Fake vs real bikes, components and accessories

[Ross]

http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/faking-it/019442

[AUbicycles]

It would be good if you can quote some excerpts from the article and even comment.

The bikebiz articles are a series of 20 articles around the topic of fake bikes and parts by Carlton Reid of BikeBiz uk.

In one article talking about the danger/safety of fake carbon fiber bikes,

"The unknown is the fibre and resin quality, grade and type as well as the ply orientation. I would need to do destructive tests to identify these parameters. The fakes were similar in weight and wall thickness and there was no sign of low-cost glass fibres in the scans.

"I have seen some bars, forks and rims from the fakes all the way up to the very high-end brands that were full of porosity, voids and other flaws such as wrinkles, which could cause a catastrophic failure or at the very least reduce the life span of the part.

"One thing that was noticeably different [on the fakes] was the poor quality of the headset bearing seats and other fittings."