I just want to warn people considering doing business with Claudio Venezian from Mastercross, a business in Italy. Over the years, Claudio had had lots of rare parts and even complete works bikes for sale, but when you fork over the big money for these parts, you may or may not receive the parts that you both agreed to and which you paid for.
I just got scammed by Claudio in a big way for over $1,000. In early March, I purchased a set of complete HRC billet triple clamps from him for my 2012 CRF build. I did not receive what he advertised. He sent me a totally different set of cast clamps for a different model that didn’t even fit my bike. What he sent was also missing the odd-sized steering stem it required, and was obviously a replica with all steel bolts and not genuine HRC as advertised. I had even reconfirmed with him in advance of the purchase that they were genuine HRC. I sent the clamps right back to him the same day. He has concocted a story that the clamps were damaged and could no longer be resold so he would not be returning any of my money. The clamps were returned to him in the exact same condition I received them and they had 2 very small superficial scratches on them typical of very minor shelf wear. A few weeks later, he had the same clamps up for sale on his website at the exact same price I paid for them. He now has both my money and the clamps in his possession again which is trying to resell.
I am not the only one to get burnt by Claudio. A friend of mine bought a set of 51mm works Showa fork and corresponding HRC triple clamps from Mastercross. They were former Frederic Bolley parts and as you can imagine they sold for serious money. The HRC triple clamps were shown and mentioned Claudio’s advert. When my friend received the forks, they were sent with a set of Yamaha triple clamps of unknown origin that were of no use. Claudio then made up a story of how he never offered the clamps with the forks and simply sent the Yamaha clamps along as a “freebee”. He refused to refund any money even though the HRC triple clamps were never received. My guess is he sold the clamps to someone else and then still tried to collect on the deal with my friend by conjuring up a story that made himself feel he didn’t have to give any money back.
This is how Claudio does business.. if he sends you anything, even if it is not what was agreed, he will make up a story that he feels allows him to keep all your money. Some of his stories are quite far out too. But the fact is, he is stealing people’s money. In the case of the clamps I bought, notwithstanding they didn’t even fit my bike and didn’t look anything like what he advertised, when I also pointed out that they were not genuine HRC, he conjured the story of how they were made by the same person who also used to make the original HRC clamps, so that should be close enough. So if you think you might want to do business with Mastercross, be careful as you have been warned.
Here is a pic of the HRC clamps I purchased as advertised by Mastercross. These are for a 2009-2016 CRF model…
"PIASTRE HONDA HRC diam. 54/59 mm PER FORCELLA SHOWA (nuove)"
Here is what I received.. just two plates of oem cast design for a 2023/2024 CRF model. The picture is on Claudio’s desk after he received them back from me…
xx
He is blocked on plenty of vintage sites due to his way of scamming people and selling fake factory parts.
Sorry to hear you got fucked there.
The bottom clamp on claudios desk looks like a HRC Unit or copy with the groove on the inside and cnc milled but the top clamp looks like a stocker.
Yah looks like 2 different clamps to me too. The one in the add not having the groove on the inside of the bottom clamp. While the one on the desk has the groove. That sucks you got scammed. Can You recover money from insurance from the shipping? Or your CC company?
Wowwww. This is disappointing!!
The Shop
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There’s a lot of guys overseas who think it’s easy to scam Americans cause we have a trusting nature and aren’t as used to being taken advantage of as much as they are overseas.
It’s fucked up.
Thanks for sharing your experience.
Will make sure to black list them moving forward.
I have a customer who's just been conned out of $75k dollars for a racecar engine and box package from US company.
A few international customers got the shaft from Varner with motocross engines.
It's fucked up when anyone gets screwed, but it certainly goes both ways.
Yah I think people tend to scam people in other countries ,rather than their home country thinking it will be less risky to do. Or less of a chance of getting in trouble with the law. Also less chance You would ever meet face to face. And I imagine that they also take advantage of the extra time it takes for items to travel a long distance too.
People have been scamming forever. The adds in the backs of magazines back years ago selling secrets for fishing . Now its possible to spread out and try and scam people from all over the world. I have had my company card info stolen and funded a trip down to Florida. A customer of mine had his card cloned and 10K of cordless tools bought on it. The banks don't care to catch the people. And just price it into the cost of doing business. I was blown away when I went to the bank the first time to file a claim. It was just another normal day for them. And they said they would never catch the guy, that it costs more to try and catch them so they just build it into their costs. No wonder more people are scamming.
Claudio, similar to what Martin Honda (also Italy) used to do, only accepts payment by bank transfer, so nothing I can do.
Normally HRC clamps have the offset and clamp tube size stamped on them, but these have no markings. Also the bottom hole for the stem is far too big for either an HRC or OEM steering stem.
I wouldn't post something like this until after giving him every opportunity to try and make it right, but I just got a number of PMs from others that also got scammed by him, so a warning to others is long overdue. He does have some nice, rare parts to sell from time to time, but you can just as easily get scammed. It is a total crap shoot.
A few weeks ago he posted a nice HRC part that I recognized as belong to a friend. I pointed out the ad to this friend who said he did not discuss with or sell the part to Claudio. So Claudio was trying to sell a part he did not own or even possess.
That really sucks. Hopefully Your post saves somebody
Claudio has scamed people all over the world for years…
Not providing services is one thing but selling people other than what was advertised Intentionally is B.S.!
Almost dropped a bundle on those 51’s a few years ago from Claudio. Was going to do a 91 Mugen with the tank, swingarm and most of everything he had for that year. Glad I decided not to go through with it, his correspondence was poor and wanted payment wired.
He was on my wish list for some cool stuff for my ‘87 CR250. Thanks for the warning.
