Since alanbikehouston seems to be out riding these days:

There are millions of Americans who bought the REAL Motobecane's....the bikes made in France. THAT Motobecane was an actual bike company that employed engineers, designers, and skilled builders. That once great name is now owned in the USA by the semi-shady hustlers at BikesDirect.

Here at the Forums there are only about twenty regular members who own the "new" Motobecane's...the bikes imported from Asia by BikesDirect. By "members" I mean those folks who post in threads unrelated to Motobecane and BikesDirect. The people who post ONLY about Motobecane and ONLY about BikesDirect products are obvious not true members, they are simply shills for BikesDirect.

However, those twenty "real" members keep two or three Motobecane threads going on the front page of "Road Cycling" at all times...a lot of work, but they get help. Each month, a BikesDirect employee joins the Forum to post "I just found a bike with a list price of $3,000, on sale at BikesDirect for just $899 including free shipping. It is the bestest bike I ever saw...maybe the bestest bike in the whole world". And, the shill will provide a convenient link to BikesDirect, or to one of BikesDirect E-Bay auctions.

"Bike Forums", two years ago, was a place "newbies" could come for factual, reliable information about bikes. Thanks to the hard work of BikesDirect, and about twenty helpful friends, it is rapidly becoming the "BikesDirect Bike Forums"....factual, and reliable information? No. But we CAN tell you where to go if you want a bike shipped "free", directly to your front door.

Members of Bike Forums ride bikes made by over a hundred different bike companies, purchased from thousands of different retailers. The 20 or so actual owners of "new" Motobecanes represent less than 1% of the total members of Bike Forums. Yet, that tiny group continues to generate almost 100% of the threads at Bike Forums that "steer" members to just one particular bike retailer. Again, Mr. Bikes Direct...why not just start your own Bike Forum (as Schwinn, and others have done), and leave THIS Bike Forum alone?