I just saw one of these in an LBS. It was in there because the derailleur hanger broke and the owner was having everything mounted on a new frame (not sure what). The main complaint was that this person could not get in touch with anyone who could help him at bikesdirect (common theme, apparently). Anyway, I'm not knocking the bike or anything, I just thought it was good enough info to share.

The bike was pretty sharp anyway.

excuse my ignorance, but this has a replaceable deraileur hanger--why chuck out the whole bike? sounds odd.

Good question. I can't say I know the answer. I didn't see the damage myself since it was sitting up and behind some stuff, and I didn't think to check it out anyway (too busy looking at the rest of the bike). I'm just going off what the guy in the shop was telling us.