You’ll likely have heard the news that Specialized and AliExpress teamed up with Chinese law enforcement to shut down two major counterfeit goods factories — the largest crackdown in Specialized’s history. Someone in China must have wanted this to happen though I suspect – because there are tons of other fake bits and pieces on, and, secondly, it’s been going on for ages.

Over US $1.6 million worth of fake bike frames, wheels, handlebars, forks and accessories were seized, including replicas of Specialized’s Tarmac SL8 and Roval components, as well as knock‑offs of other major brands.

Here’s the bit I don’t get. News reports said that ‘The operation began when Specialized discovered listings on AliExpress and purchased suspicious items to confirm they were fake. AliExpress then helped trace the supply chain to the production sites, leading to seven arrests.’

Yet Specialized have known about this for years… and I know because back in 2007 I was bricking it for fear of being sued by them!

I was living in Japan at the time (2002-2010) and the yen back then had a bit of a resurgence, and I started buying classic Italian frames from Italy and re-selling them at a decent profit in Japan. Later on I was getting good prices from a store in the UK that stocked newer Colnagos, whole bikes, and having them shipped to my house in Kyushu, to sell them on.

This was about the time when we were starting to see more and more ‘naked’ carbon frames on Chinese websites – basically non-branded carbon bicycle frames. Then I started seeing full bikes with recognised brand names on these sites too, such as Cervelo and Specialized. I bought a Cervelo for myself and it was the real deal, a good bike.

I saw a Specialized Tarmac Pro for sale and it was a steal, so I put an image on my website and got an order the next day, and had it sent directly from the Chinese side to the guy in Japan. A couple of weeks later though, sat at home about 7pm, I get an email from the buyer, and he is irate. He says that he is going to report me to Specialized and make sure they sue me – and I’m only 2 sentences into the email!

He goes on to say he went for a ride, it started raining, and as he was riding home the front of the bike became very unstable. He stopped and inspected the head tube. Seems the paint was flaking away, and that whatever was under that was also starting to deteriorate! He asked me if it was cardboard..!

I never found out what it was, though from the photos he sent through, it didn’t really look like carbon!

In a panic, imagining that Specialized are going to came down on my like a ton of bricks, with a rabid frothing mass of corporate lawyers, I call them in the US. A receptionist answers, and I ask her if I can speak to someone in their fraud department.

‘Can you leave a number or try in an hour? He’s out to lunch.’

‘He? Is there no one else there?’

‘It’s one guy, he’s our fraud department – and he’s out.’

‘… Erm… ok.’

Kevin calls me back an hour later. I explain what happened, how I had no idea it was fake, etc etc, and he basically laughs it off and says ‘Don’t worry, we aren’t going to sue you, there are loads of fakes out there, we just can’t keep track.’

Amazing that one of cycling’s biggest brands had one guy sat there with this thankless job, not having a chance of stopping the fakes coming out of China.

And also so odd that it’s taken them this long to get on top of any of it!

Just happy I didn’t get sued…