Seen These Yet?
 

http://www.roadbikeoutlet.com/single...ixed-gear.html

Comparable to the Windsors, Moto or other cheapies? The Gavin does'nt look half bad. Both look pretty generic in the component department. That Vilano looks decent for $250 and comes in flat black. The decals look to be removeable stickers as well. ANyone care to comment?

Frame looks poorly built to me, from looking at the photos.

i like how they setup the handlebars. it instills a lot of trust.

those have even cheaper components then BD.com bikes. Unless someone has experience with these all you can do is buy one and hope you aren't replacing broken pieces within 2 weeks of owning it and then let everyone here know how it held up.

You get what you pay for.

Are'nt all the BD frames cheaply made. Is'nt all the stuff made in the same few factories in Taiwan? How much different can these be?

whats your margin for each one?

Oh man...
Spend $400-800 and ride a nice bike right away, or spend $800 over the course of a year or two and have a crap frame with a bunch of upgraded components. The cheapest bikes that are worth riding are @ bikes direct.


Measure twice, buy once.

Are the track ends crimped into the stays, like a $30 kids bike from K-mart?

no.

Looks that way to me. They appear to be Huffy-style pinch/spot-weld joints.

A new $250 fixed gear bike? You know, I was never much into Darwin but I'm starting to come around.

now that's some sound advice...

meh, whatever.

http://img118.imageshack.us/img118/2...chainstays.jpg

there are 2 different bikes. you can clearly see the crimping on the track ends, and the welding of the chainstays to the seattube looks as cheap as possible as well.

the vilano looks like total ****. the gavin actually looks like a decent (for it's pricepoint) bike. i do like the colors and the options... if i was in the market i would consider it, but i tend to be more of a risk-taker than some, i also don't ride my bikes super-hard. i wouldn't ever pay money for that vilano though.

Yes, I was referring to the Vilano. The other one looks potentially legit, however I'd still never buy one.

I went ahead a bought one. After putting in the time to tighten, ride, adjust, ride, re-adjust this bike, the Vilano is actually a solid & reliable bike. Here's the experience. Received the bike, the forks were bent one dropout was 3/4" ahead of the other. RBO made that right and sent a new fork. I performed the labor. The freewheel was also junk, that had to be destroyed by a vice and twisted off the wheel. Replaced that with a Dicta 16T freewheel with an easy on/off design. That's been resolved. The bottom bracket, that's going to take several attempts to adjust. Each time, I tightened, rode, re-tightened, rode and finally eliminated a clunky crank and bottom bracket. Fortunately, I had the time to do this and never left the neighborhood until the non-chain tooth side has just enough threading to tighten the lock ring on the bottom bracket with a hammer and screwdriver. The other thing, the wheels, those are going to have to be trued, laterally & radially. After this process, $ 256 delivered is now $ 289 from the local bike shop for parts & labor. The hex heads, those have to tightened to near stripped head torques. I can't vouch for the Bikes Direct products, but I figure any internet bike has to have assembly & wheel truing done. I did a good job adjusting the brakes and whatever I could do with the required hex head wrenches. To be honest, I wondered if this was ever going to be a bike I could ride more than a few blocks from home, but once I eliminated the clunk, I figured it was time to take it on a real distance ride. The assembly & tuning process wasn't pleasant, but did I get one that was partially assembled poorly is the question ? Did I get the worst possible bike out of the box ? Would everyone of the Vilano track bikes be this bad ?

I took it out on a 30+ mile test loop, my initial impression of a track bike is that once you get it going, it should be no different than riding a cromoly road bike for touring distances on flat land in the freewheel mode. And I was right about that. My Fuji road bike is a 12 speed, the Vilano gear ratio wise is between 9th and 10th on the Fuji. However, without derailer(s) and a longer chain with tensioner(s), there is less power inefficiencies in the drivetrain. I'd probably estimate it as between 10th & 11th for actual speed. On my ride, I take 2 bridges and a good speed run at the bridge incline while it's still flat land and I can take the bridges without leaving my seat and pedaling. After this ride, I was able to cover 15 miles one way in about 40 minutes, That's about 22.5 mph average speed. The Vilano's clunk was cured, in the 30+ miles rode the bike makes expected noises that one would expect from a new bike. It's a harsh ride, but 100 psi on 700 x 25's will do that.

