[Closed] Avid BB7s - £1.80; really?

If it seems too good to be true it usually is. However, at 3.60 you wouldn't be investing heavily in something that may not work. It would probably be sensible to only put one on alongside a brake you trust to stop you safely for a bit, just to make sure you've not paid 3.60 for instant death. Personally I'd avoid them,  but if you're a risk taking bargain hunter, what have you got to lose?

It's clearly a bb5, but it's probably worth a shot.  I bought a pair from another seller years ago for something like £10 when all other stores were charging £30 an end.

It’s clearly a bb5,

The photo is definitely a bb7

The photo with the number '5' clear as day in the centre?

The bolts alone cost more than that; the seller has quite a lot of negative feedback and they misrepresent themselves as being in the UK.

This goes beyond the "if it seems too good to be true, it probably is" axiom: these are so cheap as to be less than the cost of posting them, so it doesn't even add up as a sale of fake or stolen goods. So I'd have to ask how the seller is extracting value. The only thing they receive other than the £1.80 (minus fees) is an address where there's a high likelihood of decent bicycles being stored. Make your own inferences. Full disclosure: I'm kinda cynical and paranoid. 😉

Just ordered 2 pairs. He's sold a **** load.

Worth a punt imo. Will just claim the pennies back in a no show.

Cheers op. 👍

Only 5 pairs left now guys.

Ah yeah my mistake saw the adjuster and forgot its the other side that doesn't haveca pad adjuster on a bb5.

And didn't scroll as far as tge photo with a big ole 5 and a view of the otherside.

Mybad.

That's all I'm buying on Black Friday.

I usually save a fortune by NOT buying on BF. lol

That is truly ludicrous.  If I had any use for 160mm discs it's worth buying for them alone.

It's an odd listing -
SYM HONG KONG LIMITED

William Rossell,  and a London address. (though could be  a dropbox)</div>
VAT number listing
Item location Salford*

Something doesn't add up.  Remember chinese sellers get massively discounted postage so could well be shipping from HK but even then too cheap.</div>
If I was fishing for addresses with expensive bikes I'd probably list something other than BB5s

(although I'm unable to find the item location field in eBay.  I've been in my current house 3 years and it still lists the location before  (though i managed to change it from the address I started the eBay account at).  Delivery addresss for me is right, account address, paypal address all good but item location is wrong.)</div>

Judging from feedback they are indeed HK based.

these are so cheap as to be less than the cost of posting them, so it doesn’t even add up as a sale of fake or stolen goods.

Ordered, now where to get ridiculously cheap levers?

Yeah, sorry, I hadn't looked further than "Salford" before posting. Still…

It’s clearly a bb5

Yep, missed that too - sorry!

The online shop is equally bizarre with an odd range of miscellaneous goods (including a bondage mask/gag)!

The listing I get shows zero feedback which often happens which Chinese sellers. Not sure I trust my safety to fake brakes (okay, un branded but clearly not OEM) no matter how much they cost.

Worth a £1.80 shot for an old bike..ordered 🙂

Note: it'll have a rear v-brake so won't be relying on both ends

Hmm, potential warning here - they were out of stock a few minutes ago but suddenly have 10 available again!

The stock number seems to keep going back up ... very odd. I feel the need to buy a pair even though I'll probably never need them!!

Dispatch confirmation here.

Over 60 more pairs sold since this morning.

Quite a lot of fake BB7 out there...

Bought some BB7 for £25 after a friend got some. Very active seller, descent feed back. Wish I hadn’t now fairly certain they’re fake.

Have you tried them ?

Surely no one in their right mind thinks they're getting the genuine brakes?

And more daftly, surely no one plans on using them?

well lets see what turns up. Been after some cheap cable calipers for adding friction brakes to some shallow angle ball screw mechanisms to provide just enough drag to stop something falling under gravity but still let me move it by hand with no power on. Use a spring pull the cable and activate the brake and a solenoid to counter it so when power is cut the brake goes on and drags just enough.

Last year I bought a Chinese BB5 caliper from ebay for a few quid.  It worked "OK", not quite as good as a "proper"  Avid BB5 caliper, but at least as good as any of the other generic cable disc brake Calipers for sale. Visually it was a close copy, finishing not quite as good, and it said "Bolids" or something instead of BB5, but as a rear brake it was perfectly adequate on/off road.  I suspect the pads were pretty pants, swapping out for some spare Avid BB5 pads I had did make an improvement.

Surely no one in their right mind thinks they’re getting the genuine brakes?

And more daftly, surely no one plans on using them?

Of course not, but I'm interested to see what I get for £1.80!

A mechanical brake is quite a simple thing. I'll take it apart, clean up any rough edges, and so as long as the casting is solid, it should be ok.

Should do for pootling duties on an older rigid bike.

Everything's fake these days, even genuine stuff is fake, the only genuine stuff is actually the fake stuff because it's genuinely fake and everyone knows its fake, you just can't trust anything else, especially this comment.

Last year I was after some budget rotors and found a set at ~£12 that included the Redland BB7 callipers.  Main difference to my layman's eye were the cheapish bolts and washers and the red dials not being nowhere as nice as on the originals.

They work pretty fine, never had any issues apart from being slightly noisier than the originals, but then swapped pads and I couldn't tell which one is which.

I bought a set just to see what you get for £1.80 - apparently they've just been dispatched. The price on the original eBay link is now £35, so I think there was an error in the listing. I expect I'll just get a set of bolts...

