Chinese alloy/carbon wheels

matt.rochfort

Any views, beyond the obvious on Chinese alloy/carbon wheels on ebay? Recommendations/experiences/steer clear of etc...

drlodge

Any warranty is useless due to the high postage costs of returning, therefore don't spend more than you are prepared to lose.

There was an Ebay seller mentioned on here somewhere, did some OK wheels for around the £250 mark...but its a gamble.

arran77

I would say that the appeal of the eBay route for many will be the perceived value for money that these wheels offer.

If you don't want to buy cheap from eBay I see little point in the Chinese route, why spend that much money there when you could spend it with a UK seller.

Look at the likes of Planet X or Wheelsmith in my opinion.

lochindaal

If you don't want to buy cheap from eBay I see little point in the Chinese route, why spend that much money there when you could spend it with a UK seller.

Because Planet X have now put their price up to £550 for a comparitive wheel - I don't understand why they did this as at the old price your argument made sense and would probably be the way most people would have gone.

I have been considering what to do here recently. You can buy the RS81 from Evans at 2 years 0% for £100 more than Planet X which seems a better option IMHO. At the old PX price I probably would have gone for it and given them a try.

arran77

lochindaal wrote:

If you don't want to buy cheap from eBay I see little point in the Chinese route, why spend that much money there when you could spend it with a UK seller.

Because Planet X have now put their price up to £550 for a comparitive wheel - I don't understand why they did this as at the old price your argument made sense and would probably be the way most people would have gone.
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My point was that the OP said opinions beyond the obvious eBay route, eBay is cheap so if you are going to spend around the £500-£600 on Chinese wheels I'm saying you may as well buy from a UK seller, if not Planet X then Wheelsmith or another hand built option.

ugo.santalucia

Many people are happy with them, some are not.

My take is: if you can't afford Planet X slashed prices, you should probably ask yourself if you really need those wheels

StillGoing

Bought some last year for around £280 delivered. Never a problem with them. Rolled nice and smooth and true. Sold them only because the Planet X deal on their carbon tubs came along, but they're no better than the Chinese ones I bought. In fact, I'll wager the Planet X ones are sourced from China or Taiwan as they refuse to name the rim or hub manufacturer when asked.

Camcycle1974

philthy3 wrote:

Bought some last year for around £280 delivered. Never a problem with them. Rolled nice and smooth and true. Sold them only because the Planet X deal on their carbon tubs came along, but they're no better than the Chinese ones I bought. In fact, I'll wager the Planet X ones are sourced from China or Taiwan as they refuse to name the rim or hub manufacturer when asked.

Gigantex and Novatec most likely.

I bought some carbon clinchers direct from China. With hindsight I would probably just go for PX next time due to the problems I had. All sorted now but it was a hassle dealing with China. Luckily the company I used were good and warrantied me some new rims but I still had to foot the bill for a re-build. With PX I could have sent the wheels back and got a new pair. The mechanic in the LBS I used also pointed out that I could have had a set of RS81's for toughly the same money which is true but they don't have the full stealth look i was after. Don't like decals on wheels, they look cheap. H Plus Son is about as loud as I will go graphics wise. Those Campag ones (Bora's ?) are truly awful

lochindaal

With PX I could have sent the wheels back and got a new pair. The mechanic in the LBS I used also pointed out that I could have had a set of RS81's for toughly the same money

This was the point I was making earlier in regards PX business model. Chinese wheels are £250 on ebay. PX used to be £350. You had a choice to buy effectively the same wheels and make a decision on paying an extra £100 for piece of mind.

With PX now at £550 I don't see why anyone would buy them. You can buy Shimano or Mavic for a small amount more.

antsmithmk

I have purchased 2 Chinese wheel sets this year, a 50mm tub set for the TT bike at £200 delivered plus customs charge of about £30. Second set was a 38mm disk CX set at £250 plus £40 charge to parcel force. Very happy with both sets.