Originally Posted by
xypex982
to cycleheimer, yes her bike is fine however it had to be taken in to the LBS to be put together and tuned because they come terribly assembled and anything that is assembled must be taken apart and reassembled and tightened. Oh and it came with a Deore rear derailleur which always goes out of whack after a two months or so of her riding which for some of you is easily a week.
A trip to the LBS can definitely eat up any savings you get with a mail order bike. I worked in bike shops as a kid. Besides doing repairs, I had to put new bikes together. The new bikes required a fair amount of work. We also provided free "tune ups" on the bikes we sold. That usually meant taking up new cables that had stretched, and re-trueing the wheels. You lose that service with a mail order bike, but it isn't that big a deal for somebody who does their own work. I also liked being the only one to work on my bikes after they came out of the box, and I am sure there are others who feel the same. Most owners of B.D. bikes that I've talked to have said their bikes were about "80%" finished out-of-the-box. It is the other "20%" you have to worry about.
As far as Bianchi goes, it would fit in fine in New York...especially on Broadway in Washington Heights. You would just have to wrap tape around the frame, and then hit it with some flat black spray paint to make it less attractive to thieves.