Need a set of straight 1 1/8″ reasonably light carbon forks for a road frame build on a budget. Seen plenty of new Chinese ones on Ebay for £35-45 that’ll do the job, with ‘UK’ based postage. False economy? Or look for used known branded ones (that are probably made in China as well.). Was hoping to get some plain black Planet X ones but no stock showing at present. Any experience appreciated. Cheers

The big name / brand name/ OEM forks are made with zero quality / zero quality control.

Updated Specialized Allez 2018 recall: New forks available and to be issued by retailers

https://www.cpsc.gov/Recalls/2018/specialized-bicycle-components-recalls-bicycles-due-to-crash-hazard

Specialized issues recall of all 2018 Allez bikes due to potentially defective fork

https://www.bromley.gov.uk/leaflet/320478/22/680/d

https://www5.merida-bikes.com/pt_br/news/voluntary-recall-carbon-forks-merida-scultura-cf2-series-model-year-2735.html

https://www.thebicycleplanet.com/articles/giant-bicycle-recalls-carbon-road-forks-pg133.htm

https://www.bikeradar.com/road/news/article/bianchi-fork-recall-2017-50555/

https://www.kinesisbikes.co.uk/AdditionalDepartments/Footer-Content/Recalls/RACELIGHT-T-CARBON-FORK-2003-2009-RECALL-NOTICE

Supplier reiterates importance of recall of potentially lethal Kinesis carbon forks

The big name / brand name/ OEM forks are made with zero quality / zero quality control.

Fairly libellous claim that.

General points, Chineese isn’t a brand (obviously) there are lots of people making lots of things in China to various levels of quality and attention to detail, some are blatant copies/rip off/fakes, some are branded as their own and everything in between. there is a web/review site called made in china or something if you do a search which is basically a collection of user reviews to navigate the stuff out there.

The difference between the cheap Chinese fork, and the ones in Patons links are obvious though. With a name brand, if you have a failure, there will be some redress available to you. The cheap fork will likely as not.
The thing to remember about carbon failure articles and videos. They are pretty meaningless in any proper sense of the word in helping decide where to buy or from material to choose. Every manufacturer will have failures, its what happens subsequently that matters.

I think it might be this:

http://chinertown.com

Some manufacturers / vendors on it as well