Fake Flite Titanium?

[Betsy]

In my opinion it's not fake, not recovered and titanium label is not added, probably it's a sample.

I'd agree with this^

My thought was.. it's probably a factory second which had failed QC because it's been labeled up wrongly and i assume the seller knows it's a not Ti, hence the £65 price tag, if they thought it was Ti.. they would have sold it for £140+ like all the other NOS Ti Flites listed on eBay.

I would bet folding money that the 'Flite' and the 'Titanium' logo are screen printed, rather than ironed on.. the same method used in the factory.. but this wouldn't have been done by the seller because the time/cost of making the screen isn't economically viable for a single unit.. you would want to screen print 100s of saddles.. unless of course they had multiple units for sale.. but even then, £65 is not a worthwhile mark-up from the cost of a vanadium saddle.

It could be done in China of course but i don't think the vintage Flite market is large enough (less so with an unusual covering) to be economically viable for a production line.. especially since it was recently saturated with reissues.

The only thing that makes sense is factory second.. at least, that's where my money is going.

 

[d8mok]

This is a 92 Flite which started off as simply the plastic base / rails.

It had the sponge shaped to look like a flite , recovered and Flite logos added.

It was on a bike at the Malverns last year and nobody noticed it wasn’t legit.

You can tell though once you touch it and compare to a normal one.

 

[Betsy]

It looks great @d8mok .. i still think this looks screenprinted tho

 

[valleyman]

This is a 92 Flite which started off as simply the plastic base / rails. View attachment 997489View attachment 997490View attachment 997491View attachment 997492

It had the sponge shaped to look like a flite , recovered and Flite logos added.

It was on a bike at the Malverns last year and nobody noticed it wasn’t legit.

You can tell though once you touch it and compare to a normal one.

Good job, but Titanium label is different, Selle Italia label is too big and missing registered mark.
They are small differences but if you have an original Flite you can check easier.

 

[Soundifferent]

Thanks, here are some new pictures.
Oh…and it‘s 218 grams.

 

[Betsy]

Oh! .. i hearby retract all previous statements regarding factory screenprint..

Those logos look terrible / fake af!

I'll face the wall for the duration of the lesson..

 

[d8mok]

Faker than a fake thing

Doesn’t even appear to have the shape at the rear like a flite.