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I've been enjoying the bootleg mini Lego* sets - it's an enjoyable way to kill a rainy evening in with my partner. They also make me retroactively appreciate the quality of regular Lego - not having to apply a bunch of stickers, pieces that snap together without any dramas, less-obtuse instructions. Here's a slightly out of focus pic of the lil' takoyaki joint sitting in front of my TV: This seemed like a good place to ask: are there any sites for getting stuff custom made from China (or other places)? I was looking to get some sewing (like a tent type thing) and acrylic boxes made. I do have local options here in Australia but I don't think they'd be cost effective, willing to take a punt and see what I get back. Ethics_Gradient fucked around with this message at 05:37 on Nov 13, 2021 |
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Nov 13, 2021 05:32
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Mx. posted:yeah put up an RFQ on alibaba with the details of what you want and you'll get a lot of responses. usually better for bulk purchases but you can check the MOQ That is good to know! I recently went through a long search process on AliBaba for some 3mm black glass plates and finding someone that would deal with a non-commercial MOQ (less than a 20' container) was a huge pain, but I hadn't actually tried the RFQ process. I did wind up finding someone but the shipping essentially doubled the cost - still went with it because you can't get black glass in that thickness for love or money here in Australia AFAIK. I was also trying to get some silver nitrate but when I asked how the hazmat shipping was so cheap they said "oh yeah we just label it as something else" 
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Nov 13, 2021 05:47
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Jokerpilled Drudge posted:I would buy this part from a vendor with a bit more QA. power mains are not to be hosed with Excuse me sir, this is the mini-chainsaw thread.
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Feb 6, 2022 20:58
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NoneMoreNegative posted:Naughty wives get the Box I was actually looking for something like that a few months ago! Wanted to find a collapsible 32 gallon box for making a portable darkbox (for doing old photographic processes) but the original Bin Warehouse one people were using has been discontinued for a while now. This one is slightly smaller but would probably work fine. Ain't paying AU$184 for it, though.
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Feb 25, 2022 23:01
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Dicty Bojangles posted:China, king of mail safety. On a lark I tried to get a kilo of silver nitrate from Alibaba. The price was good, but only because they were going to mislabel it as something else to evade Customs/proper hazardous goods shipping. I did not place the order. The smaller 20' "pods" are definitely a real thing you can order from AliBaba. There's a business near me that sells them assembled and wired up for electricity for something like AU$10k, I think they come flat-packed with several in a 20' container.
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Mar 2, 2022 09:27
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Nettle Soup posted:I wanted a bottle to hold soy sauce, since the 2l bottle I've just bought is a bit big for dripping onto the sushi. Those are all really cool!  Personally I'd just go with one of those basic glass ones you see at restaurants.
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Mar 16, 2022 08:22
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NoneMoreNegative posted:Ah, sometimes you just have to heed the siren call of the AliExpress Stupid poo poo... Mine came today! The reviewers weren't kidding about the weird chemical smell, hoping it disappates like they said.
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Mar 31, 2022 06:19
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DRINK ME posted:I asked a friend who lives in Japan about tabi boots a while back, when I first learned they existed. A “do people really still wear those!?” type thing. He does live in a city but far from Tokyo, Osaka, any of the huge metropolitan centres. That matches my experience. We did an ultimate frisbee competition thing one year on a beach with some incredibly coarse sand that was pretty brutal to play on (we all hated it), the next year my very competitive American mate wrote something to the effect of "bring tabi or i will NOT play with you" in his invitation to the event, lol. The more rubbery type ones were what he was talking about, protects your foot and helps with grip while still retaining some of your foot's natural flexibility... basically a cheaper and less dorky Vibram FiveFingers. They're also useful for scuttling around breakwaters and stuff if you're fishing. Not uncommon to see in the rural area I was living in, but yeah, not as streetwear, more stuff for practical work or leisure activities.
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Apr 12, 2022 11:16
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spiny posted:Place bet now! what am I likely to get in '1 to 10 days' from ordering this: An Australian reviewer I read once called one of those 12v peltier cooler boxes "a pissy little eskie" and seeing one instantly evokes the phrase in my mind, every time.
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Apr 20, 2022 22:51
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 Quite possibly my favourite unlicensed
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Apr 21, 2022 21:49
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HELLOMYNAMEIS___ posted:I got another USB adapter: an USB-C to Micro-USB adapter. This is so that I can use the same wires coming from my power bank to charge both USB-C and Micro-USB devices. I use something like these on all my devices to have One Charger To Rule Them All*. Important to note they do power only, not data, but I find I don't really do much data over cables these days anyways. *Except my 3DS and PS Move controllers, which are proprietary Nintendo and Mini-USB, respectively.
