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Chinese "leather" 3 spring saddles- don't buy one!

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Andrew Gorman

Cruisin' on my Bluebird
I'm down to one Brooks saddle for a current project, and AliExpress sent me a notice that an old-timey looking saddle was on sale for 20.00 US delivered. Curiosity get the better of me, and I ordered one. Sadly, it's a lousy saddle. The springs are really soft and wiggle sideways as you pedal, the "leather" is molded composite leather, very thick and pretty soft. The chassis wires are thin. The seatpost hardware is probably the best thing about the seat. Only things I can think of to make it more than "display only" are to remove the springs and bolt the chassis directly to the top, or maybe remove the top and put it on a naked mattress saddle. I knew this would not be a good saddle, but it is pretty bad! On the whole, I've been happy with everything I've bought on AliExpress, but in this case you really do get what you pay for!
 
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Don’t buy ANYTHING from China !
A couple of years ago our old kettle died, it was made in Europe and had lasted over twenty years, being used several times a day by my tea crazy frau. Discussing the lack of decent new appliances with the guys at work I set out to replace it with a non chinese replacement as something of a challenge. I searched every possible store in my area, expanding my search to include any small kitchen appliance... they are ALL made in the far east, mostly in China.

As we have let our manufacturing base slip away to China it is now pretty much impossible to buy anything not associated in some way with China if not completely manufactured there. Certain US cars come equipped with Chinese engines and transmissions and all of our automobiles are liberally dosed with Chinese components.

I recently bought a nice new Brooks B33, lovely thing but it took 2 months to get here and cost as much as 5 decent Chinese made seats.

They’ve cornered pretty much all of our markets and we can’t blame them as we let it happen, our industry leaders deciding to go with their cheap labour and lax environmental laws over manufacturing at home. Can’t blame them either as its all about the bottom line and keeping the investors happy isn’t it.

over my 35 year time in the automotive industry I watched a lot of good business slip away to the far east, it was frustrating as hell because we easily beat them on quality and delivery but its easier to manufacture in a place where the labour is cheap, has no rights and your waste can be dumped into the river running behind the plant. I have just too many stories and examples.

1745717
 
Yep!
That pretty much sums it up,
This country got sold out a long time ago.
I just read an article about the massive offshore wind farms they’re going to build off the California coast.
The leasing auction start today.
What international bid do you think is going to get those contracts?
Only time will tell, but my guess is;
You guessed it, China!
 
It’s not just here, it’s happening the world over.
In the time that we’ve all been participating on this forum, I’ve seen and experienced the downfall.
I always bought and used Continental inner tubes, because they were the best you could get.
Not surprising, since they were made in Germany.
Remember that old saying, that the best stuff was made in Germany?
Ha!
Not any more!
Continental inner tubes are now made in China.
They used to hold air for six months or more.
Now, you’re lucky if they hold air for six weeks.
 
I've said it before & I'll say it again. Americans won't pay what it takes to manufacture items here. We did it to ourselves.

Of course paid vacation time, higher wages, sick time, health care, lawsuits, labor laws, inflation, etc play a big part in why it costs so much to keep manufacturing stateside.
 
When I was involved in the manufacture of automobiles we received bearing components which our customer made and shipped it to us for the second component to be added. We then returned it to them for further assembly. We’ve already crossed an international boarder once or twice, depending on the plants involved. then it was shipped to their customer for machining, then to China for stamping, then back to Canada for completion then that assembly was sent to the vehicle assembly plants in North America and Europe for use on finished vehicles. There were 20,000 of this particular vehicle made each week and six of these assemblies used per vehicle.

wonder why your quality varies so much and the prices are going up?

then there was the letter that landed on my desk from the major US car manufacturer telling all the engineers involved at all levels of manufacturing to review any components they were working on to see if they could be “de-engineered to last warranty period only”. Its not all China’s fault

I am so glad to be out of it.
 
then there was the letter that landed on my desk from the major US car manufacturer telling all the engineers involved at all levels of manufacturing to review any components they were working on to see if they could be “de-engineered to last warranty period only”. Its not all China’s fault
Working at a car dealership, some cars can't even make it off the delivery truck.
 
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