Orient Express - Cheap Chinese Rims / Wheels / Forks / Frames / Cranks / Etc

Afraid it's been so long since I had alu brake tracks I can't remember, but I wouldn't say it's ever sketchy for normal riding. Doubt it will be close to alu.

Ha!

Mine are good. Got the graphene braking surface and their own pads. In the dry they’re good. In the wet a little worse than my alloy rims with Swiss stop pads.

LB rims fucking up brake pads is a good thing, mine are 5 years old and done maybe 30000 km and have worn less than 5000 km Kinlin alu rims

Fair point. They’re shredding the blue pads but the wear seems pretty light on mine.

They're great in the dry (using the lb pads they sent me which have lasted 15,000kms and look like they might do the same again).

The comparison I'm making is to dry/wet braking on Dura Ace C24s if that helps?

I replied to LB asking a re-quote with Sapim Race and brass nipples.
thanks @miro_o

I got caught in a wet descent (and ascent) on Furka last august, definitely sketchy but do-able with swissstop black prince pads.

While not on par with aluminum rims in brake performance in wet (for mountain climbing only wheels I would spec shallow Kinlin's) all-round I'm pretty happy with the LB grooved rims.

edit: I live in Belgium so the terrain is not really over demanding for brake carbon rim brake performance, even in Ardennes or Eifel regions.

No worries.

I would go brass for sure.

CX Rays are great ... certainly no worse than Race (or any reputable double butted spokes) it's just usually they add a major cost for little/no value if in a high spoke-count wheel. I guess if LB buy CX-Ray/Pillar-Aero spokes in massive bulk then they may be able to offer them quite cheap.

New VAT rules from 1st January 2021

Looks as though it only applies to goods with a value less then £135. Have I misinterpreted?

Yes. The impact will be on cheap things <£135

From a quick read it seems to say that any overseas seller will need to register for UK vat if they sell to customers in the UK. So that's everyone in China who is selling in Ali Express or ebay. Will they bother?

And the de minimis is being abolished. Now, things under £15 don't have to bother with vat. That will change so they will have to collect vat even on cheap things like phone cases and cables. There is a fixed cost to this so it probably means selling cheap stuff to UK customers won't be viable any more.

I believe Sweden and Australia have already abolished their de minimis and that it led to something like a 90% reduction in consumer imports from China.

Torn with this. On the one hand, it's a reduction of choice, increased cost etc... On the other, a lot of cheap imported tat is an environmental disaster.

Trying to see a decline in imports of that nonsense as a plus?

This is how I understood it, sellers will have to register with HMRC to pay VAT. Thanks for this explanation and the Sweden + Aus example!

What about digital goods?

Not sure how long their 'cyclocross' frame has been out... https://tsunamibicycle.com/product/ck05-tig-frameset-steel-gravel-bike-disc-break/ $490 on aliexpress.

Foakleys for driving? Never wear my orient express oakleys for driving as I'm worried an air bag deployment might shatter them into my eyes. Or are the lenses exactly the same? Misplaced worry?

Iridium contact lenses? What’s not to like?

They'll both be polycarbonate. The Oakley ones are highly refined polycarbonate (allegedly) for maximum optical clarity, but even boggo polycarbonate is going to protect your eyes better than thin air.

Disclaimer: I wear Aviators for driving, with glass lenses, so I'm not necessarily the best person to take advice from on this front.

As they say, the online marketplaces will be responsible for registering and paying vat. Sellers will just see increased fees on their listing, I guess?

What about digital goods?

Good question. I wonder if they are defined as a service as opposed to goods, hence not covered by this (I sell digital goods and describe them as a service for VAT so I think that is right).

I think there is already VAT on Traineroad, Zwift, etc - no?

As they say, the online marketplaces will be responsible for registering and paying vat. Sellers will just see increased fees on their listing, I guess?

Yes, most likely.

Question is how will they structure it - if it is just a sale price % markup (20% plus a bit for the marketplace admin) or if they have a fixed admin charge per item sold and / or per seller as well.

If the latter it would make low cost items or small sellers unviable.

What I had been expecting is that this change might lead to a switch from individual items being posted from China (which is only viable because, under the international post offices agreement (UPU) it costs less to post something to a UK address from China than it does from the next town) we might see things coming in via container and sold as UK goods rather than posted individually from China (there is a fair bit of this now on eBay now if you search for 'UK only' stuff).

Will be interesting to see how it plays out.

Just checked EU advice:

The supply of services by an EU business to a UK business will be considered as situated outside the EU and therefore not taxable under EU VAT legislation

but also

Under this rule, the supply of services by a UK business to an EU business will be taxable in the Member State where the customer is established

So for my company at least, we won't need to pay UK VAT unless there's a new agreement. Whether the UK later applies penalties to the customer I have no idea as there's no real proof that they gained services I'd imagine it'd be nigh on impossible to enforce.

I should look into this properly as quite a high proportion of my revenue is sales of services / digital goods to EU countries. But hard to justify investing loads of time in it when it might all change a few times before Dec 31!

The supply of services by an EU business to a UK business will be considered as situated outside the EU and therefore not taxable under EU VAT legislation

But it will, AIUI, be taxable under UK VAT legislation as opposed to EU VAT legislation.