lower ball joints from taiwan

[solarlord]

have just got 2 new lower suspension ball joints from Taiwan- make Lii hau -has anybody used these? are they anygood? price 30dollars for the pair inc post tax very quick delivery 4days

[Petros]

sounds like a good price. Never heard of them but many major car manufacturers are going to the orient to get components made, if they were done to factory specs there is no reason to think they will they are not acceptable. The problem with parts from places like china is you just do not know what you will get. I like to think Taiwan has more skilled workers and a better manufacturing reputation.

At that price it hard to find fault with them even if they wear out faster than factory ball joints (as long as they do not break off!). Let us know how they fit and work out.

[solarlord]

cheers petros -had any space debris fall near you yet,nothing here yet -- i feel the same abt these taiwan parts ,they seem as good as the originals but time will tell,with oem parts becoming very rare in europe im glad to get anything to keep the terc running ,its the only terc in spain i have seen and there is only half dozen in the uk- dec ps do you recon its going to be a hard winter?

[ARCHINSTL]

This is sorta OT, but...Back in the late '70s and early '80s, Japan started to wipe the European bikes and components off the map. Taiwan was sending bikes and parts over starting in the early '80s and initially they were VERY poor copies of Japanese/European/American whatevers; its bicycles were a continual joke in the trade, notably only for a very low price. The paint was micron-thin and the chrome would rust in a heavy dew and peel (!) off the steel.
The joke in the trade was that "It had to be a quality part, as it was MIT." Now, "MIT" did not stand for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology but rather "Made In Taiwan."
Fast forward a couple of years, into the '90s. Japanese bikes disappeared as the yen had increased dramatically in value. Companies moved bikes and lower-cost parts to Taiwan. "MIT" became a preferred term, and equal to "MIJ." Taiwan had become a juggernaut in the trade and other trades as well - it made quality stuff. It had learned that good bucks could be made from more costly quality stuff - and besides, Big China was wiping its butt on cheap stuff by then.
The junk stuff moved to China.

When I was a kid, Japanese-made whatevers were a joke. Japan improved and Taiwanese whatevers were a joke. Taiwan improved and Chinese whatevers were a joke.
China is slowly improving...and on a scale unprecedented in economic history in every single manufacturing arena. It can make good stuff, but if you want it to make crap, it will cheerily make crap - witness WalMart's specs. In the bicycle trade alone, its carbon fibre industry is the standard of the world.

I am certainly not an apologist for a Communist country - yet "we" love China and Vietnam and hate Cuba; the last-named country did not start wars in which many Americans and Canadians and Brits and other UN forces died.
Go figure...
Tom M.

[solarlord]

Tom- I could not have put it better myself ,i can remember the taiwan fishing tackle ,ok for minows but if you hooked decent salmon snap! just left holding the handle ,-now most of the tackle in world comes from there and some very good kit too,that holds its value on ebay etc- funny about Cuba ,brits are having
a honeymoon with the beat up old place ,they cant get enough,i think its all the old chevys,thunderbirds and pontiacs from the fifties that still run around there-of course you lot fell out big style with castro and stopped sending the detroit wonders his way- i think its rather a lame place myself -but everyone to their own tastes-all the sixties and seventies babies want go there to see the authentic jazz/samba/latin american thing- i get enough of that in spain ,the spanish women want go for the dancing and romance,plus they can speak the lingo and do a lot of shouting ,yawn ho dear-- DEREK