Hi,
I just bought a strida fake from ebay. £110. It works very well and so far seems well enough put together for the money. The wheels need minor truing, the belt was a bit on the tight side and the bottom bracket creaked under hill climbing levels of power, but apart from minor tinkering like a drop of WD40 on the BB plastic shell to cure the creak, belt adjustment and minor effort with a spoke key it looks like it will be a lot of fun for next to no money.
By the way, there are at least 8 factories turning these out in China and they will not all be the same quality. Having said that, this bike is probably the easiest bike to make that I ever had. I can’t see why the official Strida made in Taiwan by Ming Cycles has to retail in the UK at £450. That’s just a greedy supply chain surely for three tubes, minimal welding and two wheels and a plastic pulley wheel or two.
I don’t mean to be provocative. I’ve learned a lot about Stridas from reading this forum, for which I thank you all.