Easton Carbon parts

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llllllll

New Member
O.k before anyone says it I know this is pedantic/anal etc etc...
But does anyone know if you can remove the logos from Easton parts? I'm after a set of aero bars and the Easton one's seem to fit the bill, but they're covered in ugly logos and said logos are in the wrong colour for my bike.
 

simonali

Guru
http://weightweenies.starbike.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28456&highlight=removing+logos

Dunno if this is any help. Those weenies will sand anything to save a gramme or 2!

Vary the search on the same site using the word decals too, as that's what they call stickers/logos.
 
OP
OP
llllllll

llllllll

New Member
Thanks for the link.
Don't really fancy sanding carbon, be way to easy to go a bit to far. Prehaps i'll just put up with red logos.
 

Tim Bennet.

Entirely Average Member
Location
S of Kendal
Have some logos made in your colour and stick them over the top.

I favour a simple motif in 'midnight grey' on a 'windowless coal hole' background. Rolls of it are availble in any electrical shop.
 

simonali

Guru
Or, being an electrician, I could send you a free roll of insulating tape to cover them, if you like?! Lots of colours to choose from! :becool:
 
OP
OP
llllllll

llllllll

New Member
Tim Bennet. said:
Have some logos made in your colour and stick them over the top.

I favour a simple motif in 'midnight grey' on a 'windowless coal hole' background. Rolls of it are availble in any electrical shop.

Yeah, that's the other option, adds a bit of weight though :becool:
 
OP
OP
llllllll

llllllll

New Member
Well, I went for it. I bought a set of these: http://wiggle.co.uk/ProductDetail.aspx?Cat=cycle&ProdID=5360022957&n=Easton EC90 Attack TT Bar
and was all set to put up with the decals, until I got them out the box. The quality of the finish was terrible, there were lumps in the laquer and the extensions had big mould lines down each side. I almost sent them back, don't know what inspired me to get the stanley knife out and scrape all the logos off. I filed off the mould lines and sanded the whole lot down with wet and dry. Couple of coats of laquer later and they're now much better finished than when they left the factory and they weigh a couple of grammes less.:biggrin:

Anyone else had problems with Easton parts? I always thought Easton were one of the better manufacturers, but I've had cheap, non-branded carbon bits much better finished than these. And their weight claims are a joke, these were supposed to weight 350g but actually came in at 420g. That's an extra 20%!!!!!!!! Surely that's false advertising?
 

gkerr4

New Member
Location
Blackpool
wow - thats shocked me

I always considered Easton to be one of the higher-end brands for components.

as I was reading the thread I was just thinking "i'd live with the logos - easton are a quality brand" - but clearly not!
 
I own some Easton carbon (bars and post) and have sold a few kilos of it but have never encountered these ^ issues. My guess is that much of Eastons product is sourced from the Far East and is shipped directly to Europe, which bypasses Easton's quality control.
 

rustychisel

Well-Known Member
Easton used to be one of the very finest carbon component manfacturers, I've seen no reason to change that view. A few years ago there was all sorts of rumour about them outsourcing production of forks etc to Mexico, and claims that quality would suffer, but no-one was able to prove that in any way whatsoever. Maybe you were unlucky, maybe they've changed suppliers, maybe there's another explanation entirely. Either way, they might have been interested but you've obliterated the evidence now.
 
OP
OP
llllllll

llllllll

New Member
Yeah, just after I'd started scrapping the logos off, I thought to myself 'what the xxxx are you doing?'. By then of course it was too late, so I had to carry on. I still can't quite believe I did it, though I'm very happy with the results.

I'll just have to hope it's not a one off that slipped through quality control, because I've got no warrenty if it snaps.
 

Tim Bennet.

Entirely Average Member
Location
S of Kendal
The quality of your bit seems to far removed from the normal quality of Easton parts, that I'm wondering if it might be a Chinese knock off.

There's plenty of examples in the pharmaceutical world, car parts, outboard engines and even aircraft spares, of things being sold, not as generic copies, but actually marketed as 'the real thing'. Even wholesalers have been duped.

I think it's impossible that the bike industry will be immune from these practices, especially as so much of the manufacturing capacity has already been concentrated in China.
 
OP
OP
llllllll

llllllll

New Member
B) Hadn't thought of that. I bought it from Chainreactions, but if wholesalers are getting duped, that doesn't mean a lot. It came with all the packaging/instructions you'd expect, but then if they can knock off the bars there's no reason they can't fake the other bits. Makes you wonder why companies produce everything over there, I know they're cheap, but why would you develop a product and risk it being ripped off?
 

Tim Bennet.

Entirely Average Member
Location
S of Kendal
In Chinese culture there is a very different attitude to copying. What to us is a 'knock off', to them is a recognised skill that has always been applauded. Much of their teaching of painting and drawing is based on practice and more practice till you can reproduce the work of a recognised master.

In contrast, in the west, we foster originality and self expression and rather down play those who paint 'in the style of' or the 'school of' so and so.

And as for making an exact copy, well over here they are deemed to have little 'artistic merit' or are even totally vilified if they cross the line and actually try and pass it off as the real thing.

The difference is said to have something to do with the arrival of the printing press in Europe and its ability, later developed my mass production, to create large numbers of exact copies for little effort and hence they're associated with cheapness and lack of value.

But before the printing press, and far more recently in China, every 'copy' (say of the Bible) was an original and had the same intrinsic value as the one that had been copied.

When you take this variation in culture, an all pervasive drive to make money, a lack of a contemporary legal framework and combine them together with the opportunity afforded by so much manufacturing capacity being handed to them on a plate, then no one should be surprised to see plenty of 'unauthorised' products on the market. Some are identical to the originals in all respects, but the quality does vary. It's a huge problem in the aircraft industry with the sourcing of spare parts. If they can wheedle parts through all that industry's controls and regulations, passing off some bike bits is not going to present much of a challenge.
 

rustychisel

Well-Known Member
Good explanation of POV Tim, thanks. Yes, there's been raging discussion on the authentic 'nature' of many high end bike bits, particularly of Ritchie WCS forks IIRC, which brough forth various warnings from Ritchie themselves about 'knock offs' etc, even though they supplied the tech and moulds to a Taiwanese manufacturer whose supply they rejected. Allegedly.
 
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