What do you guys reckon, real or fake forks?

mcrdave

Am looking for some new forks and found these on ebay. The reason I suspect is:

a. The price - SLX's are usually about £250 ish
b. Decals - they're different to the ones seen elsewhere, not even on Eastons website
c. Couple of people's feedback are saying negative and one mentions a fake item
d. Taiwan! Probably a little stereotypical but isn't Easton kit usually US based?

What do you guys reckon?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... K:MEWAX:IT

STEFANOS4784

Look pretty real to me;

http://www.ukbikestore.co.uk/product/15 ... -2010.html


To be honest i don't think anyone would bother going to that effort and would be instantly obvious if were fake i reckon :?

danowat

mcrdave wrote:

d. Taiwan! Probably a little stereotypical but isn't Easton kit usually US based?

Doesn't the vast majority of kit get made in Asia and the far east anyway these days?

Beatmaker

STEFANOS4784 wrote:

Look pretty real to me;

http://www.ukbikestore.co.uk/product/15 ... -2010.html


To be honest i don't think anyone would bother going to that effort and would be instantly obvious if were fake i reckon :?

There is fake kit all over ebay, Chris King are a victim of counterfeit products as are Ritchey with alarming regularity.

mcrdave

I guess it's a gamble then, I think it'd be quite hard to fake with the threaded steerer but the price just seems too good to be true

cougie

The price isnt that good - ok you'll save 25% or so, but would you want to risk fast descents on possibly counterfeit forks - for the sake of £60 ?

mcrdave

25% off and free postage is pretty good but no I wouldn't risk it for a second, hence the post to see if anyone spotted any definite clues that I'd missed.

ascurrell

I'm no expert on whether the forks are fake or not [difficult from pics] but the seller has had 4 neutral and 5 negative feedbacks in the last 12 months.
That's not a good confidence inspiring record.
Just an observation, so to sum up I would be wary of the seller.

On the other hand I bought some unbranded carbon forks [full] weighing under 400 grams they were under £50 and they were great, I replaced them with some Real Design forks and I must say the unbranded ones actually felt more rigid [i do hope the Real Design ain't fakes].
So to sum up here I think a lot of the forks originate in the far east and are pretty good.
Hope it helps, Alan

mcrdave

Thanks ascurrell, it's a gamble I guess. Not willing to risk it with the feedback as you mentioned.

crankycrank

Almost all the transactions are listed as "private" as well which would raise my suspicions about whether they abide by the sellers rules. They may very well be completely legit but also as mentioned they have too many negative or neutral comments for me to be comfortable with. Support the trustworthy, proven sellers that work hard to keep their customers happy.

herusix

It might all be legit stuff being sold out the "back door" so to speak ,and listings kept private to avoid being traced for Taxes or the like.

As said previously I think something like the Easton fork is probably a bit to labour intensive for fake production.

Also most bike and in particularly Carbon fibre products for bikes are made in Taiwan now including Colnago's carbon frames so I would not be biased because of where its coming from.