Originally Posted by
MRT2
You should be able to get a sense of the bike's fit from a short test ride. Not a 20 second spin around the parking lot, but maybe 10 or 15 minutes around local streets or on a local MUP. I would expect any bike's drivetrain to work. So while not exactly wonderful to get a bike that shifts poorly on the test ride, I would expect the mechanics to fix that before I buy.
Yeah, I'm not really worried about mechanical problems, it just makes me leery of the shop and also makes the test ride kind of useless.
Originally Posted by
jlax2485
Where in Maryland are you? I know of a few shops that are a lot more generous with their test rides.
Montgomery County. I don't really blame them, there just isn't anywhere great to ride nearby. Although Citybikes is just feet away from the Capital Crescent Trail, but they didn't want me riding the Diverge (a gravel bike) on the gravel path.
I guess I'm just a little mystified as to what my determining factors should be when choosing between bikes. It almost seems like when they all have the same components, and when I can get the same fit on all of them through choice of stem etc, all that's really left is price and aesthetics. Am I crazy?
(of course there's a bit more than that here, the Raleigh and Fuji take at least 42c tires while the aluminum Diverge only takes 38, the Fuji has more mounts, the Diverge is lighter and has Futureshock)