Palomar01

I did a search on BF on the brand and there are literally dozens and dozens of posts. What is amazing is the amount of mis-information about the brand. So I did some more research online, which didn't take that long really. I'm amazed so many people here don't do this and just post Motobecane hate. Anyway here is what I found simply by going to Wikipedia:

Motobécane was a French manufacturer of bicycles, mopeds, motorcycles, and other small vehicles, established in 1923. "Motobécane" is a compound of "moto", slang for motorcycle; "bécane" is slang for "bike."

In 1981, Motobécane filed for bankruptcy and was purchased by Yamaha and reformed in 1984 as MBK(pronounced "emm bay kah."); the French company continues to make motorscooters.

It has no relation to Motobecane USA, which imports bicycles from Taiwan manufactured to their specification by Kinesis Industry Co. Ltd. under the Motobécane trademark.

Kinesis Industry Co. Ltd. is a manufacturer of aluminum and carbon fiber bicycle frames, forks, and components. Based in Taiwan, it has a plant in Guangzhou, China, and an American subsidiary (Kinesis USA, Inc.) in Portland, Oregon that generates $5–$10million in annual sales[1]. The company was founded in 1989 by former employees of Giant Bicycles, and is headed by Tom Jeng.

Brands manufactured by Kinesis include Diamondback, Felt Bicycles, GT Bicycles, Schwinn, Jamis, K2, Raleigh, Trek, and Kona — as well as the brands marketed by the U.S. company Bikesdirect.com: Motobecane USA, Dawes USA, Cycles Mercier, Windsor America.

So, Motobecane is made by the same factory that makes bikes for Felt, Scwhinn, Trek, Jamis, among other name brands.

So what's the point of my post? Nothing. Just thought I'd share the information and maybe help shed some light to people who hate the Motobecane brand and say they are crap. Probably won't work anyways.

No I don't work for BD. No I don't own any BD bikes. I own a Fuji that I bought from a LBS. My Fuji is no longer made by the original Fuji company from Japan. It is owned by ASI of Taiwan, who bought the name Fuji and has a factory in Taiwan manufacture the frame for them. Hmmmm......sounds familiar.....

Dr. Banzai

Yes. It appears to be one of the best of the no-name brand rebranded brands.

I would highly recommend a search. ****.

vdek

A factory that produces high quality parts can also produce low quality junk. I should know being a Manufacturing Engineer. Usually though you won't see high quality parts from a factory that produces junk.

If you want high quality, you need to pay for it.

umd

There is nothing wrong with the bikes. It is the marketing practices of Bikes Direct that BF "hates". Search on BF for "shill" and you will see.

umd

Oh yeah, and :

jrobe

"So what's the point of my post? Nothing. Just thought I'd share the information and maybe help shed some light to people who hate the Motobecane brand and say they are crap."


This post sheds absolutely no light on whether Motebecane is a crap frame or not.

Keep SA Lame

I've seen a number of people riding them on local routes, and I have yet to see one burst into flame, or otherwise immolate the rider...

Palomar01

I've seen the posts. It is a mix of marketing practice hate, Shill hate, brand hate, etc. But there is also a lot of posts putting down the Motobecane name because it is "not the original Motobecane". In the meantime, most of our bikes are built by the same factories that make the Motobecan bikes, and the practice of "resurrectng" the name is very common across the board.

Look at how people here beat up on Scattante. Probably just as bad as they way they beat up on Motobecane. I'm surprised Neuvation doesn't get beat up as much with their house brand.

Honestly, I prefer the name brands myself simply because they look really nice and their colors schemes are generally better. I also believe racing improves the breed, and since the name brands always race, things they learn from racing are transferred over to their bikes. However, since it is the same factories that make these frames, who's to say those "performance secrets" are not transferred over to other housebrand frames? Nobody really knows except Kinesis, Giant, etc. I'm sure it bleeds over.

