Any question answered...

Warranties don’t stop things failing, they just replace them after.
Majority of brands don’t have in house carbon facilities, they’re buying the unbranded carbon you’re scared of and putting a logo on it with a mark up. But you do you

Yeah I mean that is just straight-up not true. I know it's a popular trope, but no, brands don't just go on Aliexpress, select some random no-name forks, put their logo on it, and sell it on as their own thing. That's not how that works.

Also of course warranties don't stop things from failing, but it provides a certain incentive to provide some minimum standard of quality. But more importantly than that, it's the reputation that makes a difference.

The facts are this: If you buy something completely unbranded from an unknown source on Aliexpress, you are not sure what you are getting, you have no way of checking what the quality of it is, you have no way of finding reliable reviews for it, and you have no one to turn to if something goes badly wrong. I am not prepared to run that risk vs buying something from an established brand that has a direct financial interest in not getting loads of "my fork broke and now my head is caved in" reviews. But you do you

Thanks.
Had checked ebay but not Gumtree yet. Cool

Well you’re making some assumptions about what I’ve said which changes the meaning entirely.
I haven’t told you to buy anything unbranded in the first place. The conversation was about Hylix.
Nor did I say that any brands at all are buying from AliExpress. They will have suppliers with reputations you crave so much. But if you think that established brands aren’t buying “unbranded” open mold carbon then you’re kidding yourself

Not sure what we are discussing then, you were basically making fun of the idea that having a brand on it makes a difference - and yes it does - Hylix is a brand too btw. Even now you still say "reputations you crave so much". Uh... yes? It's the only thing you can go on here. Well at least for me - maybe you can measure the quality by eye.

But if you think that established brands aren’t buying “unbranded” open mold carbon

Of course they do, exactly as you said yourself: from suppliers with a reputation, and with some quality control, that they have reason to have confidence in. I'm not sure why you adopt this mocking tone in this context, I really don't think wanting your forks to be of a certain quality is a bad idea.

Even if you actually do get unbranded forks from the same manufacturing building, they might very well be the ones that didn't pass quality control to supply some brand. You just don't know, and that's my point: I don't have any reason to believe those completely unbranded things won't snap any second.

That's all I'm saying. It doesn't have to be a Western brand either: as mentioned, I'm getting rims from the very Chinese Light Bicycle company as they appear to be very reputable and have quite a lot of happy customers. I will happily pay a bit more for someone having a vested interest to ensure a certain level of quality from their supplier - though I'm maybe not as open to the idea of paying triple for the pleasure of reading 'ENVE' on the rim.

Sweet. Buy hylix ones then 😘

Considering it!

FWIW There's a review system on Aliexpress. You can also see how many times an item was ordered. There's plenty of Chinese carbon on Aliexpress that's been ordered and reviewed positively hundreds of times.

There's also the community in the China carbon thread that's helpful when looking to make a purchase

There's a review system on Aliexpress

Why would anybody trust a random reviewer any more than they would trust a random seller, given what we know about Chinese click farms?

Is there anybody that successfully added duckduckgo as the default search engine within Thunderbird?

I did find a few howtos online but they all target older versions / don't work for me.

Win 7 / TB 60.4.0 here

Ta!

1) You have to buy and wait for at least a few weeks before the website gives you the option to review the product; 2) there's people posting pictures and text

If there's a stark difference between overly positive and mixed or negative reviews you can opt to stay away

also
https://www.bricklanebikes.co.uk/columbus-minimal-vintage-monocoque-fork-carbon-1-steerer
https://www.tredz.co.uk/.Columbus-Minimal-Fork-Non-integrated_63791.htm

also

The two shops least recommended by LFGSS 🙂

ok :)

I have bought stuff from tredz.... without problems!

I have bought stuff from tredz.... without problems!

So have I, but they get plenty of neg rep on here

Thanks, but BLB is way more expensive than the link @mdcc_tester already shared, and tredz... is tredz.

(Also, why do BLB say 'vintage' fork? It's just not, it's not even the old design...)

why do BLB say 'vintage' fork?

Fucking hipsters, innit? Anything which might have been available pre-2010 is vintage to them.

Why is nexus-8 coaster brake made in a 132mm OLD size. What is that for?
(I need 127-128mm...)

130 old frames presumably.

The hub is easy to space down to around 120mm if that’s of any consolation.

Thanks, what do you remove? It seems everything is needed:
http://velobig.ru/Foto/InerZakaz/Servis/Inter8/EV-SG-C6000-8C-3727.pdf

Thinner locknuts?

That (I think) is so that they'll easily work with 130 or 135 OLD frames.

Thinner locknuts?

On the NDS ya. There was a good article / thread about it but I can't find it now.

I have just bought first pair of BOA-equipped shoes.

How fragile are they/how often do the wires break?

I realise this is asking for anecdata, so maybe I should ask whether people habitually have spares at home, or carry spares on long rides, like chainlinks?

Wires, almost never. Dials, occasionally, but BOA will provide free spares. I've never carried spares when I've been riding with BOA shoes.