Elite Wheels / Aliexpress / Trace Velo

[boost3782]

Been lurking here for several months as I am a new cyclist with sticker shock on carbon road bikes here in the US which led me down the rabbit hole of Chinese frames and building my own. Finding this forum and seeing several channels on Youtube that are dedicated to the Chinese parts I want to give it a try on building my own. I have been making some purchases and starting to gather parts. Having watched Trace Velo on Youtube I purchased off Aliexpress the Sensah team pro shifters to be used witha Shimano 105 groupset along with some Junitech f1 brakes. It's taken a turn for the worse with the Elite Wheels purchase he recommends.

On his videos he claims he's not sponsored by these companies and he gives his "truthful" reviews. Looked legitimate to me as I have seen some of his videos he did give negatives on some of the Chinese products. With the Elite Wheels ENT set getting solid reviews by him and people in his video's comment section I gave them a look on Aliexpress. They had hundreds of good reviews so I went ahead and made an order with upgraded xray spokes for a total of $500. Fast forward months later the mangled Elite Wheel box showed up on my porch. The hubs were sticking out of the box on both sides. I opened it up to find many broken spokes and some badly damaged wheels. Needless to say they were paper weights at that point. Contacted Elite Wheels through Aliexpress and they said Aliexpress is responsible for all shipping so start a dispute. Once the dispute was started Elite Wheel denied the claim so it went to Aliexpress for decision. Aliexpress offered $100 refund. Of course this was not acceptable so at this point I started a chargeback through paypal. Come to find out Aliexpress bans you for this.

So with this bad experience going down I left a comment on Trace Velo's video on these wheels kinda as a heads up to potential buyers. That was yesterday. I woke up this morning and checked to see if I needed to reply to anyone and to my surprise the comment had been deleted. I posted another comment and added that I am going to post on here to let people know Trace Velo is deleting negative comments on these Chinese companies that he is supposedly not sponsored by. It was deleted in less than 2 minutes. Now I am not the brightest bulb in the pack but for a person to claim they are giving honest reviews and are not sponsored by the company to turn around and have a negative comment deleted in less than 2 minutes speaks volumes to me. With the above said I do have a screen shot of what I posted. I can post it if that would help. I am more concerned with people knowing which youtubers and forums are legitimate advice to listen to and spend their hard earned money accordingly and who is just making content to make money off people.

Needless to say I am still in need of wheels. I am wanting 700c 50mm deep by 25mm wide carbon wheels. It looks like I most likely will have several xray spokes after the Elite Wheel fiasco so I am not afraid to purchase more spokes and hubs to put something together. What are some recommended brands to go with for wheels? What places are legitimate to purchase from? I am also very interested in the Carbonda CFR1056 frame. Is that frame worth buying over a good aluminum frame with a lifetime warranty stateside for about the same price?

Wish my first post here was more positive but if my situation can help save just one person the headache I went through it was worth it.

Thanks,
Kyle

[cramy]

Sorry to read that you got a bad eperience with Ali express and shipping of your goods.

I think trace velo got sponsored for the review of the elitewheels drive 50, as he got them for free, and also got a promo code for people to get a discount.

You can check on this forum, with Peter for some wheels.

http://chinertown.com/index.php/topic,3830.0.html

[boost3782]

Yes I saw his video on the Drive 50 wheels where he did in fact say he got for free. He did not state in that video he is now sponsored by them only that he got that set for free. The video and wheels I am referring to he purchased with his own money and was not sponsored so he states. If he is now in fact sponsored by a company he needs to make that clear on previous videos where he clearly says he isn't then turns around and deletes anything negative towards said company. It's a shady practice period. I'm sure the wheels are a good product but the company is garbage. To tell a customer they are not responsible for shipping and pass the buck to Aliexpress who they have to know at this point is going to try and screw their customer over is terrible business practice. I would have paid more for the product to package it better for shipping instead of just the thin retail cardboard box they sent them in to be destroyed.

Thanks for the link to the wheels. I will check into them.

