I'm thinking of starting my tour in Buenos Aires, buying my bike and many accessories there. I'm after a steel frame touring bike or potentially a cyclocross.
Can anyone recommend a store in Buenos Aires with a good selection of reputable brands for a Canadian/Australian? Bonus if you know that someone at the store speaks English, my Spanish will just be starting out at that point.
Thanks for any help!
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I'm not aware of a place that specialises in touring bikes but here are a few that carry better quality stuff:
Canaglia
Runner Bike
Soldaini
Norbikes
Another place to check is mercadolibre which is kind of like ebay but plenty of brick and mortar shops advertise there (they are not allowed to give their street address before making a sale but with the name and barrio its easy enough to google their location):
https://deportes.mercadolibre.com.ar/bicicletas-y-ciclismo/bicicletas/adultos/capital-federal/bicicleta_ItemTypeID_N
Having said all that I wouldn't recommend you buy here - you are going to pay a hefty overhead (as you will with almost any imported products in Argentina) and have less range to select from.
Thanks Paul! I'll shop around before I get there. I'm in Australia right now, and the bike prices here are way higher than my home in Canada. I haven't adapted yet :) I'm surprised there's a hefty overhead for Argentina. Weak currency I suppose? Anyways, I'm glad I asked the question!
Yeah and import taxes, customs 'fees', and historically ingrained inflationary pricing. If you think the prices are high in Australia use mercadolibre and make some comparisons, even including airline excess luggage fees I would think you'd be saving money buying before you leave.
See also:
https://www.warmshowers.org/node/239335
Oh man, two weeks too early for me! Too bad, I've even had my eye on the Surly Disc Trucker here in Australia. Thanks for that Paul.