Fake (counterfeit) bicycle chains — Shimano etc.

This article is about the fake bicycle chains, which in many sales sites, such as Ebay, Amazon, and others, make up the majority of chains on sale.

What’s wrong with fake chains?

Various things but most obviously they might not last as long as real ones, causing wear on the rest of your drivetrain. Expensive chains from name brands will be hardened, have special coatings and possibly hollow pins to save weight. Fake chains will not have this.

How do you spot fake chains?

Most of the chains on sale are fake. If your chain was sold by a large bicycle parts company, such as Wiggle, or a local bike shop in Western country, it should be real. Otherwise there’s a good chance it’s fake, and you should assume that as a starting point.

Otherwise look for clues:

• old packaging — chains in packaging that doesn’t look like current stuff is not likely to be ‘new old stock’, it’s just fake.
• wrong packaging

Here is some packaging from a fake chain. I have circled some of the many errors

These are — accents in two different directions, 31 spelled 3I, missing H in HG73, ‘und’ (German) spelled ‘and’, a very badly aligned measuring diagram, and a ‘Product of Japan’ label.

According to KMC, they make (actually — made; this chain is no longer in production), the HG73. KMC manufacture in Taiwan/China. This chain could not be made in Japan (very old stock from 15+ years ago, possibly).

In addition, the chain is supplied with a quicklink, whereas it should have a joining pin.

For Shimano:

• 12 and 11-speed has a quicklink, and is ‘made in Japan’
• 10-speed has pins (quick link means automatic fake), and made in Japan, except CN-4601, made in China
• 9-speed has pins, and is HG93/E6070 Japan or HG53 (China)
• 8-speed has quick link for HG40 and HG71, as well also a pin version of HG71. Made in China.

Note that in the distant past, some of the 8/9 speed chains may have been made in Japan. However, you are not buying these today — today that’s just a fake.

Counterfeiters tend to continue to counterfeit long-discontinued products. If you can’t find it on Shimano’s website any more, it’s almost certainly fake.

Here are some examples of fakes in such packaging:

Compare the real one:

The fake is grossly anachronistic — the reference to 105 with 9-speed would date this 2005 or earlier.

Here’s another fake:

The reason we know it’s fake is because IG51/IG31 is a long discontinued product. This is not new old stock, it’s just fake.

This is a fairly obvious fake (on the left):

The CN-HG901 is supposed to have hollow pins. But the fake chain does not:

Fake KMC chains and quicklinks

KMC Quicklinks are faked. The quicklinks sometimes work, but not always. The tolerances are poor, so if you are unlucky the fakes will not stick together. When comparing with a real quicklink it might be quite obvious that they are fake.

Real (left) vs fake (right)

KMC have changed their packaging in recent times, and it is possible to buy OEM KMC chains (KMC are a Shimano OEM, but their OEM Shimano chains will say Shimano, not KMC, whereas KMC allow others to sell their chains with KMC’s brand on it).

This is the current KMC packaging

Note the quicklink up top, sealed instructions in a plastic bag inside. If instructions are missing, the printing is poor quality etc., then this is a bad sign. The chain also should be slightly greasy from the factory lube.

Here are some more signs of fake:

Although there are older packaging maybe still around, it should be deemed suspicious. These are current packaging:

Fake KMC X10-EL, which failed

Compare the authentic box, which is quite different!

Some other packaging I found online which appears to be fake:

Conclusions

It’s best to avoid Amazon and Ebay sellers, as well as AliExpress for chains.

Both Ebay and Amazon make huge profits from helping criminals sell fake goods. I checked a typical Ebay UK chain listing and there were many red flags:

• Price: HG40 £8, HG53 £10, HG54 £10, HG701 £12, HG95 £10, HG901 £11 — the 901 chain is 11-speed Dura-Ace/XTR, and will not possibly be sold that cheaply. The seller is clearly a fraud for this reason.
• Seller: Most items are in the UK but the registered company name is in Shenzhen, China. This is a HUGE red flag, there is no reason for Chinese companies to be selling Taiwanese/Japanese bike parts. In other cases

Another Chinese criminal gives themselves away, firstly with the Chinese address, but secondly with the photo of this chain:

The box does NOT include a ‘quick link’ logo, and this chain is a pin type, but the supposed Shimano chain has a quicklink.