Can anyone give me the skinny on Motobecane?

in before "use the search function" !!

this is about what they were:
linky

this is what they are:
linky

motobecane is the name of a bicycle.

are you speaking of the motobecane messanger or their 70s 80s road bikes?

I saw a new Motobécane bike for sale. I wondered if the new bikes were any good.

actually i'm wondering the same thing...i hope by "skinny" you meant..how is the build quality..how is their reliabilty..anyone have any problems with them...would you take money out of your own pocket to buy one? if that is what adam meant, then i for one am wondering also. thanks!

They were good "mid-range" French-made road bikes thirty years ago. Their name is currently owned by an E-Bay operation that sells the sort of bikes you would expect to buy from an E-Bay sort of operation. Generic Asian frames, outfitted with a mismash of surplus, overstock, and brand x components and wheels.

The best bike, of any type, or any price range, is the bike sold at the corner bike shop. Proper assembly, tuning, and wheel truing is the difference between a poor quality ride and a great ride.

frames are generally made in Taiwan, rest of it ranges from entry level truvativ and shimano to occasional campy gruppos with the road bikes

their entry level track bikes are exactly that, not necessarily bad, but not top of the line either, the pedals will be junk, so will the hubs, and the rims wont be anything special, but for the $$ it will work and be perfectly ridable till you can wear out that stuff and buy replacements

I just ordered a 105 equipped sport bike from them(bikesdirect.com), should be here this week I do believe

for the price, its a good bike. i swapped the stem and bars out for a nitto dynamic and nitto bullhorns, but everything else is stock and hasn't failed me yet. The only problem was the stock clips which broke on my first ride, but I switched them out for some ****ty clips i had on my trek 1000, since I've put soma clips and leather straps, which I like a helluvalot better. Overall it's holding up. Oh, I've only had the wheels trued once. Here's a pic I took in may.

IBUTSF?
IBUTSF!

use the search function

MOTOBECANE uses the same frames that Fuji, Trek and other high end companies use. They all get their frames made by the same asian maufacturer.

Motobecane is currently sold by a company that buys the cheapest stuff they can find. Trek has a large factory in Wisconsin that makes its high end bikes. Fuji owns its own factories in Japan and Taiwan.

Both Trek and Fuji have purchased lower priced frames from suppliers in Taiwan. Those frames are designed or approved by Trek and Fuji engineers, meet Trek and Fuji quality standards, and are sold with the Trek and Fuji factory warranties.

Bottom-feeders in the bike industry will buy "clone" bikes. These are bikes that look EXACTLY like a model from a real bike company, although they may be of far lower quality. But, the bottom-feeders don't employ engineers, don't have a quality testing laboratory, and don't supply their customers with a meaningful warranty. Looking LIKE a real bike does not make a clone into a real bike.

One guy here in Houston bought a Motobecane. When the seatpost broke after two weeks, he asked for a replacement. He was told "that bike comes with an odd size of seatpost that we can't locate".

Buyer beware.

Iautsf!

Oh my lord....that is the funniest thing ive heard today. There are very few Taiwan manufacturers,most of the U.S.(and the rest of the world) use the same plants for there bikes.....thats how they keep cost down.

One guy here in Houston bought a Motobecane. When the seatpost broke after two weeks, he asked for a replacement. He was told "that bike comes with an odd size of seatpost that we can't locate".

Buyer beware.[/QUOTE]


Just saw this.......my messenger/track has a 27.2 seat post. I know its an odd size......where will i ever find a replacement**********????

i thought i had you on "ignore".

you are a moron.

Here's a cool (at least I think so) little Motobecane. Bought for $50 at Community Cycles in Boulder and put all my stuff on except cranks due to French B/B lol I kinda like the Stronglight cranks anyway with the "pentagram" look and all. Rides like a dream actually, just as good as my Colnago did when it was a fixie (needed a road bike so in the interest of saving $$$$ turned Nago back into one)

So, explain how are Amercan 420's, Ritchey WCS seat post and stem, FSA carbon cranks, full Ultegra, Cane Creek, etc.. the cheapest they can find? It may not be pro race stuff, but your statment is nonsence.

1: I bought a Bikesdirect bike that came with all Ultegra, (including crank and brakes) Ritchey wheels, and Ritchey cockpit.

How is that cheap? Any bike (including Treks and Fujis) can be specced with cheap or decent parts. That really means nothing about a manufacturer. There are different budgets for different people. Not everyone can afford or even wants Dura Ace. That makes the manufacturer a bad guy for providing many levels of models and prices?

2: Trek still makes it's high end frames in America. (What, $5000+?) Everything else is made in Taiwan. As in 99%.

3: Many of the Bikesdirect frames are rebadged Fujis. That kinda makes your whole argument spin around on itself and suck itself in. Like a black hole.

4: You need help.

Az

that dude is a ******bag from way back towards bikes direct and motobecane.

It's worth noting that Bikes Direct offers about the cheapest
full-carbon, full Dura Ace bike I've seen, for those who are
so inclined.

Obviously the only quantifiable differences here is the quality of the frame, and the shipping and service received. Dura-Ace is Dura-Ace, etc. I got turned on to these guys a couple of months ago, and what they offer seems to be quite nice at a very good price.

Actually, about the only negative I can find is that I really prefer to build my own bikes - not so much for the savings, but for the sheer enjoyment of doing it. Now, if they were just willing to sell the framesets . . . . . . . .