deacon mark

I am looking to upgrade my 6700 groupset to R7000. The best deal I can find is at this Aliexpress SHIMANO 105 R7000 Groupset 2x11 Speed 170/172.5/175mm 50 34T 52 36T 53 39T Road Bike Bicycle Kit Groupset Upgrade From 5800|Bicycle Derailleur| - AliExpress.

Is that legit and has anyone ever bought anything from them? My other question is do I really need to upgrade the crankset. Seems that 10 spd cranks work fine on 11 spd drive chain but wonder how many others have done this and results.

eduskator

I have a hard time trusting that website. While I sometimes buy cheaper products from them, I would not trust them for more expensive parts. Merlin Cycles sells the groupset for 850$ I think. It may be safer buying from them even if it's a little more expensive instead.

deacon mark

I did find one option on ebay that is fine for $729. That seems to be the best price I can get they do ship from US. Want the long cage RD and I have to have 175 cranks. Frankly I could go with just the shifter and RD, RD, I have cassettes and chain. I just don't know about brakes. They should work but might not be the best set up.

Iride01 

AliExpress is just a platform similar to ebay, amazon and others that just serve as a central place for sellers to post their wares. Think of it like going to the mall. Some stores are good and other not so good.

Your credit card issuer or PayPal if you can use them should give you plenty of protection to get your money back if these aren't actually Shimano as they are advertised.

So if you have any doubts but purchase anyway, save screens shots of all the pages that you can for the stuff you buy. They might help if you have to make a claim and the merchant says you purchased something not quite advertised as what you thought it was.

SoSmellyAir

If something looks too good to be true -- as evidenced by your above inquiry here -- then it is probably too good to be true.

According to Lennard Zinn (at VeloNews.com), who seems to know what he is talking about, 10 speed crank and chain rings work just fine with an 11 speed cassette and RD.

Technical FAQ: 10- and 11-speed drivetrain component compatibility - VeloNews.com

My 11 speed road bike came with 10/11 speed FSA chain rings, which I replaced with Shimano 105 10 speed chain rings; front shifting improved slightly.

delbiker1 

I think your crank set will work ok, but the 6700 brakes will not match up with the 7000 levers, different cable pull. I had issues with Aliexpress and it took months to get a $179 refund. I did buy a 7000 group set off Ebay, seller is "riding is life". That was a couple of years ago, pre-covid pricing. It took a while for the shipping, but I knew that when I ordered. Nothing was in the original packaging, also knew that, and everything was brand new and just fine.

shelbyfv

It's hard to imagine that could be OK. Price is lower than pre- Covid from known legit sellers. .https://www.merlincycles.com/en-us/s...et-118524.html Merlin was one of the last UK sellers to continue shipping to US. I've read various accounts of their current policy so you may not know until you put it in your cart and begin checking out. If you can find an actual US seller for a few dollars more that's probably the best option these days.

Iride01 

Part of what makes them seem so cheap is that they haven't been imported to the country the person receiving them is in. And in this case the buyer will be the one responsible for any import fees, tariffs, duties assessed on it. The buyer is for all legal purposes the importer of record.

I'm not certain what that is for bicycle parts coming to the US. Might be nothing, especially since this is for one individual and not intended for resale. But also be ready for up to 30 percent of the claimed value being assessed. Yes I pulled the 30 percent out of my derrière, but it seems like that was a possibility when I looked through the US Customs tariff and duty calculator for other stuff. So far though the stuff I've bought has been exempt.

shelbyfv

I think $800 or less is exempt. If your order is more than that it's a crap shoot depending on the shipper. 11% max for bike parts, IIRC.

zen_

Gray market groupsets from AliExpress are cheaper because Shimano sells the parts much cheaper to manufacturers in Asia, and some of them end up on the market with no retail packaging as such. I have bought a number of Shimano parts from AliExpress without issue. The two big things to look out for:

1. New merchants, or merchants with low ratings. Not really any different than eBay, except if you have to open a dispute on AliExpress, your funds can be tied up for 3-4 months waiting for window to close, then waiting for the dispute to process. I'd just just avoid merchants with a rating under 97% or so, and newer ones for items that cost more than $50 or so.
2. DO NOT buy Shimano or KMC chains online from any seller that can't guarantee they are authentic. So many fakes floating around these days. I suspect Shimano brake pads are also being copied since those are in short supply too, but can't really substantiate those claims beyond a set that I purchased was obviously defective.

If it makes the OP feel any better, I know I have bought parts (MTB chainrings) from that particular merchant on AliExpress before.

LarrySellerz

Didn't click the link but Aliexpress is so suspect especially with bike parts.

ARPRINCE

I think your other issue is your wheelset. Can it take an 11s group?

sean.hwy

From your link you can click on the store name. I would not buy from someone less than a year old with rating less than 97%. That's just me.
This store seems to be legit. Been in business since 2015 @ 98%. Maybe you can buy a few smaller things first and see if it's the real deal.

Iride01 

So much fear mongering <grin>

Just like Amazon and eBay, you just have to look and read the descriptions carefully and your pre-purchase confirmation to see if what is being sold is what you think it to be.

ChamoisDavisJr

Another trick with AliExpress is to sort by number of orders. Then read through the reviews. The more reviews with pictures the better. The more reviews from users in the US/UK/AUS even better. You want lots of recent orders from a well reputed store with lots of reviews in English and pictures of the actual product.

Using that trick is what got me some Foakley Jawbreakers for $20. My wife has been using hers for 5 years. They came in an Oakley box with 5 lenses, cloth, nice little extra pouch, instructions, etc. and have been great. I wore mine for 3 years before I snapped the arm off one and went a different route with glasses.

