I can relate. Buy a lot from Amazon, and play the "crazy-Chinese-brand-name" routlette a lot. Most are low value purchases which makes the risk not too bad. Most purchases have me saying, "Damn that's good quality (e.g. drill bit sets)." So the China brands do a pretty good job overall. Note: One needs to spend a good amount of time sorting thru reviews to avoid the obviously bad stuff.

So now I want to spend several hundred dollars on a magnetic-resistance stationary bike. This is a whole new level of exposure vs. my "small-dollar, small-risk" previous purchases. Main brands (Peleton etc.) are just way out of my price range. So I have spent several days now researching these products. Am confident I am going to make a good purchase... Why you say ??

I was looking at a very niche "vote your favorite mansion" competition on a football fan forum (chiefsplanet) thread. Some very expensive mansion had a photo of the exercise room, and there was my current contender for first choice. What a strange way to get positive feedback.