those 'Shimano' pads on Aliexpress

I've bought pads off Amazon before, where you can never be sure stuff is genuine or counterfeit. I always put new pads on the back first and give them a good workout before switching them to the front.

yeah these have gone on the back. And amazon just seems to be a shopfront to the aliexpress / banggood world these days

I use these, avoid the knockoff issue by just buying cheap stuff:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002947389280.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.59.28d31128tsgBqJ&algo_pvid=421b5c32-81cb-42e2-a009-e60c27b1ba63&algo_exp_id=421b5c32-81cb-42e2-a009-e60c27b1ba63-29&pdp_ext_f=%7B%22sku_id%22%3A%2212000022913536189%22%7D&pdp_npi=3%40dis%21GBP%212.34%211.38%21%21%21%21%21%402100b1a616767303176405105d0707%2112000022913536189%21sea%21UK%21726428969&curPageLogUid=luj81Gith0i9

As you can see they're Ideal For Across Country. Though I used 'em for all my riding over the last few years including the megavalanche and they've actually been great.

I've always found genuine Shimano pads to be reasonably priced especially compared to Sram 🙄

I dont chance anything "genuine" that's mainstream as 99% it's fake on Ali express, if it's too good to be true......

Pick on brands that are trying to start a good reputation, ztto is a good example.

As for brake pads I always buy from uberbike when they have a sale on and buy a years supply at a time.

Saw a video the other day on counterfeit shimano chains. Imagine buying this and not knowing, drive train runs terrible so you start replacing bits. Eventually you work out its the chain.

Wonder why Shimano’s anti counterfeit app is banned in the UK

No idea, but I'd struggle to tell the difference with the packaging on that chain.

I buy the ZTTO ones of Ali

Seem to work ok

The last court of sets of pads I’ve bought have been unbranded from ebay, been absolutely fine

Last batch I bought were lebycle branded. The resin pads were fine, although wear down fast. The metal ones sucked a*#.

Previously bought Toopre. They were fine.

I've gone back through my Taobao purchase history.

I always bought Toopre. Then I bought Lebycle. Then I bought Toopre. I bought Lebycle again. Looks like Lebycle sucked, and I forgot and bought them again.....

I wrote a small piece on my Instagram page about 4 months ago about the chains. I'd bought a couple of the cut price Shimano ones off eBay, from a seemingly reputable seller, that both blew under load. I think that there are so many fakes now that some have found their way into small retailers who bought them on the cheap as they were saving money over buying from the distributor.