Buying A Bicycle in Singapore
Last week, I went scouting for a bicycle in Singapore. The first store I hit was the Trek store at Tanglin Road. The staff were very helpful but as it was the first store I visited, I didn’t get anything from there. The next day, I headed to Tay Junction at Bukit Timah to check out some Specialized, Kona, and Giant bikes.
Tay Junction 2 at Bukit Timah
Had my stay in Singapore been longer, I would have explored a few more stores in the East Coast area (where the cycle scene is) but I was also not looking to spend a few Gs so it was not necessary to be overly demanding of the features. Although my ultimate goal is to get into triathlons, I decided to get a mountain bike first so that I can cycle around Sabah’s mountainous terrain and be able to maneuver over bumps, gravel and potholes confidently.
In the end, I got a 24-speed hardtail GT Avalanche 3.0 women’s mountain bike from Tay Junction’s other store. It comes with disc breaks, a convenient suspension lock, but more importantly the frame’s geometry fits my body perfectly. A far cry from my brother’s hand-me-down which gave me back problems.
My first bike the GT Avalanche 3.0 Women's Mountain Bike
Gear
I also bought some functional gear to keep me motivated. My “Motivational Pack” includes a GT jersey, Orca bike shorts, Specialized helmet, Specialized shoes, Giant gloves and Descente socks. They aren’t particularly mountain-bike specific (more like gear for long road rides on a mountain bike if that makes sense). 
Great gear
As you can see, this was a conscious effort to make sure things matched (women huh?) I’m very impressed with the Orca pants and will likely look into trying some more of their gear in the near future. It is very well-made, really comfortable and fits my precious derriere perfectly without making me feel like I have a maligned butt graft. Well done Orca!
Taking it Back to Sabah
I thought it was going to be a pain to fly with such a chunky item, but actually it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. The folks at Tay Junction were so kind to deliver the bike to my hotel free of charge, the concierge took it up to my room, took it down from my room the next day, loaded it to a pre-booked oversized taxi and when I got to the airport I paid SGD $16 for Air Asia’s Sports Equipment fee.
I made sure my dad took our widest car and when I got back to K.K., we loaded it into the boot. The bike box weighed 17kgs (2kgs overweight) but I wasn’t charged extra. A few days later, I took it to my local bike shop and it was assembled in 20 minutes. That’s pretty much it!
Shopping for a bike in Singapore is a lot of fun. I highly recommend it to anyone living in Kota Kinabalu who is considering on getting a new bike. I’ve taken my bike out around the block twice to test and it rides beautifully. The next step would be to name it and take it out on rides with other mountain bikers. My friend Spidey calls it George Tan (for GT) but I’ll forgive him for he knows not the sin he has committed!
wow, u went to singapore to get a mtb, nice bike though…not much bike choice in KK and i do agree the bike shop in singapore are way better
When I was in KK I didn’t find any bike shops so I guess going to Sing is one of the best way to get bikes. I want a new road bike and was thinking of importing it, but we get taxed on imports. While I was in China I imported some bike stuff from trisports in the States, but that’s a bit more difficult here.
Anyway, just had a little look around your site and it’s fantastic! I’v got a coupe of blogs, but you are very talented.
Kena tax or not in KK? Thanks!
If it is marked USED, nope. If you need to keep it BRAND NEW, then customs may want to tax you. I didn’t have a problem though. Plenty of sports people travel with their sports equipment in Asia. Hope that helps!
@Terry
Do share your blogs with us! When you import anything from other countries, chances are you will get taxed. But when you go and buy something in person for personal use, as long as you mark it as “used” and take it back as sports equipment, you’re not going to be taxed. Saying that, if customs suspect you’re doing this as a business, they’ll tax you upon entry. The way to get around that is to tell them you’re a hobbyist mountain biker and you travel around for biking tours/events. Hope that helps! 
Thanks!
Jackie
@diel
There are no female models in KK and the men’s selection is limited also. If you need to try before buying, it could be a problem. You could easily also find better bikes in KL.
Having been in the import/export sector for quite sometime, I often have the opportunity to have meetings with Malaysian Customs officers and recently I got a chance to ask about import duty on bicycles.
The customs tax the item you are bringing into Malaysia not on the basis of whether it is USED or BRAND NEW, or whether it is for PERSONAL or BUSINESS. As long as it has a commercial value, it is taxable. The reason why bicyles that we import were not taxed is simply because they are not taxable under current tariffs. However, some bicycles are taxable depending on which category they fall under.
So, when you import a bike and were asked to declare, it is important that you know what category your bikes belong to. Here’s is a guideline:
TARIFF CODE/DESCRIPTION/TAX
8712.00.100/Bicycles (including children’s bicycles in the normal form of adult bicycles), excluding RACING BICYCLES/25%
8712.00.200/Bicycles, designed to be ridden by children (not in the normal form of adults’ cycles)/10%
8712.00.900/Other/0%
See the description “excluding RACING BICYCLES”.
If you are bringing in an MTB or a road bike, do declare it as “Racing bicycle. Tariff code 8712.00.900″. Even if you do not know the tariff code, most experienced officers would be able to assess it right away but having a tariff code would speed up the process. But if you are bringing in a normal bike (like a beach cruiser or a foldable), then you will be taxed 25%. Kid’s bikes unfortunately are taxed 10%.
So, if you are travelling in an entourage of 20 lean & mean Tour-de-France looking kind of guys and gals each with a bike marked USED, the customs most probably know that you are bringing in bikes that fall under the category of “Others” (Racing Bikes fall under this).
I hope that this will help a lot of fellow cyclists out there who wish to import bicycles from overseas.
…and by the way Jackie, that’s one cool GT bike you got there!
Hi, I’m planning to visit singapore this 1st May and plan to get new road bike. Do you have contact person at Trek store that I can talk to? Thanks
Hi Ibrahim,
Here it is.
Singapore
Treknology Bikes 3 Pte Ltd
91 Tanglin Place, #01-02, Singapore 247918.
Phone: 65 62754675
Fax: 65 62754676
Web: http://www.treknology3.com
Enjoy!
Hi, this morning I had call the Trek Store in Singapore. They give me the price of the model that I requested, but the price is different to the price of some website. For example, website ‘X’ stated the price is SGD1500 and Trek Store price is SGD3000. Do you know why it is different?