You may have seen my thread earlier on deciding which bike to buy. My next problem, almost nothing on the short list is available in stores.
I can get my hands on one Speed Concept with mechanical shifting. It is only 1 hour away.There is one Cervelo P5 that is too small for me, it is a 1.5 hour drive to see it.
That is it. I’ve checked every place within a 5 hour drive of Houston.
Are people buying bikes, sight unseen and trusting their internet research?
I assume that it is unreasonable to ask a bike shop to bring in a bike (P3X) just for me to test ride and look at?
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.
until I build it.