[Closed] Anyone have experience of cheap Chinese carbon MTB forks

Cheap & Carbon & forks are not three words I'd personally string together to describe something I bought. On the most base risk/benefit analysis I'd personally conclude my face & teeth were worth more than saving £100 or so.

Your risk / benefit analysis may vary.

Very similar build in progress and was looking at the cheap Toseak brand forks.

I’d value your experience if anyone has used them.

you'll only get the experience of those who haven't died in a haze of carbon splinters....

I have an unused pair that I ordered but found a little too short (A2C) for my purposes.

I am very surprised at the quality of them, they look/feel nice.

I ordered from BXT - fairly well known as far as I'm aware!

Give me a shout as I was planning to list on here this afternoon anyway!

Yup they were fine.

I bought some no-name carbon forks off ebay when putting together my B+ hardtail. There was nothing else available anyway. The bike is 3 years old now and I don't give them a second thought.

I've had two sets, first one was grand. Second one I've got sat in the garage waiting for someone to post a "wtd forks for bike build for someone I hate" ad. They're comedy gold, feel OK in hand but make riding the bike feel like I've spent several hours drinking insensibly strong beer. Great for trail buzz mind.

Bought a pair of the Tooseek ones 2 years ago - they're stiffer and lighter than the big brand ones they replaced.

I have been using some Trigon ones direct from China for the past 7 years on my old Cannondale for commuting purposes and they have been fine. I'm not 100% sure but they look identical to some expensive Ritchie forks. I have just donated the whole bike to a local bike refurb charity in Glasgow.

Thanks FK!

For an extra £100 or so, you can get one of the big brands which spends heaps on marketing, to slap their sticker on the same fork, and then you'll have the warm glow of knowing you have a quality product. 🙂

If anyone has some second hand ones that fit a tapered steerer and 15mm non-boost axle and they haven't been killed by them - let me know!

Just buy eXotic forks from https://www.carboncycles.cc/

I did and I'm still alive.

I have some Kinesis forks in the classifieds.

29er qr tapered if any use to anyone.

Thanks for the ‘experiences’ of those who’ve used them, But not the ‘opinions’ of those who haven’t.
Does anyone genuinely know of any which have snapped and injured their rider or again is this opinion?

I used to endo my XC bike on those eXotic forks and they didn't snap so I'd definitely recommend them.

flossie
Thanks for the ‘experiences’ of those who’ve used them, But not the ‘opinions’ of those who haven’t.

Sorry, should have made it clear that I have bought Chinese without the expensive brand sticker. I've had no problems.

I bought a Toseek fork from eBay a while back for my son's build. The steerer had a huge seam down the inside so a bung wouldn't fit, and the sellers tried to get me to drill out some of the material.

The fork seemed okay apart from that, but I eventually got a refund and bought some eXotic forks instead.

I bought some ICAN forks for less than £100 a while back directly through emailing them...
My research at the time suggested they had a decent rep.

Converted my 29er to a fully rigid for commuting duties. seemed decent enough, didnt die in 3yrs
Sold the bike after new job was 70 miles away, never had any reports of purchasers death in fire 😉

I've got some tideace once from carboncycles on ebay. They were AFAIK the only 55mm offset 150mmx15 forks, that I could find anyway. Visually they look fine, for various reasons (mostly missing other bits) I've not had a chance to ride them yet.

Does anyone genuinely know of any which have snapped and injured their rider or again is this opinion?

Trek (although it was in a crash and he wasn't badly injured).

My rigid 29er has had a pair of the Ican ones on for the last 4yrs and so far I haven't died.

Granted its only used for XC (whats that you ask?) but they have been fine, reduce trail buzz and quality wise I have had no issues either during installation or ever since.

I only know one guy who's had carbon forks catastrophically snap, resulting in very significant face and teeth rearrangement.
Wilier (genuine) road bike while riding uphill😳
Know plenty with cheapo open mould Chinese stuff, no problemo.

For an extra £100 or so, you can get one of the big brands which spends heaps on marketing, to slap their sticker on the same fork, and then you’ll have the warm glow of knowing you have a quality product.

I don't think that's how it works. I think the big brands have a production run, then do a quality test. The ones that pass they put the stickers on, the ones that fail end up on eBay with different stickers on.

Some things are worth economising on. Carbon forks aren't one, IMO.

A mate who is a competent mechanic ordered some. They came slightly wonky and with a poor finish. He didn't end up trusting them.

I’ve had no problems.

