Originally Posted by Trueblood

Search the forum for bikesdirect. There are plenty of threads. Some good deals, but some people take issue with their marketing techniques. To be specific:

BD bought the rights to the mercier, motebecane, windsor names. Most frames are manufactured by only a couple of factories in asia. BD's website tends to infer things like - "by special arrangement with this bike company, we bring you...", meanwhile, they ARE the bike company, they instruct the factory to slap the motobecane decals on the bike. Again, some of the deals are pretty good - have a LBS check out the wheels and general adjustments - sometimes the parts are not greased well, etc. And yes, I do own a BD bike.