Fake Easton Bike Parts!?

dave1986

Hi All,
I'm looking at buying an Easton EC90 carbon stem. I notice you can buy them new from EBay for about £110 but they are delivered from Taiwan (see link below).
The RRP is about £200 so I'm suspicious that this could be fake.. Does anyone know whether there are any fake Easton parts knocking around and if so whether there is any way of knowing whether it is a genuine part or not (Other than buying from a well known shop and paying full price!) ??
I've also seen one for sale on a forum and I'm concerned about the same thing.

Any help/advice would be much appreciated.

Best regards,
David

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2013-Easton-E ... 33857d88aa

trailflow

There are loads of fakes around. Search 'EC90' on aliexpress.com

The ad says it ships with the retail box and they also sell alot of other real parts. So could be totally legit. I dont think the fakers go the length of printing out boxes but i could be wrong.

The fake stems all seem to have red and gold lettering. Ive yet to find any on there that have white and gold lettering as on the stem in the ebay link. So my gut instinct says its real.

tigertang0

Probably, FSA, 3T and zipp stuff are plentiful too. Compare the weight and the decals, there should be a variation.

dave1986

Trailflow, Tigertang0, thanks for the replies.

So it sounds like if the decals, shape and weight of mthe product are the same as the description on the Easton website then it is unlikely to be a fake :- i.e. the fakes are not normally so good that upon close inspection you cant easily see the difference from the real product?

Best regards,
David

andy_wrx

Depends how good the fakers are/can be bothered to be

I have a fake Breitling watch I bought in Beijing for about £15
Inside it is actually a pretty decent quality Japanese quartz movement and it keeps perfect time.
An expert on Breitling watches could probably tell it apart but most people wouldn't.

Sometimes you'll see something which is obviously wrong (eg I saw a model of the Titanic and it had the wrong number of funnels...)

Getting the decals right should be easy for a faker, and they can copy/paste descriptions and weights from the Easton site.

If it's a stem with the wrong number of bolts or something though, it's a bit of a giveaway !

deimosjohnny

I know its golf clubs and not bike parts but it is explains the point. A few years ago a friend and imported a load of golf clubs long story but essentially these were callaway with our branding on them. Same factory same spec identical except for very small tweak and our own logo. The definition is "cloned" which is a big market in the US cloned clubs are 1/2 to 2/3 of the branded name club. We brought in £10k worth of clubs so not a small order.

The shafts were brand name, the grip were brand name and frighteningly cheap. The heads were not from callaways tooling it was a different tool run in the same factory and with same metallurgy (if that is a word). The factory would have easily stuck the callaway badging if we asked but getting stuck in customs and confiscated was not what we were after or having trading standards on our case.

There will be ripoffs out there but you will find some of the "fakes" are pretty much the same thing. Even expensive materials are so much cheaper in the uk.

The reason we did not pursue the golf thing although we made a nice return is people in this sport like their brands. We had pros hit the clubs and could not tell the difference, there was none technically. But punters want to pay the money for the brand name even when we could guarantee like for like performance.

Cycling is new to me but in the high end of the game I very much doubt anyone will have confidence riding on fake kit just for the badge. I am sure there will a few that will notice if something is real or if something is badged/ fake on its performance.

BUT here is the BUT unless the price differential is enough e.g. the watch above fake price / real price would you buy it for a try? If the price is only say half would you be happy knowing even if it is only you it is a fake?

My point is some fakes are not fakes they are just not "official" and from my experience they can be made and sold at 2/3 of list price and that is the brand value (they sponsor and advertise so this is not profit). Either way would you have confidence in the product even knowing it is like for like and from the same factory. I think the majority will still go for the original.