Best place to shop for parts in Canada (used parts)

Question

What is the best place to buy bike components that will ship to Canada? I would prefer a Canadian company or someone who ships within Canada to avoid large shipping costs and inport duty.

I am especially interested in buying used components. Right now I am interested in buying:

• Some non-indexed bar end shifters for my road bike
• A mountain bike fork with disk breaks and no suspension

Where would be the best place to look for this? I have tried my local craigslist postings but these items are too specific. I have also looked in my local bike shop but buying these parts new will cost more than buying an entire new bike. I like to do most of my own work and being a student I have a fairly small budget.

Where would you look for these parts?

Answer 1

Have a look at PinkBike's Buy/Sell pages.

This is a site for hard-core bikers, there are always parts of various qualities and conditions up for sale.

Answer 2

While not 100% on topic, if you are in southern Ontario, consider the Toronto International Bike Show every year around the first few weeks of March. (It usually conflicts with a half marathon in Burlington, Ontario, the Chili Half, so I often have done both!). Usually it is in the CNE grounds.

They have a ton of local bike stores there trying to sell new stuff, but also clear out anything left in the store.

I have gotten an excellent series of deals, year after year. I now live in New Jersey near NYC, and I wish they had the equivalent here! Alas, I have yet to find anything similar.

Answer 3

If you want to buy locally, and you're looking for uncommon parts or an uncommon bicycle, try a Google web search. It can take you to a site that has what you want.

Here's an example:

Just today, I did a Google search for toronto used | second-hand | preowned | pre-owned folding bike. And indeed, the first Google hit took me to a local classifieds site where someone currently has a used folding bike for sale.

Google knows everything.