I took the plunge and brought myself a Chinese road frame from Aliexpress. It took two and a half weeks before it landed at my door over half of that time was waiting for parcel farce to pull their fingers out and process it through customs. With VAT and handling charges the frame, fork and headset cost £300. Built it up and christened it with a 60 mile Sunday club run and very impressed I am too. It didn’t explode or burst into flames and I even rolled it down a small set of steps to see if it would fall in half. Going to get a couple of subtle decals knocked up and put it away until the sun shines again.

Flame away folks. 😀

Stealth black. Looks great. I’m tempted to get some carbon wheels that way. Partly for cost and partly to brand them myself for a laugh.

You went on a club run without full length mudguards and a flap made out of an old pop bottle? I trust they made you lurk at the back like a leper. 😀

(nice chariot tho’)

is that the amazon or your grass?

is that the amazon or your grass?

That sir is the grass of a man who is always out on his bike. 8)

Well, if we’re going down that route we also need to critique the harlequin fence and dead bits in the conifer.

Nice bike, shabby garden. At least you have life the right way round……

mmm I like it. Couple that with some (also £300) China carbon wheels and that’ll be a beauty!

Stealth is good .. forget the decals.

The half painted fence and un-mowed grass. But great tan lines no doubt 😀

Epic tan lines.

Stealth is the way to go. My Compact Dolan Hercules

New RS 81 wheels just fitted. Thought about Chinese carbon ones and decided to stick to buying Shimano from Merlins in the end as so damn cheap and no worries of import duty etc, like the handlebars I bought from Carbonzone, which are on the bike.

Here’s mine. I appreciate it’s a very wrong bike for these parts

I got a fake invoice with my carbon wheels so paid £30 including handling fee (tax was £5!). Not too shabby!

I like that tt/tri bike, shame about the non stealth chainset really!

need to really really sort those handlebars out on that dolan

I’ve just received an invoice from Fedex for £23 duty on the SLK Light crankset I got from a seller in Taiwan. Happily he declared the value as $100, not the £550 I’d have paid had I bought them in a shop in the UK.

My one year old Chinese carbon 29er frame has been faultless. My 6 month old 38mm carbon Chinese clinchers have been faultless.

The products are excellent quality and better than some of the big brand names I’ve had.

Happy with my Chinese carbon too 🙂 (see my various previous threads)

Just for reference, if you’re posting your bike, how about also posting a link to it – helpful for those researching as we probably all did before making our choices.

(Mine’s an MC098 / AC098 from Miracle/Ican via Aliexpress)

Here is mine that I built in the spring, now clocked up close to 5000km.

Mine is an FM066 from http://www.hongfu-bikes.com/ with a Campagnolo Athena groupset and Mavic Kysrium SLS wheels.

Mine. FM066-SL from HonorBikes with a bit of a custom paint job.

Those that bought via aliexpress, did your payment go OK? I tried to order some bits from off there, but as they dont take paypal had to use their escrow service. Only I changed my mind when they emailed asking for a copy of my passport, bank card and bank statement! 😯

Did you have to do similar or was I a random check?

Atlaz, can I ask what you paid extra for the custom paint job?

Those that bought via aliexpress, did your payment go OK?

Yeah, fine – I paid via credit card to ensure I was covered. I wasn’t asked for passport or anything else 😯

I would suggest that you view Alibaba/express in the same way as ebay – there are good and bad sellers. Deal with one with a good rep.

Yeah, I wasn’t sure whether it was Alibaba themselves or the seller asking fir the info. I think it was Alibaba with it being escrow. I Googled it, seems it’s quite a common request from them but nobody wants to send that kind of info to them!

Some good tax fraud advice here – anyone got any good tips on fraudulently claiming benefits?

Pretty sure it’s a discussion regarding purchasing from China.

grum by name, grum by nature

Really? Not sure I see where. As long as the seller ships it with the right declared amount, HM customs and excise will handle that readily enough. I paid full tax on mine.

60 USD for the painting

Mine… http://www.aliexpress.com/item/FR-322-Full-Carbon-UD-Matt-Matte-Road-Bicycle-Frame-Fork-headset-Rear-Derailleur-hanger/1335322566.html

Really? Not sure I see where. As long as the seller ships it with the right declared amount

Which people are boasting about their sellers not doing. I’m really not that bothered, but boasting about evading legitimate taxes is pretty lame IMO.

Eg

I got a fake invoice with my carbon wheels so paid £30 including handling fee (tax was £5!). Not too shabby!

Wonder what the reaction would be if people on here boasted about benefitting from non-middle-class-bike-part-fraud like fiddling tax credits/benefits?

Or how about ‘I’m self employed and I got one of my customers to pay me in cash so I didn’t have to declare a penny of it to the taxman, woop!’ There would be outrage on here.

It’s just the hypocrisy that annoys me.

I’m really not that bothered

Then why bring it up on every Chinese frame thread?

You’re right of course, grum and that’s why I steer clear of it when I’m asked – I paid what sounded about the right amount of import duty on mine.

but

I’m really not that bothered

Isn’t very convincing.

As an aside, I had a warranty replacement and that was zero rated (correctly) which I was relieved to see (didn’t fancy paying import duty twice).

So bothered that I mention it sometimes on a discussion forum?

By that reckoning RD you should seek mental help for your obsession with spaffing over 29ers and declaring 26ers obsolete, given the number of times you say it. 😉

I’ve bought stuff before where they’ve clearly put a fake amount on the invoice and not really given it a moment’s thought – I just think boasting about the tax you’ve avoided is pretty poor form and reveals an annoying double standard on here. Interesting how touchy some people get about it.

Oh come on, some of my favourite bikes are 26″ 🙂

Sorry wasn’t directed at you! Do you do that too though? 🙂

Quite like the look of these frames; mainly because I find the branding/decals on road bikes ugly. I like the discrete look of the matt black carbon fibre.

Quite tempted to build a road bike up next year from one of these although I am not sure I know enough about what I want/need in terms of geometry/sizing to end up with a goodun’. Stealth black is probably easier to hide in the garage from the wife too 😀

As for the tax thing; if I had to pay the full amount of duty due, I would happily do so. But, if it got through customs having paid less than the required amount I wouldn’t be running to the taxman with my cheque book in hand letting him know that I’d ripped the government off.

As for the tax thing; if I had to pay the full amount of duty due, I would happily do so. But, if it got through customs having paid less than the required amount I wouldn’t be running to the taxman with my cheque book in hand letting him know that I’d ripped the government off.

+1

I’m interested in one of these – like the look of the FM066 and keeping it in stealth mode.

So fraud is fine if you get away with it? 😛

keeping it in stealth mode.

Whereas I think it’s a bit dull 🙂

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/lets-see-your-finished-chinese-carbon-bikes-decalsdecoration

(I’m no 29er evangelist, Grum)

So fraud is fine if you get away with it?

I’d more not do anything out of laziness than anything else. 😉

That looks like a RT58.

After all the hassle. Was it worth the saving?!