Originally Posted by blickblocks
Cig, the moment you touched the bike with a wrench it was no longer a Denali. What do people pay for at a LBS? Assurance of quality and quality assembly. If we take a look at the $350 GMC Yukon for example (the one with 7 speed STI), it would be a terrible, terrible piece of advice not to pony up the extra $150 for a proper entry level bike from a bike shop. The amount of time and money someone needs to put into the Denali is just absurd for anyone, especially the majority who know nothing about wrenching. It's just an unrealistic idea that the Denali could be worth it.
That's one view.
Mine is that anyone who can't do the basic things like brake and derailer adjustment, tightening all the bolts, adjusting bearings etc. is only half a biker. Certainly, these are things one must do once in a while on any bike. A cheapo department store bike will need to have a lot of this type of work done when you roll it out of the store, while bike shops supposedly do it for you before they sell you the bike. Not that fundamental a difference.
If you know how to do it and don't mind tinkering a bit, then you'd be a fool not to save a huge chunk of cash by doing it yourself. Quality of the bike is another matter though...
Cig didn't change any major parts, did he?