Alarming Article
 

The only time I read Bicycling is when I take flights. Read the recent one this morning and there was an interesting article on the proliferation of counterfeit cycling stuff. If you buy stuff via websites it's worth educating yourself on the issues and challenges. Hopefully noone here will fall victim to buying something that could fail and cause irreparable damage.

Here's a link to the article. Agreed, very alarming.

To Catch a Counterfeiter: The Sketchy World of Fake Bike Gear | Bicycling

Never bought anything online from 3rd party vendors except for a couple of under $10 trivial items. Don't mind buying from known entities like Performance Cycle or Jenson or from Amazon if it's directly "fulfilled by Amazon."

If you're buying direct from China and the price is "too good to be true", well, hey ... No different than women who think they are getting a genuine Prada or Louis Vitton bag for $200 from China.

I shouldn't buy those Purl Izumi knitted bicycling shorts then?

Well they might fail at a critical moment

I saw that article last month (?) and didn't give it much thought. If I see a price online for anything that is too good to be true then it probably it too good to be true.

The only thing surprising here is that this is just showing up in 2015.

Colnago has been contending with counterfeiters for decades.

Perhaps the only difference is the massive industrial scale that this is occurring on, whereas the old fakes were usually legitimate frames that had been repainted.

How to fight this?

Bring production back to the USA and Europe.

And, get rid of companies like Bianchi USA which essentially license the rights to make "fakes" overseas and sell them in the USA.

It doesn't alarm me because I'm not interested in a McLaren frame or a Prada bag. Bicycles shouldn't be $18,000. and handbags shouldn't be $2000. People who buy real ones or people who buy fakes are both getting ripped-off IMO.

There are lots of people that knowingly buy fake. They like the price and the appearance of having the real thing. The good part of this article and a prior one in Velo is they alert pot tidal buyers of the dangers of counterfeit.

What?

Oh, you never heard?

Buy a Bianchi in Europe, and you get the cream of the crop handmade Italian bike.

Buy a Bianchi in the USA, and you get a heavy BSO made in Taiwan.

And what is wrong with this? It's free enterprise. Whoever owns the rights to the Bianchi name licensed the name to another company to use.

So you think we should get rid of companies like that because you don't like it?

They are licensed, yes. But, it is not a big leap to go from fine European craftsmanship to imported junk to crying foul whenever someone else sells the junk without paying the licensing fees.

What really is a trademark?

There is a marginal chain of custody for the Schwinn trademark from the 70's to the Asian imports carrying the Schwinn name today, but it is hardly more than a name.

Apparently Motobecane, Mercier, and Dawes trademarks lapsed, and the new bikes bearing those names are not licensed by the original companies.

Why not just give them names like Dengfu?

I understand what you're saying but it's all legitimate. Bianchi was struggling for a number of years - maybe their licensing the name helped keep them going.

Not really; Bicycling has done articles on this topic several times, at least back to the 90s. What has changed is how much easier it is to do, easier to get away with, and how much more willing people are to buy even when they know it probably is a fake.

Buyer beware.

It was an interesting article. As in most things, you get what you pay for. If the price is "too good," there probably is an understandable explanation....

I believe Bianchi, like many other companies, have their bikes made in Asia for cheaper labor. I hae a Bianchi Impulso made in Aisa. It is still a Bianchi, it is not overly heavy and it rides great. I believe the iPhone is manufactured in China.

Most industries have to contend with fake knock-offs. I agree that for cyclists it can have catastrophic results.

But as others have said, it is the buyer who doesn't do any research or, thinks they just fell into the deal of the century, or really believes that the fakes are made in the same factory exactly like the originals will buy regardless. We are a society that prides itself in getting a deal. You need look no further than Black Friday and see people camped out to try and buy a TV for $100.

So it isn't alarming, especially since the use of carbon fibre makes it so easy so easy to make a good looking cheap products and make big profits selling at too low a price.

But it isn't easy to pass on a deal and I have purchased a couple of components directly form China, Wellgo pedals, WTB seats at probably 75% of the price from US online sellers. Can't say if they are fake or not.

