Review: Tioga Spyder Twintail 2013 - BEWARE of fake copies!!

[mzz]

I bought Tioga Spyder Twintail 2013 on eBay

Price: $51 (free shipping)
From: China, but that doesn't really matter

REVIEW:
This seat was flexing a lot.
I am just 70 Kg (154 lbs), but just by sitting on it, the seat was almost touching the seat bolt.
This was comfortable, but my sitbones were holding most of weight (kind of like Romin).
The nose was hard and overall pretty narrow.

I wasn't happy so I sold it, and this is the interesting part:

The guy sent this seat back to me and said that he already has a 1 year used Tioga Spyder, but that it doesn't flex near half of what this one does.
He said the seats are visually identical.

So, I contacted seller and he said the seat was bought 100% real and authentic, but that I can send it back.

> Which is great, but I already paid $25 for taxes and now would pay +$20 to send it back.


I am pretty convinced the seat is fake, because I weighed 173g (official is 135g)!!

I also contacted Tioga and even they couldn't confirm whether it's fake just by looking at photos, but that the weight is not right and that they are finding many counterfeit Tioga Spyder in the market.

BEWARE !!!

[centoph]

looks (very) similar to mine, which i assume to be real.

i'm 80+ kg and didn't have any issues with flex.

mine also came in as 149g. so, yes, your weight is off.

just bought on a whim... seemed like good bang for the buck in terms of weight.

although, it's just sitting in my closet now.

[Fatbiker]

You should be able to reclaim taxes if you are returning an item, right?

[sigismond0]

I also ordered the $51 one from eBay, and can confirm that it is as flexible as hell. Not enough that it causes trouble, but I can easily pinch the whole thing all the way to the rails with two fingers. Pretty sure it's a fake, but I don't mind it for now. If it breaks in and gets worse, then I'll be upset.

As for the guy that said his looks very similar--yes, it should look similar. They look identical, the problem is the materials.

[mzz]

You should be able to reclaim taxes if you are returning an item, right?

Makes sense, but let's be honest, it's not like making one call.
In my case it's not worth it... $15 was VAT + $10 was post office charge for clearing customs (noone's going to return that )

[mzz]

I have more details from the seller:

We ordered all the tioga items directly & only from Official Supplier - Rich Ho Bicycle Ltd. which is stated in Official Dealer page of the Official Tioga Website.All the items with original box and security labels. As stated in HK Official Dealer Website, new Tioga Spyder Twintail Saddle is ~170g, not 140g. (New tioga Twintail called 2nd ver in HK,the Hollow Composite Rail changed a new material. It's because old ver. as you asking occur broken cases in Japan and Korea.)
All these are produced and released from local supplier,not control by us. And if you want the old ver., we can exchange that to you if you don't care about the cases in Japan & Korea.(Cause we provide all the tioga items from local supply) We have to point out that the item you bought from us will never be a fake item - all these can be prove by HK official supply. If you want to return the item to us, you can.

Seems like a kind person.

So, this saddle is supposedly a new version of Tioga (perhaps for asian countries only*)... 40g heavier and twice more flexible.

*) Otherwise official site would have a mention of this new version, wouldn't it?

I replied: "If you know this seat is ~170g, why do you say in item description it has 135g?"

And he replied, that the supplier changed to the newest model bla bla bla, but they can change it for the old ~140g one and they will also make up for the taxes I already paid.

Very kind person, it is still misleading to state 135g.
I think they probably bought 100+ of these and then realised they are all "enhanced"

I sent this to Tiogausa.com as they asked me for more info, but they didn't care to reply nor confirm if ver. 2 Tioga exists.

If this seat comes from official factory, as I believe it does, as it is 100% visually identical, it is therefore real.

[sigismond0]

Would make sense if this new one is Asian market only--with how flexy the one I ordered is, nobody over 175lbs should touch one of these.

[ttakata73]

I have the same scale as the OP but my seat is 143g.
There are counterfeits of this seat, look at the last pic in this link.
I think the left one is the real one.
http://item.taobao.com/item.htm?spm=a23 ... 7932608923" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[mzz]

Aha, good post.
Mine does have the /cutouts/ on rails...