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Photo by George Guille, It's going to be a long 300km... Bolivian Amazon

I haven't been everywhere...
but it's on my list!


Photo by George Guille
It's going to be a long 300km...
Bolivian Amazon




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  #1  
Old 26 Jun 2008
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sidi blackrain evo's from china???

ive found the above on ebay for £29 + £29delivery and was wondering if anyone has experiance with buying bike gear from china.are they a bit on the cheap side like copys or are they the 'real deal'?
check em out see what ya reckon
All matching items for sale.

any feed back would be good as was was going to grab a pair,could be safer to pay RRP in the UK?
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  #2  
Old 26 Jun 2008
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I have got Sidi Blackrain boots and the originals are made in Italy, it states it in the box. The quality is excellent and the leather is excellent also.

I doubt very much if you will get anything like the same quality from China.

The price i paid for UK size 9 last november was £135.99
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Old 27 Jun 2008
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I'd be interested to know if anyone has tried these or similar items listed in that manner.
I was looking at Fox armour suits to wear under my belstaff.

Are they as good, probably from the same factory? Or are they knock offs?

I bought a JOe Rocket Altar Ego on ebay fmor an Aussie seller, and the package arrived from china, and if its a fake i can't tell, its identical, and been a great jacket
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  #4  
Old 9 Jul 2008
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I've got Sidi Vertigo's and the construction quality is excellent.

@BRAND NEW SIDI EVO Rain Motorcycle Boots UK7.5 EU41@ on eBay, also UK Size 9 Boots, Boots, Motorcycle Clothing Helmets, Cars, Parts Vehicles (end time 10-Jul-08 22:08:14 BST)

Check the second from last photo on the above page and you can clearly see the stitching is all over the place and the lining looks really cheap and nasty, compared to the genuine article below.

Sidi Black Rain Black - Feridax.com

These are definitely not the real thing but at that price, you can't expect them to be.

Last edited by craig76; 9 Jul 2008 at 22:40. Reason: Info added
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  #5  
Old 10 Jul 2008
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cheers craig,i brought another africa twin over the weeked to use for my trip home.way less miles and newer bike so thought id shout myself a pair of black rain's.got em for £134 as the shop forgot to update their site and were chargin £150 on the shelf....the idea of getting them from china and ending up with copys put me off ive already got 2 cheap helmets that dont fit and a pair of cheap boots that make me walk like a crippled spider cause the hurt so much
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  #6  
Old 10 Jul 2008
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Interesting thread.

How can these Chinese companies get away with it. I thought Fleabay was active in routing out these kind of knock off merchants? As you all probably already know the maker is clearly commiting CRIMINAL offences if the goods originated from the UK (which it is clearly not). I imagine that there will be some very similar and obscure European legislation which can be used in other E.C countries. The problem seems to be this stuff comes direct from China where this kind of thing is tolerated (some would say encouraged).

Ebay can also be held responsible if someone buys a knock off pair of boots from their website. This is where the European authorities should be taking action to protect E.C consumers.

I'm surprised that this guy has a Ebay shop and that it's patently clear the stuff is knock off. What about all these Alpinestars replicas - eBay UK Shop - yrb68911:

Some might say it's good stuff and worth the money. I'd prefer not to take the risk personally...
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Old 11 Jul 2008
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From Feridax, the UK importer....


Quote:
I can confirm that these are fake boots of which Sidi is looking to take legal action against but until then I have to keep reporting them to ebay to get them removed.
They remove them but he then re-lists them so I have to report them again and this goes on and on, I would have expected ebay to ban the seller and the related items but it does not seem to be the way they work.
We have seen the boots and we agree that these are no where near Sidi quality and unless we constantly monitor the situation there is the potential of damaging the Sidi brand name.
I have reported these boots again today so we will see what happens.
So if you've invested a great deal of money in a business importing the real thing, you still have to compete with cheap knock-offs from China as Ebay won't ban the seller. So much for the publicity Ebay had a few weeks ago, saying they were going to clamp down on this. Buyer beware!

