So they can post about how great their fugly bikes are. You people obsess over components and a perception of what quality is, when you haven't ridden in 5 years and have no reference point for what a "good" bike should ride like. Your nipples get hard when you see carbon cranks and american classic wheels, but with a blind fold on you couldn't discern between a huffy and a colnogo. If you haven't been on the forum for at least 6 months, than please don't offer up your often completely shill opinion about how "bikes direct is such a great company, i don't know why more people don't buy from them. They're prices are great and their bikes ride great".

Huh?

Get over it mate

I have nothing against the bikes, the people who ride them, or the company. However, I don't like the fact that there are so many shill good reviews to cover up anything potentially negative. If there is one thread about how someones BD bike came and the shifters were scratched and the BB and crank were messed up and they were having problems with the company getting it resolved, there are 5 "OMG BD IS THE BEST THING EVER!" threads posted up that week to recoup the negative thread/story.

People should be able to find LEGITIMATE threads about the bikes. If you're ordering the SRAM Force bike and expecting it to be the claimed weight or under because of all the great threads you read... you're in for a disappointment.

It's almost the same as with any thread that comes up about Neuvation wheels. Coyote2 is always there to tell you how horrible the wheels are and you'll be stranded in the Sahara if you ride them. (not a personal jab at you Coyote2 but you know it's true ) BD does this but with positive threads/post.

All of that said, I have almost ended up with a BD bike 3 times now. It is very appealing for the perceived value. I probably would have one had I not found the great deals I have on my current bikes.

I would actually miss all of the comments in these threads.


Nothing like Alan Bike Houston getting people riled up.

Sorry... I couldn't help myself. This crap is getting really old.

This might be the most humorous yet accurate post ever in this forum.

Nice job. Especially the part about the nipples...I fixed your typo...

Best thing about BD bikes is Campy Record on a frame where I can see the weld ripples. That just wreaks of high quality finishing work from artisan frame builders.

Like I said in another thread, it's like putting a tuxedo on a hog. At the end of the day, it's still a hog.

The only good thing about bikes direct bikes is if you want a quality build kit for a good frame, you can buy one of theirs and save a few bucks. They are **** frames appealing to their market.

What I really loathe is the people that order a bike from somewhere like bikes direct and come and take it to us (LBS) to get it built/adjusted or to get a part that mysteriously broke (eg, FSA carbon cranks) replaced only to have to tell them to take it up with someone else, politely, because they don't hold a warranty, and in turn, they tell everyone that we suck because we couldn't fix it whereas we don't care because we made $0 out of the bike, and effectively lost money, and chasing up BD's problem only costs us time, which is in turn, money.

A nice little anecdote to counter anyone who says their frames ride great is someone who decided they would buy one (same frame, different label) and race it. They crashed, taking off a fair amount of skin, because the frame was so crap. It turns out it flexed so much that it would phantom shift the RD when power was put through it. Nasty stuff. Sure it's comfortable, but then you find out half the carbon in your $100 frame is dyed fibreglass.

No offence intended to BD though. You appeal to your market, pretty well infact, by employing some clever business skills. Your a business, it works, well done.

If you actually bought one of their bikes to ride, stock, don't sell up its great ride qualities cause they are cheap, Chinese (it may have a Taiwan label, but in many cases that means it was built by a Taiwanese company by their factory in China) frames with very limited R&D. Keep the components and buy a real frame. If any of those components break, your LBS most likely won't replace them without charging retail (maybe a discount if your lucky, but remember, they didn't sell you the bike) and they might not be able to repair them (if they are repairable) because they may require a specific tool that they don't need, and thus, won't purchase.

Summary, BD frames are crap, the components are good but never complain to your LBS if they break.

Look, you people that think all these posts are really shills, as in people who work for BD.com - you all are really morons.
Think about it, as much as that might hurt, they probably move 500 bikes a month at the $800+ price range (Mike - give us some info, my number is just a guess). A large overlap of such people are going to want to either find out more or tell others about it. This site is the main bike forum. Is it beyond your firggen simple mind that these numbers line up and newbie posts happen here?

BD.com is going to be more successful (at this point) with people new to cycling or new to road cycling, but open to internet sales, etc. Seasoned riders who have drank the cool-aid of everyone at an LBS is a monk like guru and fitting a bike is as hard as the US tax code are not open to bd.com.

Newbies are by definition not going to have 3 years of posts here.

I also do not get how all these anti-bd.com folks post here. I mean, this is the internet you know. The horrible place where everyone is a liar and a cheat and a criminal. Just go sit at your LBS and post (talk) about how great your 20 year old bike is.

I think there is some super BD anti-shilling going on here. Call out the anti-shillers!

You seem to be confused...this IS the BD Shill sub forum. LOL

pwi???

It's spelled Colnago.

I certainly have never ridden a colnogo, but I do get a kick out of everyone who blasts bd/moto.

And for the record, I think road biking should be a sub-forum of Bikesdirect.

To borrow a popular phrase from 3rd grade, dude, take a chill pill

This is quickly turning into a BF classic thread. Mods, please don't delete it!

The OP assumes that BD buyers are too stupid to know what they are doing. He may need the handholding of a bike shop or like to pay a lot more $$$$ to getting functionally meaningless refinements or name brand logos to assuage his insecurity... "I must be cool because I have a Colnago...and a Pinarello...and a Madone.... People envy me!"

The only people that really need fancy $$$$ equipment are people that make their living by riding. The rest of us ride what we ride for other reasons, and there are many different ones.

Talk about humorous alright. You're saying that a frame with non-smooth welds is a 'hog'? I guess that makes the Pinarello Dogma FPX a 'hog'.

Real humorous.

Or simply don't open any posts about BD.

"Lighten up, Francis."

So I don't really care what kind of bike you ride, if you like your BD bike more power to you and good luck.
And I understand that their business model is to go and buy old classic brands that are defunct, and start slapping the name on frames that come from the far east (maybe we should check the frames for lead paint). But what I don't understand is that motobecane still exists, based in France, and they make some nice bikes, just under the name MBK. They are even in the TdF.
What happened? Did BD buy the name rights to the name like the guy who bought the rights to the name "Prince" when he went through his symbol phase?
Maybe MBK should be known as "The company formerly known as Motobecane" to make it less confusing.

I think you mean..."Take a SHILL pill!!!"

+100

The buying and selling of brand names happens all the time in most business segments. Take Rolls Royce and Bentley. They are still sold but really have little in common with what came before the brands were bought by VW and BMW. Nike is nothing but a marketing company, making all their products in cheap labor countries.

Olde world craftsmanship, while an option for those willing to pay a big premium, is really eclipsed by the quality that can be achieved by state-of-the-art product development and manufacturing processes. A $25 Casio keeps better time than a $3k Rolex. If someone only WANTS to spend $600 on a bike for exercise and fun, they can get an Asian-made bike that Eddy Merckx might have wondered at 30 years ago.

Be an educated buyer.