Be cautious with any imitation A-bike

[Garry]

Either paste the text into here, or paste the screengrap into photoshop and save it as a gif. Btw the link you sent before seems to go to Alibaba.

Garry

[Binch Shin]

I saw and entered into Alibaba through the Ad that Pascal said.
There were about 50 copy sellers in Alibaba.

We, Korean A-bikers will try to stop copies in our country. We are finding some effective methods to appeal the public sense now. But otherwise, we accept another important fact that the copy manufacturers and distributors just had found their own market.

Is your country safe?

[Oritatami]

What does this indicate? That the Sinclair A-Bike is over priced? That the real A-Bike has been rolled out to new markets too slowly? The companies producing the copies wouldn't do it unless they thought that they would sell, so perhaps it is a kind of compliment to the A-Bike design.

I am not sure whether there is any way to protect the A-Bike from being copied. The A-Bike frame itself is the same shape as the Strida. As for the method of folding, how many folding bikes have we seen that effectively have the same single fold method as a Dahon. Even Brompton has been copied now, but I think the 25 year protection a patent gives must have passed by now.

Maybe all folding bikes in the future will be A-frame folders. A-Bike could be the first of a new breed.

Jonathan

[Garry]

Actually it doesn't indicate anything about being overpriced or slow to market. The fact is that Chinese factories copy EVERYTHING you can imagine, and many things that you cannot. I've seen some incredible things there and you have to at least admire their hard work.

When intellectual property is not respected prices can always be undercut. It's easier to steal the ideas of others than come up with your own.

Now Russia are being persuaded to tighten up their IP laws. It's bound to happen in China eventually as they become more developed. But then some other low wage region will replace them as the imitation factory of the world. It's always going to happen until we have a fully globalised economy with wage parity in every nation. Now maybe that's an even more scary thought with the issues it raises!

Garry

[amjz]

Hello everybody
I saw this A-Bike on ebay and want to know if this one imatation or not? this one will be shipped from China So is it means an imatation to A-Bike's shipped from UK or USA
Thank you in advance

[Binch Shin]

Hi amjz

Unfortunately, that is an imitation.

I will upload some useful photos of the refined article on this forum as soon as possible.

Binch

[Garry]

I have had the following response from mayhem (official distributors of the a-bike):

"Thank you for your concern.

The counterfeit A-bikes are a big worry for us, too. Their build quality is
bound to be inferior and, like you suggest, could be dangerous.

We are aware of the A-bikes for sale on ebay and we have already removed tens of auctions. It is hard to keep up with them but we do have someone looking daily to clamp down on these particular sellers.

Thanks again

Keith"

[JJ]

I have had the following response from mayhem (official distributors of the a-bike):

"Thank you for your concern.

The counterfeit A-bikes are a big worry for us, too. Their build quality is
bound to be inferior and, like you suggest, could be dangerous.

We are aware of the A-bikes for sale on ebay and we have already removed tens of auctions. It is hard to keep up with them but we do have someone looking daily to clamp down on these particular sellers.

Thanks again

Keith"

Hi Gary,

Thanks for launching this forum!

I have a question about Mayhem.
Did you send email to them or did you call on them?
I have tried to contact with them for more than five times using email, and I have not got their response yet.
I sent my messages not only to sales_at_a-bike.co.uk but also support_at_a-bike.co.uk and even info_at_a-bike.co.uk and webmaster_at_a-bike.co.uk, which might not exist at all.
I made some inquiries to find out why they do not respond to email messages, because no one in my country could have got their response via email yet.
As you know, it is much easier for non-English speaking customers to communicate with them via email rather than using a phone.

If you know any tip to get in contact with them vi email, please let me know.

JJ

[Binch Shin]

Hi JJ

Maybe, I can answer to your question.
Some Korean A-bikers tried to make contact with Mayhem UK via mail but didn't receive any replys too.
Probably, they are not supplying the service to other countries' customers any more and there seems be your own distributor in your country now.
If you live in Japan, let's find the distributor together.

[Garry]

Hi JJ

Which country are you in? I have an idea why they may not be receiving any emails from Korea or China. That is because of poorly configured spam filters which automatically block every email from those countries. For example I found that Plusnet's spam filter automatically blocks every single email from China, I was not impressed!

It is true that China and Korea are very big senders of spam emails, but for some reason these filters never block usa emails which would stop 99% of the spam!!!

So sorry, but I guess you'll have to call them. Or maybe email via a proxy in UK.

Garry

[JJ]

Hi JJ

Which country are you in? I have an idea why they may not be receiving any emails from Korea or China. That is because of poorly configured spam filters which automatically block every email from those countries. For example I found that Plusnet's spam filter automatically blocks every single email from China, I was not impressed!

