Hey all:

Been shopping at my various local bike shops for a road bike. The problem? I find that shops only seem to sell two or three brands. One is all Trek. Another has Felt, Giant, and Orbea. Another has Scott, Klein, and Raleigh. A certain shop may carry the brand I like, but may not have the model I want to try, e.g., it'll have the Giant OCR 3 but not the OCR 2. Or they have the model I want, but not in my size. What do I do? Do I ride a different bike in the same size? Do I ride the same model in a different size? How can I know if I like the bike if I'm not riding the precise model I want in the proper size? Also, I've had shops offer to put together a bike for me out of the box for me to do a test ride. Awfully nice of them, but I felt guilty making someone do that just for a test ride.

As you can tell, I'm new to this process. Any advice would be appreciated.