What if I told you that you could buy all the cycling products you love for a fraction of the regular price? The same shiny metal and sensuous carbon. The same tantalising weight figures and tasty anodising. That's obviously nonsense, but head over to behemoth Chinese retail platform AliExpress, and you might find yourself believing it's possible.
AliExpress, and to an extent, many other retail platforms, are awash with bike gear that looks eerily similar to familiar products but clearly isn't the real thing. Or it's so cheap that the chances of it being genuine are entirely far-fetched.
Welcome to the uncanny valley
"Speedplay Zero" pedals – £65 or $86
Some sellers say the quiet part loud. These intriguing pedals look a lot like the long-since discontinued Speedplay Zero Pavé.
This stripped-back version of the standard lollipop Zero was developed for Classics racing around the time Fabian Cancellara was winning everything. Standard Zeros were highly intolerant of filth, but the Pavé's cut-away design added some real mud-shedding ability. It was a niche version of an already niche product, but the WorldTour connection gave it special kudos, and the genuine article still commands high prices on eBay.
The clone here uses a cleat design identical to the old non-walkable cleat from the era before Wahoo took over the Speedplay brand. The sole (positive) review on the AliExpress listing says the pedals are compatible with genuine cleats.
The bearing design is quite different, however – the old Speedplays used serviceable needle bearings, while these have three tiny cartridge bearings inside the pedal body, one outboard and two inboard.
"Suitable for 3T" stem – £35
While this doesn't say 3T on the stem itself, "Arx" (an actual 3T model) is printed on the stem, and the listing title uses weaselly "suitable for" wording to give some plausible deniability to an obvious rip-off.
3T doesn't make the Arx stem anymore. The horizontal red stripe was a brand signature, denoting the 'Team' version of its premium road stems that usually came with titanium hardware rather than steel.
Branding aside, the AliExpress item is a pretty generic but nice enough-looking aluminium stem.
"Jeda" stem – £12 or $14
If you have really bad eyesight, you could, I suppose, misread the Deda logo as "Jeda."
That's the ploy this seller seems to be relying on, since they've plastered the actual Deda logo over a road stem that may or may not be partly made from carbon (it's probably a wrap at best).
The slight irony here is that a real Deda Zero stem is only about £25.
Shimano XT-adjacent SPD pedals – £19 or $25
Pedals seem to attract particular attention from brands looking for 'inspiration' from existing designs. I'd suggest they hit a sweet spot in the relationship between cost and complexity.
Pedals can be quite expensive, but their part count is low, they don't necessarily need custom tooling to manufacture, and they're small and light, making them economical to ship.
These jazzy pedals are shamelessly branded X-M8100, so there's little doubt about what they're imitating. There's no brand in the listing text, but the pedals pictured have an 'Rpantahi' logo, a name that crops up on a whole host of drivetrain components and finishing kit.
The listing variously claims a weight of 348g (6g more than actual XTs) and 336g (6g less) for a pair of pedals, and they are apparently "Shiman SPD" [sic] compatible – it's unclear if that's a typo or a bit of (im)plausible deniability.
The actual construction looks to be quite different to genuine Shimanos. Real XTs use rebuildable cup and cone bearings that form an assembly with the spindle. The Rpantahis look to be a simple two-cartridge design, likely with bearings pressed into the pedal body.
"San Marco" carbon saddle – £16 or $31
Is there any product category in bikes where price and substance feel more divorced from reality than saddles? Again, it's easy to see why they're an easy target for fakers looking to undercut big brands.
This handsome road saddle definitely isn't a Selle San Marco, but if it meets its claimed weight of 138g, it's astonishingly cheap.
The irony here is I wouldn't have a problem with this if it lacked the fake branding – saddles are so similar across different brands at this point that it's hard to make a good argument about IP theft.
There are only so many ways you can join rails to a shell and cover it in padding, and what matters to the rider is the specific shape. No brand has a monopoly on butt comfort.
"Dogma F" – £640 or $693
You can't write about fakes without mentioning Pinarello, and these wavy forked wonders have been around for as long as I can remember, often referred to as "Chinarellos".
A real Dogma F frameset is £5,500. That's all you need to know here.
"Scicon" sunglasses – £8.50
Marketed with a photo of Tadej Pogačar no less. Real Scicons are over £100 even with a healthy discount.
Sunglasses are one of those products that it might be fine to cheap out on, but how much faith would you place in the UV protection provided by a brand willing to steal another's name?
"MET" helmet – £15
A genuine MET Manta MIPS helmet retails at £230 in the UK, with a street price of around £160. You can decide for yourself if the AliExpress version is legit.
