Burton

Its possible, but whats more likely is that some manufacturer presented working prototypes to several suppliers in China and asked for bids and samples and rejected some based on QC issues in the samples. The contract was then awarded to one company, but since the company (or companies) that were turned down already had the details - they decided to capitalize on the situation anyway and direct market similar products. I know of at least a couple situations where that not only happened - the 'counterfeiters' went so far as to steal the photos and description from the website of the ligitimate product in an effort to dupe the public into believing they were getting the same thing.

The Chinese government has received a lot of criticism for Internet censorship - ie blocking a long list of Internet sites. Interestingly enough - the sites they regularly try to restrict access to are the sites most commonly used to sell counterfeit merchandise, pornograpy, Internet gambling and bootleged movies and music. Maybe its not so much censorship as an effort to deny organized crime yet another avenue of influence - one that currently has no international customs personnel to answer to.

Some additional reading that a few people might be interested in.
https://www.europol.europa.eu/sites/...ns/iocta_0.pdf

9watts

I ordered four from dealextreme, mostly out of curiosity. After two weeks shipping they appear to be very similar to the ebay/flimsy gasket version. The clear tape trick sounds like the most sensible solution. As near as I can tell if they'd used slightly thicker gasket material these would pass muster. I guess you get what you pay for.

oronzous

Is there a cheap knock off with a compatible PB Blazer mount?
I need a spare mount and if i can get a light for the same price, it won't hurt.

leaftye

https://www.fasttech.com/products/1/1...-mount-warning

$4.65 with BLF or CPF coupon code. That's better than I was able to get the ebay vendors to do.

ItsJustMe

That's great, but honestly the PBSF isn't really that good of a blinkie by modern standards. It was good 5 years ago. It's about 1/4 as bright at best as any of the blinkies that I have in my current arsenal. I might use a PBSF as a side visibility add-on.

noglider 

I think the PBSF (Planet Bike Super Flash) is good enough in most cases. I'm a recent convert to dynamo lights. I often supplement my dynamo powered steady light with one or two batter powered blinky lights. And sometimes I ride with a PBSF as my only tail light. Just because you can get something better doesn't mean the old thing isn't good enough any more.

$5 is pretty hard to pass up. I'm tempted to stock up, but I really don't need another tail light at the moment.

I also have a Cygolite USB-rechargeable tail light. By my uncalibrated eyes, it's about twice as bright as the PBSF.

Both tail lights run a long time before discharging the battery. I'm impressed with how little energy a good tail light uses.

JugglerDave

What are the 'top 3' blinkies in your arsenal if I may ask? I have three aging PBSF (the real ones) but winter is coming...

ItsJustMe

#1 Serfas Shield
#2 Knog Blinder 4V
#3 Cygolite Hotshot

#A Magicshine

Pros and cons:
The Serfas is expensive but has no real downside from an operational point of view - fairly wide pattern, very bright. The first one I got had bad waterproofing but they replaced it. The clip meant to hold it onto a strap isn't great - it fell off on the first day and I just don't use that strap.

The Knog is very bright and has the best dispersion I've ever seen - the brightness is almost perfectly uniform for probably 150 degrees. Downside is that the mounting isn't fantastic - it's a non replaceable rubber band that goes around a tube with a set incline. If you want to use it not on a tube, tough.

The Cygolite is very good but the pattern is very spotty. It's great for beaming straight down the road. Side visibility drops off a lot.

The MagicShine is very bright and wide but uses an external battery. I use it in the winter because I have the battery mounted for the headlight anyway and I just use a Y cable.

20_700c

At ~$5 each on eBay, my Chinese imitation PBSF's are all I use for blinkies. Mounting multiple blinkies is effective at this price point. I currently run 3 but have used as many as 6 at once in rainy situations.

They may or may not be visible a mile off, but then again, that's beyond the distance where I feel visibility is a near-necessity. By that I mean, being visible at a mile means you are expecting oncoming drivers to maintain that awareness for at least a minute (at 60mph, longer if they are slower).

Btw, I'm looking for some amber blinkies for sidelights - if anyone knows of them (especially inexpensive ones).

noglider 

Look into Spoke Lit or whatever it's called. I like them a lot. I wish I could power them with a dynamo.

20_700c

I found a couple that I like better (after missing them on previous 'Net searches). I went with a Nathan Multifunction Safety Light.

If I remember, after they come in I will "report back" how they work out.

JugglerDave

Interestingly Performance Bike seems to sell a variant of the Serfas Shield 60 ("Axiom Pulse 60") for $35 which is much less than the $60 of the Serfas. It looks almost identical other than the reflector design.

Recumbomatic

I recently bought one of these. Not strictly a PBSF knock-off, but similar and comparable since it uses a 0.5W LED. Shipping took about two weeks. Can't vouch for the "waterproof" part, but product quality appears to be pretty decent. At $2.63, the price is unbeatable. There's more of these lights on Ebay if you use the View Similar function.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/New-Waterpro...item1e83f09c07

rumrunn6

and their women are hot too

dougmc

I've got a friend who use several Spoke Lits on one wheel and powers them with a 4xAA pack at the hub of the wheel -- he removed the 2x2016s and soldered to the contacts and powered them with the pack instead. So they last a very long time now, and can use rechargeables instead of expensive 2016s.

Not quite a dynamo, but still a big improvement.

Yo Spiff

Since this thread was brought back up top, I'll add that I am still using my Chinese PBSF knockoffs on 2 bikes and they are holding up just fine.