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Re: Helmets
Guys - lets not get carried away here. And its not fair to brand everyone a cheat either or carry out a witch-hunt. The problem in an unregulated industry like the accessories business is that many of the dealers are unwitting accomplices. Since most of them are just traders with little knowledge beyond basics, they do often get taken for a ride themselves when offered good "deals" by uncrupulous con-men.
There are basically two kinds of fakes -
1. Fake labels - the most common fraud - simply labelling products with the name of a famous or reputed brand.
2. Engineered fakes - much more difficult to spot - actually making and selling goods which are similar to the original.
The most common is the fake label, where some basic product simply has a famous brand label pasted or stitched on. This is quite easy to spot and the easiest defence against falling for this is to simply familiarise yourself first with the features and appearance of the original product. So a low end and locally made helmet or jacket labelled with "HJC" or "AlpineStars" should be easy to spot. However, there are still many who fall for this, simply out of ignorance, including traders. A storekeeper once contacted SPG for SOL helmets asking for a model that doesn't exist! He had bought a few helmets from a "stockist" in Delhi who had sent him some cheap low-end helmets labelled SOL and he had been taking them thinking they were genuine. He had only contacted SPG because the guy who sold him the original lot had disappeared when he wanted more stocks! I have personally seen "HJC" and "KBC" labelled helmets which fall in the same category. Likewise, there was a guy on the riding gears thread recently who proudly displayed his "AlpineStars" jacket thinking it was genuine, simply because it was labelled so, only to have it pointed out to him that it was fake. These kinds of fakes are very easy to spot and should be no problem for most members of this forum.
The more devious and difficult to spot are the engineered fakes. These are basically replicas of the original and were manufactured using cheap and low end materials to appear like the original but at a fraction of the manufacturing cost. In products like helmets, these can be very difficult to spot, because of the existence of third party manufacturers. Many big time international brands contract their low end helmets to third party manufacturers in China to bring down costs. Unfortunately, this also means that the same factory can now make identical looking products for much less by compromising on their component and structural quality, which the parent brand would not allow.
So imagine a Big Brand company ABC asking Company X to make a certain model for them conforming to DOT/ECE standards. This would mean that Company X now has to make a solid product that would have to pass the scrutiny of the big brand's quality norms which are very stringent, so it makes a genuinely high quality item. Now after the production run of 20000 helmets, a small time trader in Shanghai asks the same Company X to run off another 2000 shells off the same production line but at 1/4 the price. Company X likes to keep production going and since it has the technical knowhow anyway agrees - but how do they do this at such a reduced cost? Obviously, the only way is to change the original construction of the helmet. The simplest is to reduce the shell thickness so that it would not pass any genuine tests but can visibly pass a customer's inspection.
Thats why I have in repeated posts advised that the quickest way to determine a genuine product is the heft of the helmet. True DOT/ECE helmets made of ABS/PC/FibreGlass would have to have a certain shell thickness and therefore weigh in at approximately 1500 gms +/- 200gms. SNELL rated helmets are even heavier. Only expensive, specialty helmets made of carbon fibre can be lighter, so if you pick up a low priced helmet that is unusually light, look closer! I recently demonstrated this difference at an offline G2G in Chennai where two LS2 helmets (same model) owned by XBhp brothers, one bought three years ago and one bought a few months ago weighed completely different and the construction too was completely different. The older version was much sturdier and solidly built and therefore also heavier.
A second quick giveaway is the ratchet mechanism and visor of the helmet. Most big brands use high quality ratchets and visors manufactured again from third party specialist manufacturers, which are quite costly. So the fakers often have to use more cheaply and easily sourced alternatives. This means that the ratchets and visors themselves may be different from the original. If you see a ratchet and visor combo that is different from the known standard, beware!
Apparel can also be faked similarly but errors can be spotted by the astute observer. An interesting case recently was when a friend pointed out how his first AStars jacket which he bought in Singapore had the liner as a separate removable piece, whereas the second which he bought in India to replace the first (after a crash) had the rain liner sewn inside. The AStars website also shows the liner as removable for this model, so obviously a fake. Now remember, this guy already knows how the original is supposed to be because he owned it. Yet the second one (the fake) was so well done that he bought it before closely inspecting the jacket.
Basically what I'm trying to say is - be informed and beware!
