Are my BB7's counterfeit?
 

I have a set of older Avid BB7's that I purchased around 2008 and I finally decided to complete an extensive cleaning.

During disassembly, I removed 2 hex head screws to separate the two halves and I noticed that the caliper was a single piece with a seam in the middle and the screws looked like they had no purpose.
I cannot tell if the seams are welds or seams of a case.

This does not seem normal according to the manuals I found online.

Is this an older manufacture technique or do I have a counterfeit set?

I've heard of people counterfeiting S Works and Pinarello framesets , but i do not understand why anyone would counterfeit some brakes . Seems like a difficult to machine/cast item on a small scale with not a lot of return on investment

I am still using BB7s on two of my bikes, one of which was purchased in 2007 and the other in 2008. I have both the MTB version and Road version of BB7s. I highly doubt that any of them are counterfeit. It's just the way that they are designed. I never had any issues with them.

No.

If I was going to counterfeit mechanical disk brakes I think I'd go with Paul Klampers.

Did you buy them from an authorized SRAM dealer, probably not. Did you get them randomly from some place, possibly yes. If one were curious on this front I would have expected them to post pictures and things like serial numbers or I would have expected them to have reached out to the OEM in this case SRAM to verify.

Knockoff parts from Asia go back decades, but they would be old models and wouldn’t dare put the copied company name on it. They would be house brand or unbranded. I know it feels hard to remember now but 14 years ago we didn’t have this thriving market of direct sales from China with knockoffs of current premium parts.

Here’s how it ought to look


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...344466334.jpeg

The fact that mine don't split is a major red flag.
The second is that the 2 screws (2,7) are different sizes in the diagram and mine are the same size.
And that they don't do anything (hold anything together)

Update:
Having consulted with SRAM, they send me a diagram showing the older parts layout and with a bit of a shock, my BB7's are likely NOT counterfeit.

Also, SRAM actually responded to me really quickly on a holiday weekend. So big thanks for SRAM!

The latter is more shocking :D