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

[ZacItaly15]

There's actually not that much difference between 32 internal and something like 25 or 26. The guys from the Bicycle Station YouTube channel installed the same tires on the super wide Zipp XPLR and Reserve gravel wheels, and the difference was 1 mm, if I remember correctly

I did some measurements
A 28mm tubeless tyre is 29mm with 21mm inner and 31mm with 24mm inner.
IDK but the increase of confort is noticeable due to the different shape of the section of the tyre.
A wider rim is also more robust compared to a "normal" rim.
I have a leftover 25mm tubeless i'm running on a 24mm wide tyre (out of spec...) and it works perfectly

[kubackje]

I did some measurements
A 28mm tubeless tyre is 29mm with 21mm inner and 31mm with 24mm inner.
IDK but the increase of confort is noticeable due to the different shape of the section of the tyre.
A wider rim is also more robust compared to a "normal" rim.
I have a leftover 25mm tubeless i'm running on a 24mm wide tyre (out of spec...) and it works perfectly

Your are talking about road tires and he is talking about gravel/off road tires. That's different thing, especially today when they're made for wider internal and are true to size

[jonathanf2]

I found more difference running hookless vs hooked for gravel. I actually prefer the hookless wheel with the same 25mm internal width. It was way easier to bead the tire, and the hookless wheels squares off the tire better allowing for more surface contact. Even with the same internal width, tires on hooked rims still appear more bulbous. I'm all for hookless!

[SillyMochi]

Did you recently get a job at Zipp Wheels?! You are the first person (outside of the marketing scheme) I heard of that - as a customer/user - prefers hookless over hooked
I rather carry one tire lever and rip up my fingers while removing the tire, than "carrying" the chance of the whole thing catastrophically blowing off on me on a decent or other high-speed part ...

[SillyMochi]

Ok fair enough. But what pressure calculator from hell are you using?

I'm running 28C on my road bike. I'm 85kg, so I use 95kg as system weight. Even for dry conditions, the recommendations I get are well below 70psi - and that's with inner tubes on perfect smooth tarmac. I usually run 62/67 for dry and 60/62 for wet. Wouldn't dare to go higher even if I technically could up to 95 psi.

[wandulus]

Ok fair enough. But what pressure calculator from hell are you using?

I'm running 28C on my road bike. I'm 85kg, so I use 95kg as system weight. Even for dry conditions, the recommendations I get are well below 70psi - and that's with inner tubes on perfect smooth tarmac. I usually run 62/67 for dry and 60/62 for wet. Wouldn't dare to go higher even if I technically could up to 95 psi.

Let me step in. Good roads, 28C, 78Kg system weight: 80 PSI according to SILCA.
I'm ussually around that number (78 back, 76 front) Maybe a couple of PSIs lower on winter.

[SillyMochi]

Okay, I see where you all are getting those numbers. Silca seems to be really high on their recommendations. I found SRAM to be more consistent with my type of riding: https://axs.sram.com/guides/tire/pressure

But before we are getting severely off-topic: I am using this mini pump since a few months. So far, very good results. It's just small and lightweight enough to fit in my mini saddle bag. Can pump ~3x 28mm tire to 65psi before it runs out of battery. Got it on sale for $23 back then. Prices are roughly the same (no sale currently), so might be still a good deal if someone is looking to replace their CO2 pumps.
TOPUMP TB2 PRO Mini Portable Electric Pump for Bike Cordless Tire Inflator 120PSI Max 450mAh Battery with Screen Fast Charging
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007274254758.html

[jonathanf2]

I should emphasize hookless for gravel, because no way would I run hookless for road. I'm a hardcore 25c tire user. Even with my tubeless 25c tires, I still like them aired up to 80 psi. I don't like wide road tires at all. For anything below 60psi, hookless aren't bad at all in my opinion. It's actually harder to get a tire on a hookless rim. It's tight ASF!

A few recent purchases I made. Bright lights and internally routed bike stem!

Bucklos USB type-C charging lights (very bright):
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256808665737470.html

Riro internally routed alloy stem:
https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256808975648028.html

[Bigbobby1482]

Just picked up this 3d printed Titanium computer mount from rrskit https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009028911492.html
Looks really cool, and fits the Lexon Vero bar perfectly. It weighed 23 grams with the gomount mount it comes with, but after sawing that off, the mount only weighs 20 grams.
Super solid, even though it looks really flexy. I can't bend it at all.
Not that the 2 screw part is not flat, so might not work on all handlebars

Pictures below.
https://imgur.com/a/AXHLW38

[kbernstein]

I'm not sure I understand the point of these. It's 3 times the price of a carbon one, 6 times the price of aluminium, yet heavier than both? And it clashes with handlebar color, unless that's your thing.
3D printed titanium is expensive and a cool gimmick but I don't see why they're in any way better for these

[Bigbobby1482]

I'm not sure I understand the point of these. It's 3 times the price of a carbon one, 6 times the price of aluminium, yet heavier than both? And it clashes with handlebar color, unless that's your thing.
3D printed titanium is expensive and a cool gimmick but I don't see why they're in any way better for these

I really only got it cause I thought it was cool. I tried a carbon one from og-evkin, but they don't have the angle to fit the lexon bar. Do you know of any lighter option that does?
Also the stock aluminium one was 38 grams, and couldn't find any that would fit that'd be lower weight.

[Daviddavieboy]

I really only got it cause I thought it was cool.

- Really, this is the only thing that matters in the real world.

[kbernstein]

Followup to the aliexpress buying guide: can somebody make a taobao guide for foreigners? I occasionally see people posting about great scores like groupsets or chains in bulks. I've read a couple articles but it still looks like a minefield. Do we have a veteran comfortable with making a freight forwarding guide? Is there a way to buy without KYC? Is it even worth it in most cases?

[debaser]

Followup to the aliexpress buying guide: can somebody make a taobao guide for foreigners? I occasionally see people posting about great scores like groupsets or chains in bulks. I've read a couple articles but it still looks like a minefield. Do we have a veteran comfortable with making a freight forwarding guide? Is there a way to buy without KYC? Is it even worth it in most cases?

I would also be very interested in this! Would say i have a black belt in aliex and know most of the relevant tricks, but making taobao work with confidence would be most useful

[havox07]

Followup to the aliexpress buying guide: can somebody make a taobao guide for foreigners? I occasionally see people posting about great scores like groupsets or chains in bulks. I've read a couple articles but it still looks like a minefield. Do we have a veteran comfortable with making a freight forwarding guide? Is there a way to buy without KYC? Is it even worth it in most cases?

Used to be into it for coffee gear. Not a guide by any means but taobao is a real pain in general, its recommended to use an agent to act as the middle man, they receive the package, take some photos and then repackage and ship it to you. The problem would be once its reshipped to you, you won't have much of any recourse to return the items if there are any issues unless you want to pay to ship it back to China.

Usually once you factor in the agent fees you really aren't saving a ton vs aliexpress, especially with some coupon stacking. The only real benefit I would see is finding items that are only on the chinese market. Even trying to browse taobao these days is quite difficult, and accounts are difficult to create and don't even fully solve the problem.