Bicycle Peeps - Have we talked about Bikesdirect.com?

So, I'm an ex-bmx guy, ran national levels up to a nasty wreck that ended me in 17expert.  Now an old guy with bike capable kiddos (6 & 13) needing to get back to exercise and fun with the fam. 
 

I recently gutted the garage O bikes at a garage sale and needed to get a new ride.  As a bmx guy I wanted a rigid with capability, which in new bike terms equals gravel bike.  
 

I hunted all the used markets and it seemed like 80% of new price for well worn stuff.  A couple real riders (competition trialethalon types) suggested a few brands I hadn't heard of.

As I did my GRM (Cheapskate) hunting I stumbled on the BikesDirect.com site.  I scored a 3k Canyon Saris CF Comp ($3k bike) for $1,176 shipped.  I did a bunch of research and it seems like they are a wholesale slow moving inventory low buck group.  Psyched to be in the game for a pretty high end machine for less than the $1,400 bottom end machines.  Will report back upon receipt.

In reply to 84FSP :

Looking forward to your report. I bought my current bike in 2005, and with the bulk of MonZora work behind me, I am ready for a new steed.

Im not seeing a "Canyon Saris CF Comp" on their website so its tough to do a deep dive, but here is what I can tell you about Bikes Direct.

• The components they advertise in their callouts are pretty decent - driveline, forks, wheels, etc.  The big ticket items.
• Their small ticket items - seat, seatpost, bottom bracket, grips, tires, cables, handlebars, etc - are all absolute crap.  Even on the "high end" bikes they are Wal-mart spec, or best case $500 bike spec.
• They will often claim "XT" or "Ultegra" and the only Ultegra components are the rear derailleur and maybe the shifters.  The rest is an odd mix of whatever they got on closeout, doing things like mixing a KMC chain with Shimano Cassette.
• Their paint is typically crappy.
• The resale value is $0.00 due to the lack of brand recognition
• There is no after-sale support
• If you break something specific to the frame you are 100% SOL
• The geometry is weird and not always in keeping with modern geometry.  Its not always accurate or completely published. There are some weird compromises in their larger and smaller sizes that the mainstream brands do not make.

That all being said, if you are a handy dude, don't care about resale, and are looking at a $2000 bike from a store, they do represent a decent value.    If you plan on taking a bike to the shop to have it serviced, just buy a bike from a shop as the initial spend delta will be returned in store support, service, and potential warranty claims.    I wouldn't buy a complicated bike from Bikes Direct (suspension, e-bike, etc).  If you treat them like Harbor Freight and go in with Harbor Freight expectation levels, you will not be too disappointed.  

I'm on my 3rd BD bike.

Bought my first steel frame fixie in 2010. Rode it 5 years until it got stolen. Otherwise very happy with it. Slowly replaced wear items with parts from my LBS.

Bought my first aluminum frame SS 29er in 2014. Rode it 3 years until I moved. Same thing, slowly replaced wear items with name brand.

Bought my second aluminum frame SS 29er in 2019. Still riding it a few hours every day. Big flan. Big flan.

I have bought several bikes from BD; been happy with all of them.  I work on all of my own bikes and have a good friend who runs a bike shop, so I don't really need support.  My Motobecane fat bike has been a gem for many years, riding all over the forests and swamps (I once swam across a creek with it, it floats well with the fat tires).  I would not necessarily agree with the poster above who mentions crappy ancillary parts.  They aren't fancy name brand but they are serviceable and definitely not Walmart "Denali grip shift on a drop bar bike" spec.  My favorite seat is a SLR clone they put on their road bikes; we used to have a local BD shop and I'd stop by to get the take-off seats for $10 apiece!

I considered buying a titanium gravel bike from them but the guys at Bilenky wouldn't put S&S couplers in it for me.  I bought a Lynskey instead.. and Bilenky had to reshape the oval downtube to put the coupler in, which was a giant pain in the ass.  :-)

I appreciate all the input.  Got the receipt for the order so it's coming!

The bike in question.

See this is exactly why I take issue with BD - its not comparable to a $2499 bike on this or any other planet.

Compare, for example, a Giant Revolt Advanced 3 which you can get for $2400 at any local bike shop.

https://www.giant-bicycles.com/us/revolt-advanced-3 

The Giant has a lot going for it.

• 2x10 vs 2x8
• GRX and Tiagra driveline vs Claris driveline
• Hydraulic disks vs cable disks
• Support of a local shop
• Warranty

Is all that worth an additional $1300?  Maybe, maybe not.  

Trek offers their Domane AL2 Disc for $1200.   This is essentially the same bike as the BD with an aluminum frame instead of carbon.  Still has a carbon fork, and in this price range that is the real value point.

https://www.trekbikes.com/us/en_US/bikes/road-bikes/performance-road-bikes/domane/domane-al/domane-al-2-disc/p/33083/?colorCode=black

• Both are Claris 2x8
• Both are cable disk
• Trek has warranty and support and resale
• BD has a carbon frame

To put it another way, a BD bike is the equivalent of the Stauer watches and other Chinese trinkets advertised in Hemmings.  Decent for the price?  Sure.  Comparable to a Rolex?  Not in this lifetime.  

The new bike market is flooded now that the supply chains are recovering. Too many near-new bikes posted up for sale, all the new riders ditching the sport now that they are back in the office. Was just watching a youtube video from a store owner saying he doesn't have enough room to store the inventory he has. Probably a great time to go score a deal, especially if you need riding gear to go along with the bike. Looks like you already took advatage of the deals.

