On Fri, 11 Apr 2008 21:21:44 -0400, Yves Sauvageau wrote:

Is Batavus a good product? Any experiences with these bikes?

It's a good old brand from Holland, Europe. They mostly make utility/
commuter bikes for the Dutch market, and they're considered good at that,
just like Gazelle, Sparta, etc.
For road bikes it's just an average brand. Nothing special, but it might
have a good price/quality. I suspect they're frames are built in Taiwan,
or at least the far east. Nothing wrong with that, but it's not something
like Cannondale or so. I think they're mostly catering to people who know
Batavus from the normal bikes, want a road bike, and decide it should
also be a Batavus. I do think they suck at marketing. Last November I was
at the Dutch fair BikeMotion, and the Batavus stand just plain sucked. 1
guy behind a desk, writing. 2 or 3 bikes thrown in the stand, and that
was it. You do see a lot of Batavus road bikes here in Holland though.
But like I said, nothing wrong with them.
For mountainbikes it might be a bit different. Batavus mtb's are mostly
around the bottom of the market. If you want an LX or XT bike you should
look at Be One. Back in the 90's Batavus created Be One as a higher
profile mtb brand. They promoted a racing team, and did a lot of races,
even on a nice titanium hardtail. Be One as a brand moved a few times and
I'm not sure if they are owned by Batavus (owned by Accell?) anymore.

What bike ae you looking into?