We all know they exist question is do we know that when buying something from a guy in UK we do not pay (over pay) for part that is actually from china? It is not a debate about how good they are as my experience is it varies I have a clutch cover form China that is tough as nails, went through 4 offs, one where clutch lever embedded it self in to clutch. Cover did not crack, bend just ground off a bit so quality is good. Example: Shop: CNC 50mm High Lift Handle bar Clip On Ons for Ducati 750/900SS Monster Black | eBay Private seller: DUCATI MONSTER CLIP ON HANDLEBARS 50MM / 22MM - CAFE RACER | eBay Now I also found clip-ons that look very much like Woodroof adjustable set. Seller is in US has them at half price of Woodroof but does not state where they are from and does not confirm they are Woodroof. Postage time form US and Hong Kong to us is about the same so you might not know till it arrives at door-step or never if he has them in US. So maybe we have been using Chinese parts for ages now and just do not know it? On a side note someone here has cool levers on his Pani (not remember who it was) can you PM me where you got them?
Surely some of the large volume suppliers are bound to have sourced the parts in the far east, it's just like any other business taking advantage of low cost offshore manufacturing. Doesn't mean it's right or wrong just the way they've chose to run their business. Personally I tend to ignore this stuff and try and buy name brand parts that have been made in the UK, just my little bit to support local manufacturing An example of this would be Oberon Performance Ltd - Motorcycle Parts and Accessories Manufacturer In their words "Everything listed on this site is made and designed entirely by us, in our UK fully fledged CNC factories"
Quite possible. My Seat Leon has always been missing the cigarette lighter, so I ordered a genuine one via eBay a couple of weeks ago. It arrived this morning, the package stated it had come from china, and was sent from vw. I had to pick some stuff up from a local vw parts supplier this morning, so asked them what the score is. I knew VW like many European manufacturers make their Chinese market vehicles in china. Some enterprising soul had realised that many parts cross over, and is selling Chinese vw parts in Europe. They are to the exact design as the European parts, and are legitimately vw parts, but about 1/2 the price of the European made parts. While the lighter looked very good, I suspect it's not quite to the same standard as the European made part, but as a non smoker it only had yo fill the hole, which is not visible with the ash tray closed. From my point of view there is a vw logo on it, do it's fine for what I need it for. The reality is it was £4 we'll spent.
Well this local manufacturing has it's limits as well. I had few items from Oberon and frankly quality is a bit hit and miss. 3 different slave cylinders. 1st one while working seemed to have a bit of drag to it (not fully lifting the plate). 2nd one failed after 12 months. 3rd one is going strong but for their price of one unit I could have had 2 from Hong Kong and do not think quality would be down. Saying that skip big manufacturers it is obvious that is where they make their stuff mostly but they also have stricter quality control in most cases. What I am trying to say is we buy stuff from US or even UK that is meant to be made in UK/US and then you stumble on same looking part from Hong Kong seller at half price. Some will say they ripped off design and maybe truth if looking at brands like Rizoma/Oberon even but I doubt they would rip off design from little UK manufacturer that does not even have a brand established. Me thinks we getting ripped off not knowing about it then say I would never buy "Chinese" and we already do.
China is capable of high quality products though, don't forget, all apple products are made in China, it's the quality control that matters.
Rizoma also state "All products are designed and manufactured in Italy" do you have an example of a little UK manufacturer?
My experience with Chinese parts:- I purchased a set of Chain Tensioners for my S1K from MadMoto on Ebay - utter garbage and dangerous MadMoto would not answer emails but they are still selling them. I purchased the pukka Lightech ones to replace them and they are high quality items (double the price). The Chinese fairings you see on Ebay - look good but I was sceptical - My friend has a set fitted to his GSXR 1000 and what can I say - they look / fit as good as original if not better. So I guess it's a bit of a lottery - you pay your money and take your chance. Davy
Chinese made items are improving, but as mentioned it is entirely about quality control. Taiwan was used in the 1990's to provide cheap reproduction parts for very old Fords (1930's\40's) most parts were good some were good but chrome plating or finish was poor. Personally my experience with motorcycle parts from China has always been good. Other things like cheap MP3 players etc. in the past have been rubbish and have stopped working in months, if that. Anything you buy these days is a lottery, you can have an item that has several countries that have contributed the parts to it, manufacturers go where they feel they can best invest their money. If an item or parts is\are rubbish then people vote with their feet and hopefully the manufacturer does something about it.
Not sure if Lucaz was alluding to this or not but ebay is rife with so called "companies" that IMO are trying to dupe people into believing their products are from the UK. This means nothing it's just a flag!!
That is the point. Chinese parts you use them or you do not we each make choices. Problem I realised is that if I choose to use British or US it does not mean parts would have been made in said locations in which case I might as well buy from China?
Unfortunately that's not the way manufacturing works any more, just about every item in the world will originate from more than one country. The 'made in' tag only refers to final assembly now.
I totally agree with the above and that is what I was alluding to. Buying British (or whatever) is no guarantee that the item has that country of true origin. Look at trainers, well known brand names are often made abroad but still carry British\US\Whatever branding\stamping to give the impression that they are from that country of origin when they are not. Generally it's a lottery and the biggest companies are often the most responsible for doing that.
Does no one ever use the search function or have we all of a sudden had a massive change in perception inChinese parts since the last thread?! Some say 'love em crack on' others say 'they're all shite coz they arent branded' The end
But that is not the point of the discussion. Point is you might buy British (or other) to find out bit later that it actually is the same Chinese item you ignored earlier on, just with extra sticker and bigger price tag.
Well I like the slitty-eyed little buggers, bought plenty of chinese bits and they've been good as gold. It's the Indians you need to watch...
