I have purchased many bike parts - new and used - from eBay, and have never had a problem, but it also pays to double check who you’re buying from. It was a real service to your viewers to have Fergus from Ritchey provide info on fakes. That Ascent looks like a really nice bike.
as a resident of Ottawa Canada myself, I was so excited when I saw this channel at first. We have few “good” bike shops here and I was in utter dismay when I googled an realized ohh, not Canada 😂
I got a fake Shimano chain from an Amazon seller and it sounded like garbage from new. Then out of nowhere it just snapped, but thankfully without incident. I even confirmed the stamping, the box, the paperwork all looked legit. It’s crazy how good it looked but it was obviously inferior. Great video and thanks for sharing to inform.
Another point I want to add from the experience of my company that makes instrumentation (not used in bike industry, but situation is relevant). This is the wasted time of the company when you find out while supporting a customer that the customer has fake items on your equipment. It is sometimes very hard for customers to accept that they have a fake item and that the company cannot offer any support to that fake item as well as damage to the other parts of the equipment caused by the fake item.
Yes! We see this on e-bikes that come to the shop. Customers replace factory electronic parts with knock off parts and want us to try and get it all working together. It makes it very difficult to sort out.
Solid advice here. I try to buy directly from the manufacturers website or through Ottawa Bike and Trail. I'm always hesitant to buy off of eBay or any second hand marketplace. To me, peace of mind knowing I'm buying a genuine product far outweighs any monetary saving that might come from random sellers.
I'd watch a video on cutting up fake parts to show the construction. I've purchased some machined alum stems from A zon they seem okay but mostly for just my kick around bikes. Honestly they were just impulse buys and are sitting in my parts bin now. I support my local LBS and have gone back to letting them order parts and apparel for me. Nice shop you have there with a nice assortment of various brands.
I buy a lot of stuff from eBay. I’ve spent 20 years in the bike trade and have a pretty good eye for detail. So I know what the real thing looks like. I only buy from sellers in the USA. If the item is fake I return it. Overseas sellers always try and haggle the return - just involve eBay and they generally decide in your favour. The USPS will refuse to ship a return if you declare its fake…
I didn't realize your shop is in Kansas. I saw Ottawa, and thought Canada. I'm on the other end of the state and will have to get in touch with ya when looking for my next bike, if you ship. I love supporting Kansas companies. As far as counterfeit goes..........There was a "deal" on some Sram XX1 Rainbow chain on Ebay, that was put onto a forum and tons of chains were bought. They were selling them for 20 bucks. A couple of us were skeptical and messaged the seller and even though the listing title and description said it was genuine Sram XX1 chain, they backtracked and said "Why would we be selling 92 dollars chains for 20 bucks"? This was a legit Sram dealer (I emailed Sram and asked). So, even legit stores will sell fakes on Ebay. It's pretty sad really. I generally stick to either manufacturers websites for products, or 3 large online retailers. Now, I'll have to add you to the list to buy from. Thanks for owning up to the oversight and sharing this experience with us. Accidents happen. It's how they're handled that matters.
Yes, we are in #theotherottawa! Glad you found us. I'm sure SRAM would not approve of a dealer doing this. We do ship quite a few parts out and we take our online business seriously. If you don't see it on our website we can probably get it. I'd love to help you out. Come see us when you are in the area.
I just found out that three Shimano XT/Ultegra chains I bought on eBay last summer were fakes. The packaging and marking on the chains look legit. I couldn't get a new 1x11 XT gruppo on my P650b to shift well. I took it to Jake at The Bike Lab, and he called to say the chain was fake.
I have some counterfeit parts on my bikes, and they are beautiful. I will be morally obligated to disclose this if I ever sell them, but I fully intend to strip them off and put them on the next frame. I like them! This wouldn't be nearly as big of a problem if the manufacturers did not choose to have their frames and parts made in Taiwan.
I think I had a fake Ritchey stem, not deliberately . When I sold my bike in March and checked the website after I sold it, they had swapped it out. Maybe they wanted it for another bike but I'm thinking that they noticed it was a fake.
