Where to go to Demo Giant and Specialised

anronmor

Hi,
I´m in the market for a new bike but as I´m a bit on the tall side, 2m I´d like to try out a few bikes but am too late for demo days.

I´m thinking along the lines of a Giant Trance 2 or Specialised Stumpjumper, but would like to try some more all mountain bikes too to see if they fit the bill as I have a decent XZ hardtail already and could do with something that would take abuse.

Also I¨m interested in a frame exchange on a recently deceased cannondale frame.

Could do with somewhere where I could demo a few bikes and possibly do a frame exchange deal on the cannondale, can anyone suggest a dealer?
Thanks
Ronan

Mrs Toast

Best way to find dealers that are local to you (you haven't said where you're from! ) is to look at the websites of the brands you're interested in - they pretty much all have a 'Find a Dealer' page.

Leisure Lakes have a decent demo fleet of bikes, if you want to try a couple of different brands (Specialized, Cannondale, Commencal, etc) from one shop. They're also pretty good at getting unusual sizes direct from the manufacturers' demo fleets - they got me a small Meta in to try for the weekend, but alas, it was too big. You can also get frames only on certain brands too.

Most places will charge £50 for you to test the bike over a weekend, which they'll deduct if you end up buying the bike - this is stop people from using them as a free hire service. In a way, it's preferable to a demo day - you get more than half an hour, and can make sure that you test it on trails you're familiar with, but obviously it's a bit costly if you want to test quite a few.

T'husband's 6ft 7, and he's always got on very well with the XL Specialized bikes (Enduro, Stumpjumper HT, etc). His current full-suss is a XL Meta 5.5, which he loves.

anronmor

Hi, thanks for the reply, will have a look at the commencal meta, good to hear another tall fella likes those bikes.

Forgot to mention I´m from Ireland so I will probably be travelling over to test ride,as I dont think any shops in Ireland have the range of bikes or sizes I need.
I guess a dealer with a few trails near would be ideal.
Thanks

Mrs Toast

Don't know if you're in Northern Ireland or the Republic, but Real Cycles are a Commencal dealer based in Northern Ireland, and we've always found them to be really good (hubby got his Meta from there, I got advice on a suitable workstand, and then the Park Tools workstand itself from there). They've also got a physical shop too, they're not just mail order.

anronmor

I¨m actually form the republic, west coast but real cycles looks worth the trip, I´ll shoot them a mail, thanks