Cycling is more expensive than ever so, like me, you’ve probably been tempted by the lure of AliExpress and its treasure trove of bargain bike parts.
Luckily for you, I’m an AliExpress veteran and I’ve bought loads of bike stuff from the Chinese platform over the last few years, and I’m going to show you some of the surprisingly good things I’ve acquired at incredible prices.
Here are 13 cheap AliExpress parts that are actually worth buying – and two that definitely aren't.
Three key tips for buying on AliExpress
If this has got you curious about shopping for some cheap bike stuff on AliExpress, keep these three key tips in mind to avoid duds and, most importantly, keep yourself safe on the bike.
- Don’t buy counterfeits. Aside from counterfeits being illegal, it's simply not worth the safety risk
- If it seems too good to be true, it probably is. Take a moment to sense-check your purchase
- Avoid things that are critical to your safety (anything that could impact your safety on the bike – frames, wheels, forks, stem bolts, helmets, etc)
Pass Quest 1x chainring – £44.49
This is perhaps my favourite AliExpress bike part, partly because of how gorgeous it is – just look at it.
Looks aside, its performance has been excellent. I’ve been using this particular chainring on my Trek Procaliber mountain bike for a few months now, and (touch wood) haven’t suffered a single chain drop or mishap with it.
This particular chainring is a 34-tooth 1x-specific option, with narrow-wide teeth, and a direct-mount Race Face interface, but Pass Quest makes similar options in a variety of sizes, for all types of cranks, bikes and applications.
I know my former colleague, Alex Evans, feels that even 32t chainrings are too big for mountain bikes, but that’s probably because he lives in Scotland, where the trails are considerably hillier than here in Bristol.
At £44.49, it wasn’t outrageously cheap, but when you consider the quality of the machining and its excellent performance on the bike, it has proven well worth its price.
89g EVA carbon saddle – £19.80
Cheap full-carbon saddles sourced from China have been a staple on hill climb bikes for a number of years, and for good reason – when races are short and you’re spending a lot of time riding out of the saddle, there’s little point carrying a heavy, well-padded seat around.
This particular saddle weighs, as claimed, only 89g even with a few millimetres of foam padding, which is frankly fairly astonishing considering it cost less than £20.
That’s almost half the weight of my already very light Prime Primavera Shorty saddle, and with a shape that’s a rough copy of Specialized’s Power saddle, it’s surprisingly comfortable for short rides.
The major question here is, of course, durability, but I think that’s a matter of expectations.
I wouldn’t use it on a gravel or mountain bike, for example, but for a hill climb bike that simply needs to be as light as possible for a few short races per season, it’s perfectly serviceable for the money.
UNO ultra-light aluminium stem – £11.77
The UNO aluminium stem is a legendary AliExpress component, and for good reason – it laughs in the face of Keith Bontrager’s famous maxim, “Light, strong, cheap – pick any two!”.
Despite costing just over a tenner, this -17 degree, 110mm aluminium stem weighs only 149g and is plenty strong enough to handle use on almost any kind of bike imaginable.
It is, of course, ‘just’ a stem with no fancy modern features such as aero profiling, but its beauty is in its simplicity.
It comes in practically every length, multiple angles and even a few colours (matt black, gloss black and polished silver), so if you’re looking for some cheap cockpit components, or want to trial a different bike fit before committing to something more expensive, it’s an ideal choice.
Miscellaneous cycling socks – £9.74 for a pack of four
As my erstwhile colleague, Jack Luke, commented in his final piece for BikeRadar, I’ve long been an advocate of using generic sport socks for cycling.
The reason being that ‘proper’ cycling socks are outrageously expensive considering they are, at the end of the day, just socks.
I’ll admit the multi-packs of cotton-blend sport socks you get at places such as Sports Direct are a little too thick for hot-weather use, and don’t dry out well if you get them wet mid-ride, but you can get cheap cycling socks on AliExpress for a fraction of the cost of the ‘real’ thing.
Every size, colour, length and style is available, so you can pick whatever you like.
Motsuv handlebar tape – £3.44
Like socks, handlebar tape also tends to be far more expensive than you might expect it should be, given what it is.
I appreciate the profit margins on sundries such as bar tape and other accessories likely help bike shops and brands tide themselves over between sales of big-ticket items such as bikes, wheels and so on.
However, the difference between what this stuff costs in Western shops compared to on AliExpress is so stark, it’s hard to not wonder whether you’re getting ripped off by buying branded stuff.
