CycleryNorth81

When carbon competing with a deer, deer always wins.

Troul 

Have a removable decal made by a local substrate place to overlay the BD decal if that is the main drawback of the purchase.

Have you thought to consider an aluminum bicycle?

phillman5

I have owned a BD Motobecane Le Champion (but with normal brakes) for 2.5 years now.


1) the decal on the seat post doesn't look that bad, but there is also a metal Motobecane riveted on emblem on the front.


2) If you are worried about scratches, there is a black 'chain rub' protector decal on the right chain stay. I found rubbing that to clean it actually removed the black part of this 'decal' and made it look pretty crappy. On a Ti bike I am not sure why its even there.


3) some questioned if Motobecane was a US company. It is, but the frames are made in Taiwan. There is also a small 'Made in Taiwan' sticker on the front, I removed that.


4) I had a major wreck coming down on a mountain road, I hit some thing flatted both tires, bike was mostly fine, even carbon fork, wheels had to trued just a little, and new rear derailed hanger. (I was not).


5) Someone mentioned about assembly, and hub bearing preload. Mine are Mavic hubs, and I image Mavic does that at assembly. I assembled the whole bike with very little trouble, but I have a repair stand.

6) I found the seat post a POS, it wouldn't hold the angle of the seat. I replaced that.

VETMANSHU 

Someone on another forum used Plasti Dip in a color that matches the Ti frame. You can't see the logo and the warranty isn't voided since you didn't remove the logo.
The frames are really nice and when you add in the groupo's the prices is outstanding.
I almost bought a Seven but am holding off now that I found the Motobecane's on BD.
Every bike has a scale weighing good and bad. For the price the Motobecane's seem shockingly positive with regards to that scale.

BlazingPedals

If I worried about what everyone else thought, I'd never have gotten my first recumbent. Are you going to ride a bike or a decal?

bpcyclist

A wise person once told me that what other people think of me is actually not any of my business.

Bah Humbug

If people judge you for riding a Motobecane, tell the, to shove it. But others will judge you for riding a Trek (too many of them), Cervelo (obviously a filthy tri geek), Spesh, Giant, C-Dale... just about anything, honestly.

Don’t buy a bike (or do anything else) to make others happy; it won’t work. That said, I’d strip the decals free riding it enough to be comfortable that it wasn’t immediately defective. Bare Ti is gorgeous.