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

light-bicycle. lacing mine next week. they seem extremely well made (and everyone else recommends them)

Does anyone have a spare metal band thing for the Rock Bros bell everyone has?

I've only got the 31.8mm one and I'd like the smaller one if possible.

Happy to trade or pay.

Yep, I have one

I gave you that bell on the condition that you took better photos of the bike. I'm saddened.

Has anyone done a side-by-side comparison of carbon clincher rims from the various well-established suppliers (FarSports, Yishun, ACE, Light-Bicycle etc)? They all seem to have slightly different profiles, but most seem to use similar construction (titanium wire bead reinforcement, basalt brake surface etc).

FarSports seem to be the only one with UCI status - whether that's just because they have the money to pay for testing (if that's how it works), or whether they have a superior construction, I don't know.

Anyone got a good recommendation for Disc wheels for Road TT was thinking of going through Yoleo as i have bought clincher wheels from them and they are good. Just wondering what other suppliers are out there now that make rear disc wheels.

From experience I would chose light-bicycle rims over far sport, (for the rims quality) I found the when I brought the 55mm u shape carbon from LB that the rims where amazing and when I ask them to remove the braking surface the weave on the surface is brand spanking new with no sign of moulded patterns.

However with FS I asked the same thing for the track wheelset with no braking surface, it wasn't as perfect as LB as you can still see some mould outline where the braking surface use to be.

Please note that this is purely on aesthetics and on performance they're probably the same (granted the track wheelset is 23mm wide).

How about carbon rims on Aliexpress? Any forum favourite sellers?

My cn*carbon wheels are stuck at my local sorting office awaiting my customs payment 😬

I can't pay it until I get a letter from parcelforce with my code, nor do I know how much it is. I wish there was a way to do it online via the tracking number.

I don't know what value the seller put on them, so be interesting to see how much they charge me.

From what I've read online there'll be a parcelforce handling fee on top of that, which seems a bit bloody cheeky of them, what with them having to handle it either way (and having already been paid by the seller to do so).

I didn't pay much.

very interested in your impression of those wheels, am looking at some CN*Carbon wheels

I'll keep you posted! And @umop3pisdn, thanks for the reassurance. Fingers crossed I won't be paying out too much.

Just looked it up - paid £26 on 4 rims.

call parcelforce. they can do it over the phone. they can take ages to send the letters

I called today and they said I needed the code on the invoice letter, rather than the tracking number. I'll try again tomorrow, would like the rims before the weekend and they're only up the road in welwyn...

£42 customs charge. They didn't break it down for me over the phone, but I think about £8 of that is PF's bullshit handling fee. Should get them tomorrow morning!

Would be interested to know what value CN marked them down as on the export packing slip. £30ish import VAT on what's probably a £300+ set of wheels still isn't bad. Still roughly half what you should legally be asked to pay.

I recently paid £21 (incl. £8 PF handling fee) for a rim that cost me £91 in the Ali 11/11 sale. Box was marked as being worth $48... (= £40ish at the time, so should have had VAT of about £8).
Guessing HMRC are pretty wise to imports being marked down from their true cost/value, so to an extent, they just make it up as they go along.

Yeah they say that they charge based on their valuation of contents, not what's on the box. But that's just if they open it and decided that the marked value is incorrect I guess.

I'm currently running H Plus Son Archetypes with Campagnolo Chorus Skeleton Brakes - there is roughly 1.5mm clearance between the brake pads and the rims (at most), having the calipers set as wide as they can go. I'm using the stock Campagnolo pads that come supplied with the calipers.

I'm a little dubious that >25mm rims will clear the brakepads. Is anyone here running wide (>25mm) carbon clincher rims with Skeleton brakes? Googling it, I can only seem to find people talking about tyre width/brake clearance, rather than rim width...

Thats why swisstop makes thinner pads for wide rims .. or just file your current pads.

Potenza brakes take shimano pads.

Yeah, I'm not complaining about the customs charge, but do feel PF sticking an extra charge on is a bit cheeky. I'll let you know the value cn*carbon marked it as.

I've bought some electronics and bits for a couple of drones before and never had to pay customs, but I guess a pair of wheels is a bit more obvious (and high value).

I got that; it is damn cheeky, especially when they've already been paid to actually post the thing by whoever sent it.
Quoting directly from their little customs guide, these are their reasons:

• Presenting your parcels to Border Force, opening them for
inspection if required and storing them if Border Force wishes
to investigate further.
• Repackaging your items once they are returned to us.
• Paying customs duty or VAT due on your behalf.
• Writing to you to advise you of your outstanding payment.
• Storing your items securely until you can make payment.
(http://www.parcelforce.com/sites/default/files/Customs%20leaflet.pdf)

Basically everything domestic post gets for free, because they've already been paid by the seller.
Given that items under the (marked?) value of £35 don't pay anything (presumably more hassle than it's worth), maybe the price is a bit steep to offset that stuff beling allowed in for free?

that was what I thought - although a little disappointed to shave precious millimeters off my pads. Cheers.

Any favoured pads for basalt brake track clinchers? Lifeline Blue seem to be the best value for money option, Black Prince for those wanting to spend more

I've run Lifeline Blue on both china carbon and Reynolds rims, no complaints at all. Actually even work a little better than legit Reynolds blue pads

corima