Interesting Aliexpress finds! - good deals, interesting stuff, new products etc!

[00Garza]

Pretty sure the coins are automatically deducted according to what percentage seller allows. The "coin" tab has sellers that have larger coin discounts.

[00Garza]

I've seen a few Youtube build videos of the BXT 135. It has a universal round seatpost, wide tire clearance and a threaded BSA bottom bracket. I don't see how anyone can go wrong building one? The Chasing Wind frame is significantly more expensive, the Seaboard frame while nice (I've seen a build in-person) is much heavier alloy setup and I don't see how the Flyxii frame would differ as a low cost option, since you could probably go with either an Airwolf or SPCycle frame for not much more money.

Very true. I just have a personal disdain for the internal routing through headtube. The ones I listed are "traditional" internal routing. Maybe its time I get over that and join the cool kids club.

[jonathanf2]

Very true. I just have a personal disdain for the internal routing through headtube. The ones I listed are "traditional" internal routing. Maybe its time I get over that and join the cool kids club.

I think with the BXT 135 frame you can still use a drop bar without it being fully integrated and just have the cables run through the headtube. Also there's still some merit to semi-internal cabling. I flew with my gravel bike (which has cable ports on the down tube) over the summer and it was quite easy to pack it in a travel case. I could easily remove the drop bars and stem while not having to detach my full hydraulic brake hoses.

[sbellote]

about the coins, 00Garza is right on his take.. coins are automatically applied, but usually it's 1, 2, or max 5% of discount.. so you can have thousands of dollars in coins but can only use it on the allowed discount for each particullar product

if you go to the coin tab, there are special discounts where sometimes it's like 30% of the price that you can pay in coins, but it's not that awesome either because many times the original price is a bit higher than what you can get on 'normal' products, and then this 'super coin discount' ends up a similar price you'd get on another seller
but it's always worth taking a look, because same as the 'Super Deals' page, good products are added in limited amounts, if you're lucky to see something you want and it's a fair price, jump on it right away

Pretty sure the coins are automatically deducted according to what percentage seller allows. The "coin" tab has sellers that have larger coin discounts.

[Wet Noodle]

...
if you go to the coin tab, there are special discounts where sometimes it's like 30% of the price that you can pay in coins, but it's not that awesome either ...

You mean the coins landing page with the "collect" button for daily coins (and the link to gogo match and other extra stuff if you're on a mobile browser)? Those discounts don't even work for me; not sure, if that is a regional glitch, a browser problem or whatever. I see a lot of products for the absolute same price there as I normally would - only difference is, it says, like, "20 % discount with coins" (instead of the 1 or 2 that you basically always get). And it never works. Maybe I'm too dumb for Chinese maths, but in my basket the claimed (higher) coin discount won't be applied, but some odd number instead which is way lower and not even close.

In addition to what you'll see when you scroll down on the coins landing page, there is another page, where you can spend a substantially higher amount of coins on stuff to presumably substitute for some of the price (like some payback points scheme). I've seen amounts in the 10s of dollars worth of coins in some cases. Never tried it, but at a first glance the remaining prices (what you'd have to pay in actual money) still seemed kinda high and the combined prices (coins + rest) way above the usual rates.

[jonathanf2]

For those in the US, I'm curious how your packages are being delivered? At least for southern California, in the last 1-2 months the majority of my AliExpress packages have been delivered via private courier. I've had issues with USPS in the past being incredibly slow and/or losing an item (happened once) once they receive packages after clearing customs. I find this new system much better!

[AzureEssence]

For those in the US, I'm curious how your packages are being delivered? At least for southern California, in the last 1-2 months the majority of my AliExpress packages have been delivered via private courier. I've had issues with USPS in the past being incredibly slow and/or losing an item (happened once) once they receive packages after clearing customs. I find this new system much better!

100% of my orders are coming through USPS in AR. Never messed up an order yet.

[coffeebreak]

Me too. Almost 95% usps and remaining by DHL global express. One of very last orders from 11/11 sale (ordered a few hours before end of sale) was delivered today - apparently the seller/stock is in the USA and shipped it on 18th. 2 days flat via DHL. That was a first for me. It was a Shimano Deore cassette - I didn't know small parts sellers also had stock in the USA.

