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There are a lot of honestly-marketed and fun products that you can buy China-direct on eBay, e.g. nuts and bolts of all types and random titanium or carbon bicy
by akgerber 9y ago
There are a lot of honestly-marketed and fun products that you can buy China-direct on eBay, e.g. nuts and bolts of all types and random titanium or carbon bicycle fabrications, all with shockingly low shipping.
But I wouldn't trust them for something safety-critical, since you have no idea what engineering went into them and no recourse if they fail.
- s0rce 9y agoI would say a bike frame and associated bolts are safety critical since a failure could result in serious injury/death, especially if you are in traffic. However, I've read a bunch of positive reviews of the Chinese frames and its likely that they are produced on the same factory lines as branded frames, unless you buy something hand made in US/Europe.
- akgerber 9y agoI don't have a Chinese eBay bike frame (though I do have a lovely Taiwenese titanium one ordered from the ORA factory[0] by an American importer that sold for less than many steel bikes)— just a water bottle cage and a random headset spacer. [0] http://oraeng.imb2b.com/ http://oraeng.imb2b.com/
- s0rce 9y agoI'm kinda considering a Ti bike, who did you order from?
- philjohn 9y agoThis. CF bottle cage for my bike? Sure ... I'll get CCCF (Cheap Chinese Carbon Fibre), CF bike frame? Hell no.
- zanny 9y agoWe live in the information age, people in China are spinning up factories overnight to mass produce something in demand in the west and sell it through marketplaces on websites, but we have no way to inform people what is real and what is fake. Like, per manufacturer product reviews that are trustworthy. Seems like something akin to Consumer Reports for online merch would be a thing, but I guess there is not enough money in it.