It’s fair to say the performance of the various AliExpress tapes I’ve tried isn’t as good as premium tapes from the likes of SupaCaz, but that stuff costs around 10 times as much at RRP, so it’s a difference I can happily put up with while riding.
West Biking top tube bag – £13.22
The West Biking top tube bag was a recent purchase for my Kinesis GX Race gravel bike, and is another bargain.
The build quality is fantastic, the branding subtle and it weighs only 92g. For just over £13, this is a steal.
ULAC 0.5l saddle bag – £12.19
I’m a big fan of small saddle bags for carrying spares and tools on rides, because they can be quickly transferred between bikes, and you always have everything you need ready to go and easily accessible.
This ULAC one fits discreetly underneath your saddle using a hefty Velcro strap and features a high-quality sealed zip to help minimise water ingress.
Like the top tube bag, its design and build quality belie its low price of just over £12.
You can also find frame and handlebar bags from the same brand on AliExpress, if you want a matching set.
ZTTO ultra-light 11-speed cassette – £33.88
Like full-carbon saddles, ultra-light cassettes are another hill climb / weight weenie staple, and this 11-speed Shimano-compatible cassette from ZTTO weighs an impressive 217g.
The trick here is the use of aluminium, instead of steel, and a one-piece machined construction on the largest five cogs.
It’s fair to say the shifting quality isn’t incredible, and I wouldn’t have high expectations for the durability of the alloy sprockets, but for the price, it would be impossible to find anything anywhere near as light from Shimano or another major brand.
ZTTO jockey wheels – £2.25
These aluminium jockey wheels were purchased to replace the stock plastic ones on a Shimano Ultegra R6800 rear derailleur.
Unlike the stock Shimano jockey wheels, these use proper steel bearings and spin a little bit more freely.
There’s no real performance gain here, but they look a bit nicer and if you want a jazzier colour that’s also an option.
ZTTO tubeless inserts – £27.39
The one ZTTO product that’s been a bit of a letdown is tubeless inserts.
At just over £27 they’re much cheaper than options from the likes of Vittoria or Tubolight, but they’re much heavier, too, at 120g each.
The real problem, though, is that the foam is fairly dense and tough to deform – especially compared to the Tubolight inserts I use on my gravel bike – so I suspect they’ll add quite a bit of rolling resistance to your setup.
They probably would help gnarlier riders avoid pinch-flat punctures or rim damage, but as someone who cares an awful lot about how fast their tyres are, these have remained unused so far.
Tubeless plug kit – £1.76
Another product that does exactly what it says for an extraordinarily low cost, I've got one of these tubeless repair kits in each of my saddle bags.
These come with two different sizes of ‘bacon strips’ for plugging tubeless punctures, and are quick and easy to use.
Toseek carbon seatpost – £13.68
While I’m generally pretty sceptical about buying carbon fibre parts from unknown sources, this option by Toseek has performed pretty well.
At 191g, it’s decently light for the money, although I had to add a washer up top to prevent the front adjustment bolt from digging into the relatively soft alloy, and there's a little rust on the bolts after a couple of years' use.
For less than £14, it’s hard to complain, though.
Like the UNO stem, Toseek seatposts are available in multiple sizes, lengths and setbacks, so you can get whatever suits your requirements.
RideNow TPU inner tubes – £11.15 for two
RideNow is another popular Chinese brand, which rose to fame thanks to these cheap TPU inner tubes.
As someone who’s fully converted to tubeless setups on my ‘performance’ bikes, these aren’t something I use day-to-day, but they’re much smaller and lighter than typical butyl tubes and therefore make excellent-value emergency back-ups.
Risk 3D-printed saddle-height measuring tool set – £4.83
Risk is an absurd name for a brand, but these 3D-printed saddle-height measurement tools are undeniably fantastic.
The U-shaped tool is placed on your saddle, where it finds the ‘80mm point’ – a standardised reference point used by professional bike fitters – while the dot tool attaches to the end of a tape measure via a small magnet.
You can then insert the tool into the centre of your crankset and measure the distance between the two to ensure a consistent saddle height.
The 80mm point tool also includes a slot to enable easy measurements of saddle-to-bar reach.
ALLTOO USB-C to Di2 charger head – £13.39
Since first covering this tool last year, I remain convinced it’s a fantastic idea executed poorly.
As you might expect, it appears there’s been a decent amount of development since then, with the models now available looking a lot more refined.
Whether they work any better than this one – which, for the record, didn’t work very well at all – remains to be seen, but if you’re willing to risk your cash you might get lucky.
Sadly, my calls for Shimano to make an ‘official’ USB-C-compatible charger head have so far gone unanswered.
