Hi All
Do you not go into your LBS
Just go in and ask them is "Avid" is Sold all over the world!
I have got some of there Brake's from a shop in the U.K.
Pete...... Merry Xmas.....
You're a funny man, Pete. Let me take you gently by the hand to stop you escaping in horror while I explain to you.
We don't have good LBS here at all. I have a blacksmith who just breaks stuff on any kind of a sophisticated bike, for instance, he just bent away mudguard stays to fit disc pads, and broke the special SKS safety fitting, and by the time I had new bits landed here from Germany (no local suppliers) it cost me €60 including phone calls and carriage. Oh, by the way, on a common Shimano disc brake, he took four tries and six weeks to get the right pads, after I wrote down all the numbers for him, and then what he got were cheap generic pads, not the good one I wanted, and his supplier told him to take it or leave it. The next nearest bike shop uses college kids for mechanics; it's strictly a sales operation of poncey bikes for posing on rather than riding. The nearest bike mechanic who actually knows what he's doing, and who'll order the right part, is fifty miles away over a very dangerous small crosscountry road; it's cheaper and less tiresome for me to deal with Germans a couple of sea passages away. So much for your beloved LBS.
As for Avid, they're a) too good (read long-lasting) and b) not fashionable enough (read high margin) for the local clowns. What you tend to get is BBB (good stuff if pricey) and generic Chinese excrement, nothing in between.
To get a wheel built I have to take it twenty-odd miles to a man who used to build wheels but now doesn't have time (because he's selling rubbish bikes on a government scheme), who sends it to Dublin to the fellow who will actually do the build. You can understand why I'd rather pay Rolls-Royce prices in Germany and get guaranteed quality.
My actual good "local" bike shops are Chainreactioncycles in Belfast, about 250 miles away, in another country, a mail-order operation, SJS in England, across the Irish Channel, and dealers in France and Germany and the Netherlands and Belgium, across the English Channel as well. To get even a small bracket landed here costs a minimum of €15 for post plus the bracket; SJS charges £18 for postage. In Ireland bicycling isn't for poor people.
You're pretty lucky to be so well served.
Andre Jute