ironnerd

I may be necropositng here, but...

I am looking at BD for a Motobecane Gravel X1. Last time I had a Motobecane, the A-Team was on Prime Time TV, so I am wondering if Motobecane is still a good brand (my old bike was actually pretty nice for the times), and if the Gravel X1 is worth the price.
[LINK]

I'm just kind of over my 30lb 2" tire mountain bike for commuting, and thinking the 38mm tired Moto will be a good all 'round kinda bike.

tyrion

The Motobecane name in U.S. is now owned by Bikesdirect. Not much relation to the old French bikes.

ironnerd

Okay... does the old name go on bikes worth the money?

tyrion

I think Bikesdirect bikes are good value. I've owned a couple - no issues. There are plenty of comments on these forums about Bikesdirect.

ironnerd

Thanks.
It does seem from all the comments in this thread that BD does provide an acceptable value for the money (in addition to sponsoring parts of this forum).

Starting to look like NBD is getting closer.

delbiker1 

I have looked at a lot of bikes on BD but have never purchased one from them. They do have some very attractive pricing on some quality machines. I think they probably save money by using lower quality, less cost on various parts/components that are installed by them during the build. I think they probably also cut time in the setting up/tuning of the bikes. As stated by other posters, if you have the ability to finish putting the bike together, making adjustments to the fit, changing out parts/components when you get the bike and are ok with having to do those things, go for it. I purchased a bike from Adrenalinebikes.com a couple of years ago, a 2014 model Orbea Avant MD 40, that was new when I bought it in 2016. It was a process to get everything the way I wanted it and for it to be comfortable for me. I knew when I bought it that I would have to mount different handlebars, stem, saddle, eventually wheels and whatever else came up. I was okay with that because the bike was priced at about half of what the original MSRP was. The one change that made the biggest difference in the ride and handling was upgrading the wheelset.

88Tempo

My wife and I just picked up two BikesDirect bikes at Goodwill.

1. Aluminum Motobecane Mirage with Tourney 2x7 group. The nubbins are still on the center of the Kenda tires so it hasn't been ridden hardly at all. I'm going to tear it down and weigh the separate parts. It's in my size too.

2. Windsor Clockwork single speed in her size. This one also shows pretty much no sign of use.

My son and his wife are on their second set of BD bikes after their first ones were stolen.

I put the second set together for them with no issues. Pretty good looking bikes IMO. I wouldn't have any issues ordering one for myself if I felt the need.

Maelochs

Bikes Direct saves money by not advertising and not developing. They use the same frames as most of the rest of the market around that price-point, and they are up-front about the components they use---usually FSA crank sets, whoever's stems and seat posts, cheap saddles .... I tend to change the seat post and saddle on just about any bike---saddles for fit and seat posts for weight. Cheap stems generally aren't a lot heavier or weaker, in my experience, and unless one is building super-light, i don;'t generally change the bars.

BD bikes are about on par with bikes costing a fair amount more money---the wheels and tires won't be top-rank, the frame will be on par, the components .... well same components on any bike ..... the big differences are the decals on the down tube and the lack of local shop support.

I have dealt with quite a few of them and own one. I check their site periodically, and they often have some pretty great deals, but never on the bike I need art the time.

frogman

So what ? Lets discuss it some more. Lightning won't come down and strike.

Juan Foote

Zombie quote! It's ALIVE......

Admittedly, not sure I have ever had an almost two year old comment quoted.

ironnerd

Impressive find! There could be a whole thread dedicated to great Goodwill bike finds. I know there have been a few that have tempted me.

My Motobecane Gravel X1 is on its way. Many thanks to the members of this thread for the information. I'll let ya'll know how it turns out. My wife already has my old bike sold, so this new one better be a good ride (lol).

Robert C

My Bikes Direct bike. I use it as a daily commuter. My only real complaint was that the parts seem to have been tightened down by a gorilla with an air wrench.
Yes, the suspension is garbage, but I knew that when I purchased the bike. Overall, I am happy with it.


At some point I will probably get one of their Full Suspension e-bikes, but not right now. In the meantime, this serves adequately.

greatscott

The more money you spend on a BD bike the more ahead you will be of bikes found in LBS's, the lower costing bikes you could probably find the same sort of stuff at Dicks, so no real savings. I have read of some odd complaints about BD, apparently they don't check over the bikes well at all when they shove them out the door, because some were assembled without any lube, not sure what BD did to rectify that problem. I suggest for $75 or so is have a bike shop do all the assembly and check to make sure everything is properly lubed and adjusted. One guy I read on a forum got a bike with a stiff chain link he didn't find out about till he rode it the first time and it tore the derailleur hanger and derailleur off the bike, BD did send him replacement parts but he had to pay to have it repaired. So expect odd stuff, but don't worry too much over it because in reality that sort of things I mentioned are rare from reviews I've read, but prepare yourself to make sure everything is gone over with a fine tooth comb before you ride it. In the reviews I read BD does take some liberty in sending you a bike that isn't exactly as it was described, and their read up of any bike they offer for sale does state that, so keep that in mind. Also according to a few reviewers that weighed their bikes evidently BD is off by at least a half a pound on the heavy side from their advertised weight.