Where many fakes are just silly, dare I say even funny, the helmets really annoy me. We buy helmets for protection when the worst happens, and while most of us probably wouldn't take the chance on an oddly cheap AliExpress lid, there will be riders out there who genuinely don't realise they're not getting the real thing. There's simply no way of knowing how much protection a knock-off helmet will give you.
"V5Rs" – £830 or $916
This one comes from the amusingly named "Taiwan Red Bull Store", which uses the Red Bull–Bora Hansgrohe logo as its avatar. Confusing, since that particular team doesn't ride Colnagos, but a quick look at the store's inventory reveals a host of other lookalikes, including Specializeds, Treks and more.
It's not just AliExpress
Any working bike mechanic will tell you that certain categories of fake products are absolutely rife.
"The most common offender is fake Shimano brake pads, but we've also come across multiple fake chains," said Rob Borek, workshop manager at Pronto Bikes in Frome, England.
"I've witnessed the pad material separating from the backing plate of fake pads on numerous occasions, resulting in a total loss of braking."
How does the bike shop we spoke with handle fakes when confronted with them? "Our policy is not to work on or fit counterfeit components. If a customer is choosing to provide parts for a service or build, they must be authentic, or we will not fit them. Ideally, we provide parts to ensure they are correct, compatible, and authentic."
How to spot a fake
The reality is, when you're buying from overseas, from a platform that offers little recourse, and from sellers with virtually no online footprint and no obvious connection to bricks-and-mortar retail, you cannot guarantee that what you think you're buying is what you're actually getting.
"If you're buying parts online, make sure they are from a 'real' shop," explained Borek.
"Saving a couple of quid here and there by buying your brake pads on eBay or AliExpress is just not worth the risk."
With lookalike products that don't have a recognisable brand or model name, you at least know you're not buying the real thing. There are real brands out there that haven't filtered through to Western markets but are well-established elsewhere, and that have a following among riders in their home territory. To muddy the waters further, there could of course be fake versions of those brands too.
When it comes to more familiar brands like Shimano and SRAM, all bets are off. Perhaps some of the oddly affordable products are genuine, but there's simply no way of telling.
The big brands are well aware of the problem. Shimano Europe's communications team manager Bastian Ramler shared the following statement:
"Shimano takes a firm stance against counterfeit products. We actively monitor e-commerce platforms on a regular basis and take necessary measures, including requesting the removal of infringing listings. In addition, we take action against counterfeit sellers, such as issuing warning letters."
According to an unnamed legal representative for SRAM, the US brand is engaged in similar activity to fight against the counterfeiters. "The scale is significant, and the problem is persistent. These actors understand exactly what they are doing. They are attempting to free-ride on a reputation that SRAM has built through genuine innovation and decades of dedication to the rider experience. When listings come down, new ones appear. It is relentless."
Ramler pointed me to a page on Shimano's website that details some of the efforts the brand is undertaking in this area. Interestingly, these include a dedicated app that allows riders to scan a unique 2D code on Shimano products to authenticate them. However, the app appears to be available only in China and Japan at the moment.
Shimano's advice is pretty predictable here. "In order for consumers to avoid purchasing counterfeit products, Shimano highly recommends that consumers purchase genuine Shimano parts from authorised Shimano dealers and distributors."
SRAM says much the same, and warns riders to listen to their gut. "The simplest rule is also the most reliable one. If the price seems too good to be true, it probably is…We encourage riders to buy through authorized dealers and retailers, where they can be confident they are getting the genuine product and the full SRAM experience.
"That is not just marketing language. It is the difference between a component that was designed for them and one that was designed to deceive them."
Shimano declined to comment on how it views products that appear to 'borrow' from its designs, but which aren't outright fakes, while SRAM was refreshingly candid.
"SRAM welcomes competition. Our entire culture is built on raceday values and the belief that genuine competition makes everyone better. What we do not accept is a competitor that simply rides in the slipstream for hundreds of kilometers, waiting to edge into the frame at the finish line and claim some reflected status.
"Copying SRAM's branding, product appearance, or proprietary features is not competition. It is a shortcut, and it ultimately harms riders who may end up with an inferior or even dangerous experience." More on that last point in a bit.
Is it morally wrong to buy this stuff?
The short answer is yes. Straightforwardly ripping off real brands is obviously not OK; it's intellectual property theft. That's directly profiting from the hard work of others, freeloading on the considerable investment in R&D that it takes to bring a product to market.
But it's not always that clear-cut. In the world of wristwatches, so-called "homage" watches often bear a very strong resemblance to premium brands, but unapologetically wear their own brand name. You can buy a reasonably decent watch that looks a lot like a £9,000 Rolex Submariner for under £200. It won't say Rolex on it, and it wouldn't fool someone who knows watches, but it'll very obviously be Rolex-shaped, and it tells the time.
