Has anyone ever bought a suspension fork from AliExpress? I may need to replace the fork on my son’s 26” bike, and those aren’t the most common parts anymore. I would like to think since they’ve been produced in mass quantities for decades now, they might be half decent.
WOW!
The idea scares me and I don’t have any need for 26" bike parts but I’m fascinated to hear how this goes!
Check out the Chinertown forum, there’s loads of threads covering them.
I would look at something like a Manitou Markhor before going to AliExpress.
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I have an old Santa Cruz Superlight (med) with 26” wheels with a Manirou reverse arc fork. In really good shape, barely ridden.
If you want it, hit me up via DM. Free to a good home (or even a schitty one, I don’t care). I’m in the process of moving and need to make it go away.
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Dave’s recent podcast comments re every bike part is safety critical, and therefore anything bought from places like AliExpress should be treated with suspicion absolutely applies here. To back that up, check out GMBN who did a video or two on Ali sourced forks; spoiler, they were quite rubbish and somewhat scary.
There are some perfectly ok things to be found on AliExpress, but at the moment I would suggest suspension forks are not in that category.
You’d be better off looking for lightly used main brand stuff on eBay and similar.
Also, you may find 27.5 forks will be ok, as they aren’t that much taller.