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

Probably only usable on a moving bike. A bit like a Gopro that overheats when recording on a table

Heated bars and light? An ideal winter twofer 😀

I left mine on for 6min and it only heated up to 42 degrees above the LEDs.

Centerlock rotor recos?

none; buy legit

Yes sensei

Quick reminder that @Gustav is organising a Light Bicycle group order. If anyone is looking for rims or wheels get in touch.

@dubtap tried out the PM yet?

Yep been out a couple of times and they did not explode.

Having just spent an hour and a half trying to fish some of this stuff out of a set of bars, I would highly recommend not using it for internal routing.

The piece I bought is much, much less flexible than the proper BH90 I used for the other side. Suspect it may be more prone to kinking too as the end of it was in quite a bad state by the time I managed to get it out.

Get what you pay for

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Sorry if I'm asking for a whole thread to be condensed, but what's the deal with customs charges when buying from Aliexpress at the moment? I'm after a Bafang BBS02 kit ot two.

Should be 20% of value for vat plus (I think) 6% duty plus a handling fee. In reality the shipper might accidentally misplace the bullet point in the declared value so it’s a bit of a shot in the dark.

By law, on orders under £135 (I think) the seller has to add on VAT and pay that to HMRC, which AliExpress does when you get to the checkout (as does eg ebay if you buy from abroad)

Over £135, the seller shouldn't add VAT but declare the value on the package and likely it will get picked up by customs with the end courier charging you the VAT plus an admin fee before you can take delivery.

I haven't ordered anything >£135 on Ali but some other sellers often 'forget' to declare the full amount and so usually nothing more to pay but YMMV.

EDIT: Actually thinking about it again the £135 threshold might be a Brexit related thing for orders from Europe although on small orders AliX does the same thing.

I ordered a powermeter from Magene and they declared value as under $30 which was nice.

the £135 threshold might be a Brexit related thing

It'd Brexit related in the sense of now applying to goods from the EU, but it's essentially the old global rules plus the new thing of forrins being expected to have a UK VAT registration so that they can act as tax extorting minions of HMRC

Not sure now but there used to be OEM rotors of SRAM and Shimano much cheaper.

Anyone tried a ratchet 'service kit'?
I was looking at a DT Swiss ratchet for 80 quid but an orient special came up for 10

I'm skeptical about those having seen some sales for Shimano rotors in 6 bolt which I'm sure only come in CL and some hope rotors which I think are made in the UK so china wouldn't have access to OEM ones to sell

Not LB but I've got some 50mm Farsport Kaze DT Swiss 350 disc wheels for sale if anyone's interested.

Link?

Nvm will give this a go
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005412809728.html?spm=a2g0n.productlist.0.0.36544ea8vqI8wB&browser_id=eaf32bca48be45568a6dec8ef9eeae79&aff_platform=msite&m_page_id=vrcmhceqhsmcabkd18b5815a0628ce92ce66e55e87&gclid=&pdp_npi=4%40dis%21DKK%21104.50%2152.24%21%21%21108.21%21%21%402103244416979899116558382e17d4%2112000032953556168%21sea%21DK%210%21AB&algo_pvid=f7e5787e-1aaf-42f9-b66f-68f81806c822

Any one want to try some lightweight aero bars in 42cm. Ridden them once, I'm quite heavy and ride on the drops a lot, too flexy for me

There's actual OEM there, mostly SRAM and some Shimano. Not as good as a deal as they were before, I'd rather buy at trade or some discount online

If anyone is looking for bike lights I think this is a fairly good deal. Enfitnix Navi800 and an equally good rear light for less than what you would usually pay for the Navi800 alone. Arrived within 10 days 👌
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002406053946.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.5.3d0a1802JpMrtW

I can confirm that it's a great light, it has optics with cutoff and you can flip the head depending on which orientation you mount it at.