Branded stuff from Ali Express

[sevenfourate]

I've made perhaps 50 (?) orders over many years. Never had an issue. And been happy with pretty much everything i've had.

Normal common sense / copycat / fake / knock-off alert rules apply. Do some reseacrh, look, understand why it might appear cheap blah blah blah.

Also comprehend their labour rates are so cheap; their work ethic so different to the average UK specimen - and their abilty to reverse Engineer so good..........the quality you recieve is often amazingly good / very good for the price you pay.

 

[Boopop]

Things I've bought from AliExpress and don't regret (so far):

• AMD 5700x3d CPU for £121, upgraded from a 5800x at no loss. Limited benchmarking confirms it's legit
• Wheeltop EDS TX rim brake wireless groupset - works well so far

Things I've bought from AliExpress that I do regret:

• (Years ago) Specialized cycling mitts. They were clearly fake compared to the old ones and didn't fit very well.

So I think my advice would be the main things you can trust from AliExpress are those that are difficult to counterfeit. I think a groupset and a CPU fall in to that category, but I wouldn't want to buy groupset parts from AE that I can buy elsewhere like Shimano or SRAM. Obviously it helps if you can find people who have already bought the product from the same seller (like I did with the CPU).

 

[PedallingNowhereSlowly]

I've never bought from AE. And judging by recent reviews I've read for chains, I don't think I'll be using Amazon again for any safety critical bike parts.

 

[wafter]

I've never bought from AE. And judging by recent reviews I've read for chains, I don't think I'll be using Amazon again for any safety critical bike parts.

While I refuse to use Amazon for anything on moral grounds, legit gear seems to be very expensive on there compared to dedicated supplier while - just like ebay - the site seems awash with counterfeits of the usual knock-off-prone items like chains.. personally I'll only buy the latter from yer actual shops or trusted sellers on ebay now for this reason.