Homebrew01

Fixed. You can take it to a shop and pay whatever the normal rate is.

Cadd

Stop nickel & diming.

Aren't bottom brackets $25? Here's an Ultegra BB for $25 https://www.probikekit.com/display.php?code=D1056

And saddle? That's the first thing to go on any bike I buy. Saddles are very personal. I personally hate Specialized saddles. I hate Bonty saddles. I like my Fuji saddle and love my Brooks.

Speaking about BD bikes, anyone know any frames that are identical to the Motorbecane Messenger frame? I want to test ride before buying.

ridethecliche

The BB's some of their ISIS style bikes use are pretty cheap. I weighed 142 lbs and I broke one in about 500 miles. I would swap the bb's out unless they're FSA/Shimano outboard bb's.

Cadd

I agree. I have a Trek made bike with Truv cranks. My bottom bracket is shot too! I have lateral play on my non drive side crank. I would tighten it, but after 30 miles, it'll develop play again.

That's why I was interested in your FC-R700 cranks!

Grasschopper

I love them. Clearly make a difference in my ability to maintain higher speeds and are holding up well under my ~200 lbs. Not a single complaint.

Yes it is...really is a great frame and good price too.

idlingmike

I wonder what percentage of enthusiasts, even those who have been into the sport for a decade or more would be able to tell with a reasonable level of confidence the between a Motobecane and a high end frameset(assuming a similiar materials frameset which they haven't ridden before).

Or the time/result difference even in the hands of a top level pro cyclist.

ravenmore

Uffa - another BD thread from a newbie.

FWIW - I was offered a discount by Mike to post here about a bike. Mike and I know mutual aquaintences, and were on friendly terms. Still, I didn't feel quite right about it. When I first came clean about it on BF jaws freakin' dropped. I did post up the bike - it was the Le Champ with full Record. I don't remember the price but it was a smoking deal on the group alone, so I thought it was worth a thread. I did not take the offered discount though.

Point is, love or hate BD and their marketing practices(and it gets on my nerves too sometimes), if you're experienced and are a decent wrench or know one, you can find some excellent deals there. Add up what the cost is on if you were to try and buy the components he offers on some bikes and get back to me if you don't believe me. The frames are compotent if nothing fancy. Actually I loved the frame on the Messenger - that frame was a blast to ride.

Problems you might encounter - might need to chase the threads on the BB. Might want a betterr BB (my Le Champ bb was awful but I put many many many miles on the Messenger's bb with no issues). Wheels might need small adjustments - slight truing or hub adjustment. Go over every bolt on the bike to make sure its assembled properly. Do all that and you could have a bike that will last you for years.

My gallery of rogues:

Bike Lover

The interesting thing is I've been seeing more pros with them than anyone else. Maybe you're on the wave of the old becomming new again. Leading the trend so to say. Next you'll be sitting on a fixie wondering why everyone doesn't have one and telling everyone to HTFU and get one.

Ahh, been gone almost all summer. It's good to see things don't change. Let's chase away a potential newbie with bickering about BD.

I've purchased a bike and stripped the components, sold the frame (pics are posted here and the new owner still likes it) and built up a CF PF. The bike looked nice but I never rode it.

To answer the question though, it's a legit company with a below average web site.

bartonfink

Take this for what it's worth, but Mike (Mr. BD himself) seems to have to do an awful lot of his customer service through this message board. Odd.

sced

For most of us, the easiest place to save a ton of money and not lose out performance-wise is the frame. When the Bottecchia/Record bike came out BD Mike said that the OEM costs for all of the Asian aluminum frames ranged from about $20-$50, and that the Bottecchia was towards the high end of that range, even with Columbus tubing, smooth welds, and fancy paintwork. The same frame sold as a Mercier with simpler paintwork sells for $224 at BikeIsland, so it's clear that BikeIsland's price is 5x+ the amortized development+manufacturing cost. Speculatively, because of even more buying power at Asian bike factories, the margins for companies like Trek and Specialized are probably much higher still. The appearance of lots of nice Asian CF frames for less than $800 suggests, with similar supply chain markups, that they cost maybe $100-$200 to develop and manufacture. Consider what the markup on an Asian Colnago or Cervelo must be. Like somebody above said, with a BD bike you're just paying for the components (at near OEM cost?) and the frame is (practically) free.

