What I don’t like is the fork, where the TAN TAN component is even 30 grams lighter than the Specialized one.
If they managed to acquire the molds, they probably also obtained the entire process for positioning the carbon patches—how much to use and where to place them (perhaps with lower quality materials, but still effective).
What really amazes me is the blatant way in which such an obvious copy is being advertised.
on the fork, the only thing that comes to mind is Spec product recalls on steerer tubes snapping. So, potentially, they now ask their factories to make walls thicker than market standard?
on layup techniques. I wouldnt buy a clone assuming the layup and / or materials are the same. However, i would assume that factories that OEM for brands (aka, ~ all of them, afaik), learn. You can call it copy, i would say learn. Philosophically, learning is a form of copying. Let's not go there. So, when i buy an open mould from a factory that makes frames for a brand (for eg, when i bought my 268 from Long Teng that makes frames for Argon 18), the LOGICAL thing for them to do is to somehow apply what they learnt in layup techniques working for brands, to the other frames they make.
I learnt math, then applied math at work. I had to do math for a client and refined my math. Then when i get home and have to do math for my own use, i dont suddenly start using beans to count, i still do math. Now replace this with layup, as i dont think you can patent layups, and even if you can, it's impossible to prove that the brand layup would have been "stolen".
And so, as times passes, good factories should be making increasingly good open mould, OEM, and clone frames.
On blatant copies, if it doesnt have a Spec logo on it, if it's not advertised as a spec, either in writing or pictures, then it's arguably not "blatant" that it's a rip off. Legally speaking, showing a logo that's not yours is a no no. But a frame shape? You'd have a lawyer up, and is the speed sniffer a patented design, or just a common sense design? What if something is different by 1mm, does it make it enough to claim it's different? And so on.
China's been playing a game of cat and mouse since the west started having stuff manufactured there. And in a way, it's "just" learning. A telling example of that is the downfall of gopro and the rise of digi drones & insta360 cameras. gopro absolutely failed at both, and both digi & insta360 are chinese brands that now lead the categories with their products, innovation and so on.
And re. bikes, it's the chinese factories that know how to do a layup. The west sends them requests for stiffness, compliance, shapes and so on, but china knows how to layup a frame, not the west, because the people doing the actual layup are chinese. With, ofc, the exception of 3 factories in Europe & the US, but there's an exception to every rule.
