I was interested in the price of the aero chainrings he said he did order, as well as the crank lengths available for Lees on Ali shown in one of the pictures. Where is the derailment for you?
I paid $165 USD for the chainrings. I just thought it was interesting to see similar ones pop up on AliExpress for less—and in the video, the rings were branded Eililee even though they were being sold as Lees 😄😄. As we’ve seen with other carbon components like cranks, there’s likely more than one manufacturer involved.
I also received a catalogue from Apex Carbon. They’re selling what looks like the same cranks, although the image resembles something from Lexon. I first came across Apex Carbon in a China Cycling YouTube video—I think it was filmed at the Taipei Bike Show—where Joe Whittingham picked up a set of 50mm rims weighing just 320g. That’s what prompted me to contact them. They mentioned they’ve optimized the layup, but the production version of that rim is actually 348g. Still, it’s a 21mm internal width rim
For reference, I’m currently running a DFS Carbon crank on my X68—165mm arms, 24mm titanium axle, weighing 320g. I paid £185 GBP with Passquest 53-39T rings, which I plan to swap for the XM Carbon rings. Nothing wrong with the Passquest rings—they’re excellent—but I prefer the look of the carbon rings and want to see how much lighter they are and how they shift.
On my SL8, I’m using a 170mm DUB axle Cybrei crank with 54-38T Cybrei Carbon Meta Aero chainrings.
