Areal C.

The rear derailleur on my girlfriend's bike snapped in half. She is over 60, only weighs 105 lbs., and rides green trails. That's bad enough as it should have failed like that. There was no crash or fall, no marks on the component. It just broke going over a very small root. To make matters worse, SRAM refused to honor the warranty, as they felt the mounting bracket should have broken first. Well SRAM, it didn't. Getting a response took weeks for the first one, and then nothing. Bad product, pathetic customer service.

It's been months, and I can't get these people to post my record, tell me why it isn't posted, or even answer a simple e-mail. I think it may be all fake.

I cant say enough bad things about Bikes Direct. When the bike arrived, there not one, but two components that were bad. Rather than apologize and offer replacements, I was pointed to videos on how to repair these parts. It took a month of fighting before they finally replaced the bent components. Recently, I had a bike shop and an independent repair professional try to remove one of the tires, as I could not (and Im fairly experienced with this). One pro couldnt get if off at all. The shop said the fit was ridiculously tight, and it was absurd to expect a consumer to be able to do this on the trail. This is a safety hazard as you could be miles out a trail with a flat. Larry from Bikes Direct response was that he mounted 100s of these. Good for you Larry, but two professional bike people who I took these tires to had difficulties. One could not remove it without damaging the tire. Larry offered me a tire at cost, but the deal he offered me was exactly the same as I could buy it brand new on the web. Since this fiasco, I purchased a second bike from another online retailer and it was much better and customer service was much better. However, if you like to argue, fight, and fix a brand new bike, Bikes Direct is for you.