# my bikesdirect / LBS experience



## nissan_clif (Apr 17, 2011)

Well I decided to post my experience after thinking it over for a good month+. I read/ lurked as a guest in the forums for weeks before I purchased anything. I know that if you say anything remotely positive about BD, you get attacked and called a "shill" but then realized I am not the only one that cannot put $1500.00 to infinity plus helmets, shorts, lights, gloves, pedals, shoes, etc into a new hobby for my wife and I before I even know if we will stick with it. My budget was orig. $800 plus must haves but I made it $1000 for two bikes plus essentials. 
1. My bike is a Fantom CX [email protected] $499. I wanted a road bike that I could take off-road and ride along side my 9 yr old son. I freaking love the way this bike feels. So far at 215 lbs, off -road and on, it has been great, especially on gravel paths. I added shimano 520 pedals and use cheap spd spin shoes (!). I shopped 4 local bike stores as I wanted to buy from them. It was eye opening, to say the least. I am 5'9" tall. The store that I wanted to buy from the most tried to shift me to 58cm straight road bike at a discount. Didn't matter that my package was wrapped around the top tube while standing over the bike or that I wanted to go off-road. Asked again about CX and was priced special order @$995 plus taxes for sora equipped bike. 2nd shop was VERY helpful. Had a beautiful cx bike with 105 for $1299. I almost apllied for credit to get it. Credit for a bike- not yet. they also had a used cx bike that I could get for $749. It was heavier than the Fantom by a couple of pounds. 3rd store was very retail box store-ish in approach. No real attempt to size me other than to ask my height. NO CX bikes at all. I could get a 2009 road bike for 599 though. I decided to think it over for a while (almost 2 wks) then emailed BD for recommendations and so on. I was nervous that I wasnt up to putting it together so I went slow, very slow, it was initially good. I then began to experiment with seat position, stem angle, etc. and wow what a difference. I bought my wife a schwinn searcher comp for $399 she wanted a light bike that was fast but not road style. Here is where I take serious issue with the "shill" crowd. You say that if the bike in BD is $399 then it is really only worth $399. In this case that is absolutely false. The fourth store was a schwinn specialist and offered to DISCOUNT this exact bike to $495 plus tax. Great guy, but if you start to add up my savings you will see that it ($) was the difference between being able to do this or not at all. For me and countless others it is start cheap but not too cheap, get the most for your money, and ride or wait until you can afford to buy the "right way" at the "right place" which very well may be never. Each LBS had a "lifetime" or 1 year service deal and discounts on accessories. However, I was then told that those agreements did not include repairs, only adjustments. The retail price of accessories is 25-50% higher than internet pricing to begin with so no real world savings there either. I still bought all accessories except lights, pedals, and shoes at the LBS's. I told them plainly what and where I bought when they asked. Seemed only slightly put off. Their prices are business decisions and so is my budget. If they treat me bad over it later, that is another business decision for both of us. She loves (10 on a scale of 1 to 10) her bike, too. We ride as a family now and I plan to buy a dedicated road bike next spring from LBS if possible, from BD if not. I use youtube and sheldon brown sites for diy maintenance. When the wheels need truing- to the LBS they will go- not even gonna try that one until I see it done by a pro. Point of all this is that BD is not everyones cup of tea but it is the perfect tea for some and the sport needs those people as well don't they? It just seems like there is a real concentrated effort to rip up BD and their owner, spokesperson, poster guy on here due to his previous "marketing" tactics. However, every thread I have read seems to lamely meander off topic once the trashing doesn't work or the BD guy defends himself and subsequently gets FREE, and more importantly, EFFECTIVE, advertising as a bonus. CLASSIC. 
Now things I would change: 1. phone number, sorry just seems wrong not to have this- add $10to each bike to offer a hotline if need be. I googled to find the obviously hidden number and found a number on the BBB site that had a outgoing message that said they were not BD. 2. 24 hour reply time not a high point. My company responds to email inquiries in under 30 minutes automated, and under 12 hours real response and sometimes, often, that is too long. That was the sum-total of the negatives. Think long and hard about sizing, DIY ability, and LBS repercussions but DO NOT let a bike snob make you feel stupid for buying an "inferior" product at a fake price as this is not the case at all. Not even close. All that said, I enjoy the forum and the amazing wealth of knowledge within.


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## Peanya (Jun 12, 2008)

Shill!


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## nissan_clif (Apr 17, 2011)

You caught me- I admit it, I am shillittron prime. Shillibots roll out!


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## Rage_Cycling (Dec 30, 2009)

Wow Shill is right.


