Dawes SST Build REVIEW, From Bikes Direct

I really want to believe in e-tailing. I want to believe in the promise of a smoother, faster, less expensive shopping experience. I'm an idealist.

And so, I suggested to one of my clients that she look into BikesDirect.com for her new bike. She wanted to save money on a simple city bike, and we figured they had the best option.

She bought the Dawes SST right off the site with Paypal, and in five day's time it arrived at my workshop door, in a nice brown box.

I opened it up, and saw they did a decent job with packaging:

All necessary parts were included, plus some unnecessary spare chainring bolts.

The headset right out of the box was so tight I couldn't move the fork, which I imagine they do to keep from flopping around while shipping, but I was worried the cups were damaged so I opened it up and was surprised to see grease:

Companies usually like to save five cents by not greasing anything, so it was a nice touch.

Overall, the bike quality is low, but so is the metric of judgement at $230. The wheels needed the hubs to be loosened, and were also pretty badly out of true. These are easy fixes for me, but for the average consumer, they'd have to pay an extra bike's worth of cash to fix that stuff, which pretty much annihilates the cost savings.

Ultimately, none of that matters. After running through all the basic, automatic functions I normally go through when building a bike, I went to put the freshly trued and adjusted front wheel into the fork, and quickly discovered this:

At some point the bike had been dropped on the front end, hard, and it bent the front fork dropouts, even though there was packaging on it. My guess is that this happened in the factory, before shipping, because the box it came in was in perfect shape on delivery.

Long story made longer: I won't be road-testing the bike. Pretty lame, Bikes Direct, pretty doggone lame.

And I'd like to add that this is not the first Bikes Direct bike I've seen with this exact same issue. In the past year I've handled at least 2 other bikes with bent dropouts. This is a bad sign for the internet bike business. One of the reasons people go through shops is so they don't have to deal with this nonsense, so if the internet can't fix their quality control, they're doomed.

Anyway, if it were possible to complete the bike, this is what it would have looked like:

Cheap, but not bad if it actually worked. 

Update:

My client emailed Bikes Direct, and here is their response:

Hello,

I am sorry to hear that the bike arrived with a slightly pinched fork dropout. Sometimes UPS can be a little too rough with packages.  Thanks for the helpful pictures. The good news is that the damage is only cosmetic and since the fork is steel, the dropout can actually be bent back open without affecting the integrity of the fork.  

What I normally do to fix a bent dropout is take a wrench, or any tool that can fit in the dropout, and use the leverage to open the dropout enough to allow the axle to fit.  This is a fairly easy repair to do.  If you feel comfortable making this adjustment I will gladly credit $35 back to the card used to purchase the bike.  

Let me know.

Thanks,

L---- at bikes direct

So, like a good little mechanic I took my little tools and went to work bending dropouts back into place. I've done this sort of thing before, but I always go to it with a bit of hesitation because experience has taught me there are no shortage of ways I can fuck up. 

Though, to Dawes's credit, or discredit, the dropouts bend very easily. Scarily easy, actually. I managed to chew up the paint pretty well too: 

Then, after getting the wheel all the way back in the dropout, I noticed it sat cockeyed in for fork, so I had to do a little filling to get it to sit straight:

So, after finishing with that blacksmith nonsense, I took it on a test ride.

Test ride thoughts:
Tires feel like solid rubber, need to be replaced ASAP.
Gearing way too high. No acceleration without tearing meniscus. Must put on larger freewheel. 
Hands hurt. Lever hoods are painful to touch. Must ride in drops at all times. 
Headset feels stiff, bike doesn't like to ride in straight lines. Geometry issue? 
Brakes are weak. Adjustability is poor.
Stock stem too long. 110mm on a 54cm bike? Crazy. 

After taking everything into account, I still think buying online is an OK option if the bike doesn't arrive damaged, assuming the rider doesn't have high expectations for performance. As a beater around Chicago, the Dawes will do its job fine. However, if the bike is meant to be ridden every day as primary transportation, I think a name-brand ride from a reputable shop is smarter, because after the cost of a professional build, new tires, new freewheel, and assorted other adjustments for comfort, the final cost of the Dawes is about $550. A new Felt Brougham, or similar bike, goes for $570, but comes with nicer wheels and is made of higher-grade (less bendable) steel than the Dawes.

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