North American Flyers imports and distributes bicycle frames and components from the US and Canada to Europe, focusing primarily upon Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia.
North American Flyers has 3 primary goals:
- To advance local bicycle culture in Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia.
- To promote North American bicycle frame, component and accessory manufacturers, with an emphasis upon owner-operated firms producing small production runs of very high quality items.
- To create a sustainable business model by expanding the upper end of the regional bicycle market rather than attempting to capture market share from my fellow distributors and dealers.
I have chosen to address these goals by making selected high-quality North American-produced frames, components and accessories available through local bike shops in Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia at prices that match or beat what an individual would pay to import the item themselves. Doing this will help keep a greater proportion of the high-end market local rather than losing it to internet shops outside of the region. This should result in a range of positive impacts upon consumers, the regional bicycle market and hopefully, society as a whole.
I grew up in Northern California, where there are dozens of frame and component manufacturers and many very good local bike shops. I've also lived in Southern California, Oregon and Colorado, where I've also been spoiled by access to great riding and a wide variety of sources for leading-edge bicycle frames and components. Soon after moving to Stockholm in 1998 I discovered that there were no custom framebuilders in the entire country, and that even the best shops left much to be desired when it came to selection and service.
Rather than just complaining about the situation or starting a shop to carve out my own piece of the local bike market, I decided to try to help as many local shops as possible to become more like the ideal shop that I see in my mind's eye. Rather than bringing in copycat products that undercut others in price I concentrate on filling gaps in the upper end of the marketplace, bringing in specialty products that can lead to additional local purchases, thus helping local shops as well as my fellow distributors to move additional product.
If I can make enough people at enough different levels of the marketplace glad that I am here, I will have earned any success that I achieve. If I can't make that happen, I should probably go back to being a construction worker, or truck driver, or ski instructor, or soigneur, or teacher, or sports physical therapist, or translator (or I could just stick with my current job as an IT support specialist.)
I'm doing this because I love it, and because somebody needs to be doing it, and I can't think of anybody who is better positioned to do it than I am. It really is as simple as that.
Dane Thomas (aka Daner on forum.bikemag.com, MTBR, and HappyMTB.org)
Our pricing structure is as follows: Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) plus EU import duties and Swedish VAT multiplied by the current exchange rate.
Here is a step-by-step explanation (this is done automatically on the Wishlist page):
Assume that MSRP for the frame that you want is $1895. The EU import duty for frames and components is 4.7%, so we add $89, for a subtotal of $1984. VAT here in Sweden is 25%, so we add $496 to the subtotal, for a total price of $2480. Multiply that total by the current exchange rate to determine our recommended retail price in Sweden.
By purchasing through North American Flyers and your local dealer you accomplish 3 things:
- You save the cost of international shipping (plus import duties and VAT on the cost of the shipping). Importing the same $1895 frame legally on your own with $150 in shipping charges would result in a total cost of at least $2676, nearly $200 more than if you had purchased from your local bike shop.
- You gain local support for any warranty issues that might arise.
- You become a positive influence in shaping the future of your local bike shop, as well as bicycle culture in your local area and your local economy.
Frames with an MSRP under $1000 and certain components need to cost a bit more to cover shipping costs. Other brands have recommended prices below equivalent US MSRP to more realistically compete with street pricing in the US. Our goal is that purchasing through North American Flyers should be the least unreasonably priced legal alternative. If that does not turn out to be the case, please contact us.
The old website is still up and running, even if some of the information is outdated. You can find it here.
Our goal is to support:
Mozilla Firefox 1.5 or higher
Safari 2 or higher
Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or higher.
If you are using one of these browsers and are having trouble with the site, please contact us with a description of the problem and your computer's OS and browser software so that we might make the necessary improvements.
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No effort will be made to support older versions of Mozilla/Netscape and Internet Explorer. If you still run one of these browsers you really should upgrade to something more up-to-date (not just for the sake of this website, but to better realize the potential of today's internet.)
Our goal is to make this website available in other languages soon, starting with Swedish. If English is difficult for you, please feel free to contact us using a language that you are more comfortable with. We are fluent in Swedish, can read Norwegian, Danish and Spanish and know where to get help with German, French, Italian and Finnish.