Originally Posted by
urbanknight
I think Paul hit the nail on the head. When I first heard of BD, their prices would be many hundreds to sometimes a grand less than comparable name brand bikes, making it well worth the $100-150 you would pay a shop to assemble it and scoff at you. Now you're just saving a few hundred at most, which barely covers the cost of assembly and leaves you with a bike that is usually a little heavier, a little uglier, a little less hi tech, and has a much lower resale value.
I was curious about this claim, so I looked at the BD road bike that's closest to my preference, which is a 22-speed aluminum frame/carbon fork/105 derailleurs and shift-brake levers, and wheels and other components of comparable level (don't care what they are specifically, including the wheels). BD's bike is the Vent Noir, and it ticks all those boxes. $999. Specialized (the only major brand I felt like looking up) has the Allez Elite, an SRAM-equipped bike with mostly Specialized generic components, for $1,700.
The Motobecane comes in 9 sizes, the Specialized in 7 sizes. They're both handsome machines, unless you can't stand the idea of riding around on a bike with Motobecane decals, even if it saves you $700. Me, I've owned many of the very best high-end Italian, French, English, and American bikes over the last 50 years, but I've been happy with my Motobecane Le Champion since I bought it from BD in 2005.