[s3si1u]

Sorry to read that you got a bad eperience with Ali express and shipping of your goods.

I think trace velo got sponsored for the review of the elitewheels drive 50, as he got them for free, and also got a promo code for people to get a discount.

You can check on this forum, with Peter for some wheels.

http://chinertown.com/index.php/topic,3830.0.html

My experience with Peter was very underwhelming. Doesn't really like answering questions or want you to see the product before you agree to purchasing. He completely ghosted me after a while. But just like any seller we talk about on here, YMMV.
I went with Farsports instead.

[jungian]

Bummer, at least you got your money back. Sounds like it was a shipping issue. If the carbon or hubs aren't cracked or bent you may be able to salvage the wheels by replacing the spokes. I've ordered two sets of wheels from elite directly from their website and the entire process was smooth. The link cramy posted looks like a pretty good deal, hope that works out for you. Farsports and Lightbicycle are two other pretty big wheel brands to check out.

Regarding the Trace Velo comment, I could see it being deleting if it blamed the Elite for the damage instead of shipping. I've had packages no show and other times get a completely different item than what I ordered, that's just how it goes.

BTW what frame are you building up?

[boost3782]

Haven't gotten my money back yet... The wheels are shot. They are bent pretty bad. My comment was letting others know Elite Wheels will simply wipe their hands with a customer after they send the product on Aliexpress when it comes to shipping damage and how Aliexpress will try and rip you off on a low ball compensation offer. That is on his video of the ENT Elite Wheels on Aliexpress which are the the exact ones I followed his advice on and purchased. Nothing more nothing less. I'm just the random average person he is making videos for and wanted to share my bad experience on the exact product he's making a video on that helped make my decision to spend my hard earned money on it. He comes off as he is trying to help the community and deleting comments such as mine is sheltering poor practices from both Elite Wheels and Aliexpress on the exact products he's promoting as a "non sponsor" knowing darn well what he is saying is helping drive people to buy said items.

As for the frame I am really interested in the Carbonda CFR1056. Being new to cycling I have a local bike shop here that I met the owner on one of our local trails. Really nice guy and have done some group rides with him. I'm on a Trek FX2 and looking to get into a drop bar endurance road bike which he is a Marin, Fuji, and Cervelo dealer and has given me some options/pricing. He has stressed to me that the last few Chinese carbon frames he has worked on for customers have been so bad that he will not put them together for customers anymore. He is willing to take a brand new Marin Gestalt 1 and strip it down and sell me the frame so I can build it with what I want for about the same money the Carbonda CFR1056 cost me to get to the States. That frame would be aluminum and have a lifetime warranty. Geometry is close to the Carbonda CFR1056.

The damage from shipping is unfortunate but how it was handled help reinforce how difficult it is to deal with Chinese companies on items with issues. My local bike shop guy isn't pushy or trying to just get a sale but was more concerned for my safety and ending up with a problem bike. That also is making it hard for me to take the risk on spending close to 1k on a Chinese carbon frame to my door.  I've seen several posts on here about Carbonda being one of the better Chinese companies which is great but just as you said you had great experiences with Elite Wheels directly on their site and they dropped the ball and left me out to dry on Aliexpress.

[svanimpe]

I've owned a 1056 before, it was excellent quality. Even the paint job was top-notch. It's my go-to frame for anyone looking for an endurance bike (meaning more upright position and bigger tyres, but still handles like a race bike, not a gravel bike).

Regarding your shipping issue: I always advise people not to order frames or wheels from AliExpress. Those parts are very susceptible to shipping damage (as you've found out), and Chinese stores don't really care about customer protection, so you're left to the goodwill of AliExpress and its sellers, which is often zero. Most sellers simply shrug off any claim with "friend, we sold 1000 of these, with no complaints".

I always order direct from companies like Carbonda, Light Carbon, and Light Bicycle, and have always had good customer service. They should also have shipping insurance, so when something does go wrong in shipping, they can send you a replacement part and recover the cost from the shipping company.

