Cycling UK Forum

Hi,does anyone know where I can buy spare parts for my Rockbros panniers,I can`t find anywhere that stocks them.Thanks,Dennis.

As far as I am aware Rockbros is a chinese manufacturer/brand, whose products are mostly sold via ebay and Amazon, with shipping direct from China to the customer in the UK and elsewhere. There is no UK distributor or importer providing after sales support and spare parts.

Rockbros does have some form of presence in Germany, www.rockbrosbike.de, but I suspect that is just an arrangement to facilitate sales in Europe, rather than provide after sales support.

Your best hope may be that the spare parts sold by Ortlieb or another european brand will fit, or that they or your panniers can be modified for them to fit.

Probably a case of "if you buy cheap you end up buying twice".

steelframe wrote: ↑4 Jun 2022, 9:34am Probably a case of "if you buy cheap you end up buying twice".

Actually. Rockbros manufacture some really good quality parts.!

The UK eBay shop with contact details:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/zho-ie2?_trk ... 3561.l2559

Please let us know if you get a response.

Jonathan

Thanks for your suggestions,a friend has Thule panniers and a Thule clip fits my Rockbros panniers.Problem solved.

leftpoole wrote: ↑4 Jun 2022, 10:09am

steelframe wrote: ↑4 Jun 2022, 9:34am Probably a case of "if you buy cheap you end up buying twice".

Actually. Rockbros manufacture some really good quality parts.!

Have always had the idea that their stuff is variable to say the least. Is there anything in particular of theirs you would recommend?

I have the Rockbros Bell
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/164367243525 ... SwxxVbznfA
Not nearly as nice as the Spurcycle bell that it is a copy of (I once bought an original as a present for a friend)
https://www.condorcycles.com/products/s ... 6249874058
But a fraction of the price and still working well after several years on the bike.

Hi,

steelframe wrote: ↑4 Jun 2022, 9:34am Probably a case of "if you buy cheap you end up buying twice".

Not always.
I searched high and low for some gloves for six months or more, with sufficient padding to help with my hand nerve damage/ bruised problem!
I ended up buying some excellent Rockbros gloves for just £ 17.99
I cant recommend them highly enough.

My frame bag zip died on day 2 of lejog!

Gorilla tape to the rescue.

leftpoole wrote: ↑4 Jun 2022, 10:09am Rockbros manufacture some really good quality parts.!

I would not bet that Rockbros manufactures any parts. I have rather the impression that they - at least mainly - label parts that have been manufactured by others. Which would explain massive variability in quality over the range of products. When they started offering cheap Brompton accessories a couple of years ago I tried to find out about the brand. Obviously from China, at that time rather a labeler than a producer and rather a trading company than one that has technical knowledge about what they sell. It turned out that they had been in business as a brand for years already with ordinary bike parts like headsets and such and the reviews on the internet were pretty shambolic. Seemed to have been low quality items with the lowest possible price as only goal an no sense for quality.
In the meantime they have become pretty prominent as a brand - still it is mainly the price that draws interest to their offerings. Given the massive range of products sold under the brand I cannot imagine that they actually produce the stuff themselves. Even less given that there are countless similar looking products with different brand names on them. The typical issue with goods from China: Hard to tell about quality, hard to tell who is copying whome. Impossible to tell if there will be customer service and if so how it will behave.
Given their positioning in the market and their behaviour of cloning and their history of "quality" it is probably a case of "better don't bet on customer service or warranties - fine the item works as long as it works. If it works at all is a bet of it's own.".

Steve O'C wrote: ↑4 Jun 2022, 11:05pm I have the Rockbros Bell
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/164367243525 ... SwxxVbznfA
Not nearly as nice as the Spurcycle bell that it is a copy of (I once bought an original as a present for a friend)
https://www.condorcycles.com/products/s ... 6249874058
But a fraction of the price and still working well after several years on the bike.

Well, so you conciuosly bought an item that can be considered intellectual theft from a company that doesn't give a damn on topics like that and neither do you, as long as it's cheap and looks nice. That it's miles from the quality of the original and that it does harm the original inventor doesn't seem a criteria. That's clearly personal freedom. Personally I do not buy cloned items and I don't buy from companies that offer these. For one out of moral aspects and secondly because I assume if they don't respect the person they are stealing from - why would they respect their customers or care for quality?

You can read the Spurcycle vs. Rockbros story here: https://cyclingtips.com/2016/08/a-tale- ... erfeiters/
It is even worse than one would assume.

Hi,
So what do you do.
See a cheaper product that cost less, and say it must be counterfeit and just spend more money.
I actually know people who do this, they think the more money they spend the better the product.
In reality if they look around for five minutes they can find the same product which is the real thing for a lot less, if they could be bothered to spend a small amount of time to look.

Who is really qualified to analyse whether a product is a copy or whether it is an original item?

I brought a copy of the bell.
Yes it does have a few quality problems.
If I saw in my hand the original and it was probably 50% more expensive I would probably buy the original bell.
And it does appear that the original makers are striving to make their product less expensive in a bid to combat the copy issues.

I'm not saying that the original makers intended that, I would imagine it is a well-known option in marketing?

Why is stuff designed in the west and manufactured in the east?
Manufacturing cost has a lot to do with this of course.

Sweep wrote: ↑4 Jun 2022, 2:25pm

leftpoole wrote: ↑4 Jun 2022, 10:09am

steelframe wrote: ↑4 Jun 2022, 9:34am Probably a case of "if you buy cheap you end up buying twice".

Actually. Rockbros manufacture some really good quality parts.!

Have always had the idea that their stuff is variable to say the least. Is there anything in particular of theirs you would recommend?

Certainly the bells and Gloves.

Hi,
Have you got a link for the gloves that you are talking about in particular?