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I’ve had 2 sets of these for a few months, 165mm, in both black and silver.
Initial impressions so far: they’re fantastic. Zero issues with creaks or noises. Zero issues with the spindle bolts backing off. Quality seems absolutely solid and very close to the 5dev equivalent cranks I’ve had over the last year.
But what impressed me most was the BB. Giving the cranks the usual spin test, the evosid BB spins significantly longer and smoother than a stock SRAM Dub BB. Of course this could be due to them not using much grease in the bearings meaning they’ll wear out on me in 5 months, who knows. But so far I’m beyond impressed across the board. For $60 or whatever these cost, they’re phenomenal.
My last Aliexpress order was April 13th. This morning, I looked up the current prices for the last 40 items I purchased. In general, the items I purchased have increased in price between 22% and 35%. (Around 30% average increase.) I have a few items where the price is 2X+ what I paid a few months ago, and a couple of choice items stayed the same price.
It appears to me that we are paying the full Tariff-de-jour, at a 30% average cost increase, it appears that someone is eating 10% to 15% of the total cost increases to get direct-to-consumer items through customs to US consumers.
I read a trade article this morning that indicates that the first round of consumer goods price increases (8% to 15%) are starting to hit the USA. There is about 3 months of inventory left from the "pre-tariff-inventory-buildup", and that importers are ordering about 30% less variety of items (by sku number) so by August, the diversity of items we are used to will become restricted. Empty cargo containers are stacking up on the west coast ports, and container receipts are still down about 38%. Overall shipping to US is down about 8% due to alternate sourcing from other countries besides China.
It was fun while it lasted (for those in the US). Of all the items I really stocked up on, it was lightweight XD cassettes. I bought several of the 9-46t, 9-50t and 10-42t cassettes. Those cassettes I can't find domestically especially at affordable prices. I also liked the UL HG cassettes, but at least I can fall back to slightly heavier, but decent quality/price Ultegra versions. I updated my road and gravel framesets when discounts were good during the last 11.11/BF sale. I also wiped out my AliEx Wish List, no point "wishing" for items that are priced way too high and will still get the "national" tax if they can be even shipped to the US!
Funny how you've gone on a political rant in the space you've literally called non political. Seems like typical confused democrat hypocrisy.
Just wanted to add to the body of knowledge. I ordered 2 of these (delivery issues, different story). One fit a bit tight on a Shimano bb, so it didn't spin as freely as I'd like, and the other which looks exactly the same wouldn't fit into the BB at all. It feels like it is a third of a mm too wide, and a rubber mallet might break the bb. Bottom line, the manufacturing tolerances are pretty loose, so you may end up getting a good one, or one that is frustratingly close to good enough (but not quite). I could've probably sanded it down to fit, or done some other stuff to make it fit.
As far as I am concerned every person now who's trying to paint positive picture about whatever is happening is a bad apple.
I am lucky I got all the parts I ordered in the last month but now I am done. Every day there is a new brain fart and things are tossed around like toddler playing in the sand. Its as infuriating as it is dangerous and I am now in fully "save the cash" mode whatever tht cash will be worth in coming months I am sure it will be better than some bike parts. I have stopped scouring eBay, FB Marketplace, OfferUp for used parts/frames too and trying to downsize my current stable of 8 bikes to 3.
Get this, a bunch of orders said they were out for delivery, but that was 2 days. I'm beginning to wonder if the delivery driver is just sitting on the packages or something?
I caved today… Got ER9, a Lexon 24mm crankset and few other items. Stocking up a new build next year. Based on prices over the last month, I saved between 150-200.00 overall. Almost pulled the trigger on some carbon wheels but I couldn’t find what I wanted.
