I just read the linked article about bicycle parts piracy and the difficulties of stopping it, even though these bogus products can kill you.

Piracy Article

Good article. Bikes will still be made, piracy or not. Historical miniatures might dissappear one day

A long but interesting read. Thanks for posting.
It shows the level of effort needed to fight piracy. Probably not doable for smaller figure producers.
Shared with the issue of figure recasting is the psychology of buyers that tend to rationalize buying fakes.
And unfortunately, fake figures do not expose buyers to dangers such as bike crashes.

It's not helping producers, but I recall reading buying fake products make people feel less happy, even when they think the opposite. I'll try and find a copy of that article.

As to the fake bike parts, a typical case of penny-wise pound-foolish.

Adrian