Originally posted by vishnus
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Shocked to hear this and a shop at kerala is offering sparx pow for 4.9k. Guess it is fake also. Guess its the same story for riding gears and accessories like exhausts, jackets etc.
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xBhp Connect mobile app
Sent from my GT-N7100 using xBhp Connect mobile app
There are basically two kinds of fakes -
1. Fake labels - the most common fraud - simply labelling products with the name of a famous or reputed brand.
2. Engineered fakes - much more difficult to spot - actually making and selling goods which are similar to the original.
The most common is the fake label, where some basic product simply has a famous brand label pasted or stitched on. This is quite easy to spot and the easiest defence against falling for this is to simply familiarise yourself first with the features and appearance of the original product. So a low end and locally made helmet or jacket labelled with "HJC" or "AlpineStars" should be easy to spot. However, there are still many who fall for this, simply out of ignorance, including traders. A storekeeper once contacted SPG for SOL helmets asking for a model that doesn't exist! He had bought a few helmets from a "stockist" in Delhi who had sent him some cheap low-end helmets labelled SOL and he had been taking them thinking they were genuine. He had only contacted SPG because the guy who sold him the original lot had disappeared when he wanted more stocks! I have personally seen "HJC" and "KBC" labelled helmets which fall in the same category. Likewise, there was a guy on the riding gears thread recently who proudly displayed his "AlpineStars" jacket thinking it was genuine, simply because it was labelled so, only to have it pointed out to him that it was fake. These kinds of fakes are very easy to spot and should be no problem for most members of this forum.
The more devious and difficult to spot are the engineered fakes. These are basically replicas of the original and were manufactured using cheap and low end materials to appear like the original but at a fraction of the manufacturing cost. In products like helmets, these can be very difficult to spot, because of the existence of third party manufacturers. Many big time international brands contract their low end helmets to third party manufacturers in China to bring down costs. Unfortunately, this also means that the same factory can now make identical looking products for much less by compromising on their component and structural quality, which the parent brand would not allow.
So imagine a Big Brand company ABC asking Company X to make a certain model for them conforming to DOT/ECE standards. This would mean that Company X now has to make a solid product that would have to pass the scrutiny of the big brand's quality norms which are very stringent, so it makes a genuinely high quality item. Now after the production run of 20000 helmets, a small time trader in Shanghai asks the same Company X to run off another 2000 shells off the same production line but at 1/4 the price. Company X likes to keep production going and since it has the technical knowhow anyway agrees - but how do they do this at such a reduced cost? Obviously, the only way is to change the original construction of the helmet. The simplest is to reduce the shell thickness so that it would not pass any genuine tests but can visibly pass a customer's inspection.
Thats why I have in repeated posts advised that the quickest way to determine a genuine product is the heft of the helmet. True DOT/ECE helmets made of ABS/PC/FibreGlass would have to have a certain shell thickness and therefore weigh in at approximately 1500 gms +/- 200gms. SNELL rated helmets are even heavier. Only expensive, specialty helmets made of carbon fibre can be lighter, so if you pick up a low priced helmet that is unusually light, look closer! I recently demonstrated this difference at an offline G2G in Chennai where two LS2 helmets (same model) owned by XBhp brothers, one bought three years ago and one bought a few months ago weighed completely different and the construction too was completely different. The older version was much sturdier and solidly built and therefore also heavier.
A second quick giveaway is the ratchet mechanism and visor of the helmet. Most big brands use high quality ratchets and visors manufactured again from third party specialist manufacturers, which are quite costly. So the fakers often have to use more cheaply and easily sourced alternatives. This means that the ratchets and visors themselves may be different from the original. If you see a ratchet and visor combo that is different from the known standard, beware!
Apparel can also be faked similarly but errors can be spotted by the astute observer. An interesting case recently was when a friend pointed out how his first AStars jacket which he bought in Singapore had the liner as a separate removable piece, whereas the second which he bought in India to replace the first (after a crash) had the rain liner sewn inside. The AStars website also shows the liner as removable for this model, so obviously a fake. Now remember, this guy already knows how the original is supposed to be because he owned it. Yet the second one (the fake) was so well done that he bought it before closely inspecting the jacket.
Basically what I'm trying to say is - be informed and beware!
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