Originally Posted by veganbikes

It's not a French bike nor are those components Japanese. The Motobecane name was bought out by Bikes Direct to give their product some fake prestige and the low level components used on the bike might say Shimano but are from China or somewhere else with lower quality standards. Be honest with people, always a good policy.

As far as owning a cheap bike because of theft, the only reason to do that is if you haven't got a quality lock and use good locking practices. Plenty of very nice bikes that get locked up outside for long periods that don't get stolen.