The boots may well be acceptable but only compared to other £30 boots, like the ones you can buy from trade stalls at events (they're crap). Essentially, you're paying the extra £30 P+P for the fake brand name on the side which means you can't even say they're good value for money. I've had cheap boots before and anyone who reckons they are as good as Sidi's, AlpineStars, etc, obviously hasn't tried both to compare.
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Old 11 Jul 2008
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Quote:
Originally Posted by camnz View Post
ive found the above on ebay for £29 + £29delivery and was wondering if anyone has experiance with buying bike gear from china.are they a bit on the cheap side like copys or are they the 'real deal'?
check em out see what ya reckon
All matching items for sale.

any feed back would be good as was was going to grab a pair,could be safer to pay RRP in the UK?

Quality issues aside, you might throw 30 quid out of the window. European customs like opening parcels from China and if they find fake Sidi boots in one they will bin them. So you might end up paying and not getting the boots.
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Old 11 Jul 2008
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Thumbs down Agreed with other posters

Although the status aspect of some bike kit does play a part, we tend (at least I do) to buy the stuff to save our hides.

That means that you aim for a particular brand because their rep is good and they are supposed to do what they are designed for. Buying a cheap copy where only the aesthetics and the brand name is similar defeats the point of this IMO: don't risk it.

Your feet, ankles and ability to walk properly are not worth the £70 you might save!!
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Old 11 Jul 2008
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If you never get the goods (after paying for them), you stand next to no chance getting a refund. In China there are no laws to protect consumers! The only hope you have is to perhaps sue Ebay in the civil courts for breach of contract/negligence.

That said, I have in the past purchased fake goods (without knowing) that have in fact turned out to be as good as the real thing.

I'd be interested to know where SIDI manufacture their boots? It might even be CHINA! Don't be mislead by the seller being based in a particular country either. I remember buying a very expensive Goretex jacket from a Scottish based company who afix a UK Union Flag to their products giving the impression their stuff originates (is manufactured) in Great Britain. It turned out that the jackets were all made in CHINA by a contracted private company! So even the REAL boys use underhand "smoke and mirror" tactics to mislead their customers...

DON'T TAKE THE CHANCE unless of course you have a spare £30 which you can afford to throw away. Who knows they might even be worth Thirty Quid?
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  #11  
Old 11 Jul 2008
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Originally Posted by kentfallen View Post
I'd be interested to know where SIDI manufacture their boots? It might even be CHINA! Don't be mislead by the seller being based in a particular country either
Sidi's boots are definitely made in Italy, as are AlpineStars boots though I believe some of their cheaper models are made in factories in Eastern Europe. Also worth noting is that the factory that produce leather suits for AlpineStars, also produce leather suits for Hein Gericke, albeit from a lesser grade of leather. I've got a pair of Dainese (Italian) gloves, branded as Kawasaki but made in China. The quality is great and would recommend them to anyone.

Incidentally, are BMW planning to tell their customers buying single cylinder models that they intend to start sourcing the engine from Kymco in China?

Quote:
Originally Posted by kentfallen View Post
DON'T TAKE THE CHANCE unless of course you have a spare £30 which you can afford to throw away. Who knows they might even be worth Thirty Quid?
That's just it. They're not £30 but £30+£30 P&P. Worst case scenario is if C&E open the pack and decide to let it through, you'll get charged 17% import tax then 17.5% VAT on top of that.

£30 + £30 = £60
£60 + 17% = £70.20
£70.20 + 17.5% VAT = £82.49

You're still getting a £30 pair of boots which you can pick up anywhere in the UK but could be paying an extra £52.49 just because they've got Sidi on them.

"Cheap" and "value for money" are not the same thing.
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  #12  
Old 12 Jul 2008
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My Sidi boots were made in Romania .[ it says so on the box ] .
But they are genuine and good quality .
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  #13  
Old 12 Jul 2008
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yup....ive been wearing the £135 sidi boots i brought for a week now and their more comfy than my £30 trainers
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