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

Seem pretty tight now with waffa bottles. Thou time will tell...

Not strictly Orient Express, but i guess it does have farsports and a kalloy uno.

This colour is one of the nicest I’ve ever seen on any bike.
Picked up a Stigmata on the forum a while ago, really wanted that green!

What mudguards are you using and what size tyres are you running with them?
I’m running 700x40c right now, it definitely looks like I could get away with something bigger but I’ve noticed that the battery on the front shifter might be the limiting factor.

Who was it who ordered the carbonworks.de cage fakes?
I’d be interested to know how they pan out in the real world in terms of keeping the bottle where it supposed to be?

I've been using them for probably 6 months or more. 5 or 6 days a week. Solid.

Nice one, ta.
I paid my mate £60 for two real ones and pretty happy with them. Doubt I’d spend £80 each new though.
Will order a couple on alix

Yeh much nicer than the new purple or gold.

They're PDW 45 guards with 32c Gravelking slicks in road mode.

Is there a go to source for decent/good cheap aluminium road frames? Or is it mostly carbon?

Would love to build a bike to keep back home in Italy on the cheap and like the idea of a pretty no nonsense, non-disc (it’s fair weather riding after all!), hopefully light enough bike but the budget is languishing... 🤔

Is there a go to source for decent/good cheap aluminium road frames?

Giant, Trek, Specialized...

Their base models are cheap enough (<£800 for complete bikes) that taking a punt on Chinesium at £250 for a frameset seems like a poor bargain.

Hong-fu carbon rim frame, i have one abroad that i have used for 6 years during holidays, before that it was someone else's on the forum... still going strong.

Did you come up with anything for this? I was wondering where to source their OEM carbon layback seatpost

No, the saddle doesn't seem to be a controltech and I can't find anything else that looks the same in terms of size/shape/weight. Hopefully managed to source one through a classified dredge though!

Exciting! As other have said, please do a thread (or post details in here).

I bottled it in the end (and needed something quickly), so managed to get a 2nd hand Argon 18 Nitrogen frameset for just over a grand instead. I don't love it though so would still consider the Seka later in the year if more feedback is decent.

How much?

@gbj_tester @Glws thanks for the feedback and good points 👍 Already have a decent wheelset so was curious to see if anything below the carbon price point was out there, but perhaps worthwhile to either go for a tried-and-tested carbon frame or buy a Claris/Sora bike and upgrade as and when needed 🙂

you used to be able to buy Cube alu frames from a german website for under £200 but that's all gone of course.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Ti-Atom-Titanium-Brompton-3-speed-Ultra-light-/133603234304?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l6249&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0

Around 2.8k with delivery

that is a lot of money to lay down! do you think it was worth it? it certainly looks promising at ~30% less than the new brompton

50/50 tbh.

It is a gift for my partner. Yes it is a lot of money to a standard Brompton not denying that. But she is only 4ft11 and lifting anything more than 9kg is troublesome for her.

I did wanted to get her the new official titanium Brompton but that was delayed by more than a year and recently she been getting nervous about her bike getting nicked in London.

Bottom line she loves it which I guess it is all matters. Very nippy around town like a standard Brompton, but the difference is that when you kick it is so responsive, which is not surprising for a bike weighing 7.9kg on small wheels.

Ah that's a great shout actually, thank you! I remember seeing those a while back. Since this would be for a bike to keep in Italy I could always look into getting it posted there directly 🇪🇺

Will have a look for the website again 👍

Does anyone have experience with these? https://www.ebay.de/itm/143186811797

Hi! I have never contributed to this forum but now it seems appropriate. I bought the Chinese EE brakes about a month ago and yesterday they finally arrived. They do look very good and seem well made. In some spots there are light shatter marks from CNC machining but that doesn’t look different to what I have seen online from the original brakes. The brakes come in what seems to be the original packaging with installation instructions from Cane Creek. I just installed them on my bike replacing the Dura Ace Br-7800 brake I had until now. Compared to these the EE brakes are less crisp but it seems that they offer the same braking power. And of course they look very nice. (This is why I bought them ;))

However I want to add, that the nut which fixes the brake to the frame is not of good quality. I used a torque wrench and noticed that the bolt was quite soft (the socket where you insert the tool gave in and it deformed when tightening the brake —> see the picture). I simply replaced the bolts and used some stainless steel ones. I would highly recommend doing that as well. I have seen similar problems with other screws and bolts which I bought of Ali Express.

Obviously I can’t say if these are as good or similar to the real brakes as I've never seen them in real life, but I didn’t notice any differences to what I’ve seen online.

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Yo, welcome to the forum :) a great first post.

I didn’t know much about ee brakes until I just googled there. Ooft, six hundred bangers for the real McCoy. Wild.

So basically they are roughly half the weight of DA but with slightly sub DA performance?
Fuck paying that for the real deal but I can now see the appeal of these alix ones.
Out of curiosity, what bike do you have them on? Is it proper weight weenie?
Have you weighed them?!

Have you noted any potential problems with them damaging the down tube as mentioned in the road.cc review?

I think someone here said they have real ones and ordered these alix numbers.
Be great to hear some real life comparisons.

Looks like a caad9.

Further q @Samo_S what size tyres are you running in that pic?