Oilslick parts for the bike / parts from aliexpress

[Razorx]

I have two questions i thought of when i went to sleep last night....

Why does almos allways oil slick parts cost so much ? Is it hard to create oil slick style? like 120$ for pedals and

And second question

Bikeparts from aliexpress? There are alot of parts .. stems, pedals and so on. Much cheaper... Are they of a bad quality?
there is oil parts for 1/4 of the cost... Are the metal just of worse quality? Or what am i missing

 

[p3eps]

I spent a lot of time / money a couple of years ago trying to put some oil slick on my previous bike... but only using quality components. The bike was black, so I wanted a stand out colour to brighten it up.
I already had a SRAM AXS drivetrain, but bought the oil slick XX1 cassette / chain. I bought some HT components oil slick pedals, Ergon grips with oil slick collars, oil slick seat clamp, headset spacers, and pretty much replaced every screw / bolt with titanium oil slick. The screws / bolts were stupidly expensive for what they were... but standard silver titanium bolts are pretty pricy.

I could have gone further with stem, hubs, spokes, saddle (oil slick rails)... but I already had decent stuff that I didn't want to change... and sacrifice the quality for the colour. The Ali Express stem in oil slick was never going to be better than the ENVE one I already had!

After a year or so of it, I actually grew to dislike it! When I bought a new frame and swapped all my parts over, I went through the expense of ordering all the titanium bolts again - in natural silver. Although I was giving this black bike a blue theme, I thought I'd be safer with silver bolts as they go with everything!

How, I'm happy with my black bike with blue bits... but who knows how I'll feel in 2 years time!!

 

[Razorx]

I spent a lot of time / money a couple of years ago trying to put some oil slick on my previous bike... but only using quality components. The bike was black, so I wanted a stand out colour to brighten it up.
I already had a SRAM AXS drivetrain, but bought the oil slick XX1 cassette / chain. I bought some HT components oil slick pedals, Ergon grips with oil slick collars, oil slick seat clamp, headset spacers, and pretty much replaced every screw / bolt with titanium oil slick. The screws / bolts were stupidly expensive for what they were... but standard silver titanium bolts are pretty pricy.

I could have gone further with stem, hubs, spokes, saddle (oil slick rails)... but I already had decent stuff that I didn't want to change... and sacrifice the quality for the colour. The Ali Express stem in oil slick was never going to be better than the ENVE one I already had!

After a year or so of it, I actually grew to dislike it! When I bought a new frame and swapped all my parts over, I went through the expense of ordering all the titanium bolts again - in natural silver. Although I was giving this black bike a blue theme, I thought I'd be safer with silver bolts as they go with everything!

How, I'm happy with my black bike with blue bits... but who knows how I'll feel in 2 years time!!

View attachment 134442

You have a picture of the bike wih all the oil slick parts?

 

[VWsurfbum]

Answering your question about AliExpress, its very much part dependant.
Some parts have been absolutely as good as stuff 100 times the price, some items haveen total toilet.
Example was Purple Ti bolts that turned out to be alloy softer than cheese poop. Good bits have been Handlebars, jockey wheels, BB's (rememebr them) and carbon back plates for mechs.

 

[p3eps]

You have a picture of the bike wih all the oil slick parts?

I don't have many pics that show it off well - as most of it is tiny screws / tyre valves / spacers etc.
Here's a few...

 

[Razorx]

Answering your question about AliExpress, its very much part dependant.
Some parts have been absolutely as good as stuff 100 times the price, some items haveen total toilet.
Example was Purple Ti bolts that turned out to be alloy softer than cheese poop. Good bits have been Handlebars, jockey wheels, BB's (rememebr them) and carbon back plates for mechs.

Ive ordered a few parts... Bolts and stuff. I hope these bolts aren´t as weak as you describe....
Did some of them break for you?

 

[VWsurfbum]

Ive ordered a few parts... Bolts and stuff. I hope these bolts aren´t as weak as you describe....
Did some of them break for you?

yup, the heads just fell off, not even rounded off! made it fun getting them out of the brake adapters.
But like I said, some things are great, some things are toilet as theres millions of different suppliers on there.

 

[Singletrackmind]

I've had very good luck with various bolts and bits I've purchased from this company.

All

Better Bolts titanium mountain bike bolts are purpose built to reduce weight, increase stiffness and eliminate corrosion on top end bicycles. Our signature titanium shock and pivot bolts are made of grade 5 aerospace titanium.

betterbolts.com

 

[VWsurfbum]

I just fitted this, a whole £3 instead of the £20 for the equivelant over here.