ok, well, i'm skipping over the other responses so hopefully i'm not just restating everything...

I have experienced this attitude a few times, but almost any good bike shop will let you REALLY test the product.

On one hand, you do have to demonstrate the willingness/potential to buy (i mean if a 13-year-old comes in by himself to test a lightspeed or the newest dirt jumper, well...)

and as this has already been cleared, it is a road bike. For mountain bikes many shops let you test ride, but tell you not to get it dirty (which makes sense as they will have to clean it if you don't buy it).

as an example: we bought a new mountain bike for my girlfriend over xmas when i was back in the US. as i had no local contacts in Philadelphia, i contacted the shop in advance by email/phone and the owner arranged to have a test bike to our wishes (small women's model Epic) available for us and for no charge we had the test bike 5 days and he said we could ride whatever we wanted (it was rainy/muddy). in the end we ended up not buying this bike (a 2003), but ordering the new 2004 --- and the owner FREE gave me a demo bike so i could ride with her... and in the end i ended up buying it to THAT's how a good bike shop works! Keswick Cycle Philadelphia (i also just ordered a new fork and rear shock from Brian)

anyway, not all shops are as great as the above...

but other than a test ride, ask if you can do a demo ride - maybe for $10 to $30 for the day which IF you purchase the bike goes towards the purchase cost - i.e. if you don't buy the bike the owner gets some money to offset washing/wear it AND knows that you're not just joyriding as you're serious enough to pay for a test-ride.

and for a high-dollar bike, say over $900, DEFINITELY test-ride it or an almost identical bike (same brand/size).