Test Rides

alanwooldridge

Hi

I am thinking about getting into road biking or possibly using the bike to Commute, i would like to try one before t buy one but can not find any where that offer this.

When i say try i would like to see how difficult a road bike is on the roads, i have been using Mountain bikes for a while and they can be difficult and slow doing large distances.

Can any one offer any advice?

Thanks

Alan

CiB

Go and buy a bike, discover how good it is then, then worry about buying the right bike next year (or sometime next week) once you've got an idea of what you actually want.

Evans offer test rides. Is there one near you?

alanwooldridge

I think i do have a Evans near by thanks

Ho much easier is riding a road bike in comparison to a Mountain bike and what kind of disatnce can the average rider complete in a day.

danlikesbikes

My LBS let me test ride 3 bikes before I could make my mind up. Plus I went to anther and tried 2 of their bikes but just couldn't get on with feel of the 2 brands I was trying.

You might find that shops have lots of people just wanting to try the bike without riding it. Maybe look up your LBS see what they have and if the price looks OK go in and talk to them about the bike the fit and ask if you can ride it.

CiB

alanwooldridge wrote:

Ho much easier is riding a road bike in comparison to a Mountain bike and what kind of disatnce can the average rider complete in a day.

It's dead easy, you just sit on it and pedal. Roads are generally smooth & flat compared to mountains. I occasionally ride to the in-laws 108 miles away, regularly do the 21 miles to work by bike and pop up to my folks' farm 47 miles away on a whim.

Seriously, don't over-think your first bike. Buy something nice that makes you smile when you look at it so that you'll want to be on it, then worry about upgrading etc once you're into it.

Mikey41

alanwooldridge wrote:

I think i do have a Evans near by thanks

Ho much easier is riding a road bike in comparison to a Mountain bike and what kind of disatnce can the average rider complete in a day.

As a guide, I've been riding about 5 months and I've just got back from a 16 mile ride that I have done in a little over an hour. If I had food with me and I paced myself right, there's no reason I could not have carried on for 50 miles. A road bike is massively easier than an MTB on the road.

I got test rides from my LBS and it really is the way to go to choose a bike.

Mikey23

My LBS are quite happy for bikes to go out as long as road conditions are not too mucky. They also have a demo bike that you can borrow for a longer period. I suspect that quite a few do the same. They would be entitled to be peeved if you then went and bought it off the Internet... But I'm sure you wouldn't do that!

wishitwasallflat

Any Specialized Concept store has access to test bikes that you can take away for a few days - when I bought my first one I was really unsure as well and it was great to be able to try a bike for a week on the roads I would be riding before making the outlay. Ok there are only Spesh bikes available but there are lots of good Spesh bikes in the range and for me I just could not afford to make a mistake being poor.

MartinB2444

Before getting my road bike I was using a mountain bike on the roads. It took me a couple of rides to fully get used to the road bike - the lighter weight makes it a bit more skittish esp in winds and, obviously the brake levers and gear shifters are different. The road bike was worth 2+mph extra although I didn't always feel faster. The road bike position does encourage you to push on though and descending is much more rewarding.