Road Cycling - Tommaso or motobecane Bikes

I am looking for a road bike. I have asked questions about some older new stock bikes and I am going to take everyone's advice and look at newer bikes. I am on a budget of $1000, but would still like to get a nice bike (ultegra level components). I can get something like this on bikesdirect or rscycles.com. I have read posts about bikes direct, but nothing abou Tommaso. I was looking at the Tommaso Mondial with Ultegra components, which with the 30% discount comes in around the $1000 range. Any thoughts. By comparison, local bike shops are showing me things with tiagra or sora components in the $1000 range.

I have a Tommaso mondial as my training bike (only 2 weeks old) ill have pics next week. Great bike and I love the relaxed geometry

I was interested in the Tommasos, but a guy on another forum advised me to research other forums where they discuss quality control issues.. I left it as you get what you pay for....

I'd go bikes direct for an Ultegra Motobecane if thats your budget... unless you can get lucky at a brick and mortar Performance Bikes store... they just sold a full carbon dura ace 7900 cmplete for 24 hundred in Campbell here not to long ago

id check this out http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/windsor/kennet_x.htm

ultegra 6700 for 1100....pretty insane deal

Can someone even buy a new full ultegra group for 1100?

It seems there's alot of great deals out there right now, really great deals. I know Tommaso from years ago when it was a very reputable small production steel-frame outfit, no idea how their frames are these days. I can offer comments on the Motobecane as I have a Le Champion Force. First about Bikes Direct... they certainly have a spotty track record for customer service and for the life of me I don't know why the owner doesn't address this by improving this critical aspect of a mail-order outfit. In my case they shipped me the wrong bike and when notified immediately resolved/reshipped and I was a happy camper.

The Moto Le Champ I have is a fabulous road machine. The frameset rides very fast, very agile and of course being aluminum is also light, very stiff in all directions including your arse but she's a hellova ride. I don't think I've ever read a review on this bike that wasn't positive. I see BD currently has some nice deals worth checking out including the Windsor mentioned above.

Another solid brand is Neuvation Cycling. Altho I've never ridden one of their bikes they are highly reviewed and the company solid as far as I can tell. $1295 buys you a very nice bike and their frames are known for quality and durable build.

Also....Its worth you looking at what your upper end budget is. The reason I say this is that $1595-$1895 buys you a complete Sram Force group with a darn nice cockpit/wheels and IMO its worth every penny when compared to the set up you get for around $1295.

k

I bought a Mondial for one of my sons and it has a nice, smoothly welded aluminum frame, but is otherwise indistinguishable from a BikesDirect bike...maybe a tad more money for similar parts spec. I also have a Bottecchia sold by BikesDirect and suggest you look at those on Ebay. The Bottecchias have really nice aluminum (Columbus Zonal) or carbon frames in your price range.