almost every bike I buy is frame only.. so yeah I dont know how it rides :) until I build it.

I will not buy a bike I have not at least had the chance to touch and feel a close relative of.
I bought an IA16 based on test riding an IA14.
I bought a Juliana Furtardo based on demo'ing one for a week.
My bike shop got in the correct size carbon road bike for me to demo because they were that sure I'd love it. I bought that, too.
I took the actual CX and fat bikes that live in my basement for test rides.

My husband bought a gravel bike online that should by all accounts have fit him perfectly, but yet it never has and he's never been comfortable on it. We replaced it with a Trek that he test rode.

I would be extremely hesitant to buy another bike online. I thought really hard about it when I ordered my mountain bike because the spec on direct-to-consumer is unbeatable. At the end of the day, I decided I would rather pay the extra to have the peace of mind of having touched it and felt it.

I haven’t ridden a bike before purchasing in like 10 years. But I get a new tri bike every 2-3 years or so. So I purchase a similar stack and reach and it’s fine. But you are in a different situation having not purchased a bike in a while.

You’re in Houston? Go to Bike Lane in the Woodlands. They have the largest in store selection of tri bikes I’ve ever seen. For a Speed Concept, Bike Barns typically have these in stock.

You are right, Bike Lane has the only P5 I can find. Unfortunately it is too small for me. I'll drive up there as soon as I can to look at the bike.
Bike Barn does have an SC in stock so I can get my hands on one as well.

The only thing I can't put my hands on is a P3X.

Did you check out bike barn's shop in Rice Village? They definitely will have a few things in stock to check out (Speed concepts in stock).
Bicycle World ought to have a cervelo or two lying around one of their shops you could throw a leg over.

I was about to post this exact comment. I have a Speed Concept and my wife has a recent P2. While our fits are obviously different, we’re the same height, and I can ride her bike comfortably for short stretches. Relatively speaking, the P2 is definitely the more agile of the two. The SC is harder to turn, but it’s also easier to keep it tracking in a straight line.

i test rode several road bikes before buying my Tarmac Pro, I agree that you need right size frame and fitting to get real true feeling but you can also still tell a little about how aggressive your position can be and how the bike climbs and handles. It helped me eliminate a few choices i was interested in.

Road bike: Yes, rented (paid) for a one day rental with option of rental fee to count towards purchase if I liked it. Only adjusted saddle to my inseam. Stem is stock, but close enough for me to get a feel.
Mountain bike: Yes, rented (paid) for weekend rental. Saddle adjust to my inseam. Brake, shift levers are easy enough to re-angle on a mtb, so did that. Stock handlebar.

TT bike: No, not aware of any bike shop that will setup a TT bike to a specific fit. If they don't do that, there's no point in trying it out.

I've been professionally fitted twice, albeit long time ago (2011). Since then I've bought every single bike without testing it. That includes mountain bikes, road bike, gravel bike, tri bike. The upside is typically cheaper. Downside is you may need to experiement with some stem lengths, etc. to dial in fit. If I buy Specialized, I can get dailed in quickly. My gravel is Orbea and my tri is Felt. Those took a bit, especially the tri bike. I had ST help me a lot with that.

I would not hesistate to buy without testing.

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The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design.

How did you like the Omni? How did it compare to the Dimond?

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Let food be thy medicine...

Consider that the top athletes in the world typically have the least (no) choice. I don't think anyone on the ProTour turned down a contract because they didn't like the bike they would have to ride. The only thing close was Jordan's beef with Diamond a few years back.

In general, high end bikes today are so well designed and built that test rides are not needed.

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ECMGN Therapy Silicon Valley:
Depression, Neurocognitive problems, Dementias (Testing and Evaluation), Trauma and PTSD, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

Ditto

I laugh at the typical response when someone asks what bike they should get

"whatever bike your bikefitter recommends"

I've always found that odd. What if it's $5k out your price bracket, what if it's butt fuck ugly, what if it's reputation, build quality, resale is shit....