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Apr 30, 2022 00:06
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I was doing a quick Google and it sounds like your account may get locked temporarily if you order something and have it sent to another country - anyone have experience with this? I want to send an inappropriate shirt to a mate over in NZ. I could always get it sent to me here in Australia, then send it to him, but I'd much rather have it drop out of the blue randomly from China for that extra 
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May 5, 2022 11:48
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Unperson_47 posted:edit: Ok, I went to check out the tracking number for my ear buds using 17track just out of curiosity and saw this: Did you get those AirPod style ones that were posted back in the thread a couple months ago? I bought mine from what looked like a reputable seller the first week of April and there was a flurry of activity the second day, then complete radio silence for a month and a half:  Everything I've ordered since then has arrived, but not the drat earbuds. Weirdly, I got a text from Fedex yesterday out of the blue saying they needed me to email them my last name for customs pre-clearance on a set of earbuds (the address was a legit FedEx domain, so pretty sure not a scam, dunno what anyone would be able to do with my surname anyways). I obliged and got a curt "received" from the address, so here's to hoping they show up in the next few weeks.
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May 24, 2022 21:51
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Unperson_47 posted:Yeah, I bought mine from a seller named "CCC Digital Global Store." Mine were from "Haylou Official Store". I've gotten a Fedex tracking number now, originating out of... Malaysia, but seems to indicate it should be here in a week.
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May 25, 2022 09:32
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Update on those earbuds: they arrived on Friday  I ordered black but they gave me what turned out to be dark blue. This was mildly annoying until I decided it was a Neo Yokio reference and all was forgiven. A little less impressed with the battery life though, it said 6 and I got maybe 3.5 or 4 from a full charge to dead. But the sound quality is decent and they otherwise seem solid. Aside from more battery life, I think having some way to adjust volume remotely would also greatly improve them, but again, for the price I'm not mad.
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May 29, 2022 10:33
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mobby_6kl posted:Which ones did you get? I checked your past posts but didnt' see them. I just bought Samsung's Buds Pro through work and I dont' think they last that long lol. They say it's 5 hours with ANC on but it didn't feel like they last that long even with it off, yesterday I just got through an album and a 1 hour podcast. These ones. Best I can tell they put my order on the slow boat to Malaysia, and then some distribution centre in Kuala Lumpur whacked them in a Fedex envelope and they were on my doorstep a few days later. They claim 6 hours battery life on a single charge but I don't think it could have been than 4.
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Jun 2, 2022 10:39
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I have an Anker battery bank I've been using occasionally for nearly ten years, still works.
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Jul 15, 2022 11:32
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I bought the cheapest fancy eBay solder station (adjustable temp with a display, basically) on eBay for around AUD55 a few years ago and it's been working like a champ for my occasional hobby use. Definitely a good purchase and when I'm in a position to settle down somewhere permanently I'll probably invest in a Hakko or something.
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Aug 3, 2022 21:39
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DRINK ME posted:Anyone got decent pens from Ali? I don’t need anything fancy but just something that is consistent and smooth, I suspect I’d be better going to a stationary store and spending a little bit more on something I can test and something I like but thought I’d ask here. I probably don’t know enough about pens to know what I’m after tbh which is another point to going somewhere I can try them out. Coloured pens are a bonus. cyberia posted:I have never gotten a cheap pen that was worth a drat. I think it's one of those things you're better off spending a little more on a decent quality item. I've been using Pentel Energel 1.0mm ballpoints for probably the last decade and they're great. Smooth, good flow, good colour, only cost about Basically this. The Pilot G-2 in .5mm is my mainstay; not cheap (decent discount buying them in bulk from HK, actually), but refillable, durable, and a pleasure to write with. I'm a teacher by trade and good, reliable pens are a must.
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Aug 4, 2022 07:50
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and last a reasonable amount of time even if you're writing whole documents by hand.
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DRINK ME posted:Thanks for all the pen advice. I’ll go down to officeworks on the weekend, where you can draw dicks with all the pens to find the one you like (Staples would be the American equivalent, I think?) Yeah, Officeworks has a good range, I think that's where I fell in love with the Pilot G-2. At $5.20 a throw I did my bulk ordering on eBay though. With the hat, it's probably the Buran 
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Aug 4, 2022 11:10
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Mx. posted:depends on what bulk you're buying. i've gotten custom manufactured stuff from alibaba and they just sent it dhl, included all the random fees on top (was around 15%) Yeah, it's not that bad for smaller orders. I got some 3mm black glass plates in 4x5" and 8x10" made (40 each size) and shipped to me in Australia through AliBaba. There wasn't any particular customs bother other than GST being added onto the order, which is standard for international purchases here. Since it had to be air freight it basically doubled the cost, wish surface freight was more of a done thing for smaller orders as I wasn't in a big hurry. I still came out far ahead vs buying from a US supplier (who is adding their margin on to what they paid from Alibaba), would definitely use again. Two key terms to know: MOQ - minimum order quantity RFQ - request for quote; basically you say what you want and how much, and companies decide if it's worth their while and bid on it. I didn't realise this was a thing, and wasted the better part of 3 afternoons (home sick, tbf) trawling through glass manufacturers manually to find someone who could make the quantity/specification I needed. Uh, do be careful about what/how you order; it looked like I'd found a decent supplier of cheaper silver nitrate, but it turned out that was because they were planning to lie on the customs declaration/hazmat paperwork. Noped right out of that conversation and stuck with my domestic one.
