>>1672696bikesdirect bikes are good deals and often have sensible spec. The thing is that they aren't assembled very well. So if you buy one, you probably want to grease stuff, adjust the bearings, true the wheels, and tune the brakes and drivetrain.
The skills required are similar really to buying a used bike. I'd say they're most suited to people who know about wrenching already.
those bikes specifically are very very low end. A mid-range 90s bike would be much better. For example, those have hiten steel (heavy) and you could get chromoly. Those have freewheel hubs (archaic garbage tech prone to bending axles) and you could get a cassette. Stem shifts, the tourney parts, those suck ass too.
If you don't have a good local used bike market, those bikes could be worse. If that's all the money you have, fine. But it would be better to buy used or spend a bit more
