A BBC documentary Fake Britain last night highlighted the dangers of buying fake carbon parts on eBay.

The documentary focussed on Matt Philips, a mountain biker who bought what he thought were a pair of FSA carbon handlebars on eBay. On a descent in the Malvern Hills the bars snapped in three places and left him with a broken wrist that required seven weeks in plaster and many months of physiotherapy. And even after all that Matt still hasn’t regained full movement of the wrist.

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The problems arose when Matt sent the bars back to the FSA factory in Italy only to discover that they were in fact Far East copies and not conforming to European safety standards.

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In fact this wasn’t an isolated incident. FSA found over 2,000 similar counterfeit parts online in just a single month. In order to combat this problem, the company now puts a special FSA logo that can only be seen under ultraviolet light on all of its products.

Watch our Pro Bike Check with Yoann Barelli  guaranteed to contain no counterfeit part

This isn’t the first time that Fake Britain has examined the problem of counterfeit cycling equipment, having previously highlighted the issue of fake copies of Giro helmets that also fail European safety tests.

Of course our advice would be to always buy through your local bike shop or through a reputable online store, ensuring the quality of the parts that you are buying and to make sure there is a warranty option just in case the worst happens.

To watch the full Fake Britain documentary click here.