Temu for cycling goods

[IceCreamMan]

5 hours ago, Bichael Dewing said:

Not coming at you but they probably do come from the same factories.. however I’m not familiar with China laws or what Chinese would see as an acceptable reason to sue a manufacturer is, so when you compare QC with an American company(who are selling to one of the most litigious nations on the planet) are going to be way stricter with what’s acceptable.. manufacturing standards are going to be different from one nation to another.. 🤷🏼‍♂️ 

One could use Boeing as an example hey. Oh wait. 

[Jewbacca]

14 minutes ago, Scott roy said:

I agree with you to an extent. I’m happy for third parties to import and sell those things (I’ve even bought such items), but having that in the lbs is a dangerous idea. There will always be some opportunistic individuals. Also what I am mainly concerned about would be things like suspension service kits or something along those lines.  
 

Those are available now though anyway?

An untrustworthy LBS will be just that, regardless of whether they stock imported Chinese products or not ON THE SHELVES.

The LBS and the people running them have those channels available to them already. 

You're scared of dishonest South Africans, not Chinese things

[Scott roy]

3 minutes ago, Jewbacca said:

Those are available now though anyway?

An untrustworthy LBS will be just that, regardless of whether they stock imported Chinese products or not ON THE SHELVES.

The LBS and the people running them have those channels available to them already. 

You're scared of dishonest South Africans, not Chinese things

True enough, but the knowledge that they stock that as an option would immediately concern me.
 

I’m weary of both, depends on what the item is. 

[The Ouzo]

Based on this thread I’ve ordered some stuff off Temu. 
I actually can’t remember all the stuff I ordered (will have to check my account), but they had a minimum R300 order, so I started off with some screw in bar ends, I know of threw in a box of nitril gloves, some little thingies to hold shifter cables and I’m not sure what else. 
garuanteed delivery in 10 days or you get some little peace offering. 
 

let’s wait and see. 

[corrie.kuilder]

On 4/20/2024 at 6:41 PM, Scott roy said:

I think I’d be bitterly disappointed if I went to the lbs and they fitted some ching chong aftermarket bs to my bike. The fact that they could even have the option would worry me since perhaps I want an original part and they might see a nice spot to charge me full price and fit the ching chong whatever. 

I know of a shop doing that

[Danger Dassie]

21 hours ago, The Ouzo said:

Based on this thread I’ve ordered some stuff off Temu. 
I actually can’t remember all the stuff I ordered (will have to check my account), but they had a minimum R300 order, so I started off with some screw in bar ends, I know of threw in a box of nitril gloves, some little thingies to hold shifter cables and I’m not sure what else. 
garuanteed delivery in 10 days or you get some little peace offering. 
 

let’s wait and see. 

Neighbor down the road got their delivery last week. Some running, outdoor stuff and casual riding gear. 
50/50 split on the quality and longevity, as well as the blatant counterfeit gloves. 

For me personally I’ll give it a skip.

[Super Sywurm]

1 hour ago, corrie.kuilder said:

I know of a shop doing that

I know a shop that sells AliExpress items for almost the same price as the name brand items.  I found that out when I inquired about a price on a chain ring.  

Maybe it is the same quality, maybe not.

 

Edit:  I source my own products and I let the LBS fit it, that way I know what I buy.

Edited April 22 by Super Sywurm

[The Ouzo]

22 minutes ago, Danger Dassie said:

Neighbor down the road got their delivery last week. Some running, outdoor stuff and casual riding gear. 
50/50 split on the quality and longevity, as well as the blatant counterfeit gloves. 

For me personally I’ll give it a skip.

I dont mind using this type of online store (same as wish etc.) for stupid little things where I'm not concerned about quality or brand, but the moment I want a branded or semi decent quality item I will source locally where I'd hope I'd have some recourse if its a fake item or the quality is not what it should be.

 

Eidt.

I dont know why all of a sudden there is a big hoo haa over Temu when the likes of Wish and aliExpress have been around for ages, and by the looks of things they sell the same stuff. Although Temu made it way to easy to part with my money and the Buffalo shipping for free left me feeling at least somewhat comforted that I will get my goods.

Edited April 22 by The Ouzo

[TyronLab]

I've project managed capital items worth a few hundred thousand USD, to commodity items made by the container load from China / Spain / Brazil / Russia and from local manufacturers.

I think some logic here would help. Bundling manufacturing in China together in one big lump makes zero sense.

Are there dodgy, kid-based, zero-safety shitholes making millions of parts for a few cents? Yes, 100%.

Are there high quality, cutting edge manufacturing facilities that are world-class in terms of quality and are just smart enough to leverage the Chinese government's powerful pro-manufacturing policies, and an abundant and driven workforce? Yes, 100%.

I've been in shitholes and beautiful facilities in every one of the countries I've mentioned above. "China is shitty cheap stuff" is as logically sound as saying "All South Africans are racist", "all Brazilians samba to work" and "All Americans are overweight"...

Would I buy a carbon handlebar from Temu for a downhill bike? Nope. Is that decision based on perception and gut feel more than any technical reasoning? Yep.

[El Duderino]

2 hours ago, Jewbacca said:

Yes, but the media has written some flowery pieces about how Temu 'may use questionable labour practices' and 'potentially sources things from unethical factories'.

Realistically it's a clever concept that is ultimately scaring the existing market who import from China but upsell at a profit with some form of branding and/or local support. 

