General Cycling Discussion - Is Bottecchia any good?

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View Full Version : Is Bottecchia any good?

shyonelung
03-25-11, 10:23 PM
I've been starting to look around for a road bike. Saw this store on eBay. Anybody have any experience and/or thoughts on this bike and/or the company? I'm understandably weary about eBay and was hoping to tap in to the expertise here. Thanks in advance.

http://cgi.ebay.com/2010-MONOCOQUE-CARBON-FIBER-ROAD-BIKE-SHIMANO-ULTEGRA-/170614529092?pt=Road_Bikes&hash=item27b96b1c44#ht_6473wt_900

My LBS has a sale-priced Look road bike for $1900 (Carbon, Shimano 105) that I've also had my eye on. A bit more than I want to spend but it's a sweet ride for sure. I'd like to buy local if I can but I also don't want to overspend.

Oh and here's a possibly dumb question: are most/all road bikes 10-speed? My mtb has 24-speed (though it seems to me some of them are repetitive) and I thought that was true of road bikes as well. But it appears not to be on the ones I've looked at -- is this the norm? Again, TIA.

knobster
03-26-11, 12:42 AM
It's a Chinese/Taiwan built frame but as good as any other lower end frame. Look at other similar one's such as the Bikes Direct Motobecane.

Yeah, all new road bikes will come 10 speed. 10 speed refers to the number of cogs on the rear wheel. So your 24 speed is a 3 up front and an 8 speed cog in the back 3x8=24.

The road bike will be 2x10 or 20 possible gears. Pretty common for road bikes.

Look is a well respected name and most of their frames are manufactured in Taiwan as well. The difference is quality. Look will demand much more quality controls and have much more control over the development process than Bottecchia. Names like Bottecchia, Masi and a few others now are only just a name. Not much more than that unfortunately.
Sixty Fiver
03-26-11, 12:55 AM
Bottechia was once a fairly well known name in road cycling and produced a wide range of bicycles from entry level to very high quality and made some very nice touring bikes as well but that name has been sold for marketing purposes and production outsourced so that the Bottechia of today is not the Bottechia of days past.

On the bright side I have heard that these new Bottechia bicycles are a fairly good value.

FlatSix911
03-26-11, 01:16 AM
I've been starting to look around for a road bike. Saw this store on eBay. Anybody have any experience and/or thoughts on this bike and/or the company? I'm understandably weary about eBay and was hoping to tap in to the expertise here. Thanks in advance.

http://cgi.ebay.com/2010-MONOCOQUE-CARBON-FIBER-ROAD-BIKE-SHIMANO-ULTEGRA-/170614529092?pt=Road_Bikes&hash=item27b96b1c44#ht_6473wt_900
http://i.ebayimg.com/22/!Bl!GfD!BGk~$(KGrHqMH-EMEs9WHSQH4BLZ1jWdRhQ~~_3.JPG


This bike is almost identical to the BD 2011 Motobecane Century Elite.
It looks like an excellent value and is $200 less than the BD Century. :thumb:
http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/motobecane/centuryelite_x_carbon.htm

http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/motobecane/images/cent_elite_x_600.jpg