Fake Chinese bike parts

[Mikey08]

Been browsing on everyone's favorite counterfeit bike part website and seen some 'interesting' parts recently....

Fake Renthal and Thomson stems

Fake Hope Cranks and Chainring

Fake Paul Conponenets levers (Have seen fake 'clamper' full brake set also)

Fake 2023 Scott Spark frame

Fake Garbaruk rear Mech cage/pulleys Admit I have bought one of these as a experiment to see if it fits a Zee rear mech. Theres also the other vesrsions for Sram on there. Even comes with Fake Garbaruk branded packaging.

There are also chainrings that look very similar to Garbaruk, along with Fake Sram and Shimano chainrings and fake Sram brake Rotors.

And finally for today Fake Ingrid crankset. These are boutique cranks from Italy normally retailing for about 350eur, re-branded and sold as 'Zeroing'

This was only stuff I came across in the last hour browsing. What other fakery lies in this dark place who knows.....

 

[Mod-Master]

Most of this stuff does look fake but the Paul levers, if I just glance at them I would probably believe they were real

 

[Imlach]

The fake Paul stuff they churn out is very inconsistent, finish and machining is poor, it's just the best examples on the listing.

Fake Hope stuff is pretty decent on there, but better off going for the more established Chinese brands, which typically take a lot from various designs and the result is a beautiful bastardished mish mash.

They also do fake CK which is just a generic sealed bearing headset with CK branding, often done wrong, sometimes even misspelled. I love those.

 

[Imlach]

Ingrid knock off there would be an interesting purchase, cheers. I've gone down this rabbithole many times in the past and it seems I'm burrowing my way again.

 

[Mikey08]

Apologies for that

I also like the look of the Ingrid clones

 

[Imlach]

Most of my bikes are kitted with 2 to 3 Big Ali bits, usually not knock off stuff but I have some part staples that I always go for.

 

[Imlach]

And no need to apologise I spend too much time in the app there anyway.

 

[moonlite]

My wife and I once spent a day at a conference in Shenzhen and took the opportunity to visit a well-known mall where everything on sale, from sports shoes to electronics, was openly and avowedly fake.

There were iPhones that looked authentic until you switched them on and found they weren't running IoS. The running shoes and tennis rackets were indistinguishable from the 'real' thing. We ended up buying Beats headphones for our boys -- even the printed leaflets inside the box were totally authentic -- to the point that we theorised that a lot of this stuff was actually the real deal: some brands had manufacturing facilities in China and a certain amount of product was falling off the back of the proverbial lorry. Or maybe had failed QC for some minor blemish.

I'm not saying any of the bike bits are like this -- Paul and Thomson manufacture in the US, I'm sure -- but it goes to show how difficult it can be to distinguish some fake products from the real thing. And once that doubt creeps in, it's a slippery slope.

 

[Imlach]

My wife and I once spent a day at a conference in Shenzhen and took the opportunity to visit a well-known mall where everything on sale, from sports shoes to electronics, was openly and avowedly fake.

There were iPhones that looked authentic until you switched them on and found they weren't running IoS. The running shoes and tennis rackets were indistinguishable from the 'real' thing. We ended up buying Beats headphones for our boys -- even the printed leaflets inside the box were totally authentic -- to the point that we theorised that a lot of this stuff was actually the real deal: some brands had manufacturing facilities in China and a certain amount of product was falling off the back of the proverbial lorry. Or maybe had failed QC for some minor blemish.

I'm not saying any of the bike bits are like this -- Paul and Thomson manufacture in the US, I'm sure -- but it goes to show how difficult it can be to distinguish some fake products from the real thing. And once that doubt creeps in, it's a slippery slope.

It can be very hard to distinguish, more often than not there's telltale signs though, luckily. Ingesting a healthy dose of 'too good to be true' is also quite important, hehe.

Regarding everything, down to the booklets and what not being copied, its extraordinary. There are good fender knockoffs out there that go lengths to make genuine looking certificates and making sure that everything is stamped correctly and what not. It's absurd.

There are definitely instances where stuff that didn't pass QC is sold by third party retailers but its pretty rare, certainly with the big brand stuff. They protect their stuff quite well.

 

[nicklej]

I've bought so much stuff from our friends at Aliexpress over the years. Some stuff you think will snap or be total tripe but have actually stood teh test of time. In fact, I've had so much success with stuff on there that I tend to gamble there anyway despite very little chance of recourse as a buyer.

The only bad experience I had was a frame from Airwolf. They were helpful but it is cost prohibitive to return things to China and therefore it became a wall ornament!

The Ingrid fakes look interesting and I saw them a while back too when looking for a hollowgram chainset. Has anyone tried them?