Originally Posted by
noglider
Claiming that some of us are religious about this is, in and of itself, religious. It's also inaccurate.
I've cited enough cases of not-the-best-deal to show that your assertion is not true.
I haven't seen you post any cases to support that.
Not that I think the bikes are just Fuji and KHS leftovers (though who knows maybe they are in some way)but I have not seen you actually provide any case whey a BD bike is bike for bike "not-the-best-deal".
From what I can tell a lot of the frames are very similar in design/materials as those found at an LBS. My experience is with low to mid range bike shop bikes, so I can't say how the top end BD bikes compare. I've done a fair amount of welding myself having done it for a living for a few years and the welds I have seen on BDs are not any different than ones I've seen on Trek,Giant...ect. Compontents are pretty much listed on the site and those should be discerned a little easier.
From what I can tell (and I'm open to be shown differently), BD frames largely look as solidly built as LBS bikes and most of the time have similar or better components and cost anywhere from 30-40% less (not 60% that they advertise).
There also seems to be way more people happy with and in fact impressed with the bike they got at that price than those with bad experiences. It seems most of the people with bad experiences are bike newbies that are not yet capable of a basic tune. If the discussion was bike+service vs bike+service, the LBS is probably in the conversation but bike for bike I think BD wins.