I bought the Mercier Orion AL from BikesDirect (imagine that!) on a Sunday, it arrived on Thursday. Box came in good shape, no holes besides the hand holds to carry the box. Everything was packed well (everything was zip tied together with foam around parts that could be scratched), but when I pulled it out of the box and took all of the packaging off, I noticed the pedals, release for the front wheel, reflectors, and stem cap were all missing.
I emailed BikesDirect (since they give no phone number) and they replied within 2 hours that if I provided my order info and mailing address, they would mail me the parts box that was missing. While I waited for the parts box to arrive, I checked out the rest of the bike. When I went to air up the tires, the back tire inflated fine, but the front would not take any air. I took the tire off and noticed the tube was completely pinched down in around the Presta valve. So pinched, in fact, that as much as I tried, it wouldn't come out without ripping the tube. Emailed BikesDirect, didn't get a response...oh well, wasn't an expensive fix.
Bought a new tube, got the box of parts in the mail Wednesday (pretty fast, imo) and the bike was ready to ride. The first thing I noticed was something was loose in the back wheel. When I would be going slow, I could hear something rattling around the rim, so I took the wheel off, took the tire and tube off, but whatever it is was too big to fit out of the valve hole in the rim. Not a big deal, but a little annoying for sure.
The bike rides great! This is my first road bike (moving up from a Trek 820) so I don't have much to compare it to. Didn't need to make any adjustments past the brakes and getting the seat in the right position and so far I've put about 100 miles on it I'll post a pic later.
I emailed BikesDirect (since they give no phone number) and they replied within 2 hours that if I provided my order info and mailing address, they would mail me the parts box that was missing. While I waited for the parts box to arrive, I checked out the rest of the bike. When I went to air up the tires, the back tire inflated fine, but the front would not take any air. I took the tire off and noticed the tube was completely pinched down in around the Presta valve. So pinched, in fact, that as much as I tried, it wouldn't come out without ripping the tube. Emailed BikesDirect, didn't get a response...oh well, wasn't an expensive fix.
Bought a new tube, got the box of parts in the mail Wednesday (pretty fast, imo) and the bike was ready to ride. The first thing I noticed was something was loose in the back wheel. When I would be going slow, I could hear something rattling around the rim, so I took the wheel off, took the tire and tube off, but whatever it is was too big to fit out of the valve hole in the rim. Not a big deal, but a little annoying for sure.
The bike rides great! This is my first road bike (moving up from a Trek 820) so I don't have much to compare it to. Didn't need to make any adjustments past the brakes and getting the seat in the right position and so far I've put about 100 miles on it I'll post a pic later.