merlinextraligh

Picked this up at Lunch:



Motobecane Fantom Pro Cross.

Butted Al frame; Carbon Fork; Ultegra 6600 Shifters and derailleurs; FSA crank; Ritchey wheels, handlebars, stem and seatpost.

$895.

Right price for 6 cross races a year.

Daytrip

Hope the frame holds up. My daughter bought a BD mountain bike and while the componentry was decent, the frame flexes so much that the tire has rubbed the paint off the inside of the chainstay. At least that's what she says.

RacerOne

I've got the same frame, but the Outlaw vs the Pro. It's into it's second cross season.. I won my first race of the season on it last Saturday. It'll hold up.

Phantoj

Yeah, that's pretty dubious. I can think of several more plausible explanations for chainstay rub.

Daytrip

So can I, and I haven't checked it out very closely, but she rides with some very experienced, mechanically inclined MTBers, including a Cat 1 racer, and apparently that's the consensus. I'm not hating on BD (she bought the bike on my recommendation), but I the cyclocross reference raised a red flag with me. OTOH, I think Merlin knows a thing or two about bicycle frames, so I'm not all that worried about his investment. It is a great price.

Paul01

A guy in my neighborhood tours on the BD Windsor touring bike.

Yes, he had to assemble it but it was a great deal no problems.

There is also a Kilo fixed in the area but I haven't spoken to the owner yet.

10 Wheels

My friend Roy just logged 60,000 miles on his 2005 BD bike. Still has original chain rings.

Accordion

Motobecane - the only bike my bike fitter told me he would refuse to assemble at his shop. He said the quality was so low and the amount of things that broke on the bikes during assembly forced him to send out an edict that they would no longer accept Motobecane bikes to put together.

Take it with a grain of salt since he owned a Cannondale shop and it's just one guy's opinion but it stuck in my head.....

LesterOfPuppets

I wish BD would open up a west coast store, like right here in Vancouver, USA, perhaps! There's an empty ex-Best Buy right up the road they could move into.

Jacksonville folk sure are lucky to be able to ride them things to see what they're all about first.

PhotoJoe 

That would be a HUGE lbs!!

LesterOfPuppets

Indeed it would! I reckon one third warehouse/one third retail/one third indoor pump track!

Err, maybe quarter/quarter/half.

tagaproject6

What carrier is that on your Cayenne? I need to get one of those.

achoo

Yeah, BIG grain of salt there.

newsman787

My bike shop liked the quality of my MB Ti Heat and was most pleased to do whatever I asked about assembly, etc. Money talked. And because I was happy, I then spent a boatload of money with them. I'm happy, they're happy! That's how it worked for me.

LesterOfPuppets

I'm guessing the moto-hater LBS dude was catching a bunch of the $299 bikes, most of which had suffered from aborted customer assembly attempts.

Hard to believe they just said no to motos, I'd have just raised my price for moto assembly 'til it was worth the headaches.

I wonder if you could get him to slap together a boxed GT Agressor 1.0 for ya.

Accordion

This is correct. He specifically said that people couldn't assemble them and then would bring them into his shop "to fix" and stuff would break and he would have to pick up the bill to fix them.

KendallF

Good deal, Merlin..I had one of those frames (bought on Ebay) for a year or two and it was good quality. I sold it because there weren't any races up here..of course now we have this series in the park.

My $200ish Origin 8 steel cross frame should be in at Kent's shop this week. It will be a tank but I don't really give a damn..good for a few trial races and a cool commuter build.

Grasschopper

I'm not him but it's an ATOC Draftmaster.

thinktubes 

Why hate on BD? Good products, great prices, great service. Super-happy with my Kilo TT frame. Built up easy as pie. $199 delivered.

Juan Foote

It is in cycle shop and distributors interest to continue propagating the idea that all their stuff is poor quality and doesn't last. Otherwise, why would you spend 3x the money for less bike (componetry) at their shop all the time?

mihlbach

Its interesting to see how the attitude toward BD has greatly evolved on BF over the years. Its not exactly suprising, since it has become overwhealingly obvious that the quality is the same as the LBS, but its kinda fun to go back and revisit some of those older threads. I kind of miss all the hate, paranoia, and LBS shilling...t'was entertianing.

I bought my first BD earlier this summer, a MB Fly team Ti 29er. Everybody is just envious of it....not an ounce of hate to be found anywhere.

I keep hoping my singlespeed winter commuter self-destructs so I can order the fantom outlaw.

merlinextraligh

As to the quality of the bike, I did a group ride on it tonight. My major impression was that fat knobby tires suck hanging with a group into a headwind at 25 mph plus.

The welds are no where near the quality, aesthetically, of the welds on our Co-Motion. That said, I doubt they'll fail in my lifetime.

Being my first cross bike, the differences between a cross bike and a road bike are big enough, that they obscure, for me, any real evaluation of the quality of the bike.

The rear derailleur wasn't adjusted perfectly, but other than that the BD shop guys did an ok assembly job.

I have no illusions that this is a great bike. But for under $1,000 it should make a very serviceable bike for doing a training series.

merlinextraligh

Correct. It is an awesome rack. It's pricey though, and unless you have a special need, such as a tandem or a recumbent, it may not be the most cost effective answer.

mihlbach

I have the same problem. My BD bike is also my first 29er. I can't separate my evaluation of the bike from what how riding a 29er compares to a 26er singlespeed. But since I'm not a serious offroader, I'll be happy if it does nothing more than not break on me. That said, if there is a better bike, I probably wouldn't be able to tell.

Nachoman

I think the general consensus is that you DON'T get great service from BD. But then again I guess that all depends on one's definition of great service.