I posted a similar message on my Instagram site and was surprised at how many angry people came out of the woodwork to share similar experiences with Mastercross. He joined that Instagram conversation, but did not handle it well. He should have been more careful with a customer base that is such a small tight-knit community that buys these rare parts. We appreciate his connections with the works teams in Europe and the rare parts he finds to sell, but he needs us more than we need him. He was ruining his own reputation. Maybe this will cause him to clean up his act, as well as keep those who may be unaware from losing their hard-earned money.
Doubt it. What you just described has happend plenty of times before with no change.
And this is the reason I won’t use goods/services thru PayPal….
years back I sold a set of radiators on eBay to an international customer and low and behold out of the blue I get a notification from PayPal that funds had been put on hold in my account because the customer reported he had not received the parts . Ok , easy enough ,I jump through some hoops and I provide tracking details to PayPal and voila , funds released back to my account ! After a rather small inconvenience I thought ok no worries , that was easy , but I surely wont do international selling again .
Well , I don’t know , maybe a few days or a week later I get another notification for funds being locked up again from the same transaction . Now this time it’s for not selling parts as described . Wow !
After jumping through some more hoops , I had to provide PayPal with my eBay ad listing the description and pics etc to have funds released back to my account . Although I wasn’t really out any money in the end , this guy tried everything he could to scam me under the “ protection “ of PayPal goods/services ! He was delivered exactly what was described and what he paid for as clearly shown in the eBay ad , yet he fabricated stories attempting to scam me …. Unreal .
Obviously in this case the scammer didn’t get over because I was easily able to prove I sold and delivered exactly what was advertised/described . For me it’s just not worth the headache of dealing with this type of behavior so I will not use goods/services any longer . It’s really too bad because lots of folks on here have even missed out on some great parts at great pricing because of it . I’m sure some may argue “ if you sell and deliver what you describe then you have nothing to worry about “ LOL … Well even when you do sell/deliver exactly what you describe your still on the hook and may have to “ prove “ your side simply because someone may want to scam under the “ protection “ of goods/services . Not worth it imo..
Anyway , sorry for the long rant but it’s a terrible thing to see people doing these types of things to honest , hard working people .
Tokyo Tiddler , and others , im very sorry to hear about this and hope you are able to recover any or all of your losses .
If you cant buy stuff in person, this is always a risk.
Golden rule is never spend more than you can afford to lose.
And always know which window you are going to be putting stuff though if it isnt what you paid for.
Pit Row
I know it doesn't help any but in the future for any HRC style parts give Steve Denton a try SpD Factory Developments - Shop Specialist Parts & Services For Bikes . Just got a new set of clamps for my 23 CRF that are spitting images and quality you should expect, also makes a ton of parts for the EVO bikes.
It happens USA to USA too. I sold a Factory Connection bladder kit for a WP shock on eBay and the guy asked for a refund because his "suspension tech" told him the threads that held the bladder in were stripped. I told him he needed a new tech because the bladder is held in by a clip and doesn't screw in. I couldn't convince eBay and ended up losing my shipping cost both ways.
I’ve had a similar experience, but there is a way round it!
Tell PayPal and the buyer to simply return it for a full refund. No quibble.
You see how many send it back…. 0!!
We are not talking about ebay, internet scams or exchanges between parties that are unknown to each other. Claudio is well known in the community of builders searching for years for old works parts. He has an international website in both english and italian, and deals not only with parts, but also full factory engines, suspension and even complete works bikes, including some championship bikes. These are not your average dirt bike parts and they are very rare and hard to come by. He only accepts payment by bank transfer, so we are not talking Paypal or Venmo here. The problem is, sometimes you do get that extremely rare factory part from him that you have been searching unsuccessfully for for many years, and other times after he collects your money he sends something completely different than what you had agreed or what he advertised, or a even a reproduction, claiming it is a real original factory part. Most knew he had a shady side, but maybe what was not known was just how many people he scammed and how badly he scammed them. I have never seen anyone call him out before except for people sharing stories privately with one another. A lot of people do business with him for serious levels of money for what these rare parts cost and I think bringing this out in the open will help the next guy thinking of sending him a wad of cash by international bank transfer what the level of risk is.
You are probably right, but has anyone called him out before? I know trying to rationalize or state facts with him is futile. He was at it again, today, in the instagram thread calling his victims all liars. Sometimes his wife, Tiziana, tries to intervene to get him to do the right thing, but I imagine she can only influence so much.
Thanks Sean, I know Stevie Denton well and have done lots of business with him. He doesn't sell original factory parts though, but is great at fabricating lots of HRC replica hardware and has the full specs on a lot of HRC hardware to be able to create them in titanium or stainless. He also sells some really nice, trick replacement parts for vintage bikes. Stevie is a great talent at designing parts and a true fan of the sport/ hobby, himself. I highly recommend, Stevie. His new company is called "SpD".. a play on his initials and the word speed. Dylan Ferrandis is now running triple clamps designed and machined by Stevie on his Yamaha.
He has been called out on Facebook many times, one thing that comes to mind were when he sold fake HRC coke bottle swing arms that ended up bending while riding.
It was the same thing then, calling people liars etc.
Did you see Claudio's post on Instagram?
You beat me to it, the Mugen swingarms that he sell from the early 80s as well as the Vrp ones, not believing they are original made from that time period. Again, I was going to buy a bit of stuff but ended up not doing it.
Uhm, no. Just as many scumbags here!
TM
Have you dealt with bonamigoteam on instagram? He’s from Italy also and seems to have bunch of HRC stuff . Thanks for heads up on mastercross been looking at purchasing some stuff from him for some time now .
Bought some parts from mastercross pre-covid. Shipped right away, took a bit to get here as expected. Really questioned if they were knockoffs, didn’t seem right once they were in my hands.
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