patentcad

I don't get that. How is selling outsourced high end bikes cheap to bike weenies over the web a bad thing?

BF can be unfathomable.

rufvelo

Well, what happens in mainland China is......


...maybe ABH can help complete this.

rankin116

Agree. I own one, I like it.

TCR

If you don't understand it by now you never will.

patentcad

Help me Valley Boy.

mihlbach

I'd love to see a BD recumbent....a really light, low, and fast-as-hell recumbent, with a huge MOTOBECANE decal on it.

pharmboyrx

I don't see what the problem is. What's wrong with selling bikes on the internet? He has gotten permission from manufacturers (bottechia) to use their name within a certain geographical area. If they didn't want him to do that they wouldn't have given him license.

He found a way to do business and apparently it does pretty well.

The website does look pretty poorly laid out though. But, he is working to make it look more professional as you can see from the picture series he's posted in the group buys.

I plan on buying something form him this December. Just haven't made up my mind yet.

waterrockets 

The problem is that some weenie spends $6K on an R3, then sees someone bring home a D/A CF bike for $1600, that only weighs 1lb more. Clearly BD sucks. Right?

Hammertoe

pcad is now a BD shill...

How much you getting paid...



All this BD love makes me queasy...

Come on...

One Way Rider

Not being forthright in their marketing strategies and ducking direct questions is the bad thing, m'kay?

No one says the bikes are lousy. They are perfectly adequate for many riders. But I don't want one. To me, a bike is ridable art, and I would rather save up and buy a beautiful, hand-made bike that will bring me joy for many years, not some bike-of-the-month that I will quickly grow tired of when the newer model comes out. That's just me. For I-don't-care-as-long-as-it's-decent-and-cheap types, BD stands ready. Have at it.

I believe a sufficiently motivated and capitalized company could bury BD, but the bike industry is tough and many talented players move to greener and much more lucrative pastures. Imagine a company with a nice, user-friendly website selling bikes that maybe cost $50 more, but came with great phone service and gave you the feeling you weren't being scammed by some internet huckster with poor web development skills....and whose owner didn't engage in petty internet pissing contests with its detractors, (who will always be present, no matter what business you are in)....and who seemed to care about the cycling community as something more than a cash cow ready to be milked. I'd buy a bike from a company like that. That would be worth supporting. But I expect more from the company that makes/imports my bikes than just a cheap bike.

Just my $.02....

patentcad

How are they 'not forthright'? How are they 'ducking direct questions'? I just ordered a bike from them for next year and my questions were all answered.

I don't get it.

P.S. Cycling is duct tape, blood, sweat and gears. There is no 'art' to cycling. Just try not to tip over in your friggin clipless pedals and be happy you can manage that.

merlinextraligh

You realize that if you put Zipp wheels on a BF bike, the carbon will in fact spontaneously combust. And god knows what would happen with a power tap.

Hammertoe

Wait a minute...

Didn't pcad just order a Ti bike from the Holiday group buy...

Is he trying to justify his purchase...

I mean it is not a Cannondale...

CyLowe97

And here I thought you understood the internets and the nutcases who post on said internets.

edzo

in before the lock

mr_tom

Why would a bike weenie buy something for cheap when he could buy it for expensive?

hos13

I don't see the marketing as an issue, these tactics are used in just about every industry (not saying the are right or wrong, just not an issue). For example I was in Hobby Town USA the other day looking at their Traxxas trucks, and the price tag was in the 900 dollar range on the some of them, Hobby Town price 60% off. I went to the Traxxas website couldn't find the Hobby Town MSRP anywhere. Are they ethical, is marketing ever truthful? BD compares their bikes to mainstream bikes since their bikes are not mainstream, I don't have an issue with this since it gives the customer a reference point when shopping around, not too many other companies would risk doing this. Example, I went to a well know bike shop in the the DFW area, the sales person told me that Treks where the best bikes across the board, I see BD's marketing as a reaction to these tactics that are being used on the uneducated shopper.

I did some research on BD for a while, I never found any thing bad about the the quality of the bikes, now there are low end components here and there but I found that on a lot of reviews of different bikes, change the seat, get new wheels. Bottom line is BD's sells good bikes to people that can't afford to drop 2-3k on a bike, they are the Peoples Bike.

Doid23

Bringing this topic up again is unfathomable as well....

Doggus

I think the most important points here is that merlinextraligh needs to keep posting. About what I don't care. Just keep posting.



Pcaddy, keep swallowing.

patentcad

Duh.

But really, I don't get the whole anti-BF thing at all. Never have.

waterrockets 

Why do you hate hating?

Namenda

Motobecane is the VolksFahrrad?

hos13

yeah, thats it.

crydee

I think with a more "professional" website, CS that can be reached by phone, better trained assemblers of the bikes (my dad's mercier serpens required an extra 40-50 minutes of work and the chain they sent with it was still too short). That no one would have a problem with BD.

Voodoo76

I think this hits pretty close to home. Add to it the fact that your non-cycling, and many cycling friends cant tell the difference. Kind of like the HD riders who look down their noses at a Star or Vulcan I guess.