Carbon Stems bars seatposts from AliExpress etc

gary_sparrow
gary_sparrow Posts: 181
edited October 2019 in Road buying advice
A friend recently bought some Carbon bits from AliExpress . Great prices obviously in comparison to well known brands
Has anyone experience of these unbranded bits and pieces from China etc ?

Comments

  • keef66
    keef66 Posts: 13,123
    Have you asked your friend?
  • gary_sparrow
    gary_sparrow Posts: 181
    keef66 wrote:
    Have you asked your friend?


    He only picked them up the other day . Stem / seatpost and bars . I was surprised how good they looked and the price .
    Tempted myself but..
  • arlowood
    arlowood Posts: 2,561
    Gary sparrow wrote:
    keef66 wrote:
    Have you asked your friend?


    He only picked them up the other day . Stem / seatpost and bars . I was surprised how good they looked and the price .
    Tempted myself but..
    The old "caveat emptor" certainly applies in this case. Bars and stems a safety critical items so I would hold off until your friend has had some real world riding experience.
    The AliExpress items will originate from somewhere in the Far East and while there are some reputable manufacturers from that region there are also many cowboys who produce goods of questionable quality
  • alanyu
    alanyu Posts: 73
    I've used two chinese carbon seatposts. Quality is OK.

    Stem or bar, no. I don't want to risk myself as I've seen quite a lot of issues on chinese forum. Some high quality stem/bar combos are selling on taobao, but I can't found them on ali.
  • keef66
    keef66 Posts: 13,123
    Although I ride a carbon frameset I've never been tempted by carbon bars. Mainly because of the price. Alloy bars are cheap, strong and light enough, and I'm not paranoid about whether I've damaged them when the bike falls over or I stack it. If I bend an alloy bar I'd just replace it.

    Not sure I'd take a chance on carbon bars from AliExpress, but YMMV

    Carbon stems make no sense to me at all.
  • mugensi
    mugensi Posts: 559
    I've been using carbon bars that I bought on Aliexpress around 2 years ago. I have the same bars on both bikes, theyre branded as 'Winowsports' or something along those lines although they do not have any branding/name printed on them. They were around £30 delivered and had very good reviews. Before I fitted them I placed the bars on the corner of my work bench and put my full weight (75kg) on them raising myself off the ground, there was little or no discernible flex in them. I also held the drop on one side and placed the other on the ground pressing down on the bars and again little or no flex or creaking so I was happy to fit them on my winter bike. I have since bought another set for my good bike and have put approx. 6k kms on them between both bikes since without issue.
  • dannbodge
    dannbodge Posts: 1,152
    Plenty of people use chinese seatposts without issues.

    I wouldn't even consider the bars, especially when you can get some backed up with warranty from wiggle for £100 or Planet x for £50.

    Carbon stems just a no-no for me.
  • imposter2.0
    imposter2.0 Posts: 12,028
    The origin (ie China) isn't the issue. A significant majority of carbon parts and frames come out of China now. Provenance is the issue. Buy from a reputable seller, or give it a miss.
  • mr_evil
    mr_evil Posts: 234
    I have used quite a lot of Chinese carbon parts, including handlebars from AliExpress. I usually buy unbranded stuff just so that I can get parts with no logos on them, since occidental companies for some reason feel the need to plaster their name all over everything in a massive font like I want to be a rolling advert. Mostly it's all been of good quality, and nothing has ever been bad enough that I felt it unsafe. I try to indentify companies that have been around long enough to build a reputation, and avoid ones that sell counterfeits, since that implies a lack of scruples.
    https://mrevil.asvachin.eu/

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