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Aug 5, 2022 09:04
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Everett False posted:I actually tried to buy this stupid thing, for the record, I see what you did there.
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Aug 18, 2022 11:53
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VictualSquid posted:So, when I open a new private window and go to ali it is in German. And there is a strange search suggestion showing up pretty regularly : "netflix account deutsch". My random unwanted AliExpress language is Arabic for some reason.
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Aug 19, 2022 08:48
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buglord posted:Finally dove into this thread on a whim. After reading a couple dozen pages, I realized I can probably get some really cheap knockoff Lego sets. Are there certain brands I should look for? Do they generally come with all the pieces, or are some missing as a rule for this price point? And do they come with instructions, or should I just go to the Lego website and use those? LOZ are pretty consistently good. I've never had one come missing pieces, generally they come with a number of extra pieces (generally just the tiny ones, I think they assume you might drop some into the carpet/between floorboards). The instructions are included. I find them a little more opaque than what you'd get with a Lego set, but not unreasonable, you just need to be kinda careful. The only ones I've bought are not actual Lego sets but original designs (or I guess copied off fan websites) so there's not a legit Lego alternative or anything. One thing I will say is that it can be *very* hard to distinguish between a couple of the colours, which has led to some real frustration at times. (I am a bit red/green colourblind but my partner is normal and she doesn't do much better.)
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Aug 21, 2022 21:45
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DRINK ME posted:Murder of crows tarot deck That looks awesome, just ordered one myself. My partner is into tarot and her younger sister is really into birds, so I reckon this'll be a slam dunk gift.
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Aug 23, 2022 07:12
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3D Megadoodoo posted:Just get a lead test kit from Aliexpress. "The lead is coming from inside the kit!"
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Aug 29, 2022 12:26
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By popular demand posted:None whatsoever. eBay, but I ordered a fancy 3 minute sand timer from India for like AUD$45 (at least half of it was shipping, IIRC). It showed up and... only went for two minutes. I opened a dispute saying "It only would have taken you I wound up opening it up and pouring out half the sand to make it a one minute timer (which I use for my Aeropress), so not a total loss I guess.
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Sep 8, 2022 07:48
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r u ready to WALK posted:I've bought a whole bunch of these magnetic usb-c adapters and really like them, it is satisfyingly easy to poke the cable in the general direction of the plug and have it snap into place without even looking I'm surprised there's not a more mainstream company like Anker that makes these, I'm guessing must be patents or something? I've had issues with the Lightning ones working once or twice and then never again (gave to my partner to use with her iPhone), but the USB-C and Micro-USB have all been pretty solid. The latest batch of USB-C ones I bought seem to be just a tiny bit too small to get a proper snug fit though, the little insert keep coming out of my phone's USB-C port unless I detach them kinda carefully. They're really nice to have in the car or by the side of the bed so I can plug it in without having to look. The other major bonus is having one cable that charges pretty much everything; sadly I don't think anyone's ever going to make a mini-USB one so my PS Move controllers are going forever uncharged. tater_salad posted:I was all about those magnetic chargers but eventually the contacts on my device for crudded up and I eventually went back to regular Part of the draw for me is not putting wear on the USB port and keeping it from getting crudded up (I buy my phones secondhand and tend to use them for 4+ years)!
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Oct 25, 2022 21:05
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By popular demand posted:It has been claimed that those keep on collecting tiny steel fragments from the environment until you can't connect them anymore, I'm interested in learning the truth. Only the one in my car seems to have the opportunity to do this, and while it does interfere eventually all you have to do is rub them off and it's fine again. engessa posted:https://www.voltacharger.com/ has been around for a few years. No personal experience with their stuff. Had no idea, thanks for that!
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Oct 26, 2022 07:04
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By popular demand posted:Some random stuff I run across: led me to this gem:  https://www.aliexpress.com/item/100...id=67BWDbCLVgK4
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Feb 16, 2023 20:45
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Welp, just spent $50 on enameled pins (I work at a high school, these are going to be fun to show off/give out).
