Fake Headsets on Ebay… How do you tell?

Just received an FSA Orbit Xtreme Pro this morning that I ordered on Ebay. Now I know I took a gamble based on the price, and to be fair I think it has paid off… Mine certainly looks like the real thing at least! Feels of a particularly high quality. Perhaps it helped going for a "Buy it now" from a reputable seller rather than bidding on one from a less reputable seller.

But seeing as talk of these "fake headsets" has been rife recently, how does one tell the real thing apart from a fake?

And more/less importantly, though this Orbit Xtreme Pro I have sat here in front of me looks quite nice, how on earth do they justify a £90 RRP? (Cost me £25 BTW). I've fitted a few Orbit XL2's in the past, and would I say they were less than half as good? Probably no different based upon what I can see! Mind you, I used to insist on Chris King until I realised that I started changing bike frames at such a rate that Kings became a very false economy…

Bump………….. Sorry that was me hitting the floor after falling asleep half way through.

Your brave asking on here about a bargain? You're going to get should have gone to LBS or paid full price, everything else is a gamble;-)

why would someone make fake headsets? i don't get it…

king heaset! whats up with taking off the old bike and putting on the new!

same reason anyone makes any thing fake , make it for a fiver and sell it for 5 times profit

I purchased a Cane Creek from ebay, the only thing I had to watch out for was people swapping out the original stainless bearings for lesser quality items.

fake or misadvertised?

The extreme pros on ebay dont have the rubber seals on top of bearings, and just check the crown race is stainless not Al.

fake bike parts? its an odd thing to do isnt it. i can understand fake nike or fake uggs or north face or whatever but surely the market for headsets is so small and so low value that faking them isnt worth it?

I used to insist on Chris King until I realised that I started changing bike frames at such a rate that Kings became a very false economy…

Whaaaa?

Surely you just remove the King and put it on the new frame, making it very GOOD economy.

Me no understand. 😕

Just paid £25 for a race face deus brand new from an ebay shop. Crc is about £69 I think. Watch this space.

same reason anyone makes any thing fake , make it for a fiver and sell it for 5 times profit

What like the manufacturers do but with less mark up?

Bump………….. Sorry that was me hitting the floor after falling asleep half way through.

LOL, I had to wake myself up twice whilst writing it mate! 😉

why would someone make fake headsets? i don't get it…

Same reason as people make fake anything I guess…

king heaset! whats up with taking off the old bike and putting on the new!

Did it about 4 times in a year with my last King… Didn't trust it after it literally fell out of the last frame it was fitted to. My opinion on "conventional" press in headsets is that the interface is really a "fit once" design. You can get away with it if you're careful, but once a headset has seen a few different frames it's gonna be a bit loose IMO.

I purchased a Cane Creek from ebay, the only thing I had to watch out for was people swapping out the original stainless bearings for lesser quality items.

This one has definitely got high quality stainless bearings in to be fair.

The extreme pros on ebay dont have the rubber seals on top of bearings, and just check the crown race is stainless not Al.

Ah right, no rubber seal and ally crown race indeed. Though a rubber seal does F all in a headset to be fair except keep any muck in. But what of an ally crown race? Come to think of it, does it matter? Can't think of many crown races from headsets fitted before not being ally?

Sod going to an lbs they charge to much in the main .Buy online and learn to fit stuff yourself

how on earth do they justify a £90 RRP? (Cost me £25 BTW).

Just because you paid £25 on Ebay doesn't mean that anyone selling at the RRP is making £70 plus out of a product. The RRP assumes a convential supply chain (manufacturer – national distributor – LBS) and enough of a mark up at each stage for an honest living to be made.

There are various reasons stuff appears cheap on Ebay or other sources.
Surplus original equipment being cleared out,
Obsolete or superceded stock,
Bankrupt stock,
Stolen goods,
or as mentioned above Fake Goods

if it fits in your head tube and allows you to fit a fork steerer so it turns smoothly with no play it's not a fake headset.

it may well be counterfeit tho

Mostly Balanced

Yeah I know that, I meant how do FSA justify £90 as an RRP in relation to their own XL2, which doesn't seem vastly inferior, yet its RRP is less than half.

Swede, was literally a toss up for me as to whether to go for one of those Raceface Deus headsets or the FSA one. Which ebay shop did you order from incidentally? The one I used was "Absolute Cycles".

LOL @ GW, you have a point! Though I'm pretty sure mine is just an OEM special.

I bought a cane creek S8 from Merlin.

The bearings even had stainless steel written on them, were they f***, they had rusted solid in less than 4 months use.

Apparently the bearings arent covered by warrenty as a wear and tare item.

Yeah, it's not just on ebay you have to be careful!

My FSA pig costabout £20.i use it every day in all conditions and its still going strong 4 years later. just dont see why people pay for expensive headsets.if your a downhill skills teacher taking 8ft drops everyday then id expect you too need something strong,but how many people are doing that daily….

Interesting. I bought an XLII from CRC last September, but it only got fitted to a bike a couple of months ago. It started to feel gritty, so I took the forks out etc and tried to replace the bearings with some from another, older XLII I've got – they don't fit (too big). The older bearings must be 2 years old at least and still as smooth as you like. Is the new one fake, OEM or other you reckon? 😕

I purchased a FSA headset from a well known mail order outfit via ebay last year, and i have my doubts whether it is real…..

Bear in mind that you will come across two kinds of fake goods:

Run On, Third Shift or Ghost Shift Where a manufacture (or their staff) who Orbit subcontracts production to makes more of the products that required and sells on the excess through a gray channel. This may include slight seconds and the substitution of lower quality parts and materials, several people have mentioned missing sears and not using stainless bearings.

Counterfeit Goods bearing the manufacturers mark but with no resemblance to the originals. The cheapest headset at chain reaction is £10 so there is a profit to be made in re-branding them and setting them at £25.

As to why counterfeit bike parts and I'm speculating here but if you sell counterfeit UGG boots to 1000s of people sooner or later someone is going to take in interest bike parts, who knows.