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Imitation A-bike these days... (sigh)

Chat about your A-Bike, post details of your exploits, ask advice from other owners, etc.

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Imitation A-bike these days... (sigh)

Postby newcross on Fri Apr 27, 2007 11:14 pm

Hi there. Here is some info on recent imitations. :o

The 1st entry is.. "Cityidea" from China!!

http://www.cityidea.org/

Image
http://www.cityidea.org/product.asp

An eBay seller " badtzmaru1216 " sells some of these and he claims the following difference between Sinclair A-bike and Cityidea A-bike.

Q1: Is this a original Sinclair A-bike? Where does it come from?

A1: No. This is a Cityidea brand folding bike made by a Chinese manufacturer.


Q2: What is the difference between Sinclair A-bike and Cityidea bike?

A2: Sinclair A-bike is a british registered trademark and Cityidea is a Chiese trademark. Cityidea bike takes most of the specifications from Sinclair A-bike in shape, material and color. The manufactuere has made some improvements based upon feedbacks from sutomers, they are:

a) Widen handlebar. This will help you to control the little bike much easier.

b) Larger and more comfortable saddle. Cityidea bike enlarges the seat 25% in proportion, besides, more sponge material has been added to it and this makes your journey more comfortable.

C) Smaller wheels. Smaller wheels helps to reduce the friction drag caused by the ground.

d) Enhanced drivetrain. Improved real wheel chain system in high performance makes it smoother and more comfortable ride on.

e) 110 Kg max weight. Cityidea bike could support 110 kg in weight.


A2a and b seems to be true. their handle bar is 47cm and saddle looks a bit more puffy, but the rest? I don't understand.... especially the point c... :roll:

The cityidea headquater sells A-bike spare parts as well. (see full listing, go to http://www.cityidea.org/product_pj.asp )

EDIT seems they have changed the page. Look for it here.


http://www.cityidea.org/
Last edited by newcross on Wed May 02, 2007 2:22 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Postby newcross on Fri Apr 27, 2007 11:23 pm

The second one is from a Yahoo! Auction (JAPAN) seller " bun1810chan " .

Amasingly, he supplies his own mid-gear as an option (of imitation). He claims the extra gear is made in Japan and more durable... :roll:

I think this image shows his original gear on the upper, and broken gear (from imitation?) on the lower.
Image
Image
Image
Last edited by newcross on Wed May 02, 2007 2:15 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Postby newcross on Fri Apr 27, 2007 11:36 pm

The third one is from another Yahoo! Auction (Japan) seller " dream_netshop " .

The improvements are stronger crank arms, comfy saddle and rear mechanism (unclear).

Let's face it, what was wrong with normal crank arms? I don't see any. the "bun1810chan" guy made more sense than this. Anyway, nice try. :lol:

Image
Image
Last edited by newcross on Wed May 02, 2007 2:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Postby newcross on Fri Apr 27, 2007 11:57 pm

Loads of A-bike parts (I bet they are imitation) you can buy online here... I wouldn't dare though.

http://shop33328932.taobao.com/

These images describes how imitations are sold in China. They are published by anonymous at 2channel (JAPAN)
Image

and this is... I don't know where.. I got it from some online auction page. It seems people have many choices there.
Look at the smallest one in the front row!!
Image
Last edited by newcross on Wed May 02, 2007 2:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Imitation A-bike these days... (sigh)

Postby Amuro Lee on Sat Apr 28, 2007 3:25 am

newcross wrote:Hi there. Here is some info on recent imitations. :o
The 1st entry is.. "Cityidea" from China!!
http://www.cityidea.org/

http://www.a-bike.org.cn
They are the same site!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amuro_Ray

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Mini A-bike Blue version...

Postby Amuro Lee on Sat Apr 28, 2007 6:38 am

Here is another mini imitation (Blue)
http://hk.f2.page.auctions.yahoo.com/hk ... n/b6002617
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amuro_Ray

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May be they are not imitations after all........

Postby TarzanABike on Sun Apr 29, 2007 4:42 am

Since almost everything's made in China these days, may be these shouldn't actually be considered imitations at all -
(I'm not talking about the ones in Japan)

instead may be we should think of them as coming from the same factories that actually supply the Sinclair/Mayhem stock for sale in the UK????

Since there still is no real copyright laws and all that in China, they can go ahead and make these and sell them as they please? And may be that's what they are, and the rest of us are caught in this world of doing things properly in the West and first world countries, who are governed by international trading laws?

You know, it's that difference between the ROC (Republic of China) i.e Taiwan, and the PRC (People's Republic of China) i.e. Beijing, and who's governing who and who recognizes whose sovereignty and independence and all that? Very wishy-washy gaps in the lines there and may be these sorts of things leak through the gaps and have no way of being regulated? (well in fact, we know they do, it's just a matter of what is regulated and who makes the profit in the end, right?) And of course HK is a part of PRC too, but who's to say who really controls the ins-and-outs?