Like I said if I was shopping for a lower end bike I would just go to Dicks and get a Diamondback.

sheyn

last year i got Windsor tourist from BD.
Got on a flash sale for 400 size 64cm.. honestly for that money i couldnt find anything at that price in that size so for me was a no brainer.
I replaced triple crankset and BB with deore, changed saddle, stem,handlebars.. Sold most of it on CL and invested another 50-100 prolly.

So far it has been solid NYC commuter. Its heavy and geometry is bit odd for me [frame being kinda low to ground], but for my size best bang for buck i found so far..
my $.002

dynodonn 

I bought two bikes from Bikes Direct, and I quickly learned online photos don't tell the whole story, I eventually scrapped one of the bikes due to it having too much flex in the bottom bracket area, since this caused me to expend far more energy in pedaling, Not a good situation when I had a 400 foot climb home every night after work. I since have bought bikes at the LBS, since I could do a actual hands on test at the store, rather than having to find out after assembly out of the box.

ironnerd

I plan to give it a good inspection when I get my BD bike tomorrow.

Good advice though. Thanks.

mstateglfr 

Curious to hear what model was flexin too much.

dynodonn 

It was the Café Noir model, being a steel bike, the manufacturer decided to try and make it light, but ended up making the frame rather thin in strategic points, like the bottom bracket. Not only was bottom bracket area flexing, but the adjustable handle bar stem was flexing considerably as well, and was replaced with a solid version, though the bottom bracket was the Achilles Heel, causing the bike to eventually be scrapped.




Save up to 60% off new Hybrid Bicycles | Road Bikes Cafe Noir

carlos danger

gonna let you all in a on a little secret here.

almost all bikes made from aluminum are made in like 3-4 different factories. in taiwan/china. they are usually made by a worker putting in tubes into a fixture and an ABB robot arm with a mig welder head welds it up in like 35 seconds. done! thats it. no matter if it cost 500 or 5k. almost all of them, are made in the few big factories. the high dollar ones used more sexy shaped tubes. thats it.

giant/specialized/trek/merida/cannondale they all do this. sure giant and merida actually own the factories. but in the end its all the same shizzle imo.

bikedirect get all their bikes from the same factories that giant/specialized/trek do too.
they may use lower spec and cheaper tubes. non bent and "non sexy". but its good enough imo. the frames are usually not subpar in costruction.

cheap bikes use cheap components. i have real problems building a bike for less than 3500€ that i personally think its just barely good enough. ymmv though.

CycleryNorth81

You didn't just let the cat out of bag, you let all the cats out of the bag

Phil_gretz

Yup. "M" in this case is for Marketing. Its like WSI and the Centurion brand.

I'm completely satisfied with everything I've ever purchased from BD or BikeIsland. Maybe a dozen different bikes for myself, spouse, friends. But, I like bikes. So...

Phil_gretz

Yeah, that's not so. It must be fun to live in a world with broad strokes and assumptions get you by. In the real world, we rely more heavily on facts. Google "Kinesis".

Kapusta

This fact is anything but secret. But it does not mean what many people seem to think it does.

Just because frames come from the same factory, does not mean they are of the same quality. Aside from tubing materials and internal butting (which matter a lot), there can be specification in terms of allowable tolerances, and this makes a difference in terms of quality and manufacture cost. Are the complicated bits cast that way or CNC'ed? Welding thin metal is more exacting than welding thick metal. What sort of pivot bearings are specified?

I am not saying there is reason to doubt the manufacturing quality of BD frames, but the fact that they may come from the same factory as a Santa Cruz does not really mean a whole lot. Whether a frame is flexy or prone to crack is more often due to the specified design than the actual manufacturing of that design.

RidingMatthew

i know this is a resurrected thread but I got 20,000 miles out of a bikes direct bike. FantomCX,

I upgraded to a new bike because I want wider tires, disk brakes, more mounts, and I broke a wheel (3rd set on the bike) . When I added it all up a newer bike was a better deal. I think I got my $600 out of the bike and then some.

luevelvet

From reading their Wikipedia page it seems the original statement was partially correct...

"Brands also manufactured by Kinesis include Commencal, Diamondback Bicycles, Felt Bicycles, GT Bicycles, Haro, Ideal, Jamis, K2, Kona, Kross, Raleigh, Redline Bicycles, Santa Cruz Bicycles, Schwinn, Storck, Sunn, Titus Cycles, Torker, and Trek[4] — as well as the brands marketed by the U.S. company Bikesdirect.com: Motobecane USA, Dawes USA, Cycles Mercier, Windsor America."