A British performance bike components company has raised the alarm about “frustrating” copycat products, that after an aero front derailleur cover from a new brand in Hong Kong has gone viral online.
Clinton Butcher — the owner of EZ Gains, a premium performance components company which makes all its products in the UK — told road.cc that the head-turning aero front derailleur cover, which has attracted thousands of views and comments on Instagram since first appearing on a newly created page a week ago is a “blatant copy” of EZ Gains’ Aero Front Derailleur Guard, a product they spent months designing, developing, testing and bringing to market back in 2023.
In the past week, on an Instagram page called Monókeros, posts about an aero front derailleur cover have gone viral within the cycling community and caused much discussion online. We initially contacted Monókeros, the brand not appearing to have a website and running from Instagram since the page first appeared in October.
Monókeros told us it had developed an aero front derailleur cover, as well as a range of time trial and triathlon specific wheelsets, the “front derailleur fairing” costing €90 (£78) excluding shipping. They also told us it is compatible with Shimano and SRAM electronic groupsets’ front mechs and that the 3D-printed component could save 2-5.8w.
While initially we were intrigued and wanted to share the product and information, the claimed saving of 2-5.8w raised eyebrows as it is exactly the same figure that EZ Gains found its Front Derailleur Guard could save when it was independently tested back in January 2023 at Silverstone Sports Engineering Hub.
EZ Gains tested across YAW angles and at 30/40/50km/h wind speeds, the results finding savings of 5.8w at 50km/h, 4w at 40km/h and 2w at 30km/h.
Intrigued by what seemed a remarkable coincidence that the new viral product was boasting the exact same, very precise figures as EZ Gains’ product, we asked Monókeros what testing had been undertaken but have not received a reply.
EZ Gains owner Mr Butcher told us multiple people had flagged the front derailleur cover going viral on Instagram to him.
While EZ holds patents for many of its products, the front derailleur cover is not patented as back in 2023 the prospect of spending thousands of pounds securing a patent for such a niche product seemed like an unnecessary use of time and resources.
As such, Mr Butcher accepts there’s little that can be done here, but admits he is “a bit bitter” knowing the months of design and testing that went into inventing their product and bringing it to market, not to mention the money invested in the process. While UK design rights would offer automatic protection for unregistered designs for three years, that period is up in the summer of 2026 anyway, so Mr Butcher is happy to move on with life considering the cost of any potential legal action for such little gain.
“We went for the patent on it then we decided after a couple of years not to carry on with the patent on it,” he explained to road.cc. “It would have just elevated [costs] and then you’ve got the renewal fee that you have to pay in every country, so we decided at that point it wasn’t really fully worth proceeding with it.
“My patent attorney told me we do have a natural design right but this would run out for us in July, so there’s no point trying to slam down on this […] they’re not breaking any law because anyone can make whatever they want. There’s no laws against anyone making whatever they want and copying what they want, where it becomes a change in law is if a company starts selling them actively and they’ve copied a product.”
Monókeros suggested to us in the initial message that it was selling 100 units of its front derailleur cover a month, however the brand’s Instagram page only appeared a few months ago and it does not have a website selling products.
“It does make me feel a little bit bitter because really they haven’t seen the kind of blood sweat and tears that have gone into the products,” EZ Gains’ owner continued, explaining they had spent thousands on the aero testing and exploring a potential patent that ultimately was not completed.
“We actually came up with it when we were out cycling like four or five years ago, we thought, ‘Why doesn’t someone cover the front derailleur up? It’s really hitting the wind’.”
The design process that followed included tweaks, problem-solving, fixes, time and money, EZ having to buy all derailleur models in to ensure compatibility and fit.
“Then what we’d find out is it works on SRAM, but doesn’t work on the Di2, and it doesn’t work on the mechanical [derailleur],” Mr Butcher recalled. “Then we’d have to sit there and buy all these different derailleurs in all these different sizes and set-ups. It works on one bike, it doesn’t work on another bike. Get that all in the tunnel, do all the testing in the tunnel, then manufacture the product.
“So then when I see someone pop up and just go ‘Hi, look at what I’ve made’, it does make me feel a bit bitter.
“There’s so much stuff that goes behind a product, especially within aerodynamic products because there’s just been a massive load of testing and there’s a huge amount of multiples that you have to consider.
“It’s always been a problem (copycat products), but I think it is causing an issue for local bike shops and local companies […] it’s almost taking some of that money out of the community in some ways.
“They’ve skipped that chain of things, it’s frustrating. That’s why in the past, from the start, I’ve been really hot on making sure I’m patenting and protecting design rights.”
One of EZ’s products that is patented is its Hydro Gains, a horizontal bottle holder for triathletes which has been used by some of the world’s best at recent races and exploded in popularity with 2,000 orders in the past few months. EZ says it has shut down multiple copycat products.
10 thoughts on “British bike component manufacturer accuses Hong Kong brand behind viral aero front mech cover of “blatant copy””
EU unregistered design right
EU unregistered design right last 3 years. UK unregistered design right lasts 10 years from first sale. https://www.gov.uk/unregistered-designs
The good news is that it is EZ to find a competent patent attorney if you aren’t happy with your current representation.
Unfortunately for EZ there
Unfortunately for EZ there product looks pretty ugly when compared to the Monkokeros who’s shape looks much better & the carbon weave adding to the quality look.
Asia is a big market, China has it’s own social media & websites that are not intended for use by the western world, they could be doing the numbers they suggested quite easily.
What’s the front derailleur
What’s the front derailleur doing up there?
One sympathises with the
One sympathises with the company having their ideas pinched but were they really the first people ever to think of an aero cover for the FD? As far as I understand patent law (which is not very far, I confess) if someone else has even suggested the idea before you may be able to copyright the specifics of your design but you won’t be able to get a patent, is that right?
Rendel Harris wrote:
As I understand it, the idea must never have been made public in any way before the patent filing date. Also, ideas aren’t usually patentable by themselves, but it’d have to be some kind of apparatus, product or process and it would have to involve some element of invention i.e. not just an obvious incremental change.
So, someone could have the idea of an aero cover for the FD, but wouldn’t be able to patent it until they came up with a design for it.
Also, note that a UK patent only covers the UK, so usually people apply for patents in as many regions as possible by using the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).
hawkinspeter wrote:
Kind of. A patent application needs an “enabling disclosure”, but for something this simple it is a low bar.
I too was surprised that this hasn’t been thought of before, given plastic covers to make disc wheels, aero rear mech covers, aero chain rings and the like are all pretty commonplace.
I found this from 2015 in about 30 seconds
https://forum.slowtwitch.com/t/front-derailleur-cover/704899/4
I would like to see what EZ thought was patentable. Perhaps how it attaches (most likely using the same attachment as the derailleur itself), or how it accommodates movement of the underlying mechanism (although a mechanism shaped hole is not what you would call inventive, and the creators of Flash Gordon came up with the overall shape some time ago).
Either way, who copied what, exactly?
I am tending towards this being a non story about misplaced indignance to be honest.
We went for the patent on it
We went for the patent on it then we decided after a couple of years not to carry on with the patent on it,” …..so then move on.
Pull the other one, it’s got
Pull the other one, it’s got (aero) bells on
An aero front mech cover,
An aero front mech cover, what were they smoking?
Shimano should bring back the AX groupset from the early eighties, that was aero and caused serious issues for other component brands…..
The brakes looked good though as did the hubs.
Yep. I guess that the aero
Yep. I guess that the aero improvements depend on the cyclist not being on the bike. Once your feet are whizzing around churning the air would there be any smooth air to flow around the aero widget?