Cue the casual racism and pre existing prejudice and suddenly anything from China is bad.

They produce something ridiculous like 55% of the world's steel, refine 85% of the worlds Cobalt and are 100% responsible globally for the production of Graphite and Gallium, which are essential in the production of electric cars and microchips.

They have been systematically taking over the rare earth metals for decades. 

Creating a direct to consumer portal for all the manufacturing plants and factories is hardly a big step in their quest for global domination, but it is something the west can collectively hate on because it undermines loads of their existing business models.

And if the Chinese succeed in becoming a globally dominant manufacturer, the West only have themselves to blame by shipping production offshore to take advantage of cheap Asian labour to maximize profits. 

[Shebeen]

52 minutes ago, The Ouzo said:

I dont know why all of a sudden there is a big hoo haa over Temu when the likes of Wish and aliExpress have been around for ages, and by the looks of things they sell the same stuff. Although Temu made it way to easy to part with my money and the Buffalo shipping for free left me feeling at least somewhat comforted that I will get my goods.

short answer - because they dropped ~$30m on a superbowl ad campaign with accompanying promotions.

 

 

280m views just on YT.

 

longer answer that I linked to earlier: Temu is a game changer in the US online shopping space in that they have found a loophole to ship cheap stuff to US customers without paying duties. They have also "gamefied" the experience trough their app with challenges. So they have just exploded in the last 6 months.

[Headshot]

Ordered some roadie bracket covers and one of those weird roadie peaked caps - total about R300 and a bit. Was asked to pay R62 for vat and duty. Still waiting after about two weeks although an email from a courier claims by the 24th. 

 

[Bike Dewing]

58 minutes ago, Headshot said:

Ordered some roadie bracket covers and one of those weird roadie peaked caps - total about R300 and a bit. Was asked to pay R62 for vat and duty. Still waiting after about two weeks although an email from a courier claims by the 24th. 

 

Casquete.? I love them.! I’m bald and out of shape so helps keep sweet from just draining down my face for three hours🤣🤣

[dexterdent]

1 hour ago, Scott roy said:

I think this has gone a little overboard. 
I’ll admit I made a mistake in my choice of words, there was zero intention of making a racist comment or one that would be perceived in that light. I was using it as a more generalised colloquial term that places emphasis on the questionable quality of certain goods from Asia. 
 

More on topic, I have nothing against online market places such as Temu. They certainly have their place, I just don’t think a bike shop should be selling those items. Many people go to a bike shop and will inherently trust that they will buy an item that has at least met some safety standards and that they can trust. If you want to have parts from sources such as alibaba or aliexpress or wherever then by all means go for it, get it yourself and take it to the bike shop to fit. 

Some of them ARE being sold at bike shops already. And a lot of things that people think are not Chinese are.

What these online places do is cut-out a lot of the middlemen that sometimes add very little value and sometimes add a lot of value (if someone goes to China, inspects the factory and stand by the product, they are adding value. If someone buys 100 SCVCN sunglasses for R70 each and resells them for R500 in their shop or on takealot, they are not). 

If you can find some reputable online reviews of products listed on Temu, I don't think there is any more risk buying from them than from Merlin.

I've been able to find some great things on Temu for prices that are so cheap that any perceived "gamble" is worth it. I'm talking things like a couple of cool different top tube, frame and seat bags, some sunglasses, some basic tools and a couple of Ridenow tubes. I'm even eyeing a new saddle that is very "mirror" like for a very reasonable price.

What I do think there is an issue with is the pretty lax copyright laws. Buying a fake Pinarello frame is probably wrong. Buying a frame that looks a lot like one but doesn't claim to be one? Not too sure about this yet.

[MORNE]

On 4/20/2024 at 3:11 PM, Jewbacca said:

I've built my own carbon frame out of hacked up carbon frames..... I also won't use no name carbon bars.

I'm not so concerned with cranksets, but bars are a no no.

I also don't really trust 2nd hand carbon bars. The guy who owned them before you could have been a ham fist and over torqued his brakes, gear clamp, dropper clamp etc so the bars could snap there.

Most failed carbon bars I've seen have snapped at an over tightened clamp point. 

3nm is not even finger tight. 

It's funny how 'the west' and the media are making such a song and dance. I saw an article by the Daily Maverick that came across as a disgruntled teenage girl who had just discovered a thesaurus. 

Published 'whataboutism' based on no fact.

It's a direct to consumer Chinese market shopping hub. A large part of our consumer oriented economies have been based on exploiting cheap labour and manufacture sold at a huge markup because of Brand Name shipping restrictions and an ease of use scenario where you're paying for someone else to deal with the sourcing, shipping and risk.

Rebranded Chinese parts and branded east made clothes and socks has kept food on SA tables for years.

Suddenly these manufacturers have said 'hold on, we can take on the shipping and create a platform that allows people at home to do the sourcing'.... THE DEVIL!

There is always risk when importing foreign based manufacturing, hence trade shows, QC visits and supply meetings.

I'm all for it. I've ordered a few small bits and pieces like a Taylormade driver sleeve adapter, some corded grips and a set of hosel cleaners. 

Nothing I'd bet my life on, but stuff you can't get here or is ludicrously expensive due to a protected market

500 cable inner end caps…R100. No need to beg the bikeshop for a few loosies like a hobo everytime.

Enough for the rest of my time on this planet. 

 

[Nick]

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