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Imitation A-bike these days... (sigh)

Chat about your A-Bike, post details of your exploits, ask advice from other owners, etc.

Moderators: Binch Shin, newcross, Amuro Lee

Postby newcross on Sun May 06, 2007 10:05 pm

Anonymous wrote:Yeah my seat spins on its pole too


...wow, you guys take care, it sounds very risky riding that on road. :o

As far as I figured, the quality of fake A-bikes are varied and recent ones seem somewhat improved in terms of their build quality.

I think getting a fake A-bike online (e.g. eBay) without trying the actual item you are getting is really a gamble.

Also at Japanese A-bike community, this FAKE v.s. REAL discussion has been on for quite sometime, and according to those people who were able to compare both sample...
    If you examine only fake ones, you might be happy with a better ones ('cos some are too badly made to ride).

    However if you see a real one after that, you will know real ones have even better build quality and better quality control than any fake in the market.


I know real one is not perfect, but I think the above is the fair analysis on the current situation.
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A-bike and smaller wheels

Postby Mucklegipe on Wed Nov 28, 2007 10:30 pm

Garry wrote:Don't assume that they are ok because they "probably come from the same factory as the real A-Bike", and please don't put anyone in danger, especially children, from a product that has not passed the required safety tests.

But I must thank them for making me laugh. I mean, everyone was screaming that the A-Bike would be perfect if only it had smaller wheels!!! :lol:


If like my fake A-Bike, (A-Bicycle) it has solid rubber tyres then the wheels are fractionally smaller, this may explain why they mention this as a selling point and a benefit.

Mucklegipe.
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What! You have a glass?
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Postby Rich on Thu Nov 29, 2007 3:29 am

Hello ev'rybody, just joined here moments ago.

I got interested in the A-Bike from an article a while back, then went searching for a way to carry a bike on the plane and found the A-Bike again. There you are, that's my start.

I wonder if the brake band on the back tire is a good way to spot a fake, if they're faking the A-Bike logo on the top crossbar. I notice that in the post about the Hong Kong arrest (HK customs have arrested 12 people selling A-bike imitations) the first picture shows what must be a genuine next to a fake and the fake has a light brown brake band and a kind of sloppy looking brake cable sticking out.


I spotted two sellers on eBay, one who was straightforward enough to tell the shopper outright that this is not the genuine A-Bike and is from China. "This bicycle is not the Sinclair version of the A-bicycle and is manufactured in China." I can respect that kind of honesty.

The other seller claimed that it was 'directly from the factory', and if that didn't make the sale he followed with 'shipped from a US warehouse', all to make it clear that there was no thought of China anywhere.

I Googled and Googled yesterday, and turned up a re-seller that offers to sell a wide variety of products in bulk for amazing prices. I thought myself lucky, and considered buying a carton of two bikes, and asking a friend to go in on it with me. However, before I found the A-Bike Central forum, and even before I found the eBay sellers, I started getting worried. The things would ship from China. I looked around further, and found this forum. You have helped to answer all my questions. (On the downside, I'm likely to be an infrequent user of the bike so I can't justify full price yet, so I'll do without for now.)

My belief is, it is probably this bulk re-seller site that certain eBay sellers are using as their source for what may be a huge amount of shoddy goods.

I'm glad I learned about the "genuine"-ly risky construction of these counterfeits, and wondered what could be done to the unscrupulous eBay seller. And I wonder if the bulk re-seller I found is in violation of some kind of import or trade laws too.

Sorry 'bout the rambling post - thanks for a great forum!

-Rich in TX
six hours behind, but catching up!
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Postby Amuro Lee on Thu Nov 29, 2007 8:53 am

Rich wrote:I wonder if the brake band on the back tire is a good way to spot a fake, if they're faking the A-Bike logo on the top crossbar. I notice that in the post about the Hong Kong arrest (HK customs have arrested 12 people selling A-bike imitations) the first picture shows what must be a genuine next to a fake and the fake has a light brown brake band and a kind of sloppy looking brake cable sticking out.

No, I don't think so.

The genuine A-bikes selling in Japan also have brown brake bands.
I think that is because the original green brake bands are asbestos that the material of the brake bands of the A-bikes selling in Japan has had to be changed to pass the import ordinances.
Image
Image

Even genuine A-bikes would have brake cables sticking out on the rear wheels. :wink:
http://www.abikecentral.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=623
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amuro_Ray

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Postby Amuro Lee on Thu Feb 21, 2008 3:49 pm

Comparison between A-bike imitations manufactured by different factories
http://video.qq.com/v1/videopl?v=3HsXbi4D3q5
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amuro_Ray

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