The begs the question whether bike shops should have "parts bins" at all? If it came off a customer bike due to an upgrade or whatever, it should have been returned to the customer! Parts bins are wrong on so many levels, among them: (1) the bike owner paid for that component and owns it, (2) hopefully the shop is not reselling it as "used", (3) shop has no idea of the history of that part (overstressed in a crash, improper previous installation, damaged from abuse), (4) as in this case, counterfeit, (5) the bike owner might have use for it at a later date, on another bike. At one point I switched to Di2 hoping that might cure a chain dropping issue (it didn't) and never got the mechanical shifting components back from the shop. Was so pleased to get the bike back I didn't notice. As it turned out, I could have used them later on a winter bike or on my trainer bike. A used bottle cage, saddle, shifter, or derailleur is one thing, used forks, stems, and bars (especially carbon) are safety items, consequences of failure in use can be very serious. Thanks for this video. Normally I buy from manufacturers directly or from a couple online dealers I trust. Occasionally I buy through Am zon and will be more mindful if I do.
Very good points! Part of the reason shops need to stockpile old parts is to make repairs. Bike standards change so frequently that sometimes that's the only way to get a replacement part to repair a bike. But, I agree with you for certain parts it doesn't make sense. Thanks for watching!
I agree. Didn’t get my original seatpost back when I bought a carbon one from the shop. Didnt think to ask. Later decided to sell the bike I asked the shop for a comparable seatpost to put back on, and they didn’t have one (Cannondale 25.4). My bad but didn’t realize they do that intentionally!
@@OutThere42 We don't keep customer parts as a general rule, unless the customer asks us to dispose of it. We mostly hold on to older Shimano or Sram drivetrain parts that we can use to keep older bikes on the road. Any used carbon parts will be disposed of going forward. Fortunately our county has a bicycle recycling program that is free for us to use.
Lots of expensive - but uncomplicated products are faked these days. Ali express have “Thomson” stems for $20 (rrp is $120), “Ingrid” and “5DEV” cranksets for under $100 - if the deal is too good, it’s too good to be true….
I have purchased many bike parts - new and used - from eBay, and have never had a problem, but it also pays to double check who you’re buying from. It was a real service to your viewers to have Fergus from Ritchey provide info on fakes. That Ascent looks like a really nice bike.
Today I learned that your bike shop is in Kansas and not Canada.
Yea, we get that a lot!
as a resident of Ottawa Canada myself, I was so excited when I saw this channel at first. We have few “good” bike shops here and I was in utter dismay when I googled an realized ohh, not Canada 😂
I figured Canada too.. cool it's a USA company!!
Same
I got a fake Shimano chain from an Amazon seller and it sounded like garbage from new. Then out of nowhere it just snapped, but thankfully without incident. I even confirmed the stamping, the box, the paperwork all looked legit. It’s crazy how good it looked but it was obviously inferior. Great video and thanks for sharing to inform.
I have heard that knock of chains are prevalent. Not only do they sound bad, they'll eat up your drivetrain and cost a lot more in the end.
Another point I want to add from the experience of my company that makes instrumentation (not used in bike industry, but situation is relevant). This is the wasted time of the company when you find out while supporting a customer that the customer has fake items on your equipment. It is sometimes very hard for customers to accept that they have a fake item and that the company cannot offer any support to that fake item as well as damage to the other parts of the equipment caused by the fake item.
Yes! We see this on e-bikes that come to the shop. Customers replace factory electronic parts with knock off parts and want us to try and get it all working together. It makes it very difficult to sort out.
Solid advice here. I try to buy directly from the manufacturers website or through Ottawa Bike and Trail. I'm always hesitant to buy off of eBay or any second hand marketplace. To me, peace of mind knowing I'm buying a genuine product far outweighs any monetary saving that might come from random sellers.
Thanks Jon!
I'd watch a video on cutting up fake parts to show the construction. I've purchased some machined alum stems from A zon they seem okay but mostly for just my kick around bikes. Honestly they were just impulse buys and are sitting in my parts bin now. I support my local LBS and have gone back to letting them order parts and apparel for me. Nice shop you have there with a nice assortment of various brands.
I buy a lot of stuff from eBay. I’ve spent 20 years in the bike trade and have a pretty good eye for detail. So I know what the real thing looks like.
I only buy from sellers in the USA. If the item is fake I return it.
Overseas sellers always try and haggle the return - just involve eBay and they generally decide in your favour.
The USPS will refuse to ship a return if you declare its fake…
I didn't realize your shop is in Kansas. I saw Ottawa, and thought Canada. I'm on the other end of the state and will have to get in touch with ya when looking for my next bike, if you ship. I love supporting Kansas companies.