I do not believe test riding a bike is of any value at all. In fact I think it is counterproductive.
What do you want to learn from a test ride? How comfortable it is? How it handles? How it sounds? How it fits?
All of these things are untestable unless the bike is set up perfectly for you and that is considerably harder than just getting hold of a bike. Comfort is more about the saddle and it's exact position, tyres, tubes, tyre pressure and where you ride than it is about the bike frame or wheels (will you even be keeping the stock wheels?). If you go to test ride a bike, even if you put your own saddle on and have the opportunity to position it exactly as you're accustomed, you'll likely be riding on roads you don't know. Will you put on your own wheels, or, replace the tyres and tubes on the provided wheels with whatever you're accustomed to and set the pressures too? How about bar tape (more applicable to road bikes) - usually a much less critical item but still makes a difference. Then there's the fit. Will the bike be set up exactly to your fit or will it be eyeballed close enough? The difference can be dramatic IMO. Will you swap stems, handlebars/basebars, extensions and pads, is the crank length what you will be using?
Then there's the other big variable. How do you feel on the day? We all have good days and bad days. Will you know if you're having a good/bad day or be able to normalise for this when you do a test ride? Doesn't the weather and environment make a difference to how you enjoy every ride and how you will feel about the bike you're riding at the time? On top of all the real mechanical variables that it's extremely challenging to take out of the equation, there's the fact that you're making an incredibly subjective judgement which is far too easily thrown off by all these other factors. You might have a good ride or a bad ride. You might be comfortable or uncomfortable. You may feel fast or slow. But will you be able to reliably say why? I certainly couldn't.

In short. I don't think test rides tell you anything useful about the brand/model of bike you're riding. They just tell you about the specific setup of the exact example of the bike you rode on that day. You're judging the tyre pressure, and the saddle, and the cockpit position, etc.... not whether the Canyon Speedmax, Cervelo P3X, or Trek SC is a good bike that suits you. A test ride may cause you to dismiss a perfectly good bike or select a bad value one, based entirely on factors that are not related to whether it is a Canyon Speedmax, Cervelo P3X, Trek SC, or whatever. Test rides confuse the selection process with bad info. I realise a huge number of people will disagree with this view, but I'm convinced it's true.

I test rode bikes several years ago when replacing my road bike. After a couple of rides I realised the above was true and ditched the idea. I've since bought a road bike and a tri bike without having seen a single example of either in person. I have no regrets and will happily do the same again. The one advantage of seeing a bike in person is to judge the aesthetics. You may like to see the bike's proportions and paint scheme in person. But I don't think that's a showstopper either.

I bought my Canyon Endurace off the Internet (clearly!). I was surprised that I was recommended a Medium on their fit system, and expressed concern at the fixed 100mm stem length. They assured me it would fit, and I could exchange the cockpit if I was unhappy.

Well, it fits like a dream! They were right.

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29 years and counting

This applies more to less experienced riders, but I wouldn't be surprised if there are more badly fitted bikes from local stores than from good online retailers, especially Canyon. I've witnessed local stores more than once telling customers that the size they had in the store was perfect for them when it was patently obvious they should be going up or down a size. The local store often has a conflict of interest when it comes to fitting. They want to make the sale and ideally sell what they've already got in stock. I'm sure they'd prefer that you go away with a perfect fit, but more than one are willing to sacrifice long term customer satisfaction for immediate sales.

If you know your fit dimensions, it's easy to order something exactly right so long as the manufacturer provides a geometry chart for the frame. Most do. If you've already got a bike that's a good fit, you can just lift the data from that.
If you're not confident doing that, or you just want extra piece of mind. Get a bike fit from an independent fitter (not a bike store) and either get them to assess your proposed bike choices or just compare the fit dimensions they give you yourself. If you're unsure about what's a good fit, I'd go this route whether you're buying online OR locally!

I haven’t had a chance to ride it yet. Just got it.

Still have the Dimond. Dimond will be me race bike that barely gets ridden and the Omni will be my piece of shit training bike. 😁

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

Two bikesdirect bikes here. They fit fine but the bikes themselves are nothing special. Hell of a good price for what you get.

I'm a guy of average size and only have road bikes. I've never tried one before buying it.

Road bike fit is pretty easy for someone my size.

I'll add that this once hurt me - my feet hit the chainstays on an early-model Cannondale (which had really fat chainstays). I hadn't anticipated that. So I had to get rid of that one.

I think I did try a five-speed upright handlebar bike when I was a kid. Since then never.

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http://www.jt10000.com/

Can't remember the last bike I test rode before buying. Have some ridden harsher than others? Sure. But they all fit like a glove bc I have my fit coordinates written down...in 3 different places.

Once you get your ffit coordinates it's pretty easy to determine if a bike is going to fit you or not. A test ride on a bike the bike shop doesn't set up specifically to your coordinates may rule out THE BIKE for you and you may end up on something else that's just a bike to you

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

With the exception of my 2008 QR Lucero, every bike I have in the last 15 years I've designed, so I was test riding them even before they went into production :) The QR I bought as a frameset, and even though I knew the fit would be identical to my previous tri bike, the handling was drastically different...

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"I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 10, and I don't know why!"

Since 2009, I've probably had 25 bikes between road, mountain and TT. I have test ridden one or two. Never had an issue with fit either.

I have had a couple of bike fits over the years. So that you gives some idea of what will fit you. I am short leg long torso. So any bike with to short a top tube wont work for me. Bought TT frame without riding it and it worked fine.