Chinertown
Other Resources => Component Deals & Selection => Topic started by: alfiomotrambo on January 21, 2026, 02:18:42 AM
-
Hi everyone,
I wanted to share a quick reflection after reading/analyzing a new “guide to buying Chinese bikes” that’s been circulating lately.
To be honest, I find it a bit hard to believe that someone can actually sell a course on this topic. This is where the old saying “those who can, do; those who can’t, teach” inevitably comes to mind. It might sound harsh, but the idea of packaging this kind of knowledge into a paid “course” feels quite absurd to me. A lot of what’s being sold as expertise is something you can already gain through real-world experience, forums, communities, and a bit of common sense.
That said, I don’t want to be entirely negative 😅. There was one genuinely positive takeaway: while going through the material, I discovered something I didn’t know before—MMR seems to share the frame (?) with other manufacturers. That part was actually interesting and made me dig a bit deeper. Learning about these kinds of behind-the-scenes manufacturing details is always valuable.
So overall, my feeling is that this kind of content would make much more sense as an open discussion and shared experience rather than a paid course. Knowledge about bikes—Chinese or otherwise—is built by riding, testing, comparing, and talking with other riders, not by selling a “one-size-fits-all” guide.
PS: sorry if this is a bit off-topic for the forum; if it’s not appropriate, feel free to delete it.
-
A course with a fee? Never heard of it.
But behinde the scenes information is always interesting.
-
As the old adage goes, there's a sucker born every minute. ;)
-
Decades ago, could have been a book. There is value in a well edited self contained "how to" guide, and while the info is unlikely to be ground breaking, it can save time, avoiding doom scrolling, countless forum pages and so on.
Then again, selling online courses has become peak grift.
So...
I could teach a course, but wouldn't bother creating it unless i would make money from it, because why would i?
On the other hand, the real value when it comes to chinese bikes is the ability to go custom, and really pick what makes sense for the rider. And that becomes consulting more than a class / book, because a given supplier could be great for use case X, but poor for use case Y. Given that what's at stake is years of riding on that bike, the quality of the advice is critical. I rode the wrong sized bike for years, i wish i could have paid someone to guide me properly from the outset.
-
:o. Wow! there are actually people paying money for the course...... This world never ceases to amaze me.
-
i firmly believe the website you are referring to is made with an LLM trained over chinertown discussions.
-
Yep I would like to avoid naming names but I believe there are not many courses in ITALY ;D
-
I spent almost 8 months of research, scouring the internet before buying my first chinese frame back in the 2013. Compared to then, the internet is flooded with resources (this forum, youtube, reddit, etc) now making it quite a bit easier. I couldn't imagine paying for such a course today.
-
Fairly interesting blog entry about the business side of selling mainland Chinese sourced frames.
https://novemberbicycles.com/blogs/blog/the-frame-business?_pos=50&_sid=ff7616b58&_ss=r (https://novemberbicycles.com/blogs/blog/the-frame-business?_pos=50&_sid=ff7616b58&_ss=r)