Originally Posted by
Rowan
The con-job and its dangers extends far beyond bicycles. There is a huge recall in Australia at the moment for electrical wiring in homes from, you guessed, China, the insulation for which deteriorates and exposes the wire in around two years. Heavens knows how it ever got past the regulators, who previously could have been trusted to pick this up. (Australia has 24-volt power, by the way).
Even low-voltage wiring (12v) has its issues with some Chinese makers reducing the copper content, so the innards suffer from corrosion creep more than they should.
Back in 1974 we were among the fortunate few to have the privilege of buying a house with aluminum wiring. Talk about regulators falling down on the job! Nothing but problems.