A customer brought in an 11S Dura-Ace chain
that they bought from SHEIN (シーイン), a Chinese website,
for 15,180 yen,
saying it might be counterfeit.
I'm holding it for authentication purposes.
I've also gotten permission to write about it.
↑This bad boy
The packaging damage isn't just from how they handled it
after buying and storing it away unused—
it was already crushed a bit from the start.
The box surface has a vinyl coating-like finish
and is excessively shiny.
↑A genuine Shimano chain box
The fake has minimal text on the back side.
Shimano's recent price increase
(whoops, I meant "price revision," of course.
Very rarely, maybe one item out of several hundred
actually goes down in price)
happened simultaneously for domestically-made and overseas-made products,
but they give such a strong impression of constant price revisions
because both domestic and overseas production lines
revise prices about once a year,
and those revisions are offset by about six months,
so as a result we see "Shimano is revising prices again!"
appearing before our eyes about twice a year.
What I want to highlight here is that
even for products like chains that outsource manufacturing,
if they're outsourced to domestic manufacturers,
the price revision happens during the domestic production timing,
and if outsourced to overseas manufacturers,
it happens during the overseas production timing.
In fact, Tiagra chain CN-4601 and
universal 9S chain CN-HG53
have their list prices changed during overseas production price revisions,
while 11S and 12S
Dura-Ace, Ultegra, and 105 chains
are (self-censoring) so
their list prices change during domestic production price revisions.
So there's no way
CN-HG901 is Made in China,
as shown in the image above.
I took out the inner bag.
The material is also different from the genuine article,
and the chain's left-right rigidity differs in particular,
so the contents are shifted inside the bag.
↑The seal is unbroken.
I haven't opened it after this either.
↑A genuine inner bag.
The chain happens to be CN-HG601,
a 105 11S chain.
I'm searching for an outer plate stamped with CN-HG901...
Found it.
Some of you may have already noticed,
but 11S and 12S Dura-Ace grade chains
have relief holes drilled in the pins.
This chain has no relief holes.
↑A genuine chain package.
Shimano's 11S and 12S chains have left-right directionality.
The side where all the outer plates have stamping
is specified to be the side visible from the bike's right side,
and the outer plates on the opposite side
have no stamping whatsoever.
Also, the notching on the rounded edges of the outer plates
differs between left and right,
and this plays a significant role in shifting performance.
In this counterfeit chain,
the outer plates on both sides had stamping.
↑A genuine CN-HG901 chain end.
↑The notching on the stamped side looks like this
On the fake, sometimes there's either no notching at all
or it's done in a vague, faint manner.
What got me laughing the most
about this counterfeit chain was
that KMC outer plates were mixed in.
Though, this might also be a counterfeit of KMC's X11 chain.
that they bought from SHEIN (シーイン), a Chinese website,
for 15,180 yen,
saying it might be counterfeit.
I'm holding it for authentication purposes.
I've also gotten permission to write about it.
↑This bad boy
The packaging damage isn't just from how they handled it
after buying and storing it away unused—
it was already crushed a bit from the start.
The box surface has a vinyl coating-like finish
and is excessively shiny.
↑A genuine Shimano chain box
The fake has minimal text on the back side.
Shimano's recent price increase
(whoops, I meant "price revision," of course.
Very rarely, maybe one item out of several hundred
actually goes down in price)
happened simultaneously for domestically-made and overseas-made products,
but they give such a strong impression of constant price revisions
because both domestic and overseas production lines
revise prices about once a year,
and those revisions are offset by about six months,
so as a result we see "Shimano is revising prices again!"
appearing before our eyes about twice a year.
What I want to highlight here is that
even for products like chains that outsource manufacturing,
if they're outsourced to domestic manufacturers,
the price revision happens during the domestic production timing,
and if outsourced to overseas manufacturers,
it happens during the overseas production timing.
In fact, Tiagra chain CN-4601 and
universal 9S chain CN-HG53
have their list prices changed during overseas production price revisions,
while 11S and 12S
Dura-Ace, Ultegra, and 105 chains
are (self-censoring) so
their list prices change during domestic production price revisions.
So there's no way
CN-HG901 is Made in China,
as shown in the image above.
I took out the inner bag.
The material is also different from the genuine article,
and the chain's left-right rigidity differs in particular,
so the contents are shifted inside the bag.
↑The seal is unbroken.
I haven't opened it after this either.
↑A genuine inner bag.
The chain happens to be CN-HG601,
a 105 11S chain.
I'm searching for an outer plate stamped with CN-HG901...
Found it.
Some of you may have already noticed,
but 11S and 12S Dura-Ace grade chains
have relief holes drilled in the pins.
This chain has no relief holes.
↑A genuine chain package.
Shimano's 11S and 12S chains have left-right directionality.
The side where all the outer plates have stamping
is specified to be the side visible from the bike's right side,
and the outer plates on the opposite side
have no stamping whatsoever.
Also, the notching on the rounded edges of the outer plates
differs between left and right,
and this plays a significant role in shifting performance.
In this counterfeit chain,
the outer plates on both sides had stamping.
↑A genuine CN-HG901 chain end.
↑The notching on the stamped side looks like this
On the fake, sometimes there's either no notching at all
or it's done in a vague, faint manner.
What got me laughing the most
about this counterfeit chain was
that KMC outer plates were mixed in.
Though, this might also be a counterfeit of KMC's X11 chain.