wavygravy

Hi, I have been lurking here at BF for sometime. I started riding my wifes Wally World bike last year, got into to it and have since bought us both Trek Hybrids. Probably a mistake buying me a hybrid, but I thought that was what I needed. Now I want a road bike.

Been looking around, and am astounded by the deals on Mercier, and Windsor bikes. Good component mixture, higher level Shimano drive train than the Trek 1000, and considerably cheaper. So.... what is the catch? I know the facts about buying from a LBS, but there is only one near my home and the guy has the personality of a shovel. So, that is not a concern. I can have the bike put togather there, or somewhere else.

So why not mailorder?

ridethecliche

I bought my first road bike from a bikes direct seller on ebay and I've been really happy so far.

The catch is that you have to assemble it yourself, you don't get a name brand that'll make people go woah!, you won't get name brand parts for the stem handlebars etc, and you won't get that lbs service.

Those are the cons, and even with that, I'm really really happy with my bike. It's a little bit on the heavy side for a road bike, but I paid ~ 200 less for it than I would have for a road bike at an lbs with the same drivetrain. I'm satisfied with my decision and if you want some more name brand parts you can buy a bike on there which has ritchey parts etc.

I don't regret it one bit. It's your choice in the end, there's nothing wrong with the bikes. You just don't get the LBS service.

That is all, PM me if you have any questions.

pidda

i'd say you're probably more likely to get namebrand stuff on stems etc. from bd and the like; less of the 'housebrand' stuff. varies dep on the level of bike of course.

johnny99

The big advantage of buying a bike from a local bike shop is that you can work with the shop to make sure you have the right fit before you buy the bike. This includes getting the right frame geometry, right frame size, and fine tuning the components to fit your body dimensions. If your only bike right now is a hybrid, trying to figure out exactly what geometry and size will work for you based on Internet size charts is pretty difficult. There are plenty of stories in this forum about people who bought the wrong size bike from Bikes Direct and then were stuck with a thousand dollar mistake.

wavygravy

Thank you both, I could care less about the whoa factor. So.... I think I will take the plunge.

DVC45

What he said.

I got the Mercier Galaxy. The assembly process was easy. ' took me less than an hour. Its been 6 mos ridding it now and stilll no regrets here.

old and new

Persons that say that they believe that the less costly bikes are just as good as as name brands purchased through LBSs or many on-line sites prove one thing: many people really can't tell the difference between a good brand and a lesser brand. They don't know enough to consider the advantages and all the inherent superiorties nor are they able tell the difference if they rode and compared them with better bikes.I'd say it doesn't matter to many individuals,it matters to me though.I CAN tell the difference.

ElJamoquio

Mmmm. Kool-aid tastes good.

DevLaVaca

Meh, so can I. But for my everyday riding, it doesn't matter.