gabdy

change motobeccane in the URL for your own search criteria

patentcad

Indyv8a

For the real, and really short answer, BD sells bikes made to a price. Most who own them say they really like them, but some problems have been reported. Apparently, service (RMA for the most part) is ok, but can be difficult because they work by e-mail only. Purists don't like the "heritage" BD claims for their bikes. They advertise racing history, and centuries of quality, etc., but all they really do is buy marketing rights for famous brands now defunct, or at least defunct in America.

Reports of really cheap bottom brackets breaking seems to be the biggest complaint.

Did I leave anything out?

AngryScientist 

...

bbattle

The Bikes Direct owner posts in the SS/FG forum all the time, gathering input on new models. Still thinks his website is the coolest thing despite everyone telling him to change it.

patentcad

The Fly Ti MTB is the shiznit.

Cycho

My Grand Sprint has been a joy. True, the frame is vanilla, nothing fancy. But the frame is made by Kinesis, the Chinese (Taiwanese) company that makes frames for a bunch of other name brands (Trek, Felt, Specialized to name a few.) The components on the bike are typically prety good. If you're budget conscious, are new to road bikes and don't want to pay more without knowing if you're going to stick with it, and don't pay too much attention to branding, it can be a good choice.

As for defective frames, it just doesn't happen to Motobecane's.

https://www.bikeforums.net/road-cycling/255131-specialized-warranty.html

https://www.bikeforums.net/showpost.p...02&postcount=1

https://www.bikeforums.net/showpost.p...38&postcount=7

https://www.bikeforums.net/showpost.p...22&postcount=1

https://www.bikeforums.net/attachment...1&d=1243468925

KiuBWhy

Let's see the one in the house, on the nice floor runner.

guadzilla

I actually like the BD website. All the info is there without any annoying flash or other HTML wizardry. I go to a webite for info. I like text and lots of it. If I want to see pretty pictures, I'll click on the link that says "Gallery" or "More Pictures" or "Make Bigger"

Wish more bike manufacturers made their sites so easy to navigate.

V.

MadGrad

I'm not going to judge BD either way since I have no direct experience, I just want to make this clear:

When buying bikes, low price does not always equal a good deal. Shop Carefully.

chadteck

I'll post again that I'm still enjoying my Immortal Ice. Upon doing some research, I found that the frame has been sold under at least two other more popular brands. I've only found favorable reviews on it. The only negative was that the frame was slightly old tech by the time I purchased it... but not a big deal to me given the price.

wfrogge

Theres a shill in the air today

wanders

motobecane is dope.

Quijibo187

fixed.

probe1957

From what I gather, around these parts, what is MOSTLY wrong with BD and Motobecane is some members paid A LOT more money for a similar quality bike with a different decal on it. Of course, I am not the sharpest pencil in the box so I may have missed something somewhere along the line.

Steve90068

there is nothing wrong with them. if you decide to purchase one and it blows up feel free to post in here

kwrides

Yeah, that's it

You have clearly done your research. Could you please pull your crayon back out of the box and tell us how you "gather" that? Specific links to posts showing that people "paid A LOT more money for a similar quality bike with a different decal on it" would be very helpful.

RichinPeoria

Shill
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A shill is an associate of a person selling goods or services or a political group, who pretends no association to the seller/group and assumes the air of an enthusiastic customer. The intention of the shill is, using crowd psychology, to encourage others unaware of the set-up to purchase said goods or services or support the political group's ideological claims. Shills are often employed by confidence artists. The term plant is also used. Shill bidding, found on many auction sites such as eBay, is punishable by law[1] and may result in fines and or prosecution.

Shilling is illegal in many circumstances and in many jurisdictions because of the frequently fraudulent and damaging character of their actions. However, if a shill does not place uninformed parties at a risk of loss, but merely generates "buzz", the shill's actions may be legal. For example, a person planted in an audience to laugh and applaud when desired (see claque), or to participate in on-stage activities as a "random member of the audience", is a type of legal shill.

"Shill" can also be used pejoratively to describe a critic who appears either all-too-eager to heap glowing praise upon mediocre offerings, or who acts as an apologist for glaring flaws. In this sense, they would be an implicit "shill" for the industry at large, possibly because their income is tied to its prosperity.

Steve90068

does BD actually have "shills" on here or is it just people that have BD bikes and arent afraid to admit it?

wanders

BD's marketing is so 1990's. Instead of offering 50% off an inflated price, they need to go with a

"Order within the next 15 minutes and we'll send you two bikes."

campaign.

Like

probe1957

As Nixon said to Haldeman, we could do it but it would be wrong.

Dion Rides

Yes. Here's my review of my Motobecane: https://www.bikeforums.net/showpost.p...&postcount=647

I feel like Motobecane/Bikes Direct is a troubled child in school that gets a bad grade and everybody is, like, "SEE I TOLD YOU! That kid will never amount to anything...." and then, in contrast, there's a good student who get's a bad grade and everybody is, like, "Ah... happens once in awhile, even to the best..."

So far, I've had no problems with my *frame*, but even more miles will judge that. So far it's been a joy and a great purchase for me. Again, as stated in my review, I wasn't a fan of the stock parts, but unless I'm going to drop $3K+, I never am a fan of many complete stock bikes. I'm upgrading my cranks to a set of Truvativ Omnium's, which are very nice track cranks - So I figure if I do break my frame I'll have some really nice parts to transfer over

Having owned bikes in that same price range from more popular, well-known brands, I wouldn't say that they were any better - but about the same in quality.

intence

They offer decent value if you can do your own work on the bike. They don't have the overhead of running a shop, and they also don't have the huge sponsorship, R&D, and advertising budgets of the major bike companies.

BD simply takes an off the self frame from a factory that produces frames for many other high-priced bikes, and then specs with components so they can sell it at a low price. The business model is great, many people don't like them because they imply their "Motobecane" is somehow related to the original. They also list inflated MSRPs that aren't realistic.

If you know what you're buying you can get a decent deal.

umd

I believe that Merida makes all Specialized's frames, and they [Merida] own a big chunk (49%?) of it.

Cycho

You are correct sir! I stand corrected. Here's the actual list, courtesy of Wikipedia:

Kinesis Industry Co. Ltd. is a manufacturer of aluminum and carbon fiber bicycle frames, forks, and components. Based in Taiwan, it has a plant in Guangzhou, China, and an American subsidiary (Kinesis USA, Inc.) in Portland, Oregon that generates $5-$10million in annual sales[1]. The company was founded in 1989 by former employees of Giant Bicycles, and is headed by Tom Jeng. Customers include MotobecaneUSA, DawesUSA, MercierAmerica, Diamondback, Felt, GT, Schwinn, Jamis, K2, Raleigh, Trek Bicycle Corporation, and Kona. It employs 1,430. [2]