One reason I believe this too is that I doubt BikesDirect is going to pay someone to actually design frames--even copies--when it would be so much easier to buy production overruns, or to license frames from another manufacturer.

When you go to KMart to buy motor oil and see expensive brands (Pennzoil, Quaker State) and "KMart's Best" right next to it, do you think KMart has its own refineries and wells? No, KMart buys from Quaker State and Pennzoil.

it would seem to me much more likely that BD would buy the rights to frames already being produced, tooled for, etc. from a company like Trek or Giant (maybe last year's frames to be built after the big-name manufacturer's production run is done.) I am sure quality control is minimal, and maybe the tooling is worn so precision suffers, but again ... half the cost.

This could be why BD often seems to have limited numbers of bikes per model--it can only afford so many frames, or the tooling is only good for so many frames, or only so much overrun. I don't know.

The idea that people who would ride a lower-quality bike are somehow lesser riders though ... whole 'nother subject that every reasonable rider can see is ridiculous right away.

I am more like the guy who built the 13-pound Chinese carbon knockoff and said it was a good bike. We expect hyperbole--"My new build rockets up hills, it is a hundred times faster than my last bike" (which probably weighed a pound more.) This guy (rpenmanparker I believe) was really matter-of-fact about the ride. Very refreshing.

I get the same feeling from test riding a really good bike--yes it might be much lighter, all the components might be much more precisely made, yes it might have the latest engineering, but it is still just a bike. It doesn't make me a better person or even a better rider.

It's not that I cannot appreciate a better bike, it is just that I know a better bike will not make me a better rider (or person) and what it costs for the best bikes out there ... is not worth it to me. I wouldn't get that much pleasure out of a ten or fifteen-thousand-dollar bike to make it worth the price. I think a lot of the added value is pure rider perception--some riders feel a lot better having the latest and greatest, or the boutique bike, or whatever--which is fine. I wish I could afford to be that way. But in terms of performance or enjoyment ...

A bad driver in a Porsche is much like a fat guy on a Trek Madone--either can be beaten badly by an athlete even with ultra-cheap economy ride. For the few who really need to save every gram, go for it. For the rest of us ... we are sill cyclists and we are not ignorant or unable to appreciate finer things.

In terms of talent, it might take more talent to really completely enjoy a 30-year-old Cannondale or a cheapo Dawes than it does to enjoy the latest CF with electronic shifting superbike. But don't worry ... i won't look down on you guys for not being able to appreciate my bikes.