There's a good chance that they bought them without a test ride. Like I mentioned, I didn't test ride Machak before I bought him. In fact, I'd never even been on a Marinoni before I bought him. I just had a pretty good idea what I wanted and the Marinoni Ciclo matched what I wanted. Most of them have probably ridden several different types of bicycles and had a pretty good idea what they wanted, and what type of bicycle and components would give them what they wanted.

If they did test ride their bicycles they may have done so by riding the bicycles of other people in their club (although, I'll warn you that many cyclists are pretty touchy about having someone else ride their bicycles), or travelling to places with shops that have these other bicycles.

And keep in mind ... the particular bicycle you test ride in the shop may not be the bicycle you get anyway. Those are often "demo" models and they'll order yours from the manufacturer or if they are a big enough shop they'll build one up for you from the stock they have in the back.