Specialized Bicycles eliminating counterfeit products

You ride your Chinese bike and I'll carry on riding my genuine bike with the knowledge that I will be safe and probably faster than you.

Different strokes.

My crappy Chinarello has been through numerous Trans Baviaans's, Trans Karoo's, plenty other races and a few wins. One or two crashes as well. Not a hint of a problem.

If you end up being faster than me, it won't have anything to do with the bike, or that my $500 frame weighs 50g more than your $2000 frame.

Even us down here on the pointy end of Africa have had contact from Andrew Love at Specialized regarding fakes listed in our Classifieds a good while back. They're on the ball and I applaud their proactive approach, but are certainly facing a huge challenge in squashing all suppliers and channels.

 

The issue of counterfeits (across all brands) and the muddy understanding some have of it continually surprises me. The simple fact is that counterfeit products (like some of the examples others have posted here) are illegal. Some may be better quality than others, but if it carries a brand name illegitimately it's not a question of ethics, morals or performance vs. the real thing... it's downright illegal.

100% agree than branding something that it isn't isn't on, don't condone it in the very least. My point is that a Chinarello, branded to match an original product or left blank, will get you to the finishline in 99.9999% the same time. And I've owned "legit" Meridas, Cannondales, Specializeds and Treks (and they still hang in my man cave today).

I can almost guarantee you a fair amount of bicycle frames are manufactured in China.

Giant is one and Silverback is another.

So are these so called fake frames really fake or are they surplus from the factory and sold on the grey market?

I would guess a lot of Specialized merchandise is the same. Made in China and distributed elsewhere. Overruns are ending up on the grey market.

T

mostly Taiwan, but anyway. 

I can almost guarantee you a fair amount of bicycle frames are manufactured in China.

Giant is one and Silverback is another.

So are these so called fake frames really fake or are they surplus from the factory and sold on the grey market?

I would guess a lot of Specialized merchandise is the same. Made in China and distributed elsewhere. Overruns are ending up on the grey market.

T

In the competitive world that is the Chinese manufacturing industry, do you really believe a factory that has the prize contract to manufacture Specialized merchandise would compromise all that by shipping off a few at the back door ?

Ignorant stuff

100% agree than branding something that it isn't isn't on, don't condone it in the very least. My point is that a Chinarello, branded to match an original product or left blank, will get you to the finishline in 99.9999% the same time. And I've owned "legit" Meridas, Cannondales, Specializeds and Treks (and they still hang in my man cave today).

When it comes to the so-called "open mould" frames (non-branded lookalikes) the argument does get a bit more murky.

From the right source you can get some good quality blank frames from the east, some which closely resemble a known brand and others which are more generic. 

Those lookalikes often avoid patent infringement through minute changes. While technically not illegal, they could raise some questions about the ethics of the manufacturer, sellers and even buyers. 

There's a key distinction that should be made though between an unbranded / generic frame, the non-branded lookalike and the blatant copy. On the far end of the scale it's highly unlikely that the blatant counterfeiter cares much for quality if they're already trying to dupe you with the paint job. These are what Specialized (and many other brands) are most focussed on stamping out. And for good reason! With the vast majority of these I'd say safety is a very real concern.

Does my Specialist Humpstumper qualify as OEM?

Does my Specialist Humpstumper qualify as OEM?

Specialist Stumphumper?

Even though I don't agree with branding these frames like the "real" thing, I can promise you any one of these would get you to the finish line of the Argus in exactly the same time as the "real" thing.

That certainly is a brave statement.

Of the ~100 "non branded eastern" frames I've seen about 80% are poorly finished, have rough edges, the internals look like spaghetti junction, paint work is nasty etc.

The other 20% are somewhere between messy and perfect.

My biggest issue is that we just don't know how good/bad they are. I've seen chinese frames that look *** last thousands of km and ones that look lovely crack in multiple places within 1000km. It's just random.

One would hope that "branded" frames have tons of R&D, awesome quality control, the right choice of fiber in the right places and tons of testing prior to manufacture.

Whether this all happens and if it results in a frame that is substantially better than it's chinese counterpart is random.

I'd say that branded frames TEND to be better but not all branded frames are better than non branded and not all non branded frames are crap.

It's an urrr crap shoot.

Different strokes.

 

My crappy Chinarello has been through numerous Trans Baviaans's, Trans Karoo's, plenty other races and a few wins. One or two crashes as well. Not a hint of a problem.

 

If you end up being faster than me, it won't have anything to do with the bike, or that my $500 frame weighs 50g more than your $2000 frame.

Fair enough. We obviously seem to disagree on this matter, so instead of us fighting about it and making enemies, let's just agree to disagree and not argue about it anymore. Good with you?

Fair enough. We obviously seem to disagree on this matter, so instead of us fighting about it and making enemies, let's just agree to disagree and not argue about it anymore. Good with you?

Only ~500 posts. Blerry newbies coming in here and smooshing us with their logic and calm.

It's people like you that give thehub a bad name.

(pre emptive Friday strike :devil: )

Only ~500 posts. Blerry newbies coming in here and smooshing us with their logic and calm.

 

It's people like you that give thehub a bad name.

 

(pre emptive Friday strike :devil: )

Pfff! That's only coz I've had a handful of pain killers

Even us down here on the pointy end of Africa have had contact from Andrew Love at Specialized regarding fakes listed in our Classifieds a good while back. They're on the ball and I applaud their proactive approach, but are certainly facing a huge challenge in squashing all suppliers and channels.

 

The issue of counterfeits (across all brands) and the muddy understanding some have of it continually surprises me. The simple fact is that counterfeit products (like some of the examples others have posted here) are illegal. Some may be better quality than others, but if it carries a brand name illegitimately it's not a question of ethics, morals or performance vs. the real thing... it's downright illegal.

That's why this thread was started.

https://community.bikehub.co.za/topic/130052-fake-counterfeit-bikes-components-news-and-how-to-spot-them/page-1?hl=fakes

Seeing that the talk is focusing on safety of chinese frames in general, how many of you guys would trust a chinese carbon fork as this is probably the most critical part of a frameset

Nothing to do with safety, and getting pretty tired of big business trying to convince people of it. Even Chinese frames have to adhere to standards:

 

CEN Tests

EN14781 Standards

JAPAN JIS Standards

 

None of the Chinarellos I've owned, that my wife have owned, or my friends, or the carbon wheels, seatpost or bars, have ever failed or hinted at failing.

 

Its all about protecting the Randellas.

Does my Specialist Humpstumper qualify as OEM?

Buckle up, we have a live one here.../

Are these standards the same as used by the major brands? And the testing certificate shown by the chinese, is it worth the paper; how do I know as a potential buyer that every frame adheres to the same standard as the tested frame?

How do I know as a potential buyer that every Specialized adheres to the same standard as the tested frame?

Same logic applies.

How do I know as a potential buyer that every Specialized adheres to the same standard as the tested frame?

Same logic applies.

How do I know as a potential buyer that every Specialized adheres to the same standard as the tested frame?

 

Same logic applies.

There are independent testers in the bike industry and that's where faults are picked up.

There has just been a recall on ENVE Disc forks because of some of their findings[emoji106]

There are independent testers in the bike industry and that's where faults are picked up.

There has just been a recall on ENVE Disc forks because of some of their findings[emoji106]