Evaluating a new bike

Peddle Up!

Whenever I'm thinking of buying a new car I'll read the reviews, draw up a short list of candidate models, then contact the relevant dealers to arrange a test drive. I always try to go for at least an hour's drive, if possible, and without a salesman in the car bending my ear. Most times I'm lucky, but sometimes not.

When it comes to bike upgrading time, I imagined that the process would be similar (without the passenger, obviously ), but is it?

How many dealers have demo bikes available, complete with pedals fixed and are prepared to let you ride one for a decent time? I would imagine at least one short hill climb would be needed to compare models. Whenever I look around the larger cycle dealers that have a wide range of models, they are usually in pre-delivery state, and not ready for riding. I've bought my last two bikes from a small dealer who is very accommodating regarding test rides, but he obviously has limited stock.

What happens guys?

twotyred

I'd never spend £1000 or more on a bike without test riding 2-3 for at least 20 mins each. I always go to Epic Cycles in Tenbury Wells even though they are 90 miles away because they do proper test rides and set each test bike up with your riding position. The three bikes I tested a couple of weeks ago even had the same wheels fitted so any differences I felt were down to the bikes and not the wheels.

Unfortunately I think shops offering this level of service are few and far between.

Pretre

The higher up the scale you go the less likely that there will be test bikes anyhwere.
It simply doesn't make economic sense to keep a number of different sized £3.5k frames built-up with all the required components (at least another £1k & usually a lot more) lying around in case someone wants a test ride.

I agree it's not a good situation but it's just the way it is, especially in smaller bike shops who can't afford to have stock of almost anything lying around.
As an example,I was speaking to the LBS the other day & they said someone had ordered one of the top-end £6.5k Storck frames & they were forced to take payment in full up front, in spite of the fact that it would proobably be another couple of months before it was delivered to the shop - there is absolutely no way they could have a stock of them in for test rides!
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father_jack

Test bikes are the ones they will sell, they're not going to have a "basher bike" and when someone decides to buy it, get a brand new one boxed up or order it in. Not unless they're a huge shop (halfords or similar) A small shop wouldn't be able to do this, think about it they'd need demo bikes of every single model they sell, plus each on in each size. It's just not possible. And they'd need to take a deposit on the loan, I think many people might not like that. But what if the customer trashes the bike or damages it slightly, they can no longer sell it off as ex-demo (or heavily discount it or repair it) My mate took bike for a test ride, he bought it. But what if he didn't? It's been used so can't sell it off as new. So a instant loss. Imagine that for every bike in the shop.

Peddle Up!

Quite. I agree with all of the above, and the sheer economic sense for the dealers is clear.

BUT, whenever someone asks about getting a new bike, the advice is to "ride as many as you can until you find one that fits you and feels right". So, how do you do that?

Anonymous

The trick is to ride as many as you can, not as many as you'd like to ride!