Beaten at Their Own Game: How Chinese Cycling Tech is Rivalling the Biggest Cycling Brands
A few years ago, you wouldn’t have dreamed of using cycling tech out of China on a high-end road bike setup. Now, they’re becoming the brands to beat.
When I started cycling in 2013, cycling tech made in China was regarded by much of the cycling community as nothing more than cheap, counterfeit products that were either too good to be true or downright dangerous to use.
I remember looking into cheap carbon wheels on sites like eBay and AliExpress as a cost-effective upgrade. While riding around on 60mm deep wheels that only cost £250 sounded cool, the horror stories that littered the internet steered me away. I never made that purchase.
Chinese cycling tech is beating out Western brands to the point where I’m happy to assign it to the spec sheet of my “dream bike”.
Fast forward to 2023 and 3 or 4 items on my bike are unapologetically “Made in China”. 10 years after getting into the sport, I’m not messing around with my bike setup. I ride an S-Works Tarmac, a bike that retailed for £9500 when it was released in 2018. I don’t say this to brag, I do it to make a point. The days of counterfeit products and bad news stories online are behind us. Chinese cycling tech is beating out Western brands to the point where I’m happy to assign it to the spec sheet of my “dream bike”.
So what are these brands? The difference between the £250 carbon wheels I considered all those years ago is that these aren’t knock-offs. I’m riding wheels from a brand called Winspace. The company was founded in 2008 and offers a plethora of products that are designed and built in-house.
So, why buy these cheaper wheels from China? There are many reasons. First is the cost. A good set of carbon wheels from a Western brand can run you anywhere from £1500 — £6000. My Winspace wheels cost me £800. You may think at this price they're not going to perform as well. Speaking from experience, my wheels are as good as any I’ve tried from any Western brand. But subjective thoughts aren’t good enough for Winspace, so they also enlisted engineering firm Hambini to independently verify that their wheels not only match Western competitors in terms of build quality and aerodynamics, but beat them.
If you want to be real-specific, look at the ever-popular wheels from the German brand Lightweight. Retailing at £5500, they’re not cheap. Winspace’s competing wheelset, the Hyper D45, costs £1100, 1/5 the cost. The weight difference? 41 grams. You could even argue that the Winspace wheels are lighter as its are a deeper profile than the competing Lightweight Meilenstein. It’s easy to see the appeal.
My next reason is choice. I’m not a disc brake fan on road bikes, I personally believe they’ve done more harm than good to the whole industry. Bikes are now more expensive, more complicated and heavier than they were only a few years ago. Western brands are really pushing disc brake bikes and wheels and the higher margins that come along with them. It’s almost impossible to find a rim brake bike or wheelset from a mainstream brand today. Winspace, however, are committed to supporting both platforms. They were one of the only brands I could buy a brand new set of wheels for my rim brake bike in 2023.
So, how can a brand from China beat out decades-old incumbents of the cycling industry at their own game? Our first clue is from Winspace’s own website: “Based in Xiamen, China we have the advantage of being at the heart of the carbon fiber industry”. Like many things produced today, most of the bikes and wheels you buy are made in China. Many of these Chinese brands started life as producers for the big brands in the cycling world. There are stories of some factories taking bribes to do extra, unauthorised runs late into the night; counterfeiting the Western brands they were building for during the day.
Winspace also states “[their] international team brings expertise in engineering and design”. With investment in production from Western brands into manufacturing in China comes expertise. Many of those working for these brands in China have become world-renowned in their ability to create products from carbon. By bringing the research and development in-house and using their own novel ideas, Winspace have created a top-quality product. They’ve put their money where their mouth is too. Cycling’s governing body, the UCI, has approved the wheels for competitive use. That means, theoretically, you could use these wheels at the Tour de France.
This pattern isn’t just reserved for carbon fibre. I recently started using TPU inner tubes from a brand called RideNow. Also based in China, they’ve created a cheaper alternative to the popular TPU-based inner tubes from brands like Tubolito or even tyre giant Pirelli. At around £5 a tube, compared to the £35 for a Tubolito, these tubes haven’t let me down (pardon the pun)!
It’s irrefutable how much bike brands have profited from the increased popularity of cycling from the COVID days. Physical and mental health impacted many during those dark days, many found cycling to be an excellent remedy. Bike brands have had to keep up with demand for those already in the sport, but perhaps more problematically, create new products and ideas for those just getting started.
I mentioned that Winspace’s wheels are UCI approved. I’m willing to bet a brand like Winspace will be ridden in a World Tour-level race within the next 5 years. As bikes are becoming more and more expensive, Chinese brands are able to capitalise by creating a product that is as good quality but at a much more affordable price. With some level of investment, I’d expect to see a brand like Winspace sponsor a team to get even more exposure to the traditional cycling landscape and gain the traditional mark of quality by being featured at the highest level of the sport.
We’ve never had so many options as cyclists for our tech and with more and more brands jumping into the industry, it’s an exciting time to be a tech-obsessed cyclist!