Groupsets from Ali Express - worth a punt?

[Shewie]

What's the deal with buying labelled bike bits from Ali, are they genuine or made of cheese?

Mrs S has a terrible 2x8 Altus gruppo on her Trek that I'd like to replace at some point, I was thinking 1x11 as she never touches the front shifter anyway, on the 1x hire bikes she's used in the past she's used a much broader range of gears.

Cranks apart, does this look like a decent deal? ....
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003 ... mainSearch

[The Cumbrian]

Watching with interest...

[Bearbonesnorm]

Whether it's actually Shimano or not, I can't see it'll be any worse (and hopefully better) than the current stuff.

[Lazarus]

No idea with this but have bought football shirts from there for the kids and they were identical to the "proper" stuff. Whether its a copy made elsewhere or out the same factory I could not say

That said the shirts were careful to not show branding so the fact it shows Shimano makes me lean to legit

That is dirt cheap for what it is

[JohnClimber]

That is dirt cheap for what it is

Or is it dirt cheap or does it show how much we are been ripped off by the main "manufacturers"?

[Bearbonesnorm]

That said the shirts were careful to not show branding so the fact it shows Shimano makes me lean to legit

I'm pretty sure that many Chinese operators really couldn't care less as the chances of action over copyright are next to nowt

[Lazarus]

its generally the number of companies in the chain
So Maddison take a % then sell it to a shop who add a %

[Lazarus]

I'm pretty sure that many Chinese operators really couldn't care less as the chances of action over copyright are next to nowt

they did seem to care as they never showed pictures of the actual top-possibly the Football clubs could go after them re broadcasting rights or some such?

In general China has a very very effective copyright ignoring manufacturing sector so possibly bike parts are catching up with frames ?

[ScotRoutes]

Very possible that it is "excess" parts being "accidentally" manufactured...

[substandard]

I have a shimano r7000 crank on one of my bikes that came from AliExpress, my guess is that it’s surplus stock. Crank has done plenty of miles no issues

[boxelder]

I'm told that a close look at packaging shows that it's not legit. Doesn't mean it's less reliable though ?

[fatbikephil]

I suspect its stuff that fell out of the back of the factory that makes them for Shimano. The castings are too elaborate to be copied and also unlikely to be stuff that failed QC as it wouldn't be assembled into a complete unit if it had.
Makes you wonder about the source of certain retailers components which arrive in a plastic bag rather than a proper box. We get told its due to them getting complete groupsets from Shimano meant for bike manus rather than component retailers. Maybe they are actually coming out of the back door of Shimanos suppliers! Any investigative journos in the house?

[Lazarus]

I know Merlin pretty well and its mainly stuff that was designed for full bike builds and not used - or used to be not asked for ages

i remember buying stuff with the serial number scratched off and that was so it could not be traced as the manufactures did not like the RRP being undercut - though its also a plausible excuse for "fake". I assume you would not bother with a serial number on fake as there is no real way for a consumer to check the serial number - I know you can now on forks but not 15 years ago
Folk have always suspected it was knock off but they would have been exposed by now as the big boys really did not like the Merlin discount model

[ScotRoutes]

I suspect its stuff that fell out of the back of the factory that makes them for Shimano. The castings are too elaborate to be copied and also unlikely to be stuff that failed QC as it wouldn't be assembled into a complete unit if it had.

Yep.

Shimano: please make 50,000 of these cranksets.
Factory: oh look, we forgot to turn the machines off until we'd done 60,000.

In a sense, the cost of these additional units is already baked into what Shimano have paid the factory and we've paid Shimano.

And it's certainly possible to buy bulk, unpackaged, kit from Shimano at less than retail.

[HUX]

I did once buy a couple of 'shimano' chains from china. Looked identcal to the real thing but after sticking the chain checker on them they want straight in the bin as they were longer than a badly worn chain.....I did get a full refund after threatening to report the seller.