If I am totally wrong, please correct me, but that's what it looks like to me. Because in the end we over here in the West are left to wonder and whisper in suspicion about what really goes on and even though these things ARE exactly the same, except when it's handled like this on "the other side" - we just can trust it, ya know, until we know specifically from where these things came, and who made them and who's making the money, eh?
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Re: May be they are not imitations after all........

Postby newcross on Wed May 02, 2007 3:01 pm

TarzanABike wrote:Since almost everything's made in China these days, may be these shouldn't actually be considered imitations at all -
(I'm not talking about the ones in Japan)

instead may be we should think of them as coming from the same factories that actually supply the Sinclair/Mayhem stock for sale in the UK????


I don't think these imitations are from same factory as genuin sinclair one. Most of imitation seems to be made from the pre-finalised blueprints which DAKA submitted to several factories in china to get quote for mass production. Some others are even worse, they cast an (genuin or other fake) A-bike to create molds for their imitation, therefore parts doesn't fit well together.

Although Sinclair uses Alminium and Glass Fiber enforced Polyamide (see Amuro's report http://www.abikecentral.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=272 ), imitations use different materials. Since there are dozens of factories producing imitations, there is no definite recipe.

For example, now seems to be a leading A-bike imitation, A-ride uses Stainless Steel and PVC. Then this is what we get as a result..
ImageImage
Image
[source] http://www.appleple.com/pb/index.php?ID=3583&themes=
[see also] http://www.abikecentral.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=178

If the imitation is the one from the casted mold mentioned above, of course we can see "seems to be genuin" material engravings on its parts, but they aren't GF enforced...

I'm not familiar to the patant law, so I cannot say anything on that.
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Postby kenwshmt2 on Wed May 02, 2007 6:04 pm

I have a fake, and seeing all these pictures of the break points makes me think maybe I need to start reinforcing with metal straps.
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Postby Garry on Wed May 02, 2007 10:41 pm

Don't assume that they are ok because they "probably come from the same factory as the real A-Bike", and please don't put anyone in danger, especially children, from a product that has not passed the required safety tests.

But I must thank them for making me laugh. I mean, everyone was screaming that the A-Bike would be perfect if only it had smaller wheels!!! :lol:
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Postby TarzanABike on Sat May 05, 2007 3:42 am

I don't think it matters that much, really, whether it's genuine or not, when the manufacturing of a real one, such as mine that I own, is shoddy.

I cannot get rid of the scraping noise of the brakes. I've tried to flex the circular band further and further out so that it's not touching, and as soon as I ride it for a while and use the brakes, it comes back to scraping again. :?

Then there's that problem of the middle bar with its poorly designed plastic button-release. PLASTIC button release with a really cheap and simple traditional and old school spring mechanism. What, they couldn't have thought of a more sturdy and a whole new spring-button mechanism than this? They were being lazy. I'm not impressed. :x

Sorry to say this, real or not real, I've almost got to the point of not riding it at all. :(
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No problems with fake one

Postby Guest on Sat May 05, 2007 8:50 am

I recently got a fake A-bike as they don't sell the real thing here in Singapore. Anyway, it seems to be sturdy and I had no problems so far (except for the usual bum ache while riding too long!).

From the photos of the real A-bike on the web, I can't tell the difference with mine. Didn't know that there are so many different "versions" of fake A-Bikes! Mine came with the usual tool kit, English manual and carry bag. No mini-pump though. All for 50 pounds.

Stridas are getting popular here but they are just too heavy for me to push it around. I have another folder that looks like a "handybike". It is too heavy at 13 kg. I got it second hand for 27 pounds which is not too bad.



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Postby kenwshmt2 on Sat May 05, 2007 12:33 pm

My fakes flaws.

It came with a spare crank case housing half, they apparently expect it to break at some point. It hasn't yet.

The seat / pipe connection isn't super strong, it turns as much as 45 degrees under load. I have attempted to glue it, but I may need to lock the two pieces together with hose clamps and metal pins.

The front support cap at the top of the handlebars never stayed in well, I lost that in the first week. A bike shop had a better accordion cap that I have in there now.

The handle bar caps have come off, I have re glued them several times.
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Postby Guest on Sun May 06, 2007 1:56 am

kenwshmt2 wrote:My fakes flaws.

It came with a spare crank case housing half, they apparently expect it to break at some point. It hasn't yet.

The seat / pipe connection isn't super strong, it turns as much as 45 degrees under load. I have attempted to glue it, but I may need to lock the two pieces together with hose clamps and metal pins.

The front support cap at the top of the handlebars never stayed in well, I lost that in the first week. A bike shop had a better accordion cap that I have in there now.

The handle bar caps have come off, I have re glued them several times.



Yeah my seat spins on its pole too - and I only weigh 165 pounds - I can't be at the weight limit, can I? :lol:
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Postby kenwshmt2 on Sun May 06, 2007 9:38 pm

I've tried the pipe clamp approach, it is very ugly.
I am thinking of trying a large piece of heat shrink tubing.
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