My complaint with the new Motebecanes is that the historically Motebecane manufactured their bikes. Now the name of Motebecane is owned by a marketing company. This is a troubling trend in the bicycle industry. It seems that nobody makes anything anymore. It's easier for a marketing company to open a catalog and place an order for their line of bicycles. Also a bulk of the bicycles sold today are made by a handful of Taiwanese and/or Chinese companies. I think this is the reason current production bikes are so similar. These small marketing companies like the one that owns the Motebecane name don't have good design capabilities and knowledge so they tend to follow the crowd and also take what the manufacturers say is available. The big manufacturers will let you "customize" your bikes a little but only within certain parameters. Bigger companies like Specialized order enough bikes so that they design what they want and can have it made. But so many other marketing companies don't order enough frames to warrant the additional cost involved with having unique designs manufactured. This can be seen is many other brands and Motebecane is following this trend.
Curt Goodrich Bicycles
607 NE 22nd Ave.
Minneapolis, MN 55418
612.788.6812