When I get a similar question for the N-th time, I sit down and write an article, to save myself the time in the future. In this article, I’ll answer the question: “Where should I buy bicycle parts (and tools)?”
Since BikeGremlin (much like the flat-Earth-society) has fans all around the globe, I will give recommendations for different countries and regions. 🙂
– In a separate article, I already wrote about the cheap AliExpress tools.
Table Of Contents (T.O.C.):
- Your local bicycle shop
- Online (Internet) shopping in Serbia
- Europe (EU)
- Globally – Amazon
- Unior tools
- Conclusion
1. Your local bicycle shop
I put my money where my mouth is when it comes to buying in local bicycle shops. Why?
Here’s a concrete recent example:
My Crazy Drummer (are there any other kinds of drummers?) friend busts the rear derailleur on the bicycle which is his main means of transport, and his pay-day is far away (who lives from rock n’ roll in Serbia nowadays?). I call Anđelka from the Bike Team bicycle shop and she tells me they have a matching Microshift rear derailleur (cheaper, better, and more robust than the low/mid-level Shimano stuff). So, I ask the Drummer to pick that up on his way to my workshop, install the derailleur, tune it, and his bike is up and running right away, for cheap.
Note that I know a few things about bicycles, but many people aren’t certain what can be combined with what. Such (ordinary, to say normal) people can greatly benefit from building a good trusty relationship with a local bicycle shop. Another example:
I installed a road front derailleur (that I had in the workshop) on my city commuting bicycle. In order for it to work, I had to use a shorter bottom bracket axle (compared to using a MTB front derailleur). Competent and friendly local bicycle shops can help you avoid buying the wrong parts.
Yes, you can often get lower prices online, but for the above-discussed reasons, I think it is good to support the quality local bicycle shops with your money (that’s what I do). If we aren’t buying, local shops will go out of business and they won’t be able to keep stocks of parts (to have available for us when we need them).
Of course, there are many crappy shops, but there are also many good ones that will try to sell you what’s really best for you (based on your budget and preferences) – it is worth building good relationships with such high-quality shops (and people).
2. Online (Internet) shopping in Serbia
Planet Bike has a great online store. They automatically update the stock with their register, so if a product is listed as available online, it’s usually truly the case (most shops in Serbia have problems with this, so you always must check & confirm using a phone). They have stores all around Serbia, so you can order a part/tool online for a local store pickup, if you don’t want to pay for shipping to your home address.
When I’m buying parts, if they aren’t available in the Bike Team (still without a real online store) or Vector (badly designed online store) bike shops, I usually check if it’s available at Planet Bike.
Likewise, when readers from Serbia ask for a part recommendation, I’m comfortable with sending a link from the Planet Bike’s store, since their stock-update is reliable and correct (both in terms of prices, and in terms of availability).
3. Europe (EU)
If the part/tool you are looking for isn’t available in your country, you can search for it in Europe or further (more about that in chapter 4). My favourite EU online stores that I’ve been using for over a decade now are the following three from Germany:
- bike24.com
Great search, nice design, and the site memorizes your settings (I can set the shipping location & prices shown to be for Germany, and the language to be English). - bike-components.de
Just a little less practical compared to the above-noted Bike24 website. I must change the display language to English (and login again) upon every visit (German is the default language). - bike-discount.de
Similar downsides as the Bike Components website. This site has discount sales more often than the above-listed two sites.
Note:
Shimano (and some other brands) won’t let you order their products from the EU if your contry is outside of EU. So, I can’t order stuff directly for Serbia (but the nearby Croatia is in the EU). Any readers from the Australia, UK or the USA should know that the bike24 site will tell you right away if a product can’t be shipped when you pick your destination country from the menu.
Germans – they are efficient and have no sense of humour 🙂
I usually check and compare prices in all the three above-listed stores, and see which one has the best price for what I need at the moment.
All the three stores are reliable – I’ve never had any payment, charging or shipping problems after hundreds of orders over the past decade.
4. Globally – Amazon
Amazon shopping is available for most regions worldwide (of course, Serbia is not included 🙁 ).
For those who don’t know, Amazon is a platform where many brick & mortar and online stores sell their products. It’s like a sort of a global Craigslist for companies. Be aware of fakes – check the seller reputation.
I often buy tools on German Amazon (though I’ve had good experience with the US Amazon too).
amazon.de/shop/bikegremlinus is my affiliate store on that website, and I also have an affiliate store on the US Amazon: amazon.com/shop/bikegremlinus.
Tool prices are often cheaper compared to the stores listed in chapter 3, but bicycle parts are often more expensive.
I haven’t got much experience with online stores outside of Germany, apart from Amazon, so I dare not make any recommendations.
5. Unior tools
Unior has a pretty good global support network. Even in Serbia I can order any tools or spare parts for normal prices and pick them up in my own country.
I wrote a separate article about Unor tools and chapter 3.3. of that article has a list of Unior distributors worldwide.
Other tool brands don’t offer good support in my country, so I can’t comment or recommend them. One exception are Bosch power tools (Bosch impact wrench is a power tool I often use for bike mechanics).
6. Conclusion
I hope this helps you at least a little bit. If a store you are interested in is not listed here, it is because I haven’t had much experience buying from it (that’s the case with most shops in the world because I’m only one man).
I should also say that I get no money or percentage if you buy anything from any store listed in this article, except for Amazon (and even there I get a few cents only if you click on my Amazon affiliate link to start searching and shopping on Amazon).
Talking about affiliates, this is what a usual “influencer affiliate” offer looks like:
I, like most website (and YouTube channel) owners, get such offers regularly, on a daily basis. My policy is simple: I recommend stuff that I use and believe are good. If they happen to have an affiliate program, great. But I don’t base any recommendations on whether I get any commission/money or not. Take my word for it or don’t – that’s up to you.
In a separate article, I wrote about the cheap AliExpress tools.
BikeGremlin tool reviews:
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