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

[00Garza]

I'm so sick of the shitty icetec rotors. What rotors are you guys using? Any great centerlocks from ali?

I just get shimano rotors from Ali or Ebay. RT10 or RT54 have worked well for me. Nothing fancy, they just work.

[coffeebreak]

Yup. RT10/30/54/56 whatever for the win. I don't bother much and get the cheapest one depending on the sale. One thing that I am certain is those cheapo Shimano rotors are better than cheapo Chiner rotors.

[frenzen]

What do you mean warm out of the box? Heating up fast? The cutesliving store has a pair for 38€ during sale so I'm tempted but I'm afraid those rivets might fail like tracevelo has reported on his - they weren't kactus but the rivet looks very similar. Price seems a bit steep if compared to the zrace that goes for 10€/pair and there's no claimed figures to compare them
By the way the CD-01 are way overpriced in the last link, it can be had for 1/4th the price in other stores

Here is what coffee break told about them:

https://chinertown.com/index.php?topic=3627.45

They are the same ones as CD-01 and maybe he got some faulty ones but either way, due diligence.

[rasch]

What is the exact problem of ice tech rotors?

[kbernstein]

What is the exact problem of ice tech rotors?

They have a huge tendency to warp, sometimes out of the box brand new. Supposedly the steel-aluminum sandwich is also not the best at dissipating heat or something. They're pretty though

[rasch]

They have a huge tendency to warp, sometimes out of the box brand new. Supposedly the steel-aluminum sandwich is also not the best at dissipating heat or something. They're pretty though

Fair enough. Never had such problem but I also live in a country where the highest hill is like 300m

[coffeebreak]

Here is what coffee break told about them:

https://chinertown.com/index.php?topic=3627.45

They are the same ones as CD-01 and maybe he got some faulty ones but either way, due diligence.

Coffeebreak here again, I later got Racework version of the same because I don't learn from mistakes but they are trash too. Not just poor braking all around, a light rain sends them screaming. Compared to RT10/30/54 rotors these have a matte finish on them that may be the culprit. The Shimano rotors are shiny, polished.

Also if you are impatient to wait 15 or more days for Aliexpress shipping, many vendors on Amazon sell better rotors for very reasonable prices and they all come with Shimano branding on them, complete with that little orange sticker from original rotors. Not sure what's happening there. Even the lockring is Shimano.

Here is one such listing for the brand "Balinge"

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CXDQZCRX

I have these, they are Shimano RT54s. Fake or not but better than Onirii/Racework hands down.

[00Garza]

Also if you are impatient to wait 15 or more days for Aliexpress shipping, many vendors on Amazon sell better rotors for very reasonable prices and they all come with Shimano branding on them, complete with that little orange sticker from original rotors. Not sure what's happening there. Even the lockring is Shimano.

Here is one such listing for the brand "Balinge"

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CXDQZCRX

I have these, they are Shimano RT54s. Fake or not but better than Onirii/Racework hands down.

Ronde cycling store on ebay has been my go to for rotors when I'm in a hurry.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/353456758632?var=622679525292

[lantz]

Trace Velo reviewed the Deckas rotors. They fixed those rotors though, just make sure you get the updated versions in the brown cardboard sleeve box versus the white sleeves. The white sleeve rotors are old stock. They only sell them in 6 bolt though.

I'm running the Kactus rotors and there is no rivet play out the box. I'm running both the 6 bolt and CL versions. The 6 bolt rotors are on my gravel bike sees nothing but dirt and single track and the CL rotor bike does a ton of descents. Both are fine.

Those CD-01 are just cheap rotors you can get off Pick 3. The CD-02 rotors are the ones to get.

Can vouch for this, wish I knew: CD-01 are absolutely trash.

[Tijoe]

"Planet Cyclery" is going out of business/closing its doors.   (I presume they are another online retailer that didn't manage the past few years very well)

I spent about a 1/2 hour looking at all of their sale prices.  From my perspective, their "sale prices" are still to expensive compared to the deals I get on a regular basis through Aliexpress.

[bremerradkurier]

"Planet Cyclery" is going out of business/closing its doors.   (I presume they are another online retailer that didn't manage the past few years very well)

I spent about a 1/2 hour looking at all of their sale prices.  From my perspective, their "sale prices" are still to expensive compared to the deals I get on a regular basis through Aliexpress.

Their sister company Colorado Cyclist is doing the same, and Merlin Cycles in the UK still undercuts both of them on Shimano components.

Colorado Cyclist was great in the 80s to early 2000s with awesome mail order catalogs.

[AzureEssence]

I j recently got some 6 bolt rotors

Zooms were trash

Avids are great

[zxcvbnmjm]

racework crankset with dub spindle and self extracting crankbolts.

Are they new? Or did i miss them

Edit: just saw this pic of them with the new 105 three bolt chainrings! Lol

[Serge_K]

I installed the old design on 5 bikes, and i cracked one non drive side arm at 6 or 7nm. Racework is largely useless to deal with. They made so many mistakes in my order with them that i can't remember the exact count. Beyond the cranks, i bought 12s chains from them, they sent me 11s, the bar tape they sold me is the absolute worst i've ever used, and more. They refused to warranty anything, including the crank arm even though it was low torque (they dont tell you what torque to use, btw), but i managed to buy a replacement one for cheap enough - abnormal, but at least i still have 5 cranksets to use and not 4, for now anyway -.
We've put around 5k km on all these cranksets so far, i'd say. to avoid cracking more crank arms, i'm using 5nm and an obscene amount of threadlock. It's been working.
Either way they updated the non drive side design.
I wouldn't recommend them, goes without saying, but to be fair, i'm happy with the cranksets as long as it's not broken - kind of like i'm happy with my ltwoo er9 when it's not broken, the problem being that out of 5, 2 broke for no reason -, and their 3d printed saddles are nice too.

[jonathanf2]

The 2nd iteration Racework crankset is also the same design as the Riro crankset.

It's an improvement over the previous design, but I did have problems installing it on non-Shimano bottom brackets. It would seize up before fully locking down. It works fine on both Shimano Ultegra PF and threaded BSA bottom brackets, but I had issues installing it on my threaded PF BB that was non-Shimano. I'm guessing it might be a difference in bearing size that's causing an issue?

This 29mm axle version looks interesting for the 3rd design iteration. I'm guessing it locks in from the non-drive side with a built-in locking screw. I wonder if they'll use this design for the 24mm axle version?