Chinese Bikes

Road.cc any news on when
Road.cc any news on when you’re getting the ” Bicycle road bike disc automobile race bicycle aluminum ring sports car 21″ in for review?

road.cc wrote:
Cyclist sues

road.cc wrote:

Cyclist sues Halfords for £1 million, claims steerer tube “failure” led to severe facial injuries

A cyclist left disfigured when the steerer tube of a bike he had bought from Halfords allegedly snapped is suing the retailer for £1 million.

Joseph Love, then aged 19, suffered severe injuries to his face in the incident in Gravesend in February 2009 which he says have “wrecked” his life, reports Metro.

Gerald Martin QC, acting for Mr Love, told the High Court that the steerer tube of Mr Love’s £250 Saracen Raw 2 bike had sustained a “sudden and catastrophic failure,” with the cyclist hitting a crash barrier head-first.

He said: “We ask the court to bear in mind that marketing literature for the Saracen Raw 2 bicycle would lead an ordinary person to assume that fairly robust riding is to be expected – as it says, ‘give the trails a kicking’.”

Mr Martin claimed the bike was “defective at the point of sale.”

His client, now aged 24, said that the bike had been assembled and inspected by Halfords staff, and that it had also undergone a full service at the retailer with no defect found.

James Medd, acting for Halfords, described expert evidence prepared on behalf of Mr Love as “deeply flawed.”

The retailer also insisted that the cyclist had damaged through adding lights and mudguards [the specifics of why such standard accessories would have caused damage isn’t reported – ed], a claim Mr Martin rejected.

The case continues.

Isn’t it interesting that people who are always scare-mongering about so-called “cheap Chinese carbon crap” spontaneously combusting mid-ride, how they always conveniently neglect to bring up the fact that we hear about cheap British crap failing way more often?

I’m sure that’s meant to be a
I’m sure that’s meant to be a cunning critique on using foreign workers to supply goods, but since most of the big bike brands use the same foreign workers to supply their bikes, it doesn’t quite hold up.

The R&D is a big cost for the major brands for sure, which the open mould sellers then piggyback on. First massive saving. They use zero marketing beyond their websites and minor social media presence – second massive saving. Their sales and supply chain starts and stops at the factory. Third massive saving.
QA – yes, this is a valid point, and one it is, of course, hard to know the answer to. My frame had a little QC check sticker on, and a signature from a worker on another. One assumes there’s some sort of QA going on, even if it’s just checking all the holes are in the right place. Whatever, I’ve not seen anyone who has bought from the bigger Chinese sellers report any frame failures except for in the case of a bad crash – and can you show me any carbon frame that would escape from a bad crash without failing?

Chinese helmet, anyone?
Chinese helmet, anyone? 😀

It surely depends hugely on
It surely depends hugely on the company though. ‘Chinese bikes’ is quite a broad catchment – you only have to look at what’s on alibaba or aliexpress to see how many different suppliers there are, and how many focus on making fakes, for example.
If you widen your terms to ‘Chinese components (not bike related)’, and then apply what you’ve learned back to bikes…. what you’re doing here is equivalent to telling me not to buy coffee from my local cafe because you had a bad sausage roll from your local cafe.

What I’ve learned so far:
Do research. A lot of research. Read forums, take notice of the experiences people have had.
Look at pricing and promises – if it looks too good to be true, then it probably is.
Ask questions of the supplier, the answers you get should be indicative of the level of service you might expect.
Obviously be wary of a lot of things – you’re dealing with people on the other side of the world, there’s a lot that can go wrong in terms of communication breakdown, confusion, and I guess cultural misunderstandings.
Be very, very skeptical of anyone trying to do an official review of any of these frames. I’m thinking specifically of Velobuild, because from what I understand the person/people who run that moderate the forum heavily, have special deals with certain suppliers and it’s in their interest to aggressively promote the frames which they make the most money from.
More generally speaking, I’m not sure there’ll be many people buying these frames who also ride top end branded frames – so it’s really hard to get reliable comparisons. You won’t ever get sites like Road.cc, bikerader, cyclingnews etc reviewing them partly because their revenue comes from the major brands, and mostly because the supply of Chinese bikes isn’t particularly relevant to the sites’ readers; it’s just too niche.

Anyway, this is a work in progress. Keep your eyes peeled for updates.

My own company ( not cycle
My own company ( not cycle related) uses some Chinese components, our experience is that even the samples at times are completely useless – to the point of a waste of perfectly good material –

Even the stuff that passes our rigorous QC QA can fail massively in the next seemingly identical batch dispatched.

In fact, by the time duty is paid, it’s becoming more viable to buy from warranted and certified EU sources, with reliable quality and shorter lead times.

I really wouldn’t discount the cost of QA and QC testing and inspection the big manufacturers put into this, it could easily double the cost of a generic frame.

Unless I had a mate down at the X ray department at the local hospital, I’m not sure I would ever fully trust an unknown source carbon frame, however if you know what you’re doing and what to keep looking for, I don’t see that there is anything wrong with the approach in general.

I’m liking the new advert for
I’m liking the new advert for the VW Golf.

Can’t quite put my finger on why it springs to mind here……. :S