Originally Posted by
Wilfred Laurier
Mostly good advice here, agree with almost all of it.
My advice, which is hopefully an aggregate of the above, is to find a bike that seems close, then see if the shop will work with you to get it dialled in... it shouldn't take more than a trying a couple of stems to position the bars where you want them.
I also agree with the advice that Rivendell makes very good 'comfort' oriented road bikes, but you certainly pay handsomely for the privilege of owning one.
I would echo this. While test rides are good, the real question will be how you feel after a few weeks of riding. For me as an endurance rider, a test ride would have to be longer than what is generally accepted and changes to the bike are inevitable. On my recently completed Trans Am Bike Race, I rode a Specialized Diverge that I had modified over the last year. Shortened the crank arms, replaced the rear cassette with an 11-40 for the 16-18% grades, played with the aero bar positioning numerous times, raised the handlebars, rotated the handlebars several times, went with a little wider tire than most (32mm) all while putting around 3500 miles on the bike before the race. Initially after I purchased the bike, it was not as comfortable as my go-to bike, a Volagi. But I thought that with the future shock and the ability to fit wider tires, eventually it would be the wiser choice for the TABR. It definitely was, but it took a lot of tweaking to get there.