@
UltraManDan @
Maelochs
I work in manufacturing and I often am quoting jobs directly against Chinese companies. There was a time a decade ago when the quality deficits of Chinese products were obvious but that time has come and gone. A high end Chinese product is now every bit of equal quality of a high end US made product the difference being the high end Chinese item is 50-70% the cost of it's US counter part.
At this point China isn't an innovator, as I think Maelochs was eluding to but it's well known that the best of the bike parts offered from China aren't the latest innovations but rather back engineered duplicates of the last couple of years. In which case it would be foolish to think that they aren't more than capable of producing very fine replicas. But, even in these you get wha you pay for. If you're buying the cheapest examples then expect problems but if you paying from the mid to upper cost range for Chinese items it's reasonable to expect very good usable parts.
I'm considering a Chinese frameset now to replace my Italian made Basso. At $600 shipped, this is not a cheap Chinese frameset (by Chinese standards). I have a limited budget for my hobby, I will buy 1 of 3 items this year which is the frame I posted earlier in this thread, a flat bar bike from bikes direct and an interactive trainer (most likely the interactive trainer).