I found some bike shops selling cheap aluminum frames for around $100-$200. The thing is that they're pinarello dogmas, cervelo r3's, even found some orbea and fuji frames. Pretty sure they're all fake though. The question is, should I steer clear of these frames? A lot of guys use chinese carbon frames, what's the difference with chinese aluminum?(i'm assuming the frames were made in china)

If i were to buy one and build a cheap bike with okay parts for training rides, would it end up really bad?

thanks

I feel like places that are trying to pass frames off as something they're not are looking to make a quick buck and have zero quality control compared to an open mold manufacturer like Deng Fu that is actually hoping for repeat business and wants to build a good reputation with their own name. And if you are looking for aluminium you can get a Cannondale or other similar used frame for $200 or so on ebay so why bother with fakes?

I see. I guess I'll just keep my eyes peeled for good frames online.

A genuine Dogma or r3 is aluminum?

The frames were painted and decaled as dogmas or r3's. But its obvious to anyone that its fake.

Name the shops.

The reason I asked is because you wrote: "Pretty sure they're all fake though." (Emphasis added.)

Yeah. I want names, too.

Personally I'm not interested in riding a "Fake". If some Chinese company wants to design and build bicycles, they can put their own name on it.

Of course, many, or most of the big companies now have at least some of their bike models made in Asia. Some companies like Colnago apparently have both European and Asian product lines. Fortunately, many small companies are still 100% USA or 100% European.

I do not support differential pricing where the same item might be priced significantly different depending on the country it is being sold in. So, if a Colnago frame is sold for $500 in China, or $5000 in the USA... and is a "true Colnago", I would have no problems with the cheaper version. Unfortunately, there are so many clones that it is hard to tell what is what for bikes that don't come through standard sales channels.

I suppose I don't care about a grey market $10 chain. It will be worn out in a few months anyway, no matter whether it is real or not, but I'm not going to represent a bike as being a Colnago that isnt.

This story sounds so true since bike shops are able to do this and stay in business without getting sued...

Lawsuits? If shops are selling counterfeit frames, the FBI would like to know about it I'm sure.

The OP doesn't list his location or whether these were online shops or local shops.

In the past, there were knockoff frames that would show up on AliExpress.com Sometimes on Alibaba.com. Have they started cleaning up the website since the IPO? From time to time some CF knockoff frames will show up on E-Bay. And, it doesn't take too much digging to find a knockoff classic Colnago.

Plus a few Asian websites. Sometimes it is difficult to tell if these are 100% fraudulent (nothing shipped), or partly fraudulent (knockoffs).

This one has been on E-Bay for a while APPEARS TO BE AN UNMARKED: COLNAGO SPRINT OR JUNIOR 700c BIKE FRAME .... Yeah.... Sure!!!!!

Check out this recent thread.
https://www.bikeforums.net/classic-vi...appraisal.html

Here's another... at least listed as a knockoff
Vintage Colnago Super Replica Frame 55 Steel

Might have been a good deal, if it had actually been a Colnago.
vintage frame colnago sport... that one even came from Italy.

I'm sorry I didn't realize that this was going to be a bigger issue than i thought.

I'm in the Philippines, btw. Hopefully that clears a lot of the stuff . But the shops where i found those frames in were also authorized dealers of branded bikes, mostly mtbs though. I don't know if the knock off frames i saw can be found in shops abroad but i found the the same ones in alibaba.com