John

Then there's the counterfeit Boeing parts floating around...

Can you provide links to document these suggestions? I can't find anything on the interwebs to suggest that Bianchi has licenced it's name out. While it is true that Bianchi USA oversees the production of bicycles built in Taiwan and in Italy for the worldwide market, they are a division of Bianchi, which has been part of Cycleurope Group, the Swedish company of Grimaldi Industri AB, since 1997. The USA website and the Italian website show the same range of road bikes, mountain bikes and city bikes.

I have seen, worked on and ridden a few recent Taiwanese made Bianchi road, cyclocross and city bikes, and I can assure you they are quality modern bikes with not even the most remote resemblance to the BSO crap I see sold under the Schwinn name at WalMart and such.

Your underlying argument is that these items do not cost nearly that much to produce, so why should the consumer pay so much for them? The problem with that argument is that the cost of production is not, and never has been, the sole determiner of price. Marketing sizzle accounts for much of it, but certainly not all. Extremely high-quality goods also perform better, if perhaps only marginally, than their lesser-cost competitors, and that difference may be sufficient for someone sensitive to minor differences in quality.

For example, I have been known to pay upwards of $400 for a new fountain pen. Ridiculous, especially when I can scarf a free pen from the bank. I didn't pay that much because it was a name brand with sterling reputation (though it was, and for good reason), but because in this digital age, I write quite a bit with my pens, and am extremely sensitive to their nuances. That pen wrote like nothing I've ever held in my hands, and I bought it immediately.

Did it cost anywhere near $400 to produce or market? Hell no. But its quality, and my dependence on its function, made it worth that much to me.

Same with an $18k bike. You or I may not notice a difference; to others, it may be like lightning.

Because it sounds too much like Kung Fu?

Nope. I was merely stating my opinion (ref: IMO) that $18,000 is an absurd amount for a bicycle and $2,000 is absurd amount for a handbag. And now I'll add that $400 is an absurd amount for a pen.

If you're looking for an underlying argument it's---> consumer greed (ego) is being exploited by both the original marketeers and the copycats.

BTW: I'll grant you that there might be some that can discern & appreciate minute differences in these ultra-luxury items but for most it's what they've been told by the people selling them ego-fulfillment.

Not going to enter the debate about luxury goods and their perceived value/worth, I don't have the means for anything in that class, save my private Boeing 787, and crew. Can't be choosy about crew background, and those regular FAA required maintenance checks....

Bianchi bicycles are the same in Europe as they are worldwide, Other than a few boutique brands, some of the smaller concerns (custom frames and such, Colnago has a line that they hand assemble in Italy from their own CF tubes), frames are largely made in either Taiwan or China. There are some poorly made frames, as well as the outright counterfeit frames, out there, but Bianchi here are the same frame construction as those sold in Italy. I ride with some guys here that own current model Bianchi, those are first rate, well made and engineered bikes. I'd not hesitate to buy from our local dealer. When the first frames that Bianchi, and other European and American manufacturers came out, many people swore that they were token, name only, bicycles from the various makers. Same for components from Japan, even though Suntour, SR, Shimano, etc, were every bit as good in their manufacture, and operation, the "cognoscenti" (snobs) turned their noses up at the thought of using those components from, Over There, now Shimano is the leader in total component sales everywhere, Even Campagnolo has moved some manufacture to Romania, the horror of that thought.

As Bluesdawg said, could you provide links to evidence of your claim about Bianchi, and for that fact, most of the going bicycle concerns now in production.

....now, about those counterfeit Boeing parts floating around, I must be more careful about getting spares and consumables for my private, customized 787 Dreamliner.:50:

Bill

I'm sure the Prada bag is nice as well but these type of luxury goods are always going to be subject to counterfeit since the difference in performance between the 18.000 bike and the 5000 bike is negligible to non-existent. A large part of the value is based on 'looks' which are relatively easy to copy. It's a little more difficult to copy an iPhone or a Porsche which also have high margins but are a few orders of magnitude more difficult to copy.