YungBurke

Just how much assembly is necessary? Are all the press-fittings installed? Are the bottom bracket and headsets installed. Are the wheels laced? I am seriously considering an outcast 29er and im comfortable with building a bike from the frame and fork as long as the wheels are built and the BB and headset are installed.

dOOBER

first i have no first hand experience, but over in the ss/fg forum they practically live by the Kilo TT and pretty much all you have to do is put in the front fork, and install the stem/handlebars and probably the seatpost/seat there is a video of the assembly somewhere on the interweb.

On the other hand according to all them, before you actually ride it they either suggest you take it to a LBS or tighten EVERYTHING yourself.

others can correct me if im wrong but i do believe that is the just of it.

rednek426

I bought an Outcast 29er a year or so ago, and I love the thing. It does come mostly assembled, but on a whim I disassembled the entire bike out of the box and re-assembled it. I'm glad I did as the bearings were lightly greased (packing grease mostly, nothing substantial) and some bolts (crank fixing bolts noteably) weren't torqued to spec. I also had to stress relieve and re-true both wheels before I rode it at all. All in all, a couple hours worth of work for me, and I've put over 3,000 miles on it with no problems since then.

cooleric1234

It comes mostly assembled. I found putting the road bike together much easier than the mountain bike though. You have to install the disc brakes, which I thought was a pain. But the wheels are definitely assembled. I strongly suggest you have them tensioned and trued though, I taco'd my 29er wheel the first time out, I'm not positive but I think it wasn't tensioned properly.

m_yates

I'm not a BD hater. Some of the bikes are great deals.

dynodonn 

I've purchased two BD bikes, like any other business, it seems the service quality goes up with additional higher purchase prices of their bikes.
If there's issues with a bike I'm purchasing at the time, now I'd rather pay a little extra, and deal locally in person than through a string of emails.

pathdoc

I've purchased 2 bike from them and both required minimal assembly. No problems.

dynodonn 

Hey! Those were supposed to be my bikes!

On a more serious note, if one does have issues with their bike, be aware that BD deals only through emails and may have you return the part in question for either their house technician to repair or determine if it needs to be replaced, as was the case in my last purchase with them.

This type of action, plus improper assembly at the factory on my last purchase which required considerable repair effort on my part, prompted me to rethink about purchasing bikes online.

BigDaddyPete

I bought the Fantom CX last summer as a commuter. My LBS charged me $50 to assemble it. And since I get all my bikes tuned there and buy all my bike stuff there, he still makes good money from me. And $50 was worth my piece of mind that it's done right.

aadhils

I bought my first bike on ebay from Sprtymama (bikesdirect). I was still able to assemble it without any prior knowledge about bicycle mechanics. It helped that I'm mechanically inclined though.

nashcommguy

+1 Was advised by a bike mechanic friend to check the bb cartridge threads and the bearings in the wheelset. He was right. The threads AND the bearings needed grease. Had to 'stress' the wheels and re-true them slightly. Other than those issues everything was fine. The assembly took a total of about 2 hours w/t added work. BD is a brokerage and probably inspect 1 or 2 bikes out of every thousand. If any at all. So, before buying from them one should be either an intermediate mechanic w/some knowledge of bike assembly and wheel building/truing, know someone who does or pay an lbs to do the assembly. I was a mix of the first 2 when purchasing mine. It's got over 7000 commuting/utility miles on it w/only minor cable adjustments, wheel truing, chain cleaning and lubing, etc. I'll ride it another year, put it on CL and buy another one. It's a great commuter @ a great price. Free shipping, too. Took 3 days to get it from order date.

nashcommguy

And then there's THIS guy...

YungBurke

wow thanks for all the replys. so what i have gleaned is that the quality of assembly seems to vary and I better check everything. I think if I do get one of the outcast29rs I will fully dissassemble and reassemble and grease all screws. I shouldnt have any trouble with this with only a singlespeed, seeing as I have built a singlespeed from bare frame before, I will keep you guys posted if I get one. BD is running a special on the 29ers with extra chainrings and a fixed cog plus a price discount. This will be my first FG if so, and im psyched. I have some big plans. Anyone know the spacing for this bike? If i decide I want to could I buy a IGH wheelset and switch that in for city riding?

hairnet

I bought a BD bike. Almost everything was installed except for the stem, handle bar, brakes, and pedals. Take it straight to a mechanic, some things weren't installed all that well.

BarracksSi

A coworker recently put together his BD bike (Motobecane Vent Noir) and brought it to work for a couple of us more-knowledgeable types to check out.

Besides the usual obvious stuff -- brakes out of adjustment, wheels a bit funky, etc -- the most awkward part was that the shift cable wasn't correctly installed in the right/rear shifter. It took some fiddling to get the nub back out and into the channel/pulley thing. Once we got that straightened out, I adjusted the RD, and it was good enough.

I don't know about the crank bolts, headset, etc.

Depending on the shop, it's possible to spend as much in labor costs for inspection and re-installation as was saved in the initial purchase. I wouldn't recommend a BD bike to anyone who isn't at least mechanically capable of addressing potential issues.

rogerstg

I've bought 4 bikes from BD. Two for me and two for my wife. All have required small amounts of tweaking, but none required any more than the half dozen bikes I've worked on that came from various LBSs.