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## nissan_clif (Apr 17, 2011)

just for clarity, are you the anti-shill or just pro-troll?


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## GFish (Apr 4, 2011)

Thanks for the write-up! Appreciate hearing from all sides, it's all good!


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## cda 455 (Aug 9, 2010)

nissan_clif said:


> Well I decided to post my experience after thinking it over for a good month+. I read/ lurked as a guest in the forums for weeks before I purchased anything. I know that if you say anything remotely positive about BD, you get attacked and called a "shill" but then realized I am not the only one that cannot put $1500.00 to infinity plus helmets, shorts, lights, gloves, pedals, shoes, etc into a new hobby for my wife and I before I even know if we will stick with it. My budget was orig. $800 plus must haves but I made it $1000 for two bikes plus essentials.
> 1. My bike is a Fantom CX [email protected] $499. I wanted a road bike that I could take off-road and ride along side my 9 yr old son. I freaking love the way this bike feels. So far at 215 lbs, off -road and on, it has been great, especially on gravel paths. I added shimano 520 pedals and use cheap spd spin shoes (!). I shopped 4 local bike stores as I wanted to buy from them. It was eye opening, to say the least. I am 5'9" tall. The store that I wanted to buy from the most tried to shift me to 58cm straight road bike at a discount. Didn't matter that my package was wrapped around the top tube while standing over the bike or that I wanted to go off-road. Asked again about CX and was priced special order @$995 plus taxes for sora equipped bike. 2nd shop was VERY helpful. Had a beautiful cx bike with 105 for $1299. I almost apllied for credit to get it. Credit for a bike- not yet. they also had a used cx bike that I could get for $749. It was heavier than the Fantom by a couple of pounds. 3rd store was very retail box store-ish in approach. No real attempt to size me other than to ask my height. NO CX bikes at all. I could get a 2009 road bike for 599 though. I decided to think it over for a while (almost 2 wks) then emailed BD for recommendations and so on. I was nervous that I wasnt up to putting it together so I went slow, very slow, it was initially good. I then began to experiment with seat position, stem angle, etc. and wow what a difference. I bought my wife a schwinn searcher comp for $399 she wanted a light bike that was fast but not road style. Here is where I take serious issue with the "shill" crowd. You say that if the bike in BD is $399 then it is really only worth $399. In this case that is absolutely false. The fourth store was a schwinn specialist and offered to DISCOUNT this exact bike to $495 plus tax. Great guy, but if you start to add up my savings you will see that it ($) was the difference between being able to do this or not at all. For me and countless others it is start cheap but not too cheap, get the most for your money, and ride or wait until you can afford to buy the "right way" at the "right place" which very well may be never. Each LBS had a "lifetime" or 1 year service deal and discounts on accessories. However, I was then told that those agreements did not include repairs, only adjustments. The retail price of accessories is 25-50% higher than internet pricing to begin with so no real world savings there either. I still bought all accessories except lights, pedals, and shoes at the LBS's. I told them plainly what and where I bought when they asked. Seemed only slightly put off. Their prices are business decisions and so is my budget. If they treat me bad over it later, that is another business decision for both of us. She loves (10 on a scale of 1 to 10) her bike, too. We ride as a family now and I plan to buy a dedicated road bike next spring from LBS if possible, from BD if not. I use youtube and sheldon brown sites for diy maintenance. When the wheels need truing- to the LBS they will go- not even gonna try that one until I see it done by a pro. Point of all this is that BD is not everyones cup of tea but it is the perfect tea for some and the sport needs those people as well don't they? It just seems like there is a real concentrated effort to rip up BD and their owner, spokesperson, poster guy on here due to his previous "marketing" tactics. However, every thread I have read seems to lamely meander off topic once the trashing doesn't work or the BD guy defends himself and subsequently gets FREE, and more importantly, EFFECTIVE, advertising as a bonus. CLASSIC.
> Now things I would change: 1. phone number, sorry just seems wrong not to have this- add $10to each bike to offer a hotline if need be. I googled to find the obviously hidden number and found a number on the BBB site that had a outgoing message that said they were not BD. 2. 24 hour reply time not a high point. My company responds to email inquiries in under 30 minutes automated, and under 12 hours real response and sometimes, often, that is too long. That was the sum-total of the negatives. Think long and hard about sizing, DIY ability, and LBS repercussions but DO NOT let a bike snob make you feel stupid for buying an "inferior" product at a fake price as this is not the case at all. Not even close. All that said, I enjoy the forum and the amazing wealth of knowledge within.


