hamcereal

In any case, I don't care about whether or not the high end helmets are counterfeit, it can't be worse than not wearing a helmet at all! 🤗

indyfabz

1. You are wearing helmets after being involved in head crashes while wearing them?

2. He cited a study that involves makes that include high(er) end models. Guess which types of helmets are more likely to be counterfieted: Already inexpensive ones or expensive one? BTW...Walmart in the U.S. carries a few pricey LG helmets.

3. Major retailers have an incentive to make sure they are not selling fake good, especially when it comes to things like safety gear. That incentive in the plaintiffs bar.

Phil_gretz

...yes, I would buy a frame from an AliExpress seller. In fact, I have been in discussion with a seller on AliExpress, and he has agreed to build a steel fixed gear frame according to my drawings. This will be a 2021 project for me. I expect the frame to be beautifully made and finished.

I have a carbon frame that one could buy on AliExpress. I have purchased full R8000 groupsets there. Carbon wheels and cone wrenches. MagicShine lights and cable crimp ends. Gloves, socks and even a few lightweight jerseys. No issues.

In fact, I have received refunds for items that had difficulty shipping during the multiple-quarantine process that confused everything in the early days of the latest virus.

2_i 

One surprising finding, when in China, is that the public there commonly shies away from the Chinese products, expecting them to be of bad quality, not worth their money. When a Chinese company wants to prosper in the domestic market, they often resort to pretending that they are a foreign company to draw any attention.

In any case the situation is evolving particularly at the electronics and phone end, with many companies aiming to be the best on an absolute scale. My Chinese travel routers, including Huawei, and GaN chargers are absolutely the best at this moment. Within the hiking equipment, e.g. Kailas aims to be the best. Most often, however, including in cycling, the Chinese companies are struggling. In buying the cycling items I can in particular see that the manufacturer does not fully understand how the item is supposed to work, understands maybe the first outer layer, but not the second or third. Usually when buying something in that domain I expect to use the product as some intermediate step, better than raw material, though sometimes maybe just raw material. Else I get the product for trying out, like from Harbor Freight Tools. When there are actual quality products on AliExpress, the prices and delivery terms are often not competitive at all.

Using one's head as a testing ground for helmets of expected dubious quality, obviously makes no sense at all, and invites biting jokes.

autonomy

There are some really good gems coming out of China but there's also an ocean of crud. My $10 phone mount from Amazon is really well-made and I'm perfectly happy with it; had it not been, I would've tried to return and in the worst case I would've been out $10.
Buying this kind of stuff is kind of like playing the lottery, you might get a good deal, you might lose your money, or, in rare cases, you might even get injured. I'd rather pay once, cry once, not deal with the frustration and uncertainty, and know that a high-quality item will be used for many years.

Miele Man

Especially where/when the failure of the component such as a bicycle frame, front fork, handlebar or seatpost could lead to serious injury.

Cheers