Wednesday, August 26 2009, 12:00 AM
Bottomless CL Day!
Sick deals back to back all day long.
First, I've also enjoyed many great deals and been satisfied with the generally excellent customer service at BC and their myriad affiliated sites.
Be an educated consumer or a shady used-car salesman somewhere will see you coming and don't put it past them. Caveat emptor- let the buyer beware. No one likes to feel cheated.
No one can calculate percentages in their head, but if you don't recognize the difference between 45% off and 18% off it might cost you. Get a calculator and learn how to use it. Practice with it. Get used to the way it feels in your hand. With time and practice you'll gain the confidence of knowing that you are fully capable of defending yourself and your loved ones should the need arise.
CL/BT/SAC/TD/BC have been good people to deal with for the most part. I've gotten a ton of great deals. Never had an unsolvable issue.
If you want to put up a bike like the motolite / racerX with your "custom" build, be straight about it. Put the MSRP at $2400, and say that you're giving a 18% discount.
Don't treat me like I'm an idiot.
Shenanigans suck.
Or... did I just say shenanigans again?
Anyway, this is still the place to shop for ridiculous-to-stupid-ugly off-brand jerseys and gloves, so... there's that.
I looked into this when the Racer X came up the other day and Forkboy's right on point. Kudos to him for calling Chainlove on it. It's the same-old lame-ass deal with the Motolite: the bike offered is no where near the msrp Chainlove lists... not even close! Hence, the "45% off" discount here is absolute crap.
Shop around, friends. Don't be sold a bill of goods.
I think it's fair to say that this sort of thing (trolling for suckers by slapping a sub-par hodge-podge parts mix on a discounted/closeout frame and then advertising a deep discount by referencing the msrp for a completely different bike! is the modus operandi at Chainlove.com. No surprise- yet another online retailer with no scruples... meh.
Don't get me wrong, the actual price on these complete bikes is a fair price if you don't mind paying retail, but it's certainly not a deal of the caliber Chainlove would portray.
MSRP $3995?! They must've added up the msrp's on all those crappy left-over parts and passed ZERO savings on to you, the consumer. Kinda negates the entire objective of buying a complete bike in the first place wouldn't you say? The conventional thinking -of course- being that, by offering a complete bike, the manufacturer or dealer is able to provide a suitably spec'd ride and is able to pass some (considerable) degree of savings along to the consumer.
At the very least, go buy a Motolite with manufacturer spec'd "Mountain Kit 1" at Hucknroll for $2395. (An extra) $200 well-spent, IMO. Better yet, check the deals at a more reputable dealer.
Chainlove isn't trying hard enough to get my business.
Price stinks for those specs.
And I'm going to pistol whip the next guy who says shenanigans.
That Motolite (and a couple other Chainlove "Custom" builds) are NO WAY near the listed MSRP.
The base motolite on Titus' website retails for $2900 with a FOX fork, much nicer wheels, and better brakes. I could come pretty close to CL's price buying the parts off the shelf and building it up.