Actually the TI bike from Bikes Direct is made in Taiwan who has a far greater degree of work ethic then China and is more westernized in their economics and manufacturing.

I have mentioned this before but I actually rode a Motobecane TI bike which is why I wanted to buy one, that bike is not poorly made, the welds look just as good as other welds I've seen including my Lynskey and another friends Serotta TI bike which cost a mint I might add. I haven't ridden the Moto since he got a new Enve 2.0 fork like I have on my Lynskey that he just got last week, and I won't be test riding it till spring. All 3 of us (the Moto owner, the Serotta owner, and myself) all felt the Moto, and the Serotta too, didn't have as solid of a feel to the front end handling as mine did and we all think it could be the Enve 2 fork, so when spring comes we'll all ride each others bikes again to see if the Moto with a Enve 2.0 fork will have an improvement. When I say that about the Moto it's not saying that it felt bad, it just wasn't giving us the sort of confidence in high speed maneuvering that the Lynskey gave because the front end felt to soft I guess would be the best way to describe it. If someone doesn't care about razor sharp handling and wants more of a comfortable ride then just leave the Moto fork on, in my friends case...well he just wanted to spend money because he's not racing or doing fast descents down twisting mountain roads.