MDcatV

+1, sort of. Instead of a sticky, direct them back to the bd site until they actually post about specific purchases they're looking to make instead of the ******** "are bikes direct bikes good" non-sense. Mods, you all need to do better. It's super annoying to log on to bf.net and see some made up new member asking about bikes direct every week.

Bikes direct people - you're a bunch kooks. stop doing this, it's annoying and hurting your reputation.

whoever sells advertising for BF.net, this should be easy enough for you to figure out, but I'll help. call the bikes direct folks, and sell ad space to them, then have your systems folks block the new member posts asking this crap until it stops.

127.0.0.1

lol wut ?


I race mtb. 'tis a fine time.

for MTB's I have a bunch of them and race 'em all. got a 1999 Tellico, which is the acme of Ti hardtails

btw....
u got snow out your way yet ? how about tonight ?

mcgreivey

My Mexican VW Jetta is just fine (170K and rising). It's better than my '96 Mexican Golf (traded at 145K), which was better than my '88 German Jetta (back doors stopped opening at 125K), which was better than my '84 American GTI (rusted out at 190K, but it didn't burn a drop of oil).

[bike_content]My old Mexican Windsor is still going strong. I expect that a bikesdirect Windsor might be similar to my Specialized Sirrus, but perhaps with nicer components, and for less money. In fact, it occurs to me that Windsor's thing "back in the day" was to offer bikes for less, with similar frames, and nicer components than their competitors, so it might make sense that bikesdirect now owns the Windsor name.

Yeah, the paint on the chainstay on my '81 Windsor Carrera started chipping off the day I got the bike home, but it was nicer to ride than my friend's Fuji, and cheaper. And it's lasted 27 years and counting. Bikes can be like that. You just need to find a bike that fits, and then ride it and take care of it.

Since I always fix my own bike, my LBS isn't a concern. I go there for brake cables and tubes and other stuff (and I give them plenty of business for those things).

So if you can figure out what size to order, ordering a bike online could make sense for you. I guess it's been said many times before....
[/bike_content]

10 Wheels

Here is Roy. 30,000 Happy Miles on his Bikesdirect Windsor.

botto 

roy should use the money he saved on his windsor to buy a better fitting jacket, knee warmers, cycling shoes, and clipless pedals.

10 Wheels

He used the savings to buy a New Mercedes.
When Obama gets in all bike riders will get free leg warmers.
It was not that cold for leg warmers.

botto 

wrong forum sparky. take it to P&R.

10 Wheels

Sorry I looked at your avatar.

botto 

so what.

Crast

Some of their bikes use name-brand BB's. If I recall, the Cyclo has an FSA bottom bracket. Saddle on their road bikes are utterly useless, but I would replace a mediocre stock saddle on most bikes with one of my choice anyway. Having a junk saddle just accelerated that decision.

As an aside, I think road bikes should just come with no saddles just like they come with no pedals. If it brings the price down, anyway. The decision is just as personal, though I suppose the stock saddles do match aesthetically. But then, I do enjoy being able to go to my LBS and pick out $15 saddles from the bin of brand new saddles which got replaced outright off stock bikes.

Siu Blue Wind

Roy looks pretty darned happy as he is. Matter of fact, maybe he's smiling from all the money he saved.

All American 6

I want one of the Ti Team Fly MTB. They are out of stock until next spring.

Bummer. Lot of bike for $2100.

tbrown524

[QUOTE=ravenmore;7746312]Uffa - another BD thread from a newbie.


My gallery of rogues:





Love the look this setup.. tempts me to order my own Le Champion... Do you race it?

c_bake

How do you like the Messenger? Any probs at all with it? I just ordered one in red. Should be here this Thursday. BikesDirect gave me a $50 refund/discount because the bike I originally wanted was sold out. Cant go wrong with them IMO!

ravenmore

[QUOTE=tbrown524;7747837]Hi - responded to your pm too. I just built it a month or so ago. I plan on using it as a crit bike next season. I also did race on my original Le Champ (one with topolino wheels in the pics I posted).