Palomar01

How do you know if something is a "crap frame"?

umd

I rarely see anything bad about Scattante. I often see bad stuff about Neuvation. Some people may hate on them because they are "house brands", but I believe that in those cases it's mostly due to the the actual reputations of the products.

wunderkind

Meh. Recognizing that business it out to make money and consumer is out to save money.... YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR.
It all comes down to profit margins. So a company say Motobecane or Trek or <insert major bike brand> will spec out a product to the frame mfg with profit margin in mind. Selects the quality of the frame choice offered by the mfg and it gets made. Therefore to me a Trek 1.x pretty much have little difference in terms of frame quality to BD's Motobecane or Schwinn or whatever in that price bracket.
The stuff you pay for when purchasing a LBS bike which Treks or Specialized can only be found are after sales support, fitting and a license to pile hate on BD. And of course someone has to pay the marketing up at Trek/Cannondale World Headquarters.
They should just be called Kinesis Bikes instead.

If you trawl Kinesis' website they offer lots of frame standards. It depends on how much ultimately are you the consumer to contribute to the profit margin of the bike company. Seems pretty simple business model to me that is employed from your Apple iMac to the fancy Whirlpool refrigerator that tells you when you need to buy milk. Oh wait... do you know that the very operating system that you are using was put together by a bunch of folks in India?

Palomar01

The Scattante brand pops up all the time. Most of the haters don't even own the brand, they just know it's a "house brand" and that's enough to hate it.

In the March issue of Bicycling magazine, they tested the Motobecane Le Champion Ti. It was all positive. In the same issue they tested the Scott R3, Specialized Ruby Roubaix Compact, and the Gary Fischer Chronus. No word on the Le Champion being lesser than any brand, in fact the reviewer liked it and couldn't not find any fault. I'm not peddling the brand, just saying. If it's based on reputation I think that's a pretty good reputation builder right there.

Perhaps you are referring to reputation in BF....now that's another story.

cm02WS6

Got about 8,000 miles on my Le Champion Team Ti so far. It's a good bike. I would not hesitate to buy another. Kind of ironic, I wonder if my Felt TT and cross bikes were made in the same factory?

Palomar01

In India or FROM India? LOL! I worked for a High Tech company that designed software too and a lot of their software engineers were from India.

In any case, I don't own an IMac or IPod. I prefer to ride a bicycle.

Cycho

I have a Grand Sprint and have had no issues with it. Then again, the "Motobecane" sticker on it is just that, a sticker. The aluminum frame was built by Kinesis in Taiwan, along with so many other "brands".

Palomar01

If this is the case then BD has the market cornered.

They reach everyone across the nation. They make money and consumers save a ton of money. There is no doubt about the latter because the prices are about a thousand or more below its competitive name brand bikes. Which in itself begs the question of why do we prefer to pay more? That is a loaded question indeed. I like being fitted to the bike and I like doing business with a real person. Is that enough to justify $1,000 more? That's a tough one.

Shatho

I also have a Grand Sprint that I have been very happy with.

Polar Foil

It's like porn, you can't define it but you know it when you see it.

aham23

they only do positive reviews. thats a fact. later.

gus6464

Scattante gets the hate around here only because of the store that carries them (PB) and not the brand itself. At least if you have a problem with a Scattante bike you will have a local place that will provide customer service unlike Motobecane. The thing about BD is that they will advertise a 105/Ultegra etc. bike for half off when the bike does not have that full group and will come with cheap garbage cranks, BB, etc. A crank is one of the most expensive things in a groupset so if they were to put the respective crank to match the rest of the group the bike would not be half off anymore.

umd

That's what you stated the thread to be about by opening with "I did a search on BF on the brand"

In Real Life™ I never hear anything negative about Motobecane or Scattante but I hear complaints about Neuvation (the wheels anyway) all the time.

Greg_R

Not only that, different quality levels can come off of the same manufacturing lines. These parts are analyzed for tolerances to a spec and binned into various groups. The parts just missing spec can be had at a lower price (the manufacturer obviously wants to sell 100% of the product). This is common practice in the automotive parts industry.

BikesAreCool123

Um. That's not quite right.

BikesAreCool123

Show me a negative Bicycling magazine review.

BikesAreCool123

Oh ya and ****