Currently having a battle with ‘electronics2017uk’ who sold this fork:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Rigid-Carbon-Fiber-Mountain-Bike-26er-29er-Front-Forks-Mtb-Bicycle-Fork-E45T/222920677324

The steerer is all carbon so it’s a lovely light fork, but the steerer itself narrows internally beyond the top so once it’s just an expansion plug won’t actually fit (the wall gets thicker, so the internal diameter is too narrow).  They insist that I can just “make it work” and are slowly increasing the amount they’ll offer as a partial refund if I keep the fork (started at £10 now £35, for a £60 fork) because the return postage will be “too expensive”.  I’m not massively keen on drilling away at the inside of a fork’s steerer and then putting it on my daughter’s bike so I guess at some point the return procedure will eventually time out and eBay will step in.

Anyway: avoid this company, their customer service is abysmal even if the forks are cheap.  Once I’ve wrangled a return out of them I’ll be after a similar fork so if anyone knows a reseller of these carbon forks on eBay that isn’t a disgrace to humanity, please say.

eBay/Paypal usually come good, so I’d keep plugging away until they do.

95.7% feedback; it’s a bit late now but that isn’t a great feedback percentage for an “experienced seller”.

keep the fork & use one if these?

I had one for ages back in the noughties, not sure why I ran one though tbh

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/brand-x-headlock/rp-prod130966?

Dear lord I’ve never seen one of those before.  The steerer is not only too fat inside, but the outside isn’t smooth: there’s dings and dents all over it.  Screams “production failure” to me.

If there’s dents then that’s a manufacturing fault caused by incorrect compaction of the carbon – wouldn’t even consider riding something with a crap exterior as you know the interior’ll be even worse, probably with a ton of voids in the carbon itself.

I normally judge ebay vendors by the rest of the shop. OH MY!

6 butt plugs for £8. seems too cheap to be true.

I’ll let you know.

So the expander came with the fork and it wont fit to compress the headset etc. Good feedback for me as I was looking at these. You will get a full refund once eBay step in, because the product does not work and the seller pays for the return.

I’m not being funny, but you honestly expected a £60 carbon fork to be good?

6 butt plugs for £8. seems too cheap to be true.

Sounds a right PITA TBH

wonder whats worse, having either a poorly manufactured carbon fork or a buttplug fail on you in use ?

I have no experience of there forks but have been looking at these For my old giant cfm obviously more expensive that what you have but then look at the hastle you are having

https://www.carboncycles.cc/index.php?s=0&t=0&type=eXotic%20Shop

The expander didn’t come with the fork which was a bit of nuisance as I wasn’t aware carbon steerers are typically thinner than Hope head doctors can handle.

The exotic forks are good and the other kid’s bike has one, but these forks looked cooler and had a better A-C.

Carbon, ebay, description reads like a Chinese translation (probably is a Chinese resell). Walk away.

Hay rb I have just lol’d, I just realised it was your blast thread that me to carbon cycles in the first place.

I don’t think I’ve owned a carbon fork where a Hope headdoctor has fit correctly into a carbon steerer tube. Your better going for the longest carbon specific version on-one (and others) sell. The expanding part of a headdoctor just isn’t long enough for a carbon steerer and can put stress on the carbon If you take the stem off with it done up. They were designed years ago as a replacement star flange nut, before the days of carbon steerer on mtb’s.

However i’ve had issues with almost every China carbon fork I’ve owned where the carbon steerer tube being to wide – had to resort to getting the sanding wheel on the dremmel out to make adjustments to headsets to get them to fit…..(the alloy little wedge part that expands into the top bearing – not sanding the fork).

I also had a carbon 29r fork from China where the rotor bolts slightly buzzed on the (alloy) brake mount. Again 30sec with a file sorted that.

Get them to send a butt plug and use that in the steerer

People have actually purchased those forks?

Wonders will never cease.

Suffice to say it was an experiment to see what they were like, and the result was clear.  Don’t bother.

Semi-curious about a Toseek-branded fork from a proper shop on the theory that they’re probably not actually rejects but there’s so many resellers on ebay and aliexpress you can’t tell the actual seller vs something flipping QA failures with different paint.

Head Doctor is designed for a metal steerer – its not designed for a carbon steerer, so no surprises it doesn’t work.

