Bicycle-Fi! - Page 2

My admiration and hat off to you sir.

I envy you in the Chicago area (at least between June and September ). The Atlanta area is not bicycle friendly. Chicago area is a bicycle haven in comparison.

I used to ride the prairie path at least weekly. The farm country on the Illinois/Wisconsin border was wonderful. Sigh.

One of the few things I miss about leaving the area.

On the other hand, mountains are 40 minutes away from where I live.

One thing though, the road bikers here tend to be more hard-core riders.

I let some punk kid ride my bike, He complimented it over and over. The next day I left my garage open and his bike was laying where my bike use to be... the dog slept throught he whole thing.

Seattle, Portland, Santa Barbara, Denver

I'm surprised no one from Seattle, Portland, Santa Barbara, or Denver have chimed in, these are very good to excellent bicycle towns. I'm in the SF Bay Area (East Bay) and have no complaints. 2/3rds of my bike commute is on Emeryville to Richmond section of the SF Bay Trail.

Straight from the horses mouth. I worked DIRECTLY UNDER THE OWNER OF BIKES DIRECT. He lives in my city and all the proto bikes came to my shop for market testing first. Also, all the bikes he sent to magazines, also came to my shop after they were tested and sold severely discounted.

Any of your bikes direct bikes will absolutely be on par with any thing offered by any other company. In fact, one of our sales pitches were "The gruppo alone on this bikes is worth $xxx. Thats more expensive than the price of this bike. You can buy this bike for the gruppo, and if you don't like it, buy the frame of the bike you like, and swap it to it. You can connect the dots with the parts offered on this bike and the $1000+ more expensive cannondale or trek...same parts, same weight, different sticker on the frame. Also, those shops don't FREE service for LIFE." And 90% of the time, it worked. I was the Sales Manager.

Very lucrative guy, but he has a HOT wife, and lots of money from his business savvy attitude. And FWIW, the frames that are made in Taiwan (most everything from Bikesdirect, or in his shops are taiwanese made because of a QC standpoint), are made in the SAME MAJOR FACTORY most companies get their bikes from. With road bikes sharing the same geo and tubing material, the only difference many times is the stickers put onto the frame. Many of your bicycle companies look at a catalog offered by the plant, and pick what they want and it's built. Most of the time, it's a frame they already offer, and it's just color schemes. The bikes direct bikes are no different (nor are any other companies).

As much as I hate to say it...they are the best deal in bikes today....and frankly, almost always have been.

oicdn, i believe that the factory in taiwan you are talking about is owned by giant?

i used to ride quite a bit when i was in thailand. there used to be a lot of cool twisty singletrack near around where we lived, but now ever since moving to the united states-- a year ago-- i have not biked much. but i've settled down well enough here now to start again. in fact just this morning, a friend from work and i went to a local bike shop to ask them about local trails and to pick up a pair of shorts. hopefully, we should start soon. or maybe if one of you guys is from nj, we could meet up on a weekend to check out some local singletrack. that would be cool!

i have a pretty customized mountain bike bike, though the frame is nothing fancy, i bought a complete trek 6500 a while back and slowly updated most parts, my most prized possession being a nice pair of wheels with chris king hubs (though i'll never buy another one again, xt hubs with dt swiss rims are the way to go). the frame is a little big for me, but i'll probably change it out sooner or later once i start biking again. i was planning to buy a fixie or a rigid 29er singlespeed some time ago, but i did not seeing as i could not make time to ride. but if i get back to it-- i hope i do soon-- i will surely pick up a haro masi fixie or their cheapish steel 29er. wee, that would be fun! i've never ridden with 29 inch wheels and am looking forward to it someday. though, if i can ever afford it, i would really want to pick up a knolly endorphin fully someday. drroooool

btw, when i went to the bike shop today i was very surprised to see that a pair of kenda nevegals cost 55 bucks here!! is that a normal cost for a pair of decent tyres in the states? i brought quite a few of my spare nevegals from thailand with me which i bought for about 8 dollars a pair over there!! boy, am i glad i brought them along!

also, most importantly: this thread needs pics!

Not sure if it's owned by Giant, but I know a large portion of the bicycle industry that has bikes from Taiwan come from like 1 of 2 factories.

Bikes Direct has an AWESOME benefits plan if you can sell bikes, as the guy is all about volume. If you can't push bikes out the door, you soon found yourself out the door.

But the bikes themselves, despite all the elitist arseholes out there who won't ride anything that's not Colnago or Trek....they're just upset that this bike for 1/10 the price has the same components, lol. They'll pick all over the bikes in the bike forums, yet, if it's the frame you're concerned about (which you shouldn't be), buy another frame and swap all the aprts to it and save some dough!!!!

Hey, can anyone recommend on what to do for the pain I have in my rear end after long riding sessions?

Campbell Street Bicycle Shop

I was concerned about the fit of the frame. I did a little research and found how to measure myself, did some measurements and calculations then found a great fit at Bikes Direct. I am going into the second season and no complaints so far.

Another thing is the owner is readily accessible on RoadBikeReview Forums - Cycling Discussion
He has quickly responded to my questions on the forum and via PM. Despite what the elitist naysayers say I have had nothing but a good experience.

FWIW, that's not the owner (atleast when I was working there it wasn't). When I was there, it was a little asian guy named Joe, who seemed like he was on coke. He was literally like a superhero with all the multitasking he'd get from the owner and just his daily activities, and he'd GET IT DONE. Great guy, hardworker, PROBABLY underpaid.

Things may have changed as far as that goes, it may be his wife responding (who is also in charge of their eBay market), but a couple buddies of mine still manage a shop (and has been running it for 9-10 years), so I still somewhat have an inside track.

I guess I incorrectly assumed that Mike who is on the forum regularly was the owner.

Well, Mike is the owner...but he doesn't visit the forums. He's honestly, not much into bikes. He's into the dollar, and the knowledge of bikes, comes through his staff and feedback. The guy doesn't even cycle. His wife however, is an AVID cyclist and really really frickin good.