During the pandemic Bike Boom, I looked at BD but had issues actually finding something in stock from them and ended up getting a Polygon bike from BikesOnline, a competitor in direct-to-consumer sales. That was (and is) their in-house brand, with most of them being built in the same factory that makes Marin bikes. Fast forward to now, and they sell both Polygon AND Marin bikes on their site! I'm pretty happy with my Heist X5 "Adventure Hybrid" (basically a gravel bike with flat bars and a comfort suspension fork). Only issue I've had with it is the plastic Suntour NVX fork lockout lever is stripped so it's stuck in rigid mode. That reminds me, I need to fix that. That's more of a Suntour issue than a Polygon problem, though. All of the other parts of the bike, from the components to the frame itself, have been stellar. Build quality is excellent and on par with any bike store bike I've seen. 

With any bike in a direct-to-consumer model, look at the components. Even big box store bikes can be had with decent "real" components these days, so there's no excuse for a BD or BO bike not to have competitive parts bolted to it these days.

That Gravity carbon bike you picked looks nice! Good luck with it! 

Everyone was/is overstocked on bikes this spring.   
 

I was able to pickup a handful of bikes for 50% straight off the showroom floor. 

I picked up a Canyon Grizl 6 a few months ago, what had been their lowest spec, for about $1500 USD shipped to my door.  Mostly GRX400 components but an FSA crank which may or may not be an issue.  Juice brakes with the GRX400 and otherwise decent components.  Don't regret it in the least.  My thinking with the Grizl was that I might as well get hydraulic brakes now instead of wishing I had later and spending a lot more to get there.  The above bike doesn't really seem worth it if you don't want cable brakes.  

My 2 cents and worth less as I'm not that knowledgeable but I am happy with my purchase.  Canyon had an update to the Grizl line and pricing & parts have shifted slightly.  I'm seriously thinking about putting some narrower street tires on it for speed as I don't plan on doing much with actual gravel or similar riding.

Back on topic. I know a couple dudes who ride bikes direct bikes and they're right there with me on the group rides.  People will argue about components and what not until the cows come home.   Beyond making sure your stuff Dosent break, rider skill and endurance/power is more important. so get out and ride. 
 

See video for reference. 
 

Someone mentioned it above, but pay attention to geometry.  Some of their bikes used to have some really wonky geometry.  My fat bike had really narrow rims, and they got squirrelly, not always in a this-is-fun-because-fat-bike kind of way.  I always play around with components, so it didn't matter too much what came on it.

I bought that fat bike there, and my brother has bought a mountain bike and a gravel bike.  I put all three together.  We were perfectly happy, but I think we knew better than to expect too much.

Will see when I get it together.  I was comfortable with the 1000-1400 price point and had intended to buy used vs new.  The used options were thin in the gravel category and were well used in the 800-1000 range.  The new bikes were steel/al.  Some had carbon forks some did not.  This one gets me into a much lighter carbon setup with similar features to those at the bottom end of my $ comfort range.

Ok - long awaited review of the new machine ready.  Had a nice neighborhood ride after assembling the beast.  Aside from needing a bit of derailure fiddling for one or two rear gears it's great.  
 

Super light and fits me perfect with 61cm for my 6'4" ape self.

Only thing that may get upgraded immediately is hydraulic brakes.  We'll give them a second to break in before I decide but thwy are not confidence inspiring like the hydraulics on my son's Trek.

Changing to hydro brifters might require a whole new drivetrain.  I'm not totally in the loop these days, but I don't think there are any 3x8 groups with integrated hydraulic brakes.

With mechanical disk brakes, good pads and setup make a world of difference.  I'd spend some time fiddling with them before throwing down the money on new components.

Bike looks really good! I'm surprised your saddle is that low being 6'4" but we are all built differently.

Increasing the rotor diameters is a good/cheap way to get more power out of the system for less effort. Going from the stock looking 160 mm rotors up to a 185 (even just in the front) just requires the rotor and adapter, you could even go up to 200. The fork/owners manual might call out not using a larger rotor but I feel like those warnings are more against throwing 4 pot hydraulic brakes on the bike and going downhill racing, with cable actuated brakes the potential forces are much lower and something I would not be afraid of. 

Pads make a difference like mentioned above, if you can get something like a kool-stop that should help. A lot of these brakes use older Shimano Deore shaped pads in them so lots of different options and compounds are available.

Lastly compressionless cables make another big difference for the brakes and a spot where they would have cheaped out. With standard cable housings a lot of your effort/lever throw is wasted before it gets to the actual calipers. Jag-wire compressionless brake housings and cables are affordable and really improve things.

Appreciate the input guys. 

Overall super happy and I do also get the MFG warranty which calms fears of issues down the line.  I'm an old hand at bike maintenance so not worried about service after the sale.  The stock 160mm brake rotors and improving as they bed in.  I did a bit of homework and it appears I can upgrade front and rear to 203mm rotors for ~$50 all in.  At that price point it's like worth it.  I managed to snag some high end mtn bike clipless shoes for $70/pair, about 50% off list and amazing they fit like a dream.  Took some short runs and am totally amazed at the difference the clipless pedals and shoes make.  Love it. 

Now there are zero excuses to me getting my out of shape arse out on the bike.

Glad you like it so far.

203 rotors may not fit without hitting the chainstays or forks.  Keep in mind the chainstays are not straight, they curve in.  Better chance on the fork but still not likely.  Double check before doing anything - note that geometry differences on different frame sizes may work for or against you.  I would not trust a BD carbon frame with the additional loading of a +40mm brake rotor anyway.

Change the pads and rotors for something less than walmart grade and it will stop better.  I am not sure where you are getting decent 203 rotors and pads for $25/corner but I wouldnt trust them at that price point unless they are name brand at super duper mega clearance.  

Lose the dork disk on the back.

You will need to change your complete braking/shifting setup to go hydraulic discs, or you can try the TRP HyRyd (cable actuated hydraulic brakes) which are actually pretty darn nice but cost $120/corner.