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Bargin Or Counterfeit?


inkp0t

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I've been heavily invollved in various types of cycling for years. I keep hearing rumours of counterfeit frames and parts out there but it's always a "friend of a friend" or "someone who pops in". I'm looking for real examples of where counterfeit was obtained from, Ebay being the most obvious, and what, if anything the brand holders did to help.

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I've been heavily invollved in various types of cycling for years. I keep hearing rumours of counterfeit frames and parts out there but it's always a "friend of a friend" or "someone who pops in". I'm looking for real examples of where counterfeit was obtained from, Ebay being the most obvious, and what, if anything the brand holders did to help.

Strange question... why do you ask?

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The trouble is alot of parts and frames in the trials world dont have copyrights....a lot of the fake frames come out of russia i find....

Very true. The majority of the frames are produced in factories overseas and getting copyrights on the frames themselves is quite expensive and tedious. As such its easier to just send in some designs and face the reality that the factory will put the design of the parts (dropouts, seatstays etc) into a catalogue and that they'll be used by other clients later on. Some frames are blatantly fake, to the point where the frames are physically identical and have been sold outside of the factory by workers or management. these often crop up on ebay and the like, unbranded but still the same frame.

Others are more copies of other frames, counterfeiting isn't really the right word for it but its similar in essence. Take the coustellier frames, these have been proven to be a solid and trustworthy design and thats why they were reproduced by other companies in the guise of things like the onza t-rex, 04 zoo pitbull, bionic something'or'other, and the toxsin 1's. The frames copied the design (in a similar way to oakley and "oakey" sunglasses found in various countries), but as there was no copyright on the design itself it isn't really counterfeiting.

Edited by Krisboats
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I wouldnt call them counterfit as thats saying there a illegal frame when there not.

Companies have there frames usually made in china or russia, depending on the frame and company most frames are never copy righted as it would cost alot and all someone has to do is change a certain amount of things and then they could produce it anyway. So what happens is that the factories making these frames stick all of them into a catolgue. On some frames though such as the limey onza use a seperate factory that they have a deal in place where they wont put the limey into there catolgue meaning it wont be copied. What ususally happens is someone finds the frame in a catlogue and pays to have a bunch of them tooled and then flogs them off at a lower price than the origanal under a different name. These frames arnt always inferior to the origanal and can be just as good and strong as they are more or less copies. But the no warrentie on them usually and quality control isnt at a priority so you could end up with a duff badly made one. Where as this would have been found be the origanl company and not sold.

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trials parts are mostly copyrighted though but because most frames come from the same factory the patent is for individual peices of the design and isn't to the people who are having the frame made but the factory in which its made. For example the echo team headtube design is exactly the same as the ko and the design is patented (i think) but because both frames are made by the same people in the same factory it isn't illegal even though they are sold by 2 different companies. if you were to copy the design in another factory without the permission of the original factory then you'd be in a bit of bother.

Everyone knows there are a few Copys of frames but tracking the original scource of the frame is near impossible.

Edited by G4vyn
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