I am looking for a bike as my daily commuter, nothing fancy. I don't feel like spending a lot of money on it, but I do want a bike that's somewhat durable and not too cheaply made. I found this Dawes Eclipse 1.0 on Bikesdirect, does anybody own one and could give me some review on it? Any suggestions or advice are welcome!

I don't own one, but I would personally look a little higher in order to get a reliable bike. I am not stuck on component levels, because I think most components are durable, with a couple of exceptions.

The Eclipse 1.0 seems to come with a 7 speed freewheel. Freewheels are known to provide less durability than cassettes because of the way the bearings are placed. You can research that online (as I recall Sheldon Brown authored a good page on the benefits of cassettes).

Therefore, I would suggest going with something that has a cassette, which usually means 8 or more gears in the rear. I notice that at least one 24 speed cassette model is available for like $319 on that site, and I would consider spending the extra to move up. I don't know about the frames and/or other components, but again, I think that durability is fine with most components if maintained well... other than perhaps cheap department store bikes.

Oh, and for some personal experience, I bent or broke a couple of rear axles on freewheel bikes in my younger years and weighed about 150 pounds...

I have ridden cassette equipped bikes for the last 10-12 years, weighing between 300 and 365 pounds and I have had no problems with rear axles.

Don't have that bike, but do have a BD bike. Was a good experience with them. Probable eventually order from them again.

QT