Paragraphs. Please use them.


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## nissan_clif (Apr 17, 2011)

figured I was gonna get roasted over the shill grill so I might as well make your eyes hurt a little:thumbsup:


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## sport7 (Jan 10, 2010)

Sorry Nissan, you don't sound like a shill.

Nice try.

If you want to do a Real Shill report, then a study of this forum is necessary. And a shill would not put his story into one long paragraph either, very annoying. 

Since you don't need to disprove your Shillery, then how about a few pictures? And i wanna see the venerable brown box it was shipped in sitting in your living room with a small hole in it where the bike got a scratch on it.

Note the 'edit' feature for future posts. You may forget yur paragraphs again and be able to go back and create a readable posting. Other than that, great post and a convincing story on what BD offers those who want to roll their own. :thumbsup:

PS, your doing fine with that low post count, but that is not enuf to put you in the Shill Hall of Fame. 

Looking forward to a Long term owners report, hope your still happy as time moves on. IMHO i don't think there is a 'correct' way to buy a bike. i just purchased a used one and am mostly satisfied with the thing. Like you, i was not interested in dropping $$$ on a bike, as we mostly ride for fun.


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## nissan_clif (Apr 17, 2011)

Thanks for the positively positive sarcasm. Glad to see someone else who doesn't take themselves overly serious. I will try to get pics of both bikes up but sorry no brown box pics taken. Can't think of a reason to take a pic of the box it came in. Maybe if it were a robot or worth $XXXX or something, maybe. I knew the unigraph would get me killed but I just didnt feel like using proper indentions and so on because I was in a confrontational-shill-defensive mode. I also posted thoughts out of sequence too. I will do better next time now that I am graduating from BD USA College of Shillery and Grammatical Lameness.


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## johnny dollar (Jul 21, 2010)

cda 455 said:


> Paragraphs. Please use them.


X2, It's too much to sit through a block of text that says nothing.


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## Utah (Apr 22, 2011)

Glad you had a good experience. I can't say enough good things about my BD experience. They were a pleasure to do business with before, during and after the sale.


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## oldjr (Feb 26, 2011)

Glad to see someone else had a good experience with BD. I bought my Immortal Pro about 2 months ago from BD and everything worked out fine. Great bike at a bargain price and no complaints. 
I still don't see how they sell so cheap. They must buy parts by the boat load.


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## joet (Dec 17, 2010)

I received my Sprint a couple of months ago. The weather here has been wet and cold but I have a little over 300 miles on it and have not had any problems.


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## QDog (Jun 30, 2010)

Hoho, nice  I don't hear the shill part as much as the frustration when you are new to biking and have a budget. After reading a bit online about bike 'fit' and what sounds to me like a bunch of smoke and mirrors in general, the LBS price usually just seems outrageous. My wife paid $150 to get a bike fit by a Physical Therapist that specializes in bike fitting, and I'd prefer to buy a cheaper bike online and go that route with better components if possible.

That said, not being able to see the bike in person is a big issue for some people, I ended up buying my wife's bike at REI so she could see it in person. We bought their house brand with a 20% coupon, so it seemed a fair deal and she liked the bike, as it was women's specific and fit her well. I have a BD Knight I like just fine, a BD Dawes 2300 for my step-daughter, a Kona Smoke I bought at the LBS when I first started biking (actually a great bike for the money, imho), and a Fuji Ace for my son I bought used at an LBS. So far I'm just as happy with BD bikes as the others.


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## martywoodman (Jan 10, 2010)

*My two cents*

I've gotten two bikes from BD, an entry-level road bike and then a titanium upgrade. No problems with either of them. I love to brag to the folks in my bike club about how little I pain for them. With some basic research and tools (like the online fit calculator) sizing can be done!


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## Xtyling (May 17, 2011)

nissan_clif: I totally agree with cda 455, please use paragraphs... or try using the "preview post" button. Your original post was an automatic turn off... I ended up reading everyone's comments except your post. 

I'm not a hater, I just have the attention span and concentration of a fly.


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## joet (Dec 17, 2010)

Just a follow-up.
I have just under 1000 miles on my Sprint. I did my first century last Saturday and still have the stock saddle.

I am very pleased with this bike.


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## Garilia (Feb 15, 2011)

I bought a mountain bike from them as my first purchase in many years. I love the Motobecane Fantom 29. I was considering another purchase from them, but I found a good deal from a LBS on a 2010 Jamis Quest and bought that. I will definitely consider BD.com as a source for my next purchase, but sometimes one just doesn't know, do one?


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