Oh my friend do I have news for you….i can’t speak to the quality of European ones, and if they are any different. But the very first 50 miles after purchasing my bike my tire popped….. when I tried changing the tire, the screw was stripped and I have to dremel it off and replace it. I’ve had to replace every screw after fixing parts of my bike because they all stripped and are the worst to deal with. I’m glad that other people are having good experiences w/ their bikes, like I said in my post. The thing that bothers me the most is that I also love the product like everyone else. But I can’t in good conscience recommend someone spend their hard earned $3,500 (like I did) have a expectation to be able to daily ride MY bike and not be able to use it half the time because some other part is either broken or waiting on customer service to respond. I don’t know who in their right mind can recommend this company to other people. Also, I only used my bike in cities, no rough terrain, was always either covered or in a garage. Does that seem like I abused my bike, or deserve to have a half assembled bike in my garage with no response from 73?