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Chinarello

TimKendall

Speeding Up
Dec 28, 2009
129
0
I was offered a Dogma during last summer that was a riduiculously low price, and so declined fearing that it may have been a Chinarello.
Now I am reading some comparitive reviews that say the Chinarello isn't that different performance wise, and although there have been frame or fork failures, the rate is no higher that for the real macoy....
Thoughts?
¥60,000 vs ¥400,000.。。。。!
 
Probably close enough, material wise, certainly.

What you pay for from the real thing, however is...

-Warranty
-Resale value
-After service from company and also dealer
-Foot in the door at Pinarello with the possibility to use your purchase to get good will treatment from the company
-Bragging rights of having a real one
etc.

If you are willing to do away with all that, and have the possibility of the thing being shite, then go for it. The difference in price between a real one and a fake one certainly does make things tempting.
 
I haven't ridden the frames side by side - maybe James has?? But I have alot of experience in the open mold carbon ...and bear in mind many brands have their components produced by the same factories that also produce clones - sometimes legally and sometimes not. I also know a factory that makes 'chinarellos' - as we purchase alot of small accessories from them (cages and whatnot) and I've visited it and saw the molds, everything..

The biggest difference , generally, between an open mold (or even 'B' copy) and the real McCoy is the layup process. And in making anything carbon - this is really the core of how the frame will ride in terms of stiffness and compliance and durability. In essence, the layup IS the frame. It's not like old times where if you bought some Columbus Tubes and welded them together, you'd have something that was very close to the original - because, well, the tubes WERE the ride!

Companies like Pinarello, Colnago, Specialized, etc go to great lengths to keep their layup schedule secret. Even in the same factory , they will have 100% security on the pre-preg and the 'recipe' used to make their frames. The other thing is they meticuluously inspect the frames all through the process and junk out any that don't meet the inspections. This doesn' just mean visual, but also mechanical inspections on the desired compliance, stiffness , alignment. So, even if the frame looks perfect - it might not ACT perfect and it's junked. I was seeing reject rates of about 50% or higher for some of the top frames - so this tells you they take this very seriously.

Chinarello -

1) No rejects. If it's 'cooked' , it's fine.
2) No attention to layup other than 'standard' - whcih means it will ride, maybe stiff as a board in some sections and soft as a noddle in others, but it will ride.
3) No variable compliance. It takes alot of time and money extra to make variable complaince layups. They don't that on 'B' copy or clones - they just follow a very simple schedule.
4) Standard and easy to assemble dropouts and retainers. Nothing fancy here - they use very simple (and generally heavy) castings.

Most factories will of course warranty the units. However it is generally (if not always) 100% the cost of the customer to arrange.

Probably for most riders just looking for bling factor, the 'chinarello' will be a fine bike. It would surely be better than anything else we had to ride 5 or even 10yrs ago! And since the tech is maturing and evolving - even the lowest quality layup today is better than the average quality layups of 10yrs ago.(Aerospace notwithstanding).
 
Yes, definitely, he has the deep source on the best ones.

I ride one and it's great! Ask James, he's the man;)
 
LOL - thats because mine come out the same factory in Taiwan :D

Ok to lay some light on the situation regardding Chinarello and Pinarello.

About 3 years ago Pinarello decided to pull all manufacturing out of Taiwan and bring it home to Traviso Italy, it failed miserably as they didn't have the skilled workers that you have in Taiwan (yep there is a reason why bike manufacturers build in Taiwan!) They had a lot of Lemons and many issues.

They also pissed off several factories in Taiwan that made them, casuing them to lose alot of money on retooling and moulds for the Pinarello Brand.... it's not something you can respray and sell off as another make/brand. So to reclaim some of the money lost they finished off the production and sold them on the grey market - with Traviso's ok on some, not so on others. However some sold the moulds or went in to mass production and the Chinarello was born.

In the meantime Pinarello decided to cut it's losses and move back in to Taiwan and went back to a few of the factories they had dealt with before and cut off the more prolific grey/black market factories.

Pinarello is now a lot more open about where it's frames are built and you can get some good clones that ride perfectly the same as the real deal, but like I said best ones come out of the same factory, just a different door ;)
 
Needless to say - 'ask James' cause he knows this better than anyone and how to source properly. DO NOT buy a Chinarello from the dozens of other sources on the mainland. BTW - what's a TW made Pinna called? Twinarello?
 
Absolutely! My wife has an 'opened mold' Olmo and it's a great bike! And I sold another 'opened mold' clone to Travis for his wife - beautiful UD marble finish.

Might get one for the wife then!!!
 
Needless to say - 'ask James' cause he knows this better than anyone and how to source properly. DO NOT buy a Chinarello from the dozens of other sources on the mainland. BTW - what's a TW made Pinna called? Twinarello?

According to my "real, from the dealer with 80% mark up" a Pinarello made in Taiwan is called a ....... Pinarello :D
 
Haha!

According to my "real, from the dealer with 80% mark up" a Pinarello made in Taiwan is called a ....... Pinarello :D
 
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