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This may sound arrogant, but I do have a fairly objective view on this topic.

I spend a lot of time in this part of the world, and have visited many of these manufacturers and trading companies. I have talked to many of their engineers, marketing people and owners. I did this in an effort to establish my own brand and design my own bike. But having spent many years in the US in law and finance, I find the western system simply not working here.

I will tell you a few things why these operations are so much cheaper.

1. Let's start from incorporation of a business. Hong Fu, which is one of the better known sellers, is a simply made up name, it's not incorporated as a company in any jurisdiction, so if you want to sue Hong Fu Trading Co, Ltd for product liability, the court will throw your case out as this company does NOT exist. So a good starter for saving money.

2. No trade mark registration, which generally means multi-jurisdiction and can easily cost USD20K to do (and a time consuming and painful experience).

3. Low R&D costs, if any, because it involves copying other designs. FM028 for example, is a fairly obvious copy job, and a successful one by the way. But it was really one guy with junior high school education who used to be a worker making $400/mo at an OEM factory for Merida or Scott (I forgot), who left and started a new factory. A lot of times R&D simply means paying Pinarello's OEM factory guard to "borrow" a particular mold for a few nights.

The engineers had very little knowledge of bike handling and geometry. The famed FM015 in size 51 (equiv of a typical 53), has a 51.6 toptube, which is very screwed up. Very few of them are actually cyclists (unless riding a $40 POS counts). They really do not care about the sport. In fact they feel these Lao Wai (foreigners) wearing lycra busting their nuts on a bike are really odd. Few of them know what toe overlap means.

But as long as there is money to be made...

The highly expected FM039, actually has very wide and wind-catching seatstays, because they didn't make up their mind as to which to copy, the R3 or the new crop of aero bikes from name brands.

4. Tax -- enough said.

5. QC -- not great. Many people who got these $400 frames have found issues, big or small. For example, headtube irregularity (and difficulty to install headset) seems widespread. I had the $5K Prince and the $500 Prince side by side, but the workmanship is clearly different. Overall quality and workmanship on some of the small parts like nuts and bolts can be problematic as well. Again, the mentality is of a McDonald's burger flipper and not of a chef in an expensive French restaurant.

6. Materials -- very very few of them are willing to go through the trouble to get any higher grade carbon than T700. In fact, Japan is so afraid of the strategic growth of China that it strictly limits the export of high grade carbon to China. Of course, the engineers simply do not have the know-how to properly layup high grade carbon. You have to pay a lot of $$$ for someone who knows how to strategically place T1000 and MJ60 around a frame to produce an 800g frame. 1100g frame using T700 is all you get and it's a really mature technology now... and very cheap. T700's cost is going up but still fairly reasonable overall. I have been trying to find a manufacturer that can comfortably handle higher grade carbon to produce 800g level frames, so far no luck.

7. Employee protection and wellfare -- non-existent. Small carbon dust getting into one's skin can produce such an itch that it drives one crazy. Well, workers suffer from that and it's simply not addressed. Generally working condition is not great. If you need to feed yourself, you work. Period.

8. Marketing and advertising -- Alibaba/Aliexpress membership and word of mouth. Possibly pedalforce and other mailorder companies who eventually spread the info. SOme more savings here.

9. Warranty and other reputational check is not much.

10. Environmental protection -- none. China is suffering, and the west will also pay for it.

11. Low margin: it started from the FM015 selling at $3XX that totally diluted the profit for these manufacturers, and the profit margin is very low especially with the rising inflation in China. It's almost like if Burger King sells Whoppers at 99 cents, the other fast food chains will feel the pressure. Other manufacturers are actually furious over that but they will have to compete to stay alive. The low margin is simply unheard of in any industry... They depend on quantity.

I will not go into the expensive launch receptions, pro team sponsorships, extensive distributor networks. You guys know more than me.

In fairness, most of them are not trying to sell their products as real pinarellos. One example is that while they only had the resources to copy the Prince's mold, the Dogma was already the prevailing Pinarello flagship model, so they went, what the heck, let's just label them Dogmas... and as hard as it is to miss the round seattube, they are still selling like hot cakes.

So my verdict: There is a reason why they are so cheap, and there is a reason why the real dogma is 5K. The truth probably lies somewhere between "Pinarellos are ripoffs" and "you get what you pay for". Many of these frames can be reasonably well made (for the money anyway), but the benefits that western consumers have come to expect from a manufacturer are simply not there... I would try to avoid using inflamatory words like ripoff, etc., with full understanding of the fact that people want to save money.

I have had a few of these low cost frames. One I sold. One I converted to a flatbar, and one I am still using as a regular road bike and it works fine for me.

Still I do not regret spending lots on my Prince and C50 and EPS. It's kinda like going to Ivy League for 50K/yr and third tier public school for 7-8K/yr. Depends on what matters to you more.