Originally Posted by
garysol1
its not always about the test ride but about the wow factor. You walk into a bike shop and front and center is the 14 pound wonder bike. You can touch it and feel it and pick it up. Your hooked. So maybe you cant afford the 7k price tag but for 3k you can get close. You have now totally forgotten about your $2,000 budget and bumped yourself another thousand in order to get yourself closer to that wonder bike.
Garysol1 "gets "it". At the end of last season I was ready to upgrade from my hybrid to a rode bike. I was interested in a Bianchi but only planned on spending about $1000 (which would be an aluminum frame). My LBS rents Bianchi's so I talked to him about reserving a aluminum Via Nirone for an afternoon. He said if I was interested in purchasing just take it on a test ride for an hour or so no need to rent it. After the ride I was stoked. We discussed CF bikes and Bianchi had their new entry level CF Vertigo bike coming out but none in stock yet. The LBS let me test ride his personal bike a CF Infinito with carbon wheels, ceramic bearings, carbon bars, seat post, and SRAM Red. (Probably $5000 -$6000 as prepped.) Again just take the bike out for awhile no problem. After that I couldn't "settle" for the Via Nirone. (And the LBS would have given me a deal on a lightely used demo Nirone for $750.) Jumped right over that, the entry level ($1900) Veritgo and ordered a $3000 version of the Infinito. If all he had in stock were the less expensive bikes without anything to compare, I would have purchased the Via Nirone. I wouldn't buy a bike I couldn't test ride.