Originally Posted by
Capecodder
Bikes Direct = Junk.
You end up with a low end No Name frame and you do not get to test ride it. Then when it arrives you get to put it together or take it to a bike shop and have them do it. I would much rather have a quality frame with lesser components in which I can upgrade as needed.
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You know they're junk. How so?
Do you really know where your C-dale was made? Google: "Where was my bike made?". You'll have to do some digging, as many of the links are broken.
It's well known, in the industry, that there are only a few companies that make all the common frames of the world. The industry doesn't want the average person to know that, so they BS the unknowing into believing that there's something great about their name-brand bicycle, even though it's made in the same plants as box store bikes. Pinarello is among the worst, as you can buy their former-year, ~$5K, "made in Italy" (manufactured in China) frames for ~$500, on eBay. My friends own a shop and have one of the many catalogs available of products offered from China/Taiwan. You can order standard framesets, painted in standard colors, and labeled to your desire for ~$75. They have the samples in their shop.