you can buy a performance road bike group set on aliexpress for 300 pounds
but what's the buying experience like and most importantly what's the group set like
it just so happens i've got one hit
so i ordered all of this stuff a month ago from aliexpress aliexpress is an
online retail service based in china you may have heard of them before
they're owned by the alibaba group alibaba is a business to business website aliexpress is
a business to consume a website and it functions pretty much like any normal website when you buy
stuff online evidently there's lots of bicycle parts available on aliexpress where do i start
it's all in quite suspicious looking packets so this group set that i've ordered is a sensor
empire pro now i've read quoted in multiple places online that sensor actually has some
ex sram employees or engineers working for them is this true i'm not sure but it seems to be
the general rumor i feel like i should point out here the postage was free but the box turned up
beaten up quite badly hopefully everything inside is okay in their defense it did come all the way
from china and it's probably been stuffed on a boat without further ado let's open things up and
see what you get now this is listed as a complete group set so i'm expecting to have nearly all of
the parts that i'll need to build this onto a bike after this video but that does mean some
of the parts are made by different companies like this chain 12 speed made by ybn 126 links comes in
a nice red box has a quick link packaging not quite as nice as a surround shimano rear mech
feels nicely made of course this group set being 300 pounds is fully mechanical including
the disc brakes spring feels good jockey wheels feel smooth undamaged carbon cage on one side
front mech just in bubble wrap feels okay actually looks quite nice there's a bit of an engraving
of the company logo there you can feel that it's slightly concave same with on the body of the mech
too this one feels quite heavy ah brake calipers i was expecting the rear mech but we've already
opened the room going crazy cool they are they're beefy yeah that is not the sleekest of calipers
i've ever seen but i guess with brake calipers you want them to be confidence inspiring and solid so
if i'm gonna be riding this i'm actually quite happy about that like how these just say nut
these should both be compatible with disc rotors i think these are the disc try not to touch these
uh 160 rotors front and rear these are identical and quite nicely machined actually they look just
like my magura ones they say avid on them another thing that's official and they come with all the
bolts and adapters now most of the wheels that i have have a different fastening system to six
bolt which is called center lock but you can use adapters to fit a six bolt rotor onto a center
lock not the other way around though cassette in different packets oh wow so this is branded sensor
a really heavy cassette and it's all one piece except for the last two tiny sprockets the splines
look like it would fit a shimano freehub body hghg is that what it is they do give you choices
of ratio when you're ordering this i'm guessing they're made to order because everything was in
stock this is a 32 11 cassette other sizes are available bb with this particular bundle there
was only the option of a threaded bb this one i won't actually be using because my frame is press
fit if you were to order this you get a nice standard threaded bsa bb included in the price
all of it seems to have grease on the bb and the crank are branded cynics pr2 made of aluminium and
this side has little preload adjustment first thing i've noticed other half of the crank my
lovely double chain set both parts seem fairly light and to my eye seem to be nicely finished
the branding looks good nicely applied everything seems solid and again nothing damaged in the
packet i went with the 50 34 because it's hilly around here you know it's not because i'm unfit
i left the best hill up shifters getting both out with inner cables they have carbon
levers right hand for the rig is left hand for the front that's weird the hood material on the
right hand one is different from the left hand one this right-hand one feels like quite a nice
soft rubber but the one on the left has like a grippy texture i imagine it's not supposed to be
like that and they should be matching maybe they ran out of hoods the non-grippy one feels nicer
last thing in the box is a very basic instruction manual with pictures english on one side
chinese on the other side these instructions just cover setting up the gears because the brakes are
made by a different company they don't give you instructions for that but i'm sure we can
work it out hello so harry just built a bike using exclusively aliexpress parts which um
which we will film at some point you're jealous of my crank set yeah your crank sets right now it's
got very good reviews actually has happens i'll give you a little preview of my bike the shifter
breaks the sparkle we don't get to see it yet you've been surprised you'll be surprised about
how good this stuff works it's like one of the best shifting group sets that i've ever had and it
cost 100 quid that's mad like the front derailleur once you set it up it is the smoothest shifting
