Counterfeit products crop up in all walks of life but generally we tend to think of knock-off clothing, fake designer bags or even cloned digital products out of China.
The cycle industry hasn’t been ignored by knock-off merchants, though and it has been known for some time already that cloned cycling gear, including clothing and components, have been readily available online.
Specialized, in particular, seems to have been targeted by these unscrupulous companies with everything from fake team jerseys to counterfeit carbon fibre frames hitting online stores.
Enough is enough now though, and Specialised have started legal proceedings against online resellers who using eBay, AliExpress and shopping app Wish.com. The U.S based bicycle maker is calling for a stop on infringements, payment of damages, all legal fees and interest to be made to them.
Reports on Cycling Industry News, name “in-style1820”, “sanshand2012” and “2101272” as online resellers alleged to be selling knock-off gear.
While Specialized is concerned about loss of sales, there is also a safety issue to using unofficial products too. There have been reports of counterfeit frames snapping prematurely and components such as stems are often made from lower quality materials which could lead serious accidents and injury.
For more details on counterfeit cycling products read our column here, and to see how easy a knock-off stem can fail watch the video below.
Can’t see the vide? Click here.
Comments (6)
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I find it amazing that counterfeiters take the time and effort to engineer fake parts. My suspicion is that those parts made in the far east that fail QC somehow end up being passed off as genuine.
Quick, spot the typo! 🙂
Oh, yup. A little overexcited with the vowels 😉
Specialised 🙂
Jeez – how do you tell if a Thomson stem is a fake?
The fake Thomson use 3mm bolts.