The guy said he thought it was a realistic price for those bars – £50, a quick look on CRC has them for £125, if you ask me a drop of that price means they’re most likely ‘a bit dodgy’ to say the least. But then I guess there are alot of people who ‘know’ that genuine expensive branded gear is the same as cheap Taiwan/Chinese knockoffs and there’s no real difference.

Personally I’ll stick with buying kit from proper shops (local and online) as there’s someone I can sue if it turns out to be a wonky copy that’s being sold as genuine parts.

The other day I said to a ‘mate’ that I was getting sick of all this cheap and often dangerous Chinese stuff flooding our market, often with fake CE signs, and he invited me to join Britain First 🙁

The guy said he thought it was a realistic price for those bars – £50, a quick look on CRC has them for £125,

plenty of stuff on crc with 60% off. Its not an unrealistic discount, especially for something overpriced to start with.

same as cheap Taiwan/Chinese knockoffs and there’s no real difference.

are there many Taiwanese knockoffs or are they all Chinese – as it appears to be a perfectly acceptable practice in that culture to copy stuff.

I saw an email post once from a taiwanese guy who was indignantly saying that they were taught about quality being the way to make money, whereas the chinese were basically taught to just make money by whatever means.

As regards to the Chinese, I don’t think it’s a taught thing, it’s just in their culture to make money. At what ever the cost. I know, as it’s how I make my living. Teaching manufactures that they can’t do that.
The article is very good, and points to the one caveat which manufactures will cut to save money

they enforce quality control on their suppliers that solo buyers like him simply can’t replicate

This is where a manufacturer will cut, to save money.

There was an interesting feature about fakes in one of the SA comics

Alibaba, aliexpress and DHgate were mentioned a lot. Apparently Specialized is the most faked brand because they are essentially a design house and everything is outsourced. One individual had bought a Spesh Venge which is apparently a top-end road bike and from the start there were a few oddball faults. Spesh had it back and tested it to destruction and although it broke sooner than it should’ve, it would’ve probably been OK for the average MAMIL.

It wasn’t a fake as such it had been made in the same place as the real Venge frames but had failed Specialized’s QC and made its way onto the grey market

Er rocket, that’s a Bicycling article linked on page 2.

But thanks for the synopsis 😉

plenty of stuff on crc with 60% off. Its not an unrealistic discount, especially for something overpriced to start with.

It’s interesting that the higher price the fake is, the more “legit” it seems to buyers. Same with Oakleys and other non-bike stuff it seems.

Er rocket, that’s a Bicycling article linked on page 2

Ha!

Of course
*cough*

It’s interesting that the higher price the fake is, the more “legit” it seems to buyers. Same with Oakleys and other non-bike stuff it seems.

That’s the psychology of buying isn’t it? Never buy the cheapest because it must be rubbish but buy the next one up. Happens with everything from food to car insurance.

(Years ago I worked briefly in a lbs. A rep came in with a load of tyres, telling us that they were the same tyres as last year but 50% more expensive. Nobody bought them last year – they were too cheap. They were now selling at the higher price.)