Originally Posted by
FatInBike
Even Novatec has been a so called "no-name" hub for long. They sold (and sell yet) through your hated Alibaba all over the world, in your as well as in my country (Italy). To overcome the "western" prices, I started assemblying my wheels with Far Eastern rims (Farsport, 7-Tiger) and hubs (Novatec, Bitex and Powerway hubs). Great products, as good as the brands you named, but they are getting market, so it is time to explore new brands to recover money. At the moment ARC and Goldix seems to be the emerging brands, however they clearly still swim in deep water.
In any way, they are not new actors in this world, they already produce for several international brands.
Novatec has been around for a while and I have long seen their products on some lower end but decent stuff and even on some nicer stuff. Some people do sell on Alibaba that are legit products of decent quality it is not all knockoffs but a lot of bike stuff is knockoffs. Who is ARC and Goldix making stuff for? I have yet to see those no-names from anyone.
Let's not say that Novatec and Bitex and that other one I haven't heard are anywhere close to White or Phil or Chris King or Industry Nine. No need to elevate their stuff to ridiculous levels it is fine reasonable budget stuff but not the same.