Mine have been dispatched too so will be interesting to see what actually arrives..

Just realised I fell for the false location buying some Shimano BR-BL-M315

Shown as location London, short delivery time, free delivery and a reasonable but not stupidly cheap price. Sure enough, they're coming from HK....

Can't say I'm surprised....

Dear customer,

Thank you very much for placing an order in our store. We are sorry to inform you the supplier has recalled the item due to the quality problem and asked us to refund the buyer. In this case, we would like to submit a full refund to you. What do you think? We are sorry for the inconvenience and the late message. Look forward to your reply. Thank you.

Not got a Dear John letter/email yet but not looking good. 😉

There's about a dozen positive feedback on these so hoping they'll turn up.

Mine have been dispatched (apparently) and due to arrive next week...

So the Shimano's turned up today.  The VAT-man is getting scammed so badly.

Item location on the listing showed as London.  HK company.  Too long shipping to be from the UK but now they've arrived the postmark is Walsal.  Inside theres a set of genuine looking Shimano brakes (shit, if you were going to fake stuff you'd fake XT not bottom of the range).  Discs were supposed to be Avid I think but are laser etched "retrospec"

Item location on the listing showed as London.  HK company.  Too long shipping to be from the UK but now they’ve arrived the postmark is Walsal.

I'd imagine they are getting them drop shipped from Aliexpress to there own address then forwarding them on to you.

Personally I dont think all the chinese stuff is fake but is leaving via the back door of the factories, hence no retail packaging and serial no.s ground off on certain products.

"Personally I dont think all the chinese stuff is fake but is leaving via the back door of the factories, hence no retail packaging and serial no.s ground off on certain products."

It's a nice assumption but you really have no idea. Good chance you'll find out that they were from a batch that failed QC due to defects in the castings etc when your face hits a wall.

They will fake absolutely anything, we found fake AC units, fake mains MCB’s and even fake HP toner cartridges. It’s not just the expensive stuff they copy!

Got the same dear john letter as above overnight.

Me too 🙁 Although I had a 'dispatch' email from eBay on 26/11..

Got my rejection this morning.

It doesn't sound as if they're going to honour the price then and are starting to get negative feedback as a result.

Yep, dear John letter here too.

I’ve asked them to send me the brakes being as they are still selling them.

^^ Lol, good point. Let us know what their reaction is!

If it was a genuine mistake, why would they honour it? You lot were expecting fakes or potatoes in the mail and now you're pushing for getting (what looks like) the genuine article for 2 quid? Really?

I'm not pushing for anything and have already told the seller a refund is fine. It was only ever a punt.

That doesn't stop me being curious as to how they reply to Charlie though.....

I've done the same as Charlie, told them I thought they were trying to back out of honouring the sale but they could send me a set of the obviously ok ones they are still selling.

Expecting a refund though anyway and, as others have said, I wasn't really expecting them to arrive or actually work if they did arrive so it's more that I want to cause them a little inconvenience first.

No reply yet. When I look back at my purchase and enter the same eBay item number it comes up as the same product but at a higher price.

They didn’t say to me the price was wrong, just that the quality wasnt up to standard.

Just had this message from them:

Dear customer,

Thanks for your message. Due to a shipping problem, we have a lot of orders which has been lost during the shipment and your order is one of them. Also, we didn't have enough stock to dispatch to you. In this case, we would like to compensate you a full refund. Sincerely apologize for the inconvenience.
Thank you.

So my order was lost during shipping but they didn't have enough stock to dispatch my order???

I was told they were recalled due to a quality problem.

I suspect the quality problem was they didn't exist at that price.. have been refunded now though so all a bit odd.

I was told they were recalled due to a quality problem.

That's what they told me, originally..

But on the plus side at least they have harvested a whole load of useful paypal info to sell on....

^^Tin foil hat muchly? 😏

What’s the chances of all you guys not getting brakes being called John !!

Weirdly, I appear to have been the first to have received the 'recall' email, but haven't received a refund yet.

Curiously the brakes are actually showing as dispatched on eBay. Though I would guess they aren't!

Had another message, and a refund, when I got up today

Dear customer,

Thanks for your message. Due to the system problem, our system listed the wrong price. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. In this case, we would like to issue a full refund asap. Thanks for your understanding.

Sincerely,
Casie

I wonder if they just hope that some people don't claim their money back.
Did anyone actually receive them?

Dear customer,

Due to a system problem, the system listed the wring price. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. In this case, would you accept a full refund as our apology. Thank you.

As said before, I already received the posted email.

It's just a pricing mistake, I doubt anything more sinister. It's quite sad reading the outrage in their recent negative feedback by people who so desperately wanted their £1.80 brakes!

I ordered a set, got the dispatch note then the quality recall email. If they'd just said 'sorry, we mis-priced it, we can't afford to sell it at that price' I'd be perfectly happy. It's the bullsh*t I don't like - the dispatch, the artificial recall is just silly of them.

I mean, I am not entirely surprised to end up with nothing.
It is what it is.

However, I am kind of curious about it.

If it was a simple pricing mistake, you would think that they would just tell me.
But they didn't. They told me that they had posted it.

They then waited for me to contact them before they offered me a refund.
(I deliberately gave them plenty of time)
I bought on 23rd Nov.
Told was shipped 26th Nov.
Due date was 3rd to 5th Dec
I contacted them on the 12th to see if it was coming.
They replied the following day to say they are offering me a refund.

No conclusions, just kind of interesting.