As for not trusting a £60 carbon fork – every thought how much the likes of Carbon Cycles or P-X pay for their forks?

As for not trusting a £60 carbon fork – every thought how much the likes of Carbon Cycles or P-X pay for their forks?

Bit of a flawed arguement there, imagine how much £60 eBay dude is paying for his.

Well, a Carbon Cycles fork is ~£100, so £60 for essentially a direct-from-China fork isn’t entirely unrealistic.

If it’s any help to anyone, I’m selling an Exotic Monocoque Rigid Carbon Fork, Disc Only with Post Mount QR dropouts, 425mm Axle to Crown, 190mm Tapered Steerer

Similar to this:

Stuff “made in the same factory” often isn’t the same stuff or quality. Made on the cheap to lower standards by the same workers perhaps. All the factory does is make stuff to the spec given. And then there’s the market for reselling the rejects.

And carbon isn’t just carbon. The way it’s put together, strength vs weight, durability, crash resistance and then testing and certifications that it may or may not go through. Lack of the latter can make it cheaper.

jivehoneyjive: that would be ideal if it wasn’t tapered 🙁

I don’t think I would run a full carbon straight steer fork on an MTB.

The whole reason for tapered steerers to exist is to beef up that join and make full carbon forks and carbon CSUs for suspension forks viable.

With a straight steerer you really want an alloy steerer/crown fork with carbon legs. Will be a little heavier of course. You might be hard pressed to find a straight steerer full carbon fork by a reputable brand.

Stuff “made in the same factory” often isn’t the same stuff or quality. Made on the cheap to lower standards by the same workers perhaps. All the factory does is make stuff to the spec given. And then there’s the market for reselling the rejects.

And carbon isn’t just carbon. The way it’s put together, strength vs weight, durability, crash resistance and then testing and certifications that it may or may not go through. Lack of the latter can make it cheaper.

I see the bike-industry “astroturf” expert is in the house, to confirm that the those dodgy Taiwanese/Chinese have two production lines, one making ‘kosher’ stuff for the west which they sell at a premium and ‘we don’t give a $hit’ stuff to people who sell on eBay!

What is the world coming to when you can’t trust a company called electronics2017uk to sell a decent Carbon Mountain Bike Fork.

Im seriously considering cancelling the Custom made Grand Piano I ordered from Screwfix now 😂

A £60 carbon fork, hmmmm…. that sounds a great idea.

Said no one.

I have one of the On One Monocoque Carbons knocking around if you need one. Looks like this one with straight steerer/QR.

Had it for about four years, but it’s only had very light use on my daughter’s bike for a fraction of that period.

martinhutch: you have a PM

Update: after a few iterations of “will you take £30 and keep them” and “no, they’re broken, I want my money back” I pointed out sale of goods act etc etc and promptly got a prepaid return slip and the refund arrived last night.  Now to order some Exotic forks like I should have done in the first place…

Sadly, still no update on my Piano from Screwfix 😫

 I wasn’t aware carbon steerers are typically thinner than Hope head doctors can handle

none of my forks would take a head doctor (pike, mattoc or fox 34)

I have to say I wouldn’t ride a £60 carbon fork.  Also, they sell a broad and ‘interesting’ selection of other products…

How is shipping to Manchester prohibitively expensive? This is where the ad says they are distributed from…. unless the random eBay shop are fibbing…

Poah: my mattoc, whatever the base 29er x-fusion, and revelations have a head doctor in. Usually without the gromit though.

yes no idea why shipping to Manchester was “too much”.

How is shipping to Manchester prohibitively expensive? This is where the ad says they are distributed from…

This seems to be a lot more common than it used to be.  Buying things that look like they are from the UK but they come from China.  They take a few weeks to arrive and have the tell tale label on them.

Not breaking any eBay rules though when I looked it up.

Stuff “made in the same factory” often isn’t the same stuff or quality.

It’s about time more people understood this, you hear the age old misunderstandings of “Built in the same factory, why pay more” so often.

I had the same problem on a pair of forks if I remember correct I think I used a carbon expander out of a pair of 1″ steerer carbon forks

I don’t think I would run a full carbon straight steer fork on an MTB.

Despite plenty of folk using them without issue?