Is that taking anything away from Rolex? You could certainly argue it isn't. The people buying £200 watches aren't in the market for £9,000 ones, and vice versa.
I think the deceit (or lack thereof) is important here. If a non-Rolex says Rolex on it, that makes it a counterfeit. Making it look somewhat like a Rolex but labelling it as something else is arguably lame, but it's not an outright lie. And nobody is foolish enough to think the £200 watch will be manufactured to Rolex standards.
Back to bikes, there are both emotive and pragmatic reasons to avoid the imitators. "On a political level, buying from real brands is supporting the sport we love," argued Borek.
"Want to see brands or shops sponsoring events, races, riders, and teams? If we don't buy from them, they won't exist, and I'm sure AliExpress isn't putting back into your local cycling scene."
Safety is the real reason you shouldn't
Buying a fake watch isn't going to kill or injure you, but knock-off cycling gear could.
"Our components represent years of engineering investment and real-world validation at the highest levels of the sport," says SRAM. "A counterfeit may look similar in a listing photo, but it has not been through any of that."
In the event of catastrophic failure, your chances of pursuing redress from a random AliExpress seller are next to zero, and that's assuming you make it out alive and intact.
If that sounds melodramatic, take a moment to consider which bits of your bicycle are safety critical. Spoiler alert: it's most of them.
Pedal spindles, for example, are subject to enormous forces in the course of normal riding, and they need to be able to withstand not just ordinary pedalling, but immense peak loads when you hop off a kerb or smack into a rock off-road. The same goes for much of your drivetrain, while brake pads, as discussed above, are clearly of critical importance.
Frameset integrity is self-evidently essential. You might walk away from a cracked seat tube or a de-bonded bottom bracket shell, but if your fork snaps, you're going to have a very bad day.
No doubt many of the nameless framesets out there are built perfectly well; the problem is you just don't know, and the nature of carbon construction means that simply inspecting components visually won't tell you if they're safe to use – a lay-up can conceal a multitude of sins that only an X-ray would reveal.
If a bad batch of forks from a no-name maker is released into the wild, no one is going to be taking responsibility for them or issuing a recall.
It's a matter of personal judgment, but I don't want to ride a bike from a maker that won't stand behind its products with any kind of warranty. Manufacturers that don't fear liability have little incentive to act responsibly.
Perhaps the most alarming and depressing category of fakes is helmets. A bike helmet is actually a pretty simple object; it's usually just some foam co-moulded in a plastic shell. But when you buy a branded helmet from a known source, you're paying for the guarantee that the design has undergone actual lab testing and meets some basic standards.
A fake helmet might perform well in a crash, but you simply can't know if it will or not. Without provenance, it's just another fancy foam hat. Of all places to cut corners, helmets seem like the dumbest.
I'm not immune to temptation
While I have no desire to expose myself to unnecessary risks and I'm certainly not going to be buying outright fakes, the lure of cheap 'weight weenie' components is occasionally hard to ignore, particularly with lower-stakes parts such as bottle cages or saddles.
Shop mechanic Borek isn't totally immune either, but he's experienced the downside. "I've learned lessons buying sketchy lightweight parts for hill climb bikes in the past. One of them actually failed and cost me a result. I would never go there for anything remotely safety or performance critical."
I think tools deserve a special mention here, incidentally. Some components such as suspension forks need specialist tools for servicing. The OEM versions of these tools (I'm looking at you, Fox) can be astronomically expensive for something that's fundamentally very simple, i.e. just a small machined piece of metal.
A bike shop can amortise the cost of buying the genuine article because they'll use it hundreds or thousands of times, but for the individual rider who wants to service their own gear, that's difficult to justify.
There are plenty of no-name alternatives available for a fraction of the price, and I honestly don't have a problem with that. If I can buy a £20 version of a £100 tool that does the same job, I struggle to muster much moral outrage. Yes, I'd rather buy it from a shop based in my own country, but if that's not an option, I'll certainly consider looking elsewhere.
Late-stage capitalism beckons
Safety and quality concerns aside, the temptation to go spelunking in AliExpress's cave of dubious delights is tempered by middle-class guilt about the way I consume. I find the Temu-ification of online retail profoundly depressing, the idea that literally anything I could possibly want is available at an absurdly low price.
Never mind the sustainability implications, the question marks over labour and manufacturing practices, nor the knock-on effects of outsourcing every aspect of our consumption to foreign lands. Just buy, buy, buy and damn the consequences. Why not send it straight to landfill now and cut out the middleman?
Are you tempted by the shiny excesses of AliExpress? Where do you draw the line on fakes and homages? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
