
It really does 'what is says on the box'.

BTW make sure you don't pack those CO2 cartridges as I have been told by air-freighters that these cause big problems when bikes are x-rayed and often lead to cases being opened to have those removed before flight.

Hi Bertrand !
I guess it's too late as our bikes have just been crated with all the luggage and tools! I'll just have to test this tyre pump on the road and see how it goes!
We have not packed those CO2 cartridges so I hope all will go fine on Monday when the airline X-Ray the bikes! When are you off? Still starting from Quito?

Yup
 

and yup :thumbup1:

I went through the whole pump/inflator research thing before my last trip to Morocco. In the end I went for the home made route.
I bought a standard 12V inflator from Halfords, stripped off the casing, guage, and in-line switch to leave a motor/pump assembly with a short hose and 12V lead attached (much the same as the one in the ADV Rider article inked to above). It cost me all of £15.
It's cheap, compact and I've used it regularly and it's been has been 100% reliable.
From what I've seen of these things they all use an identical design, and a similar mass produced motor/pump unit. The parts which are most likely to fail are the 12V connector (they're usually quite fragile plastic which doesn't stand up to regular use) and the cheap valve connection. Both of these are easily replaced with better quality items.

Mark
 

was yours able to re-seat the bead ? if so on what size tyre?
cheers

No problem at all as long as you put a bit of lube on the bead. The rear on my KTM950 is a 150/70 and the standard Pirelli tyres are well known for needing plenty of pressure to pop the beads - my little inflator gets 50-60psi into it in a few minutes.
I've done quite a few tyre changes using this inflator and used it on a daily basis to bump up pressures for road riding with no problems.

cheers
 

always good to know of another bit of kit that works.

Just my 2ct:

I was on the same trip as MarkLG and used an airman with built in pressure gauge. The same cheap chinese internals but mine had problems with the valve connector (leaked) and it's performance went down quickly until the point of "no pressure at all". It left me stuck on a motorway exit near Madrid with a puncture and no inflating device. I investigated the internals and the seals were totally worn. You can still find it behind a concrete pillar of a bridge where a friendly and helpful policeman professionally ditched it ;-)
Not suitable for intensive use if you ask me... Better take a handpump as backup.

T

You never told me about that one!!:wave:

Was it the seal in the connector that failed - I packed a spapre connector for mine which you could have had if I'd known yours was failing.

The connector wasn't the main problem. I just had to push it in a specific angle on the valve to stop it from leaking. A bit annoying and lack of quality. And the point of "no pressure at all" occurred when we were travelling on our own. But thanx for the offer mate http://www.ukgser.com/forums/images/smilies/biggrin.gifhttp://www.ukgser.com/forums/images/smilies/biggrin.gifhttp://www.ukgser.com/forums/images/smilies/biggrin.gif