Originally Posted by
DukeRyder
Good Advice! Much appreciated but if I'm gonna do a rental I'll have to wait until the next time I fly up to Denver. A couple shops in town do rentals but they're renting Electra Cruisers, but I'm not down with the peewee Herman bikes
I can't believe that there isn't a single shop in the entire state of Louisiana that rents bikes or allows test rides! Shops that carry high-end bikes usually realize that you're not going to buy one unless you can ride it first... Looks like there's a shop in Baton Rouge (Dirt Road Bicycles) that sells Ibis Mojos; in my area most of the Ibis dealers allow test-rides. Heck, if worst comes to worst you could always do a road trip! Competitive Cyclist is up in Arkansas, IIRC...
The other option is to hook-up with local riders and see if they'll let you take a short spin on their bikes. I've ridden just about all of my buddies' bikes and they've all ridden mine a time or two.
My best friend rented one of the GIANT FS bikes (Anthem maybe he said it was a $2700 bike) up in Boulder a couple weeks ago for $18/DAY cause the counter girl thought he was cute!
The Anthem is a great example of a bike that gets stunning reviews but which I hated when I rode it for myself! The bike I rode was part of the company demo fleet, so maybe it was just a bit too abused but I really hated the Hayes brakes and wasn't wild about the rear suspension.