pathdoc

49 cm orange. I'm 5'5'' and I like a tight smaller frame. My Jackson is a 50cm.

I think white tape would look good on the handlebars.

koyman

It actually wouldn't look good.


It would look great.

Kenal0

Post a pic, after you put the tape on. I went with the blue.
If you are used to clipless pedals you will want to throw some on. I found that trying to get into the toe clip when crossing an intersection turned out to be more difficult then just clipping in since I was used to it.
Have fun you will like it.

Kenal0

iamtim

I wound up getting a "Dawes" Lightning SST from one of BikesDirect.com's eBay accounts. I, too, thought it would be a cheap, easy inroad to fixed bikes. Sadly, in the ranking of BikesDirect.com bikes, the "Dawes" bikes are way below the "Motobecane" bikes as far as quality is concerned. Some of the components aren't bad -- the Truvativ Touro cranks are OK, and the Alex RP15 rims are... serviceable after being trued.

The first time out on a real ride, though, I fully stripped the cog. Or the hub; I can't tell because I can't get it off. Anyway, I was so disgusted that I had a new rear wheel built with a Mavic MA3 rim and an IRO hub, and moved all the parts to an old Bianchi Strada LX frame. Unfortunately, that frame had a crack and I've since moved all the parts back to the "Dawes", with the new rear wheel and new bars, stem, and brake lever. As soon as IRO is back from the hospital I'll be ordering a front IRO hub to lace into another MA3 so I have matching wheels. At that point, I'll take pics and actually try putting some miles on the bike. Hopefully the really cheap "Dawes" frame will hold up.

My point in all this? I hope your BikesDirect.com "Motobecane" is of much higher quality than my BikesDirect.com "Dawes". In the future, though, I'd highly recommend staying away from the BikesDirect.com bikes, and instead just grab an IRO, or a Bianchi Pista, or, heck, even the Redline fixie looks cool.

frogge

Hey,
This thread is interesting as there appears to be a conspirosy theorist that expects nobody has legitimate questions about cheap internet bikes and that everything is some advertising campaign. I will post pictures of my Motobecane Messenger complete with mods.. Personally, I would have prefered that the companies didn't rip off the old names and simply called them nice Taiwan frames. I bought a "Scattante" which was supergo's brand name and the company had no real history. The bike is great. Anyway, the hubs on the Messenger are cheap and although the ads say it has sealed bearings that's a reach. Good wheels really make a bike and I'm a believer in either building good ones or buying good ones. The exception to this is when the wheels are going to be subject to abuse. Until my son learns, I expect he'll abuse these pretty well. I trued them up and set the cones properly and expect that they'll be an adequate starting point. The Cranks on my bike are TruTaviv Touro and are dedicated track with a 48 chainring. I swapped that out since my experience so far is to go with lower gear and higher cadence. Toodels,Frogge.

jet sanchEz

I kinda like the green "Mercier" Kilo TT, is anyone with me?

tokidokizenzen

fixedpip is right, don't injur yourself I'm sorry if I sounded suggestive in that way. Even I myself had a little training before riding the 48 / 15. I was commuting on a MTB in top gear and never switching out. I can't say that my legs didn't hurt for several days either because they did! Do what your body tells you and don't jump in too fast.

sers

this thread reeks of bull****. i don't beleive for a second pathdoc is anything other than a rep for motobecane. his avatar, caption, and answers all seem way too prepackaged. right after someone calls him on being a viral marketer, he goes and starts some bs thread about track drops.

mattface 

well if he is a shill he's pretty good. he's been posting for about a week and a half on non-bikes direct topics in several different forums.

I'm not saying they DON'T try to promote themselves here, but overall I think bikeforums does more to discredit bikes direct than to advertise it. before I cam here i looked at those bikes on ebay with the same sort of interest a lot of newbs here show. Much like full suspension Walmart bikes, they look pretty nice when you don't know what to look for.

pathdoc

You sir are absolutely incorrect. Please feel free to research who I am. I am a physician, a pathologist by training having finished medical school at LSU in Shreveport in 1992. I completed my residency at the Ochsner Clinic in New Orlears in 1997. I currently work for the leading anatomic pathology service provider in the country and I managae a lab for a 200 bed hospital. Bike sales would not interest me and would be a serious pay cut.

I asked the handle bar question because I like the way the older style bars look. I didn't know the name of those bars but I'm considering putting them on this bike.

baxtefer

way to jump to conclusions.
he even posted in the "explain your screen name thread" last week.

salome

ugh.

mrRed

that word always reminds me of babysitting my lil' sister and Salute your Shorts on Nickelodeon.

pathdoc

What am I missing? Why can't I ask a simple question?

Anyone wanting to contact me, simply email me
hebert11@swbell.net
When I respond you'll have my office contact info.
Pretty easy to verify who I am.

salome

the point is you don't have to prove who you are by giving us your cv.

relax. it's just the bike forum.

mrRed

don't worry about people thinking you're fake. If you ignore those comments they go away, its one of those really simple lessons you're supposed to learn in kindergarten (unless you were too smart and skipped straight to 1st grade). Anyways, you seem to have received some good comments on what you got, and have some information to do some more exploring. Next time its probably best to consult your LBS (local bike shop) as they can lead you in the right direction.

mattface 

More importantly why do we NEED to verify who he is? If he's shilling for bikes direct he'll have to outshout all the IRO parrots to make any real headway here. If he's not, though, it's really obnoxious to alienate new members every time we suspect they are a troll or a shill. What does more long term damage to the forum accusing all newbies of being fake, or the occasional fake trying to shill a crummy product or just annoy people?

Hey for all you know I may be a Soma shill since I have this inexplicable love for my bike and my handlebars. or maybe... maybe I'm shants.

dirtyphotons

dude, i think the conversation has moved beyond you personally. your question was valid, but unfortunately close to some that have proven to be fraudulent. seriously, don't post personal information on the internet. especially when people are pissed off at certain individuals with whom you MIGHT be confused (i think at this point it's pretty obvious you are legit).

enjoy the bike, don't worry about what people say (both good all-around strategies)

mrRed

At least you weren't juvi-kyle. That was one of the wierdest experiences of my life.

fubar5

I am chuck norris.

I am here to promote my upcoming educational video on how nuclear scientists accelerate neutrons. It is really a very simple process, I walk in the room and the neutrons start running away and crash into other atoms and they (the other atoms) split.

shishi

ru saying tony has the same thing going as bikesdirect

Kenal0

Death by Roundhouse has increased %1000 since the birth of Chuck Norris.

shishi

I hate to admit it, but I do like the green

dirtyphotons

shishi is clearly a covert operative for the color green

mattface 

actually I'm saying quality product and good customer service trump shills every time when it comes to generating good word of mouth.












but then I would say that since I'm actually an IRO shill