Bike Parts at Carrefour vs Temu et AliExpress

I recently purchased a few bike parts and/or accessories from Carrefour and I am looking at prices from other (mostly Chinese) vendors, to make sure I got the lowest price. Most stuff is and has been made in China for quite a while now anyway, so why not buy it direct if it ends up cheaper?

Varianta în limba română pe FaṭăCarte Meta Zamolxis.

• I discuss a few purchases of cheap bike parts from Carrefour.
• Numerous cheaper offers are on display at Temu and AliExpress
• Decathlon has some good stuff if you have a discount.

The first thing I purchase but won’t be checking for alternatives is jumbo cherries, at 9.90 RON/kg (works out to about 2 CAD / kg or 5 EUR); it’s not a bad price and I ate them all anyway; RIP in my tummy.

pump

The first bike accessory to check (even though I already have a feeling I can’t find something cheaper) is the foot mini air pump (XQMAX MINIPOMPA MAN: 57,90 RON / 11,66 EUR). I bought it because it’s the cheapest air pump with (pressure) gauge I can find. This XQMAX brand comes with a NL address written on the box and instructions to “save the address” even though it’s a PO Box.

A quick search on AliExpress finds a manual (hand) pump with gauge, 13 RON (from here on, unspecified currencies are to be assumed as RON) each or 10 if >= 10 pcs from Sikiwind and ProHiker; on Temu, an item nearly identical to Carrefour’s from idealusa at 30,21 and from WestBiking at 37,94, a manual (hand) one similar to AE at 24,83 from GingerbreadMan and a regular sized one from Phoenix Cycling at 38,66. While browsing, I’ve discovered the miracle of portable electric pumps. At Temu, 80 from Pintudy, while at AE, 7,81 from FlyingCar; similar, 59 from NJ04 and even Airbank 156 from Cycplus. So yes, I’ll be returning it.

ulock

The “XQMAX ANTIFURT U-LOC” was 35 and it’s 11x22,5 cm. On AE I find GUB from BlueLan, 21x11x2 at 46; 17x15 at 5 from SuperHealthy. The latter comes without a mounting bracket, which will separately set you back 4-8. The 5-6 RON U locks are not part of the free shipping offer, S&H costing around 20. On Temu I found CB-11019U at 48 in silicone with 2x sided keys and from BENGGUO at 68,33 which included a steel cable – silicone but one sided keys. A Runsheng small padlock at 20 and a slightly larger one at 70 from Blazhty complete the U-lock picture. There’s also a bracket-lock at 123 from ZoyoSports. For now, I’ll probably be returning it since I noticed that the mounting bracket is missing its screw.

Another difference worth mentioning is that the one I bought is coated by a thin layer of paint, whereas the others are in silicone or PVC “varnish” and as such are less likely to scratch my bike. Then again, my frame is Al, so I shouldn’t be too concerned with rusting, just with resale price due to scratches.

saddle

The dimensions of the saddle bag are 12.5x7.5x7.5 cm which works out to 0.4L, this is another XQMAX contraption costing 20. On AliExpress, a 4 RON bag comes with 30+ S&H; for FS we find from Outdoor Adventure at 13, HomeCat10001 at 15, HNQH 16x8x7 at 11, KeepTravel (9x9x2) 12. On Temu there’s CenKoDa is 12, MDog’s 13 and that should be enough.

chain

The anti-theft chain with 4-digit password is a P2RBIKE P20045 AMBID lock of 1100mm. The P2Rbike.com brand is USA only, changing to “Orbisson.com” for China and Slovakia. In Romania we have “dhsbikeparts.ro” – there’s even a phone number. However, the 68 RON price seems a bit steep and on their website we find it at 61, though S&H would be 25. On Temu, I can find lots of inferior products, such as a RMbike's thin-wire at 10 (but it can extend to 1.5m), GoldenPremium fixed 15 / changeable 24, and Xunting 77cm 28 / 100 cm 31; on AE, Xunting is 77cm 40 / 100cm 46 / 57cm 34 / 135cm 52, WB 5-digit is 63.81 1m. I can seemingly get it for half what I paid, so it’s going back.

pressure

I already have a small (hand) portable air pump, so rather than buy a pump with gauge, I could simply buy a pressure gauge (without an actual pump). Searching AE, I find a round mechanical one for 6,66 from willow666, a similar one with a connector from Small White for 9,6, an electronic one from Cosy Zone for 16,45 and the well-known pen-like contraption for 13,23 from Tree. On Temu, we have Be’s 3,15 pen contraption, 4pcs Tire Pressure Lids from Zhihao Xu for 6,61, a round mechanical one with connector from Superb L P for 11,04, and the electronic one for 12,46.

basket

I had not purchased a metallic wire, collapsible basket but I intend to buy one and place it on the road side of my back tire. I couldn’t find it at the Carrefour super I tried. While I expect to find cheaper stuff on Temu and AE, I (hopefully still) have a 100 RON voucher from Decathlon, so I’ll be looking at that first. A frontal BTWIN 100 de 8L este fix 100, another ELOPS 500 with handle for the back 13L is 170, ELOPS 100 (without handle) 13L back at 120 while 500 front 12L is 120, M-WAVE BA-RM metallic back basket sold by Sport X Team at 85 (several more at various price points, as low as 50), DUNLOP front 75, and that concludes the journey to France. In China, we have AE with a textile one at 17, front tube bag at 28, another metallic front simple one for 51, one with bracket at 52. On Temu I find something that looks exactly like what I want (folding front/rear basket) though this is most likely due to the better presentation; there’s a few more variations in colour and mostly higher prices.

Finally I should mention that I had already purchased the following bike parts from AE:

• mobile phone holder 1.67 (11)
• thought I’m getting a “horn with light” but ended up only with light for 13 (4.9/18)
• green sticker tape 1cm*8m
• triangle bag 4.8/175
• lit “heart” cojones 4.6/79
• crank arm 4.67e – I actually found a cheaper one at the local bazaar

I’ll be writing more about the problems I’ve had and how I fixed them soon. Also, some of the stores mentioned have far more stuff in their home countries – see below.

Sources / More info: intersport, decathlon, emag

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