Has anyone done it before?

I found this website:

http://www.china-direct-buy.com/

which has a reasonable selection of frames for cheap prices. Also what kind of postage costs have you heard of?

njee20 is your man, he built a lovely weight weenie bike from a chinese carbon ebay deal and really rated it.

Yes – nearly all manufacturers. What is that website though? Always used to be carbon frames on eBay for circa £230 posted +/-

just did a quick google search, that seems more direct that via ebay but probebly similar costs at frames for $240 US plus postage whatever that would be

I have bought a MTB and a road frame from China really pleased with both of them, try Jenny at Hongfu bikes, really good service, frames delivered in less than a week.

what kind of prices at hong fu?

i found the website, looks like quality stuff

How do!

Yep, I had one of the eBay frames, and would definitely buy another one! Just search 'carbon MTB frame' and look at the international sellers, not sure I trust that China Direct website thing. The seller was very communicative and helpful, and the frame took about a week to arrive.

The only comment I would make was that the geometry was a bit odd (compared to my 'norm' of XC race bikes), short top tubes, but frankly that'd probably suit a lot of people! I'm 5'10" with fairly short legs, had an 18" frame with 100mm stem and inline post, and it was fine.

It was light (1240g actual weight), well finished, and rode nicely. I can't really comment on the longevity, but I sold it to a friend, so I'm sure I'll find out if it breaks!

I really would struggle to justify anything else to be honest, the only thing close is the the On-One, but they're hideous!

njee20 is your man, he built a lovely weight weenie bike from a chinese carbon ebay deal and really rated it.

Kept it for all of a couple of months and everything!

Bit shocked really. Recession and all. Local bikeshops need your business more than ever now.

And the chinese and mail-order businesses don't?

Aye, spread the love 😀 At least the Chinese don't charge us 70% extra for the same product.

Kept it for all of a couple of months and everything!

Yep, sold it for a good reason though, and as I said, sold it to a friend in the end!

biggish thread on them here

http://weightweenies.starbike.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=57377

The MTB frame was about £300.00 delivered.

Hmmm the OP's last post on there 'scares' me alittle.

would love to be able to support my local bike shop, but firstly its not local, over 10 miles away, and secondly i cant afford to buy from them, so its either china or secondhand, either way the bike shop doesnt get my money.

Not meaning to be overly harsh but its a tough world at the moment so if you arent offering something people want/need then its not worth running the buisness

I was joking/trolling. The idiots that say 'support your LBS' either have too much money or are misguided. Bikeshops are a business there to make a living/a profit. They most certainly aren't there primarily to provide a community hub and charitable-service first.

Does anyone else think the carbon 456 looks good? If Batman had a bike…

I friend of mine is currently recovering from multiple fractures to his collar bone after the forks on his Ebay Chineese special carbon road bike broke on him!

everything breaks if you hit it hard enough…

in my experience bikes (or parts) bought outside the EU have a 30% import duty slapped on them. I recently bought a bike from the USA and deliberately bought it without some parts so that they could say it wasn't a complete bike (and therefore exempt from the tax on bikes). FexEx was having none of it and i had to pay 600 euros in duty. what a stinger. you can get the sender to say it is something else or a present but you'll never see what you ordered again if they check…

i thought the uk had no import tax? or is that just for buisness'

some of those companies frames conform to the same eu standards that any bike should come upto so no more issues than any other bike imo

hora – Member
Hmmm the OP's last post on there 'scares' me alittle.

That was 2007, maybe they've improved their builds.

dufresneorama – Member
Does anyone else think the carbon 456 looks good? If Batman had a bike…

I think they look good, not seen one in the flesh, but many angles in pictures, just build it up Stealth Bomber'esque!! Mind you, when I was a 'little younger' I always fancied getting a huge Yank convertible to build a batmobile replica …. !! 😆

I deal with Chinese manufactured products through my work and visit China fairly regularly. My experience of them is that the large western company branded products are OK (Sony for example – of course they keep quality standards tight)

However, in terms of engineeing, if the Chinese areleft to their own devices they get the basics right but miss the detail and their domestically designed and manufactured product ends up being garbage. All the underground mining product I'm involved with thats being copied by the Chinese is absolute rubbish as they cut corners on steel quality etc.

Bat on by all means but be wary of what you might be buying. They generally have a very different view to us on what acceptable quality is unless they are properly controlled.

That was 2007, maybe they've improved their builds

OP joined WW Wed Jun 13, 2007 2:39 pm
topic started Wed May 06, 2009 9:42 am
frame broke Tue May 25, 2010 4:56 pm

frame lasted a year

Teh amin issue for me would be no buyers protection. If its rubbish your money is gone. That makes it a gamble so is the cheapness worth the risk? Depends how big the risk is I guess

fair enough frostie you seem to have had more experiance than me. I think if i can get something under the £200 mark then i would take the gamble on a road frame (im light as well) going by other peoples positive experiances. I think maybe MTB frames i would be more wary because of the likelihood of warranty issues

in my experience bikes (or parts) bought outside the EU have a 30% import duty slapped on them. I recently bought a bike from the USA and deliberately bought it without some parts so that they could say it wasn't a complete bike (and therefore exempt from the tax on bikes). FexEx was having none of it and i had to pay 600 euros in duty.

No they don't. Bikes have 14% duty and bike parts (including frames) 4.7% duty IIRC. You then pay standard VAT on everything imported, including on the duty. You also pay duty and VAT on the shipping charge. Hence total for a complete bike is ~33%, for a frame ~23%. You can't get away with it not being a complete bike by just not having some minor parts – for obvious tax avoidance reasons. FedEx are just following the rules.

Of relevance to this thread, there is also an anti-dumping tax of ~50% for bicycles coming direct from China, so check very carefully exactly where it's coming from.

I didn't get charged a penny on mine, which surprised me. Is there a threshold value or sommat?

Or blind luck, I got a set of forks (new magura menja's) through from the US without any duty but they do have "MADE IN GERMANY" in big letters all over them so presumably that helped.

There is, but it's £18 (or £36 for something declared as a gift). I can only assume they put a small nominal value on the customs declaration, something I've had with stuff sent from Taiwan. Surprised you got away with that for something as big as a bike frame though – I had to pay ~£100 on my Pedalforce frame.

I was quite surprised certainly! Rather pleased too.