I'm located in Brisbane, Australia. When I purchased my first bike in April 2006 I went to Velo Bicycles. Although they cover a fair range of bicycles and gear they have some great high end road gear as well. For my first bike I wanted a flat bar road bike and the owner Shayne and his staff were fantastic. They insisted I go for a road test even though I had never been in the shop before. I was a little suprised and said you can hold my keys if you like and I wouldn't be long. I was told that wouldn't be necessary and after they did a first fit of the bike that I was interested in they told me to take my time on my road test. To tell you the truth I was most impressed with their attitude. They also gave me a full on road bike to try to compare it with. Cut a long story short I purchased my flatbar and have been hooked ever since. I am now using it as my commuter for a 15 klm commute tot he city - something I didn't think would ever be possible! It's made a huge difference to my life. Now I'm thinking about my second bike.

I have been in other bicycle stores and noticed once a customer going for a test ride. I don't know how commonplace this is due to limited experience purchasing bikes, however, Knowing much more about bicycles now I wouldn't drop the sort of cash I do and will be doing on the next bike without the test ride. Actually now I think of it I had two rides on the first bike - the second was after the full fitting was done just before I paid for it.

Note that Brisbane is in a differennt state of Australia than Newcastle and obviously things seem to be different there with respect to test rides. Brian is absolutely correct on his summation re freedom and regulation in this country but we have only ourselves to blame for that state of affairs. Australia does not have a culture of freedom like the US.

Anyone else in Oz who can fill me in as to whether taking a bicycle for a test ride is commonplace in their area? If not I will value Velo Bicycles even more than I do now!

Charles

I had the same problem. I probably would have bought a different bike if the other shop had let me test ride. I bought from a shop that let me ride for over an hour through a nice park with nothing left behind but my car parked outside. This was in another city. The local bike shop lost the sell because they would only let me ride in their parking lot, and would not let me take a long ride even after offering to leave my drivers license or a credit card (in case I crashed it). Their loss.

Yeah, but who would want to live in QLD? 340 days of sunshine... pffft!

My favorite bike shop does not allow test rides, this is in the united states and they are quite well thought of and very established. They DO do a full fitting on every bike they sell, mount it on the trainer and adjust or replace anything that doesn't fit. I asked the owner one time why they don't allow test rides as i was uncomfortable with the process and riding on the trainer isn't quite the same as on the road. He gave me the reason and I don't blame him.

Seems once upon a time they did give test rides, lady came in wanting to ride a specific bike, they let her, she crashed it into a car and sued the shop for a large amount of money for letting her ride the bike. Court found the shop liable for some stupid reason. End result shop lost a not insignificant amount of money.

Gotta love US freedom.

The bike shop I work at owns a lot across the street that has been converted into a 1/10 mile round test track. Here's a picture of the test track with the shop in the background...

Our Honda dealer has a dirt track out back for test rides.

Did they also put varying surfaces on that test track? That would be slick -- some cobblestone, some sidewalk seams, some tar patches...

My last bicycle purchase was when I was 18 (Specialized Rockhopper Comp - I save a while for that bad boy). I'm 31 now. I never had any problems trying a bike, then or now. I think your bike shop is crazy.

Did you read through the whole thread?