What’s with my summit and the manOwar on my cranks and hub? I know of about six other summits that dont have this on the crank set.
Hub
Man O War is a trade mark too or so it says.
That’s interesting, I haven’t seen that before. Could it have something to do with who you bought it from?
Daniel
I got mine on ebay recently and they say Man O War.
I got it from ebay back in january from a guy who sold a bunch of them.
Nathan had a pair of Man O War pedals.
Man O War pedal in Nathan’s gallery
That link was taken from this thread
I haven’t been able to find anything about Man O War bicycle products on the web. It seems to be a brand that makes copies of existing bicycle parts. Nathan’s Man O War pedals are a copy of the Wellgo B-37 pedals. The Man O War cranks/hub are a copy of the Summit cranks/hub which were a copy of the KH cranks/hub.
My guess is that Man O War is a factory brand for some unethical factory in Taiwan or China. They make a batch of parts for a customer like Wellgo or KH, then make a few extra parts for themselves that they sell under the Man O War label. That’s just a guess on my part. If they were truly a legit company/brand they’d have marketing and you’d be able to be able to find their catalog of products by doing a Google search or other web search. As it is, I cannot find a web page for them and I can barely find any info about Man O War parts on the web.
I wonder if it’s actually unethical, or if it’s actually legal there? Like the KH knockoffs. I remember when Kris first found out about it, and wrote on the newsgroup that he’d found these counterfeit versions of his unicycles. But was it a one-time thing, or are they still making them?
It may be that it’s legal to do more copy-type stuff in Taiwan or other manufacturing countries than it might be in the West. One should have a very specific contract with any company you hire to make parts for you I guess.
The appearance of those Man O War parts on the Summit indicates that unicycling is still in a place where components will get changed out at random, and the resellers over here probably won’t know about the changes until the next shipment arrives. This is fine if the change is to something equivalent. But what if they change to something inferior? Whey should the buyer pay the same price for a reduction in product quality? These are things you have to think about if you’re a unicycle seller…
It happens exactly like john_childs said:
And those things are illegal also in China or Taiwan. The problem is that there is so many companies up there who are doing this, that the authorities have controling problems. It affect a wide range of products, from the Swiss watch to the unicycle items. It is all stealing patent rights and intellectual properties.
Vincent
I thought that the Summit cranks/hub were identical (i.e. not a copy) to the KH cranks/hub. It was just the frame that was different (rejected by KH, but they built a bunch anyway).
I believe that your guess above is truth. Those are the same KH cranks, from the same factory that makes them for KH, with a different brand thrown on them. Intellectual Property is not a concept that’s deeply ingrained in some of those places. To John Foss’s comment, he’s right in that it may actually be legal in some places, although I’m not sure legality equals ethical. Working in the software industry, the unauthorized knock-offs are almost instant, and the offending country’s government is often the largest customer (if not the manufacturer) for the copied goods. Big corporations can try to work with those governments to educate on why unauthorized copying isn’t good. A small concern like KH doesn’t have a lot of leverage there.