[jonathanf2]

Sorry to hear about your bad experience. Sounds like a shipping problem that neither Elite Wheels or AliExpress wanted to take responsibility for. AliExpress does recommend you video record the opening of the box first and foremost when receiving an expensive item. I do that for anything that cost more than $100 bucks fro Ali.

I do own 2 sets of Elite Wheels and they are quite solid. I even use 1 wheelset on my gravel bike, riding very rough trails and they hold up just fine despite not being gravel specific.

[carbonazza]

... Needless to say I am still in need of wheels. I am wanting 700c 50mm deep by 25mm wide carbon wheels...

I work mainly with lightbicycle.com and Carbonda.
Precisely because of this kind of troubles.
As commented already, unless their packaging is too weak, it is not really Elite Wheels fault.
For a difference, a box with two Carbonda's frames got lost.
After a couple of months of patience, they did send me another pair.
LB always sent me warranty replacement rims even if sometimes the rider was clearly in fault.
Peter recently reappeared, he's as well very reliable to work with.

And for TraceVelo and the other wannabe influencers, these guys need to pay their bills too. Realise this is in general corrupted info, and always take them  with a grain of salt.

[boost3782]

It's good to hear that Carbonda and Light Bicycle are stand up companies. Ill check into Light Bicycle for wheels. Elite Wheels sent the wheels in their retail box so I would put that on them for poor packaging to be sending out of country. It's sad but your right on Trace and the others. I am normally more skeptical but in this case I got got. I appreciate all the replies.

[eucalyptus]

I have ordered 3 pairs of wheels (two different vendors) and one frame from another manufacturer (TFSA). Every package has arrived without trouble and packed extremely well. Although I don't aim to buy the absolute cheapest out there.
500 bucks including shipping are incredible tbf

[Queen of Skulls]

And for TraceVelo and the other wannabe influencers, these guys need to pay their bills too. Realise this is in general corrupted info, and always take them  with a grain of salt.

Trace velo is at the very best click bait. at least now he is.  He had a recent video of the 1000 pound bike.  Which most of those parts were from pre pandemic. IE pre pandemic pricing, I priced those out today without shipping and tax. it was like $1350 usd.

Its dishonest at best.

[Queen of Skulls]

Also with that said I have some elite wheels coming. So we will see.  I hope they make it in one piece. ok 2 pieces.

And to be fair trace velo reviews are at least some what informative. And can give you some idea what to expect with these bike parts. like I got some chinaplay pedals and sensah 2x11 group set. And he got me interested with getting a china bike.

[boost3782]

He did help get me into Chinese parts so I will give him that positive. Best thing I have going for me is finding this forum.

[Velovelo]

...
With the above said I do have a screen shot of what I posted. I can post it if that would help. I am more concerned with people knowing which youtubers and forums are legitimate advice to listen to and spend their hard earned money accordingly and who is just making content to make money off people.

Can you share the screen shot of your comment on Trace Velo's video here so we can see both sides of the issue and evaluate properly for ourselves.
Mind you, it is his channel and source of business and hence he has the right to do whatever he likes with his comment section.

Most of us ended up in this forum because we started our journey watching Trace Velo and hence built our first bike ourselves and saved a lot of money in the process.
Lots of people here also at one point or the other had issues with dealers. This has nothing to do with whichever youtube reviewers we watched before pulling the trigger.

Just because you had a bad experience with a dealer he reviewed doesn't mean you should come here and run him under the bus.

However, I do sympathize with you on the terrible situation which I feel you should take up with EliteWheels and probably Aliexpress.

Maybe you should make your own YouTube video about the situation and put all the keywords that will direct even more traffic, visibility and awareness to your issue with EliteWheels and Aliexpress.

Try doing something positive for the community first before throwing a major contributor of the community under the bus just because of your one bad issue out of many other successful customers.

In addition, just like Velobuild once did regarding issues with their services, It will be good if Elite Wheels or even Trace Velo can comment on this issue since both have lots of customers and followers here respectively. Always the best to hear from both sides before throwing the baby out with the bathwater.