Any Motobecane Riders (Bicycles)?

Guyon

Guyon

Biscuit Whisperer
Super Mod
Joined
Mar 15, 2000
Messages
45,835
Am thinking of getting this 29'er.

http://www.bikesdirect.com/products/motobecane/fantom29pro_SL.htm

It's not a "major" brand, but most everything I've read from actual riders has been positive. Frame is made in Taiwan like a lot of decent frames, and the components are just top-notch for the money. No shipping, no tax.

I'm assuming this warranty would cover a cracked frame, though it explicitly has a disclaimer for bent frames:
http://www.motobecane.com/warranty001.html

Anyone else ride a Motobecane bike?
 
f29sl_600.jpg



Click here to see larger image of bike.



.
 
My friend has two Motobecane bikes from BikeDirect, one is a 26" with hydraulic discs and a FS with remote lockout, and the other is a simpler cyclocross bike. He loves them, but I think the frame design on the mountain bike is a little funny... feels too aggressive and sluggish onroad and a bit squirrelly offroad. My mountain bike is a Trek that I've slowly been upgrading and I prefer the handling on mine a lot better. I smoke him on trails too.

I also have a fixed gear bike from BikesDirect and it rides really well... best $300 I could have spent on a road bike.

IMHO BikesDirect has great service and shipping, but being able to try before you buy gives local bike shops the upper hand.
 
I've had a couple of guys come into the shop this year to get their MB's built. Appearently you can find some pretty good scores online if you know where to look.

Actually a couple of the bikes that came through were pretty solid rigs...
 
Guyon, in case I didn't mention it before, if you're not intimately familiar with bikes I'd plan on taking it to a shop for assembly. My Windsor came almost totally stripped down. I'm a pretty handy fellow, and not afraid to break something putting it together:D, but it took me about 30 seconds to decide to cough up the $$ and have it done right. The mechanic at the bike shop here even commented on how stripped down it arrived;) However, it's holding up well, though at about 300 lbs. I'm hard on tubes. Lots of pinch flats and thorns, though replacing the stock tubes with Specialized tubes cut the flats down a lot! Next plan of attack is to drill out the wheels for regular stems and run tires with sealant (which you can't do with presta valves, apparantly)
 
Looks like a good spec on the bike, at any rate; decent components. Most all the Motobecanes I see are ancient 10-speed roadsters which like the Peugeots and Ralieghs just seem to keep on rolling...

I have only seen one bike with the 29" wheels, a nicely-built custom item from Vicious Cycles. I understand the idea; rolling over obstacles a bit easier. I can recall way back to the early 70s when putting a 21" front wheel on your motocross machine was considered way rad....
 
WalterDavis said:
Next plan of attack is to drill out the wheels for regular stems and run tires with sealant (which you can't do with presta valves, apparantly)
Click to expand...

It's a bad idea to drill out the rims as you could easily weaken them. I would highly suggest you don't do that.

Both Slime and True Goo make presta tubes w/sealant, there may be others as well. I know the valves on the Slime tubes are designed so you can take them apart to add more later. The "TR" on some of the True Goo ones means "thorn resistant" so they are thicker rubber.
 
mwerner said:
Most all the Motobecanes I see are ancient 10-speed roadsters which like the Peugeots and Ralieghs just seem to keep on rolling...
Click to expand...

The original company went bankrupt in the 80s, was bought by Yamaha and reformed to make scooters under the name MBK. The only relation the current ones have to the old ones is the name...
 
IMHO for road bikes forget the slime. They are supposed to work only up to 90psi and I find that 90psi is even stretching it... hit a bump and the plug will pop and you'll just have a flat again.
 
I have a Motobecane Cafe Latte, which I bought from Bikes Direct.

I looked at Bike Shops, Bike Warehouses, Sporting Goods stores, etc before buying it. It was the best deal for the money. I used their sizing chart and I seem to have gotten the right size. I put it together myself, then took it to a bike shop to let them tune it. I'd recommend it unless you are really up on such things.

I've been very satisfied with it and would buy another if the need arose. I still think it's a good deal.
 
Slime tubes are the suck. Adds nothing but weight and mess... If you really want the benifits of a good sealant go with a Stan's Notubes tubeless kit. I'm running some Conti Mountain King 29x2.2 tires tubeless on my Fisher right now and will probable never go back to tubes on my MTB's.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top