Yeah but you also have idiotic opinions on dérailleurs based on your limited experience as well, so your views should. One with a warning

Toseek on my wifes gravel bike - fine
Hylix on my old Arkose - fine (poss FS)
Factory direct (name escapes me) on my B+ hardtail - fine

All have been ridden on some fairly rough trails.

Every post saying "I have X fork and it's been fine" is a sample size of 1, maybe 3 if they had a few.
You might need 10,000 users statically to get one failure. Or 500. Dunno. But risk assessment is about chance combined with likely severity of outcome, on that basis carbon forks tend to come out as 'pretty risky'.

Does anyone genuinely know of any which have snapped and injured their rider or again is this opinion?

Yes, a few.

Next time you are bombing down a hill at 40mph imagine what would happen if your fork snapped clean off at the base of the steerer. If you still want to buy a cheapo fork of uncertain quality then you don't have a good imagination 🙂

"I don’t think that’s how it works. I think the big brands have a production run, then do a quality test. The ones that pass they put the stickers on, the ones that fail end up on eBay with different stickers on."

I agree with most of what you say

But surely there is no evidence that forks that have failed tests are then sold. Apart from anything wouldn't they be broken?

I read somewhere that due to the way carbon stuff is made, there are often voids. Guessing that decent fabrication plants have an x-ray machine to screen out the ones with voids. There was a video where a guy bought a cheapo frame and X rayed it, and found loads of voids. But I can't remember who it was.

I'm not helping very much, am I?

globalti

Member
Just buy eXotic forks from https://www.carboncycles.cc/

I did and I’m still alive.

Me too, bought some in 2014, they have been absolutely hammered and are still going strong

@molgrips @jameso

My understanding that their are factories making forks in China.

Some will work to high standards with his quality control. Other will work to lower standards with less good quality control

I assume that when James buys a container of forks he knows how to choose a factory doing it properly. Or does James only buy from Taiwan? Does that have a difference?

When you buy a fork on eBay com China it may or may not be from a factory with good standards. How would you know

Ran a set of eBay chinese carbon forks on my fat bike for over 2 years. No death or face rearranging failure occurred.

I assume that when James buys a container of forks he knows how to choose a factory doing it properly.

I'm no composites expert. I've visited a few carbon factories and what I took from it was how many ways to get it wrong there actually are and I've seen some surprisingly original sources of QC fk ups over the years. Not at our current supplier, I should add. But 'touch wood' etc .. so many big brands have had recalls over the last few years.

How do they do QC then @jameso? Genuinely interested

so many big brands have had recalls over the last few years

Lesson 1: don't buy from the big brands then....  😉

Lesson 1: don’t buy from the big brands then…. 😉

I suppose the advantage is I got a brand new set of full carbon forks from cannondale for a 5 year old bike that I'd hammered with no problems.

Whereas my chinese carbon forks I just hopefully hammer for 5 years with no problems!

nickc
Yeah but you also have idiotic opinions on dérailleurs based on your limited experience as well, so your views should. One with a warning

Dunno. Ever been to the 'Puffer?

I also have 2 sets of ICAN rigid carbon forks with a carbon steerer.. both have been hammered over 4 years, everything from Torridon granite babyhead rocks to forest trails. Inspected as far as I can and all seems fine.

Also have Exotic forks, also no problem.

Pick a brand, do a bit of research then choose.

Lesson 1: don’t buy from the big brands then….

Yeah, sleep better when you don't know what happens to others using the same fork ; )

How do they do QC then @jameso? Genuinely interested

Std ISO tests and production line stage-by-stage QC. Weight (though I'm not convinced on that one), load test (deflection under load is non-destructive but can show up odd readings from voids). A low load x cycles test that won't risk a sound fork but a duff one should fail - though a QC fail that serious should be picked up by in-line QC). X-ray also. X-ray or ultrasound is the way to go, seems rare though.

Exotic forks, no longer in use (26") but they were fine, and had plenty of abuse. It had an aluminium steerer.

I would not be shocked if a lot of the failures like that guy in the video were down to over-tightening stems on carbon steerers, or clamping onto a section of the steerer not supported by the internal bung.

Thanks for your input everyone,
Much appreciated.

I had a set of Hylixes, which tbh I really never trusted. Not because they were a relative no-name but also because they were scary light. They never did anything wrong but I was never really comfortable, and then the seatpost I bought at the same time debonded and I thought, nah, and got another set of Exotics, which I trusted all the way.

(when I got my first set of exotics, they were considered random cheap carbon that you couldn't trust)