Quote:
Originally Posted by ZLP
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I don't for a minute dispute that Specialized etal should enforce their trademark and that counterfeit bikes are plain wrong, but the buyers know they're getting fakes, at least until resale, which is where the real danger lies.
BUT I believe that Specialized et al greatly overstate the risk. The experience with these frames has been by and large that they are if anything overbuilt (ie too heavy) and don't frequently break. There are photos all over the web if you look of real "brand name" carbon bikes that have broken is similar fashion-its not just the fakes. There's a pretty infamous thread on rbr about a guy who claims his Parlee top tube just cracked on its own-imagine how that could happen
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And bikes like Novation et al are basicly open mold Chinese bikes with a house brand.
I'm not saying that any of these bikes are equal to a S works Tarmac or a Cervelo or BMC or...but there's really no reason for the industry to use fearmongering. No ax to grind here, I ride a non-knockoff Chinese frame that works well for the money, is nicer than my "older" Madone, but no, not as sweet as any of my steel bikes (tho I ride it more because it performs better and is disposable).
Carbon has a very bad failure mode-it disintegrates, as opposed to metals, which bend, so yeah the failures look and are particularly gnarly.