I have no interest whatsoever in the decal on the downtube. I have not a lot of respect for people who do.
yeah, I know well what Motobecane used to be. So what? I am not buying a 40-year-old bike. I am buying the bike in the ad .... and not the decal, but the frame and parts.
If you think the bike is equivalent to the Trek ... then you think the Trek is barely better than a big-box bike? really? When did Trek go sown the tubes?
Up a ways mstateglfr said, "Dude, your earlier rant missed the mark. Just accept it and move on." I didn't "like" the post because I didn't feel like piling on. You made a (in my estimation) dumb post, and you had a chance to just drop it and get back to discussing more cogent points.
Now ... sorry, I have to repeat that.
Again ... no one cares who owns a brand. just like no one cars how many frames ---for Most manufacturers---come from a few Taiwan companies and are made in communist China. No one cares, because the frames are fine. No one cares that Shimano parts are made either in China or in Malaysia by low-cost, low-skill labor .... because this is the age of CAd, and mostly the workers just load blanks and collect milled parts to move them to the boxing line. and nobody cares who owns Shimano---I mean, does anyone think the original owners are still alive? Does anyone think the guys who designed their first fishing reels or first bike parts are still alive? Nope, because people judge them by what they do ... the parts work reliably, so who cares what the name of the CEO might be?
BD bought up names and most of its customers don't have a clue what those names mean. Most people buying a "Motobecane" from BD have never heard of Motobecane---they are just buying a bike with almost the same parts spec and a lower price than the big-name brands.
You are just looking for a fight .... and no one wants to bother because you don't have a valid cause.
I mentioned above---I was part of a charity bike ride which bought a couple dozen BD bikes, unboxed them, adjusted them to fit the riders one evening, and the next day set off on a cross-country tour LA to DC. ZERO bike failures. If you think you could go to any Walmart, scoop up two dozen bikes and ride them 3000 miles trouble free .... prove it.
None of the BD bikes had the forks on backward.