What is the general vibe like with ordering from China these days?

[carbonazza]

Not sure why, well ... reading here may give some hints.
But I would never buy frames or wheels on Ali.
Seatposts, bars, saddles, bottles cages, tools, clothes, bike electronics, sure.
But only from trusted sellers. I generally message them, asking questions about the product and see how they answer before buying.

[jannmayer]

I haven't noticed any difference in service over the last year or so that I've been using AliExpress. I mostly order small and cheap parts. These take their time in arriving but I've always gotten what I ordered and they've met expectations. (My last order was a cassette spacer ring that took a bit over a month to arrive in California from Azerbaijan.)


The largest purchases I've made were some hubs from the Goldix store and rims from the Elite wheels store. The hubs arrived in 10 days. I had a couple of questions about them (rough bearings, unable to remove freehub body) and their responses were a bit dismissive. The rims took over a month to arrive, mostly due to shipping delays. They look great (3k gloss) and were right on the quoted weight. The only issue was that they were supposed to be offset by 3.2 mm but appear to be symmetrical. I haven't reported this to Elite because I was able to build the wheels and I expect their response would simply be to send them back.


All in all, I will mostly stick with small parts because the risk is acceptable for these. I may order hubs and rims again, depending on how these wheels work out.

[Takiyaki]

I generally buy big stuff from the vendor when possible (frames, wheels etc)

Though I guess that robs me of any protections available on AliExpress

No issues so far knock on wood. Still a meaningful gap in price to the Western brands.

[Liter]

Frame direct from the vendor, Velobuild refuses to sell over Ali claiming cost issues. Only Elite I buy through Aliexpress.

My experience the past 2 years:

Elite: 3 Sets of wheels, MTB and Road through Ali, perfect service and the wheels are great.
Carbonda: Quality MTB frame, too bad they did not have many shock options and I had to settle for one without platform, major mistake
Velo: Bought 2 frames (Road), had some issues but Chris fixed them all, recommend but the whole internal cable thing is at an early age and a lot of things can be fixed switching to Deda or FSA

Shipping has been the biggest impact, I would get frames shipped to Brazil for U$80,00 and Carbonda is now charging U$200