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Feb 24, 2023 21:22
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Sentient Data posted:Eh, why not. Tested with a golden potato around 3" long to make sure it's worth the effort to take apart and clean. I used a luggage scale as a makeshift force gauge, the handle maxes out at needing only around 9lbs of force now do fingat
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Mar 15, 2023 11:43
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So I looked up 躺平 ('lying flat'*) to see if there were any fun stickers, T-shirts, or whatever... there weren't, but there was this duck lamp: *of course, the CCP has banned selling any 'tang ping' merch.
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Mar 19, 2023 12:46
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DRINK ME posted:I finally did something I’ve been thinking about for a long time That's cool as - I've got a collection of Ali Legos I've been slowly working through before I move. I finally had a set (a succulent) come missing pieces, as well as one piece that was like, half melted from the manufacturing process I guess. I ordered it a year or two ago so it'd be kind of ridiculous to hit the seller up with a complaint, cost of doing business.   I've been eyeing the B-Wing for a while. Maybe after the move... Ethics_Gradient fucked around with this message at 09:31 on Mar 23, 2023 |
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Mar 23, 2023 08:57
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Bored posted:My 3rd item is a “bone conducting” earphone. Since I mainly will be using it to listen to audiobooks, it doesn’t have to sound great. Bone conducting earphones on AliExpress? Sounds like a great way to get boneitis 
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Mar 24, 2023 20:59
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3D Megadoodoo posted:I'm always tempted to get one of the hippo ones but then... ehhhh.  Hahaha, that's pretty good. I also love the Coldplay in the little video demo. Actually, please post links to the most unintentionally funny AliExpress product videos you got.
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Mar 25, 2023 22:23
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By popular demand posted:
The shamisen (or whatever Chinese instrument) in the little video makes it
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Mar 27, 2023 12:40
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PlaysGamesWrong posted:Is this good for my racing pigeon? Before the pic loaded I was thinking it might be something for a Flying Pigeon, which is a Chinese make of bicycle (IIRC a straight knockoff of a 1930s Raleigh). I bought a used one when I was a student in Beijing for like $20, thing was incredibly heavy and had some fairly anachronistic brakes, but I found myself getting really attached to it. It was a little rusty so I treated myself to a brand new one when I left, thinking I'd get a nice new bike that was already boxed up for airline transport. I think it was like the equivalent of USD$50? Naturally, when I opened it up to put it together, there were several defective parts brand new from the factory which I would have had to get machined (this was in the late 00s, don't think I could find anyone selling parts from China). I left it in my parents' garage for a year or two, then put it up on a local marketplace with an optimistic price of $200 (what I paid for bike + transport fee on the plane) in "As is" condition, thinking at worst could drop the price in a month or two. I think the listing was up for a couple hours before a Chinese law student messaged me and paid full asking price. He picked it up in a convertible. That's my Flying Pigeon story! edit: here's a stock pic of one: 
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Apr 10, 2023 21:35
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stephenthinkpad posted:Flying pigeon is a nostalgic early industrial brand like Seagal camera. Each of those brands has (had? I know Seagal died) emotional attachment to a city too. I wanna say it was Shanghai for the bike, although I was living in Beijing. I had a Seagull TLR and a couple off brand ones (Mudan*), stocked up at the photography market before I left as souveniers for photography enthusiast friends back home. I don't think I ever paid more than the equivalent of USD$10 for them, maybe the Seagull was a little more. By the time you get to the Mudan it's likely a 4th gen knockoff: I'm pretty sure Mudan copied Seagull, who copied Yashica, who copied Rollei. It was perfectly fine though, here some shots I took with it while I was living there (the colours are weird because it's cross processed slide film).    I meant to get one of the little 6x6 folding Seagull's but never got around to it. *different characters and all, but I got back into studying Japanese recently and was amused to find out "mudan" is a homophone for "irresponsible" in Japanese  (IIRC it's "peony" in Chinese). Killingyouguy! posted:Pigeon is probably a good name bc that thing looks light enough to float away on its own Not exaggerating when I say it weighed like 50lbs, Google seems to corroborate it.
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Apr 11, 2023 00:53
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mystes posted:I sometimes fly to places where I end up renting a bike and that adds up extremely quickly so if copycat bromptons are readily available that could be pretty tempting if I could manage to fit one in my checked luggage and then move most of my luggage to big carryon bag or something. Not sure how practical that would actually be but it sounds cool in theory at least. So I shot a penny farthing race a couple months ago and was asking one of the racers how she flies with it. She said "I just tell the airline it's a bicycle and then walk up to the oversized luggage check with confidence. It hasn't failed me yet".
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Apr 11, 2023 05:02
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