I've ordered a number of things over the years from this site and never had any issue. It can take a while for things to show up. Just know what you're getting...

Buyer beware and for sure make sure to use a card that has protection just in case.

I've never ordered any parts from the website, so can't comment on this particular item you're looking at.

Psimet2001 

Parts in the industry just aren't available. As such no one is selling them below MSRP as a minimum. If they are then they either don't actually have the parts in hand and are hoping to get them at some point or it's just vaporware.

There are more and more counterfeit Shimano parts (specifically chains) showing up in shops all around the country. My shop forums are full of pictures of them and the resulting chain failures.

I don't know the specifics on this particular listing - but if you believe it then go ahead and buy up all that they have and re-sell them.

I will say that as all of this eases up (think in terms of manufacturing time scale and not your normal retail time scale minds) within the next few years (2-4) you will absolutely start to see the over bought and overstocked OEM product gray market itself all over the place. Wont happen with SRAM for a few reasons but Shimano will once again be completely degraded and lose all of its value in the market because their company can't figure out, even in a shortage, how to monitor who they sign contracts with.

deacon mark

I can definitely get the groupset from Merlin in the UK. There price is just a bit more. I am not sure of the actual MSRP on the Shimano R7000 rim brake groupset. I do know that rim brakes are going fast and many have go on DIY so this groupset is not going to be in the thicket of competition. As for me buying them and reselling, no Rob I don't want to do that but your right I probably can. I make my living repairing guitars not reselling bike parts. I don't SRAM I do like Shimano whatever they might be doing wrong, it works fine for me and all my tools are really for Shimano. I am my own mechanic and wheelbuilder so at the moment I am sticking with what I know. I am pretty sure at this point if I pull the trigger it will be with Merlin.

One question though you might have insight. Have you found that Shimano 6700 is a groupset that was not the best in terns of dialing in nice even shifting? It has just been less than my old 7800 ( that was great) and way less than my 6800 on the Habby.

Psimet2001 

Even with Merlin I would question if they actually have them on hand and can ship it. Most of us in the industry have been reduced to buying retail wherever we can find parts and even then when the retailers are listing it in stock and reply with emails saying they have it in stock they end up not shipping when the order is placed because they are actually waiting on a backorder.

Regardless - with rim brake I am actually selling more rim brake than I have in years. The shortages are pushing a lot of riders into staying with what they have and just "upgrading" until all this settles down. I have outsold disc products by about 8 to 1 over the last year and a half.

My comment about SRAM was more to do with distribution ad production. Not the value of them. While SRAM used to be a local company (sure it still says Chicago) it is actually being run and managed in Indy and has a fairly recent CEO that has decided to effectively piss all over the industry in an effort to increase return for the private shareholders they have. They will push more towards consumer direct and will continue to systematically eliminate lost margin from discounting and gray market. With these changes and a complete loss of support from them for any local racing in their own home town or support of dealers I have decided I no longer need to bite my tongue: their products pale in comparison to Shimano in terms of quality and performance.

The 6700 bit - it wasn't the best but it wasn't bad. Sounds like you should definitely look into the hanger alignment and absolutely look for induced drag in the cables and housings. I can't begin to tell you the number of times I have fixed shifting problems that people (some of whom are even professional mechanics) have not been able to figure out only because I have taken the time to systematically troubleshoot and diagnose the issue. In other words with Shimano it is very very seldom a problem that stems from the component itself. It is almost always the installation, maintenance or adjustment of the system. Sometimes that's even from small things that great mechanics following the "instructions" don't even realize is causing the problem.

Psimet2001 

7800 is the best though. Always was and always will be....although it's old enough now that anyone who still has it probably is getting some sticking shifting every now and then - the grease they use has coagulated enough to cause the pawls to stick. Time to flush the shifter or pull it and dunk it in hot water to help melt the old grease.

Nachoman

At this point, 7800 is just a fond memory.

LTC19951025

I have purchased SRAM parts in other stores of express. The price is low, but there is no code

LTC19951025

There are many bicycle OEM factories in Asia. Usually, they will order more parts. When all the parts cannot be used, they will resell the parts to other dealers, so some parts will be cheaper

CliffordK

I've purchased a few items on Aliexpress without problems. Never big brand items, but generally no-name stuff, CNC items, etc. Never had any problems.

It has been a couple of years, but the previous purchases all went through "Escrow". If I didn't like the purchase, I had a couple of weeks after it arrived to complain. I never had to do that.

I could imagine if you bought a 105 groupset, and received a Tourney groupset, then things could get complex, but the payment still is supposed to go through escrow.

The price at $500 to $600 doesn't seem unreasonable. I wouldn't be surprised if Chinese customers could walk down to the corner bike shop and purchase an R7000 groupset for less than $500 retail. Then box it up and ship it on.

I'd be less inclined to purchase items manufactured in the USA or Europe on AliExpress.

I've bought from most of the big UK vendors in the past, and did reasonably well with them. However, most of them stopped shipping Shimano and SRAM parts and supplies to the USA. It didn't make me more likely to go to a LBS for more than emergency supplies.

For UK shipments outside of Europe, it usually goes out without VAT.

c0urt

it seems like their prices have gone up a lot since the last time i was i one there, but how it was described to me, they are Japanese in that had the serial numbers scratched off of them, or stuff that returns, in some cases they are test markets for new product, i saw a shifter company turn up on there once and actually turn up on the road here, but if anything comes up with them, you are on your on.

sean.hwy