As far as counterfeit goes..........There was a "deal" on some Sram XX1 Rainbow chain on Ebay, that was put onto a forum and tons of chains were bought. They were selling them for 20 bucks. A couple of us were skeptical and messaged the seller and even though the listing title and description said it was genuine Sram XX1 chain, they backtracked and said "Why would we be selling 92 dollars chains for 20 bucks"? This was a legit Sram dealer (I emailed Sram and asked). So, even legit stores will sell fakes on Ebay. It's pretty sad really. I generally stick to either manufacturers websites for products, or 3 large online retailers. Now, I'll have to add you to the list to buy from. Thanks for owning up to the oversight and sharing this experience with us. Accidents happen. It's how they're handled that matters.
Yes, we are in #theotherottawa! Glad you found us. I'm sure SRAM would not approve of a dealer doing this. We do ship quite a few parts out and we take our online business seriously. If you don't see it on our website we can probably get it. I'd love to help you out. Come see us when you are in the area.
This is scary, it has not happened to me. As far as I know 😢
accountable is rare to see people to do...
Thanks! We try our best to learn from mistakes and improve every day.
I just found out that three Shimano XT/Ultegra chains I bought on eBay last summer were fakes. The packaging and marking on the chains look legit.
I couldn't get a new 1x11 XT gruppo on my P650b to shift well. I took it to Jake at The Bike Lab, and he called to say the chain was fake.
Ritchey should post updated high quality photo examples of this on their Instagram. Their website examples aren’t great.
I have some counterfeit parts on my bikes, and they are beautiful. I will be morally obligated to disclose this if I ever sell them, but I fully intend to strip them off and put them on the next frame. I like them! This wouldn't be nearly as big of a problem if the manufacturers did not choose to have their frames and parts made in Taiwan.
I think I had a fake Ritchey stem, not deliberately . When I sold my bike in March and checked the website after I sold it, they had swapped it out. Maybe they wanted it for another bike but I'm thinking that they noticed it was a fake.
The begs the question whether bike shops should have "parts bins" at all? If it came off a customer bike due to an upgrade or whatever, it should have been returned to the customer! Parts bins are wrong on so many levels, among them: (1) the bike owner paid for that component and owns it, (2) hopefully the shop is not reselling it as "used", (3) shop has no idea of the history of that part (overstressed in a crash, improper previous installation, damaged from abuse), (4) as in this case, counterfeit, (5) the bike owner might have use for it at a later date, on another bike. At one point I switched to Di2 hoping that might cure a chain dropping issue (it didn't) and never got the mechanical shifting components back from the shop. Was so pleased to get the bike back I didn't notice. As it turned out, I could have used them later on a winter bike or on my trainer bike.
A used bottle cage, saddle, shifter, or derailleur is one thing, used forks, stems, and bars (especially carbon) are safety items, consequences of failure in use can be very serious.
Thanks for this video. Normally I buy from manufacturers directly or from a couple online dealers I trust. Occasionally I buy through Am zon and will be more mindful if I do.
Very good points! Part of the reason shops need to stockpile old parts is to make repairs. Bike standards change so frequently that sometimes that's the only way to get a replacement part to repair a bike. But, I agree with you for certain parts it doesn't make sense. Thanks for watching!
I agree. Didn’t get my original seatpost back when I bought a carbon one from the shop. Didnt think to ask. Later decided to sell the bike I asked the shop for a comparable seatpost to put back on, and they didn’t have one (Cannondale 25.4). My bad but didn’t realize they do that intentionally!
@@OutThere42 We don't keep customer parts as a general rule, unless the customer asks us to dispose of it. We mostly hold on to older Shimano or Sram drivetrain parts that we can use to keep older bikes on the road. Any used carbon parts will be disposed of going forward. Fortunately our county has a bicycle recycling program that is free for us to use.
I've received fake Shimano chains from ebay and Aliexpress. Buying chains from lbs from now on.
I’m not sure using Amazon in eBay for anything is particularly ethical. Normally isn’t even the cheapest place either it’s just the easiest
I agree. I only go there as a last resort.
I may have some fake shimano on my bike but not sure.
I quit buying bike parts from amazon and ebay.
Amazing people still do this. There was a Ritchey breakway canti on eBay that had amazon tires and brakes for $2700 🤣
Ali Express - How good are their parts?
Mostly not good IMO.
Please keep making videos
We will! Thanks for watching!
Way to do!
Lots of expensive - but uncomplicated products are faked these days.
Ali express have “Thomson” stems for $20 (rrp is $120), “Ingrid” and “5DEV” cranksets for under $100 - if the deal is too good, it’s too good to be true….
Yes! Gotta be careful.
I've never seen a RITCHEY ASCENT with a sloping top tube ? What year is that bike ?
It’s brand new.. like a rereleased ford bronco
It's this frame, but in the previous color. ritcheylogic.com/bike/frames/ascent-frameset