I bought this one so that I could ride thru higher crime areas, even lock it up without fear that it would be stolen. The frame is rough in some regards (welds & runs in the paint finish), but it's solid though. And when I say higher crime areas, this would be South Beach, Miami, FL. One of the bike techs at Fritz's was adjusting my friend's new bike today, he had a story of a customer that bought 2 higher dollar bikes and within 3 hours of purchase, they had been stolen from one of the beachside parks where they were locked up. So the Vilano is actually a low cost, cheaper bike in comparison. if you are the unfortunate victim of a theft. Is a Windsor, Dawes, Motobecane from Bikes Direct a little better quality ? Perhaps so ? But at this point, this bike and this ride tell me the Vilano might be less appealing to be stolen and can reliably make a day of a visit to South Beach.

Eventually, I'd like to replace this one with a Classic Fuji track or Madison-level track bike, but sinking that much into one, I'd have to guard it like my other bikes. That being the case, I probably wouldn't replace the Vilano and use those bikes instead. Those bikes are really my straight ride transportation anyway. The Vilano is more of my cheap transportation, make a day of the trip and have less to worry about from the criminal element. Over the past week or so, sure it would piss me off if the Vilano was stolen, but not nearly as much as the other bikes, because replacing them is double what the Vilano would be. I joked about it, but stealing the Vilano, the thief might not get to where he was going, be doing me a favor to get a better bike. That's changed now with the Vilano. I have a feeling, cleaning it like I do, storing it indoors, this bike will be around for more than I could dislike a cheap bike ? Periodically, I will update a long term ownership & riding report here in this thread. Would I recommend a Vilano, sure, with these caveats and understanding of what you wind up with in this particular bike. It's still 1/2 the price of a name brand bike. As usual, there were less fit riders on the road today, and the Vilano under my power easily outran anyone I came across in this 30+ mile test ride. It would take a healthier individual to ourun me. And it would take a road or track bike to do it. Maybe a Lance Armstrong level rider on a Mountain bike could leave me behind ?

This

Too funny, the people I ride with are quick to point out the $ 400-800 ss/fg's that look cooler than mine a month into owning this one still. But cleaning & maintenance are key to keeping the bike looking showroom fresh and operating properly. Mine even gets bike envy on occasion. It's assembled & tuned, I have no problem riding it all day long.

Glad you like your bike, although if I had to buy from RBO, I would go with the Gavin over the Vilano, for the chromo frame over hi-ten.

In reality though, I would never support RBO because I've seen lots of shill reviewers all over the place. In terms of cheap bikes, I would rather support BD, who has an actual web presence, instead of a company with hired shills, which makes me really suspicious as to the actual quality of the bikes.

Yes, my purchasing decisions are affected by the company's business practices. I'm of those people who will make decisions based on principle . . .

i'd rather ride a conversion, especially if i was going to run freewheel.

gavin makes a sora roadbike that looks awesome. http://www.roadbikeoutlet.com/gavin-...-sti-54cm.html

of course, these are all pretty ****ty bikes. not near BD value, but how much do you really want to pay for low quality?

the road bike looks good in pictures, but someone I know has/had that bike, it's horrific. not sure if it's crap geometry or crap headset/fork, but handling is vague and not confidence inspiring, ride is harsh but the frame is flexy, heavy despite 7005 tubing (figured it was thick 6061 like a walmart bike), would probably rather throw an old 8sp STI group on bike boom hi-ten anchor than ride that gavin.

I wouldn't let my dog ride any of the bikes talked about in this thread