[coffeebreak]

Between Sensah and LTwoo GR9 11 speed mechanical cable pull shifters, which one do you guys recommend? I'm kinda liking LTwoo system for shifting but not sure.
P. S. I do have Shimano 105 R7000 shifters, just want to experiment.

[Tijoe]

Me too. Almost 95% usps and remaining by DHL global express. One of very last orders from 11/11 sale (ordered a few hours before end of sale) was delivered today - apparently the seller/stock is in the USA and shipped it on 18th. 2 days flat via DHL. That was a first for me. It was a Shimano Deore cassette - I didn't know small parts sellers also had stock in the USA.

I have 7 items that I ordered on 11-11 that haven't even shipped yet!   OTOH, I have been ordering up to 10 items on their $1.99 sale with free shipping when you order 3 items minimum.  These batches of items have been taking about 10 working days to arrive.  (Delivery to Montana)   I have 2 items from past "12 day guaranteed" purchases/sales, (or get a free $1 coupon) that have gone missing, and I am waiting for the 45 days to pass so I can get a refund.

[jonathanf2]

Between Sensah and LTwoo GR9 11 speed mechanical cable pull shifters, which one do you guys recommend? I'm kinda liking LTwoo system for shifting but not sure.
P. S. I do have Shimano 105 R7000 shifters, just want to experiment.

Get the Sensah Team Pro shifters and run them with Shimano derailleurs. The hydraulic HRD version will be on sale soon for the Black Friday sale. The LTwoo thumb trigger gets in my way. Sensah shifters are more ergo and visually clean looking.

[coffeebreak]

Got it. Funnily enough the thumb trigger on LTwoo is what caught my fancy. I have Shimano and SRAM.. And this looked different.

[jonathanf2]

Got it. Funnily enough the thumb trigger on LTwoo is what caught my fancy. I have Shimano and SRAM.. And this looked different.

I really like the Sensah shift motion and ergonomics. It looks clean with just one brake/shift lever. The only thing I don't like is that the shift cable routing is a bit convoluted (same as LTwoo), you really need to pull firmly on the shift cable near the RD to make sure there's no slack (indexing will be off) and downshifting might require a bit of finger reach if you're in the drops (requires double clicks). On the plus side I feel the shifting is smoother under load when climbing compared to Shimano, the shift clicks actually sound cool and definitely the lower price. I don't race, so the nuances of shifting might be an issue, but I've never had any problems on fast group rides.

Also at this point, I think Sensah as ironed out a lot of their early production issues. I consider them one of the more mature Chinese brands at this point like Senicx, Onirii, etc. State Bicycles in the US use their components and they're starting to pop as an OEM on some entry level bike builds. Even though LTwoo has been first to bat with hydraulic and now electronic, I don't consider them a mature brand yet with solid components.

[coffeebreak]

Also at this point, I think Sensah as ironed out a lot of their early production issues. I consider them one of the more mature Chinese brands at this point like Senicx, Onirii, etc. State Bicycles in the US use their components and they're starting to pop as an OEM on some entry level bike builds. Even though LTwoo has been first to bat with hydraulic and now electronic, I don't consider them a mature brand yet with solid components.

I agree with this assessment. Plenty of issues reported by members here regarding LTwoo groups.

[coffeebreak]

I have 7 items that I ordered on 11-11 that haven't even shipped yet!   OTOH, I have been ordering up to 10 items on their $1.99 sale with free shipping when you order 3 items minimum.  These batches of items have been taking about 10 working days to arrive.  (Delivery to Montana)   I have 2 items from past "12 day guaranteed" purchases/sales, (or get a free $1 coupon) that have gone missing, and I am waiting for the 45 days to pass so I can get a refund.

3 of other small items that I ordered on 13th Nov are here today (Washington state). Items in question - Varia tail light mount, Taimeli titanium screws, Heppe golden cables. The tracking shows they came from China and not shipped locally within USA. That is actually *pretty* fast. If they keep up like this and reduce shipping even further, down to 5-6 days I will stop ordering sh*t from Amazon Prime which is 95% AliExpress stuff anyway, except fast shipping cost factored in.

P.S. Interestingly the Heppe cables came in a bubble wrap with large sticker on it that said "TIME SENSITIVE MATERIAL INSIDE" LOOOOLLL