Originally Posted by Trakhak

The average Bikes Direct bike in a box is likely to have the same level of quality with respect to bearing adjustments and grease as the average bike sold at a local bike store. In fact, bikes in boxes are assembled to a much higher standard of quality than bikes were 20 or 30 years ago. You can read posts from people on this site who say that, for instance, they routinely completely detension and retension the spokes on the wheels of Bikes Direct bikes. Speaking as one who ran service departments in bike stores selling bikes across the entire price spectrum, that's the true hobbyist at work, to put it diplomatically.

As mentioned earlier in this thread, there are plenty of Youtube videos that show you what you need to do, how to do it, and what tools you need to assemble a boxed bike. Figure several hours of reviewing videos and maybe two hours of careful assembly, and you'll be good to go.