It is true that China and Korea are very big senders of spam emails, but for some reason these filters never block usa emails which would stop 99% of the spam!!!

So sorry, but I guess you'll have to call them. Or maybe email via a proxy in UK.

Garry

You mean, not the address itself but sending IP address?
Is the filter so efficient?
I have used two addresses so far. One ends with ne.jp and is clearly from Japan. Another is gmail.com and is not necessarily from Japan judging from the domain.
Each one of them have been neglected for a while.
Your story explains my situation, I think.

So, do you people in England have no trouble in communicating with them via email?

[JJ]

Hi JJ

Maybe, I can answer to your question.
Some Korean A-bikers tried to make contact with Mayhem UK via mail but didn't receive any replys too.
Probably, they are not supplying the service to other countries' customers any more and there seems be your own distributor in your country now.
If you live in Japan, let's find the distributor together.

We heard a rumor that Mayhem in UK will launch its agent shops in Japan next January. There is also unofficial comment on this kind of shop from DAKA. I do not know the relationshp between these two companies, but we are looking forawrd to welcoming these shops ASAP. How is your situation in Korea?

[Binch Shin]

Hi JJ

We, Korea has the Korea distributor for A-bike business controlled by DAKA. The company's name is Gil Trading Co., Ltd..
And they promissed the total A/S to real A-bikers in Korea.

And I don't agree to Garry's idea because I can make contact with the managing director of Mayhem via every Korean email.
I feel 'something wrong' about their A/S but don't want to press them.

I just want to find Japan distributor for JJ. Yesterday, I sent a mail to the info-desk of DAKA but didn't receive any reply. So, today, I am going to send a mail to one of chief officers.

It takes time to find the Japan distributor but I think they exist.

[Binch Shin]

To JJ and any other Japanese A-biker

Today, I have received an reply from the DAKA designs Ltd.
-- My mail --
I sent a query to your info-desk yesterday but didn't receive any reply.
So, although I know you are busy, I forward this mail to you.
Please let me know what the Japan distributor of A-bike is.
__To: <info@daka-designs.com>
__Dear gentleman
__Some Korean and Japanese A-bikers tried to make contact with Mayhem UK via mail but didn't receive any replys after September.
__Probably, they are not supplying the after-services to other countries' customers any more and there seems be own distributor in each country now.
__We know the Korea distributor is the Gil trading Co., Ltd.
__Then what is the Japan distributor?

-- Reply --
Apologized for my belted reply. Please refer to us any Japanese enquiry and we will handle with thanks!
----------------------------------------------

I can't understand the exact meaning of this reply.
Now, I am going to send a message again; "Please let me know the one email address for Japanese A-bikers. I will inform it on AbikeCentral."

Regards

[thatsme]

hi,
i was reading with interest this forum,
i am from italy and i have also the british citizenship, i lived in the uk for about 13 years.
now i am living in japan (tokyo) i came here last year.
i work in a small japanese tour operator.
i do speak japanese, but i can't read the kanji, only hiragana and katakana.
the above is just to give you a bit of my background.

i am crazy about foldable bicycle.
when i used to live in london, i used to ride the brompton from wood green to leicester square to go to work.
i beileve that the brompton is the best foaldable bicycle in the market for long distances.
when i decided to came here i sold it.
since i am crazy about foldable bicycle, i made a search about other foaldable bicycle in japan, and as you know, they have all of them (almost) somehow i bumpted into an article about the a bike, that was about last year, so i did a lot of googling to find out where and when was going on the market.
unfortunately, still to early at that time, finally few month ago, the a bike just wento into the market, i called my self the designer in japan (daka)
they told me to contact honghong, you know the story after that the same as the post i was reading.
i am also waiting for this bike to be sold here in japan, but i am not that patient, so i was wondering, is it worth to buy it from the uk or hong hong, some of you mentioned that is cheaper.
my questions are.
is it much cheaper?
also the imitations, still it is something to be worried, are those imitations as good are the real mckoy?
as for the long distances, for people who have already riden it, can you take it to that limit, even on the bumpy roads?
here is my main reason to buy the a bike, a part that i am crazy about the foldability,light weight, etc... i often after work go to party with my japanese colleagues, as you know there are not any 24 hours bus services, so i carry my bike, and either cycle to my office or even at home, probably 30 minutes by train from tokyo, my office it is very close though, so basically for a very practical reason, of course also i will be riding it on weekends when i go out shopping.
if you would like to ask me any question about japan, you are more than welcome.
normally i log in in a another forum, (gaijinpot.com) is all about japan.
from the crazy troller to the serious one.
but if you want to know from me, i try to help you.
regards

p.s. as you can see i am incredibly lazy when i type, and also i can't be bother with the grama etc... bear with me!!!