Old 07-30-21, 03:33 PM
  #40  
Maelochs
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Bikes: 2015 Workswell 066, 2017 Workswell 093, 2014 Dawes Sheila, 1983 Cannondale 500, 1984 Raleigh Olympian, 2007 Cannondale Rize 4, 2017 Fuji Sportif 1 LE

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Also .... As I understand it, communist China produces a huge number of capable engineers. They can reverse-engineer a part, buy the materials hire small businesses to do the casting and machining, the same way people do it anywhere else, but a lot more cheaply because there is a lot more small industry---very flexible---because there is such a huge volume of knock-offs of Everything coming out of China. People right out of school sign on with a newish small company producing a limited run of knock-offs, then take the experience and start their own small companies, constantly closing and switching products to find whatever is hot or cheap and sells steadily or can be faked for max profit---which can mean minimal investment, or might be complicated products with higher price tags (Chinarello, anyone?)

Unskilled labor is cheap, materials are cheap, technically skilled workers are cheap, manufacturing is cheap .... and government oversight is nil, start-up costs involve no filings or regulations, ... the main issue is probably finding out who needs to be bribed how much to make sure stuff actually gets done.

So sure ... some guy with an engineering degree goes to some factory making knock-offs, spends six months reverse-engineering some products and figuring out how to fake them---then takes his paychecks and takes apart a Shimano pedal, measures it up, figures out the production steps, gets some of his co-workers on board, goes to the same factories he is already working in, makes some back-door deals, gets some stuff produced, dumps it on Alibaba, and if it sells, he and his friends start a company and start cloning bike parts .....

In communist China, that's just the way it's done, as far as I know. It is easier to work as a slave for a knock-off start-up for a year and then start your own---rinse and repeat---than to find any kind of decent job ....

People either don't know or have forgotten that a huge amount of the infantry weapons which Japan used in WWII were made in small batches in small shops, not by huge armament factories. We are used to US-style scale, but casting and milling isn't all that complicated .... and today, anyone can get a few CNC machines and make really precise parts from castings, and castings .... well, people have been casting metal for 5000 years or so. And nowadays with a 3-D printer, making a positive for making a mold is literally automatic---scan a real Shimano part, plug in the data, and collect the blank in the morning. Pack it in sand, add the casting channels for a tray of them, or more likely, just bring the 3D-printed part to a small metal casting shop and make your deal and pick up the parts later. Then you have low-pay workers run them through the CNC machines---preset, no skill needed.

Then order some cheap boxes, have them printed to look like Shimano boxes, have some stickers printed .... hire a couple min-wage guys (tons of them around, farmers' sons who fled the hinterland) and have them do the labeling and packing. use a free computer program to process orders and print labels ... and forget about returns and customer service, because if you get a lot of complaints, you just change the name of the business and start making something else .... or just sell the same stuff under a different vendor name on the same outlets. Pay some yuan for fake customer reviews to get your stars and ratings .... back in business.

It is about the same level of complexity as buying a couple lawnmowers, throwing them in your beat-up old pick-up, and starting an under-the-table lawn-mowing business here in the states.
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