i've ever had in the front radiator what brakes have you got ah those aren't that good you should
you should get the the june f1 ones the june ones are like hydraulic calipers but cable actuators
now the official claimed weight of this group set bundle from the web page says about 2420 grams so
we should probably weigh it with an actual scales these scales should be fairly accurate their
daisies ones that she uses for coffee rear mech 197 grams front mech 95 grams chain including the
quick link 259 grams the shifters as a pair 440 bb 77 really heavy brake calipers 441 cassette with
lock ring 361 grams disc rotors 196. don't forget the bolts to fit them and lastly the crankset
709 grams so if my calculations are correct that's 2819 grams a lot heavier than the quoted weight
but the quoted weight is for the caliper brake version they're the same product page and there's
no quoted weight for the disc brake version so that will be the difference they're so heavy
to put this into perspective roughly shimano 105 is about 2 500 grams ultegra is 2 200 grams
and dura ace will be sub 2000 grams depending on which one you go for because obviously
there's a few different iterations and loads of variables like are you including the cables
but on the whole for 300 quid that's not too bad but does it work so good and bad first impressions
now i've had a chance to look at this group set properly one thing that i know is straight away
this chain has no grease or lube on it whatsoever it's completely dry which i guess isn't a problem
you just have to lube it but that's a very unusual thing which you would never usually experience
buying a kmc shimano or sram chain usually they've always got a layer of grease on which you kind
of have to take off whereas this is like well there's there's nothing which means it sounds
a bit jangly and weird but i'm assuming this will be fine to just put some normal lube on
and go it's all 12 speed got my quick link there and all of these parts should in theory
work with sram so if confidence in the product was an issue you could use a sram chain which
are a bit more tried and tested and it should all be compatible with the whole drivetrain shifters
as i touched on earlier have different rubber on the hoods and i don't think that's intentional so
that's a bit weird bit inconsistent and something you wouldn't ever expect if you were buying a
bigger name group set there's something else weird about the shifters they're really small the actual
hood here and how narrow it is it's really tiny compared to the rotor ones that i've been using
and the sram red ones which i've been using more recently on the gravel bike i have to say though
they do feel solid and quite comfortable so i'm excited to get these on a pair of handlebars in
the next few days and see what they're like to ride another positive which i wasn't sure
was going to be the case or not these are the newest shifters which have an alloy piece under
here so historically this sensor group set had a plastic piece under here which was notorious for
snapping and becoming an issue they have now fixed this i ordered this group set through the official
sensor store and that should ensure that you end up with the newest version of the shifter
with the nice aluminium piece under here if you want more information about that there's a guy on
youtube called trace velo fantastic videos really long and really in depth about a lot of different
chinese group set parts from aliexpress so if you want to check out his channel i'll put it in the
description down below the more i look at this crank set the more i like it it's quite a neat
design this is 170 mil version i forgot to mention earlier uh because i run short cranks the build
quality and the machining on this as well seems really good there's no rough edges all the threads
look clean the torx bolts that they're using to fix the crank onto the spider look neat printing's
nice and clear doesn't scrape off or anything so yeah happy with that brake calipers though
look a bit pants now the world of aliexpress and chinese bike parts is fairly new to me
but i know you can get quite deep into it there's a whole world of manufacturers and companies that
most cyclists in the uk haven't heard of before and there's definitely brands that can be trusted
more than others in this case sensor is well known nut i'm not really sure about but having
a flick through the website having a look at some reviews and heading over to bike forums online you
can definitely find out which brands are making the better stuff and there's definitely better
brake calipers than this i wanted to highlight in this video what you get when you buy the bog
standard bundle from aliexpress for a sensor group set we're going to start with this one
get this built up in the next few days and see how it rides completely stock so i want to use
all the parts that it came with before i start exploring other options on the website let's
just see what happens if you spend 300 quid in terms of performance what do you get does it work
and uh well i guess i'll find out in the next few days any questions about this please put
it in the comment section down below and yes there is still a hole in my ceiling