I remember there was a thread on here about generic direct from China smart phones that are actually really nice phones and are way less expensive than your standard Apple/Android phones, but was wondering if there were other things you guys randomly picked up while trolling through aliexpress/ebay/alibaba?

Personally, I buy replica watches like nobody's business because they are so cheap and look pretty nice. I have one of every color of the Daniel Wellington replicas: http://www.aliexpress.com/af/daniel-wellington.html?ltype=wholesale&SearchText=daniel+wellington&d=y&origin=n&initiative_id=AS_20150627021853&isViewCP=y&catId=1511

$4 and I get compliments on them all the time.



Kinda random thread topic I guess but was just curious if there was some other cool stuff you guys bought that you thought were good deals. I know I was pumped as hell when I realized I could get these watches for so little $$$.

Kind of a silly question maybe, but I have friends that own a bike shop and this topic came up the other day, so it just had me thinking about where the MTB industry as a whole is heading.

I remember when bikes direct / motobecane first came out and every since then I can guarantee the big bike brands can see it reflecting in their quarterly earnings. Bikes direct was just the kinda first step.. it and sites like it were and are basically cutting out the bike shop, but still kept the middle assembly man in the distribution channel.. Now guys that are building their bikes like on this site are cutting out the bike shop AND the assembly man from the chain.. for a better price on a bike bike built exactly as you want it. Now, of course, not everyone wants to build their own bikes or order all the parts but I think once the information is more and more distributed (like here on chinertown) and not only how fairly simple it is, but also that you get an identical quality bike for a third of the price, also that it's actually pretty fun... more and more will take that route.

I'm rambling. Do you guys think that the buying high quality carbon bike parts direct from China trend is going to be a huge market disruption in the MTB world? Judging by the fact that the couple of Chinese carbon threads on mtbr are BY FAR the most popular threads.. I'd say it's going to get bigger and bigger as the fear of chinese carbon and of doing your own build alleviates. Thoughts?

So as I was sitting here building my chiner on paper, it occurred to me that it might be cool to have the option to be able to get the wheels painted like we can get the frames.

It was this pic that gave me the idea:



Does anyone know if this is available or has already been done? Seems like there would really be no reason that say Iplay or whoever couldn't just paint the rims like they do the frames.. It simply hasn't been requested yet. I guess there may be some concern with added weight? If it was only a small weight penalty I'd still be interested in doing it.

Somehow went from Spanish horse festivals to drooling over the latest 'vette. Nature of the interwebs, I suppose.

Man, this thing has to be the sexiest, most bad ass looking car I've seen in a long time, maybe ever. I'm in love with this thing. Anyone else? Like something else better? The Skyline GT-R is sweet but I don't think it has anything on the corvette (strictly speaking about design)

I've read a few different things about where these frames come from and how they get distributed, but I'm still not entirely clear on the matter.

So, all of the 256, 036, and 057 frames are from the same manufacturer? Just one or more than one manufacturer? Or do each of these sellers each produce their own frames in-house?

Thx.