BBC show Fake Britain looks at counterfeit bike components tonight

@hampstead_bandit

The nerve!  A what a twit for trying to skimp by buying fake parts, instead of trying to save money by putting it together himself.

best example I saw of fake bicycle goods was several years ago whilst running the workshop for Evans at Spitalfields. 

customer, who was a wealthy market trader, brought in a Pinarello frameset, Super Record groupset, FSA finishing kit and Campag carbon wheels for a custom build.

Something did not seem right with the parts (graphics a little off), we tried for several hours to put it all together but could not get anything to work right. Wheels had large vertical hop and could not be trued. Seat post had limited depth insertion. Shifters did not like indexing with derailleurs. Fore/Aft frame alignment was off . Alarm bells ringing....

When he came to collect after we called him admitting defeat, he commented he knew it was all fake as he'd bought it off ebay for under $1500. He then argued that he should not have to pay for workshop labour as we'd not managed to build his "dream bike". 

Buying branded goods from ebay is always going to be a risk, but buying carbon fibre anything from ebay is a stupid risk to take IMHO. If it's direct from East Asia, I suspect that the chances of it being fake are higher, and if not fake, probably unauthorised production (probably without proper quality control) or stolen goods. Most feedback probably gets left before items have actually been used, so don't rely on it. Feel sorry for the guy in the BBC report, as he was conned and it resulted in injury, but it really is buyer beware with ebay!

Some people seem to think that the big brands are creaming off excesssive profits on carbon components. Personally I doubt it. The  reason that these fakes are so much cheaper is that the manufacturing processes are neither properly designed or controlled to make a safe item. As failures of the product don't come back to bite them (FSA got the blame initially in this case, but who knows who actually made them) they just don't care that they're selling lethally shoddy goods.

I watched it last night and it was exactly the same as the giro helmet issue froma few weeks ago...who in their right mind would buy some carbon bars which said they were brand new for £50?? similarly the giro helmet was selling for well below normal price. 

the stupid bloke who bought the bars said he felt confident because they were FSA branded!! what a fool! 

I'm afraid I have no sympathy at all. buy from a proper retailer. 

If you get it cheap,  it's almost certainly fake. There's only a market because idiots want bargains. The chances of a fake making it into a legit supply chain is virtually zero. Buy from a legit shop, no worries. Buy from some guy on eBay/Ali Express, eat stem at 40MPH.

Having experienced fsa gossamer cranks. I am not in a hurry to buy more of their stuff. Leaves me wondering how fake DSA is profitable, if won't fool OEMs

Ive had a set of genuine FSA plsama bars (same as pictured above but white & red) loved them

Fake ones are easy to spot as they normally dont have titanuim bolts and the genuine ones have a small FSA QR code on the stem

If you look on ebay you will find certain sellers selling the exact same looking bars but with different branding, so you know there not genuine, That goes for saddles too

Unfortunatley all the time there is money to be made the fakers will keep making fakes, be it bike parts, clothes, alcohol or cigarettes

Interesting.  A while ago I was looking at similar combined handlebars from EBay although they weren't branded FSA. I decided against them as I had a disturbing lack of faith that they wouldn't suddenly fail on me at some inopportune moment.