Karl wrote:
Problem is that you are buying without taking a test drive. Worries me a bit.
I know, most lbs can not stock high end bikes anyway.
I, too, am hoping for the end of the year
The thing is, if you're buying a high end bike, you likely already know your fit anyway, or else can work with a bike fitter to get your coordinates and figure out which size and model works for you. So no real need to test drive it for fit. My experience with Canyon has also been really good on this front - I have one on order (3 month lead time in UK by the way, which doesn't bode well for their ability to scale up and get into the US this year), I had a RETUL fit done a few years ago so just sent them the numbers from that and have had good discussions about sizing so I'm very comfortable that the bike will fit when it arrives.
So if you're not test driving for fit, you're test driving for other factors like stiffness, ride quality, etc. I've been riding road and tri bikes for nearly 25 years, and I can honestly say that I don't think it's possible to make a meaningful judgement of these things on a test ride. If I had the opportunity to get a Canyon, set it up exactly like my current bike (fit, bar tape, saddle, pedals, tires, wheels, etc), and then ride both bikes back to back on the same road, then it's just possible I could make a meaningful comparison. But even then I suspect there would be things I maybe didn't like on the first ride which grew on me with time. If you're test riding a bike that is set up even a little bit differently to your current bike, then IMHO the test is largely meaningless.