Ebay Bike Purchases--be Informed

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by levs
I have been shopping online and on E-Bay for a new bike. Two sellers with great deals on "2nd tier" products like Motobecane and Mercier are Bikesdirect.com and SPRTYMAMA, who sells mass numbers of bikes on Ebay. I have been doing some research on these businesses. It appears that Sptrymama is a woman named Courtney Spratt from Ponte Vedra, FL. I believe she has the license or owns the brand name for Motobecane and perhaps other brands. I also think she may run the very slimmed down Motobecane website. She and bikesdirect.com seem to be the only two businesses selling Motobecane on the internet. However, I have found Motobecane products at one LBS in Seattle, and they confirmed that the source is the same as on the internet sales.

My research reveals that Courtney Spratt and her husband Michael, appear to have been in the bike business for a number of years. They have strong connections with Bikesdirect.com owner David Sander, who also owns the Cycle Spectrum stores in Florida, Texas and one or two other states. see

http://www.sunbiz.org/scripts/cordet.exe?a1=DETFIL&n1=P01000109963&n2=OFFFWD&n3=0002&n4=P&r1=&r2=&r3=&r4=&r5=&r6=&r7=SANDERD&r8=

This is a link to the Florida Corportations Department which shows that a company called CS Bikes has Michael and Courtney Spratt as officers, as well as David Sandler. In other words, its possible bikesdirect.com = SPRTYMAMA = Cycle Spectrum.

What does this all mean? I am not sure. On the one hand, it seems that brands like Motobecane and Chinese made bikes are held by this one small company with very limited distribution and marketing and you need to be careful about warranty issues and quality. On the other hand, SPRTYMAMA has excellent feedback on Ebay and clearly has connections with Cycle Spectrum, which has about 30 +REAL bike shops. Also, the fact that, at least in my area, you can actually buy Motobecanes in an LBS is a good sign.

Hope this helps people out ther in the same position I have been in. Chime in.

The current Motobecane name has no connection to the old French company.The bikes use generic ,made in the orient frames,often from the same plants used by major brands,a name brand drivetrain and generic stuff for the rest.That, and selling direct or through a limited dealership means lower prices. Nthing new here. Be sure of how warranty or repair issues are handled before buying dierct. Returning whole bikes can be a major PITA.

SPRTYMAMA = bikesdirect.com = Cycle Spectrum.
Spratt owns both. I don't know why she does her thing, probably just another source of marketing for their bikes.

I just bought a Mercier from my LBS (Cycle Spectrum). Awesome deal! Bike is under 16 pounds, carbon for & seat stays, Ultegra drivetrain...The Frame has a lifetime warranty & labor at the shop is also lifetime. I knew that the lifetime labor is the life of Cycle Spectrum, but according to the comments above, the frame's lifetime warranty is also, the life of the LBS as well.

pharris said:

I just bought a Mercier from my LBS (Cycle Spectrum). Awesome deal! Bike is under 16 pounds, carbon for & seat stays, Ultegra drivetrain...The Frame has a lifetime warranty & labor at the shop is also lifetime. I knew that the lifetime labor is the life of Cycle Spectrum, but according to the comments above, the frame's lifetime warranty is also, the life of the LBS as well.

Probably a fine deal, but I'd question the weight and "lifetime" warranty. Bet the weight is closer to 18, and that the warranty excludes normal wear and tear, or wearout.

pharris said:

I just bought a Mercier from my LBS (Cycle Spectrum). Awesome deal! Bike is under 16 pounds, carbon for & seat stays, Ultegra drivetrain...The Frame has a lifetime warranty & labor at the shop is also lifetime. I knew that the lifetime labor is the life of Cycle Spectrum, but according to the comments above, the frame's lifetime warranty is also, the life of the LBS as well.

Probably a fine deal, but I'd bet the weight is closer to 18 lbs than 16, unless the frame is really small. Also, you'll want to read the "lifetime" warranty...bet it excludes normal wear and tear, or fatigue failures.

What do all of you think the real value of a lifetime frame is? In 3-5 years, our tastes and technology will have changed. I doubt I'll be riding the frame I'm on in that time. We'll want a larger rear dropout for the 12 speed cassettes then, and new materials will make frames 2 lbs, etc.

And what happens when someone crashes? Well, you're screwed. That Litespeed frame you spent $2k on is now totalled. Oh, but maybe they'll replace it for the low cost of $1200, which is still 3x more than you could buy a replacement Ti frame in China now.

Justifying something with a lifetime warranty sounds nice, but anything beyond 3 years seems somewhat pointless. And these things aren't transferrable, so in the first examples when you do get rid of it after defining tastes better or for advances in technology, noone has benefitted from that. Except the mfctr's marketing team.

dhk said:

Probably a fine deal, but I'd bet the weight is closer to 18 lbs than 16, unless the frame is really small. Also, you'll want to read the "lifetime" warranty...bet it excludes normal wear and tear, or fatigue failures.

dhk said:

Probably a fine deal, but I'd question the weight and "lifetime" warranty. Bet the weight is closer to 18, and that the warranty excludes normal wear and tear, or wearout.

I jsut put the bike on a digital scale (after adding the pedals - Performance/Forte spd's 200 grams) 17.12 lbs. I also know a very large person that had a frame problem but it was replaced, labor included no hassle.

pharris said:

I jsut put the bike on a digital scale (after adding the pedals - Performance/Forte spd's 200 grams) 17.12 lbs. I also know a very large person that had a frame problem but it was replaced, labor included no hassle.

Not sub-16 pounds, but still plenty light. Warranty support sounds fine too....hope you enjoy the bike.

jasong said:

What do all of you think the real value of a lifetime frame is? In 3-5 years, our tastes and technology will have changed. I doubt I'll be riding the frame I'm on in that time. We'll want a larger rear dropout for the 12 speed cassettes then, and new materials will make frames 2 lbs, etc.

And what happens when someone crashes? Well, you're screwed. That Litespeed frame you spent $2k on is now totalled. Oh, but maybe they'll replace it for the low cost of $1200, which is still 3x more than you could buy a replacement Ti frame in China now.

Justifying something with a lifetime warranty sounds nice, but anything beyond 3 years seems somewhat pointless. And these things aren't transferrable, so in the first examples when you do get rid of it after defining tastes better or for advances in technology, noone has benefitted from that. Except the mfctr's marketing team.

Agree the "lifetime" warranties from most manufacturers don't mean a lot. My point is that the "lifetime" warranty in most cases covers defects in materials and workmanship, not wearout, normal wear and tear, or fatigue failure of the frame. Any lightweight frame will fatigue and break with enough miles and stress. Litespeed's lifetime warranty on Ti frames excludes "normal wear and tear", just like most of the others I've seen.

For me, 10 years or 50,000 miles is a satisfactory fatigue life for a frame. I ride an AL/CF frame from a local builder that comes with the "lifetime" warranty against defects in materials and workmanship, but also has a 3 year performance warranty against fatigue failures. One of the hammerhead race customers may break this one in 3 seasons, but I'm pretty confident that it will last me for at least 10.