To be honest of the 15 bike shops in my area, you will not be given the bike to ride except in the parking lot. If you want it for longer you can ride a demo model (if they have it). Even when I lived in Vancouver no shop would let you take the bike for a real ride. For several reasons I would assume

a) you could 'test' it and damage it.
b) show bikes usually aren't ready to ride. Not tuned up or even completely built
c) Stolen bikes are a crappy thing and dealing with insurance is even worse.

I would never hold it against a shop for not letting me ride past the parking lot.

How many of you buy clothes without trying them on first? A proper test ride is a must. Some people steal bikes, but I do not. How the shop is going to be able to tell the difference is their concern, and I am willing to comply with rational requirements (CC, driver's license etc). A shop that flatly tells me to stick within the parking lot area will not get the deal.

--J

[QUOTE=BlackberryDespite all the flaming re: my question, I still don't think anyone has answered [/QUOTE]


I can say that all my bikes have been purchased without riding it out of a parking lot. I ordered the bike that I will be paying off tomorrow without riding one at all....that is the specialized demo 9. Part of it is because I work at the shop but I still dont really think I would need to take a bike out of a parking lot to get used to it. All you need to know is if the bike fits and what the weight of it is really. You can always take the bike back if you arent satisfied with it also. Then when you take it back and they ask why....you can tell them that they didnt allow you to take it on a real test ride

Sounds like you got a great shopping center there. I would even bet that a lot of those organic whole food buyers are also customers of yours, or that almost all of your customers stop at the whole foods store when they come see you.

[QUOTE=KleinMp99]If you test ride then its less likly to go to the hassle of returning the thing. I need to know a lot more then you do including how it feels under me,not a guess or in a dream.

As mensioned befor a parking lot is by far a lot more dangerous than the road! No you cannot get a good feel of the bike from a flat parking lot at least for climbing and sprints. For what it's worth another lbs opinion: my local lbs lets you ride an hour if you want. I don't know about mtb but road bikes no prob.

On the other hand if you have done your research and you know what size frame you need and you have experience riding so you know what climbing gears you need and what a sprint feels like ect... than you can most certainly get the bike to fit you. Why not look on line for the same bike after taking them up on there parking lot tour?

For a mountain bike I've found the parking lot to be sufficient. All I really want to do on it is get a feel for the position, and the speed humps and small curbs provide a good opportunty to get a feel for the handling. My LBS has a couple of MTB test tracks set up in the parking area (which is quite a large area), so there's really no need to go further.

For a road bike, it's good to at least have the option to ride a bit further. Even in a big parking lot, you often just don't have space to test higher speed stability, braking, cornering etc. Parking lots can also be too bumpy or debris-laden to safely take on too much speed. My LBS is right near one of Denver's bike trails and a few quiet roads, and they're more than happy for you to ride away from the store providing you leave a CC, DL and sign a waiver. I took a 10 minute test ride on my road bike and the salespeople were all surprised I didn't go further! I rode bikes at 2 other shops in Denver and both happily allowed me to ride away from the store (within reason).

IMHO, you did the right thing taking your business elsewhere. A new bike is not a small purchase, and not one many of us can afford to make a mistake on. Find a shop that will support you well during pre-sales, and you'll more than likely have a shop that will support you after you hand over your hard earned cash.

Whe I test drove my Grizzly they took my credit card, of course by the time I did the test I was on first a first name basis with everybody there.

blackberry

Fredericksburg isn't all that far away and "The Bike Works" will encourage you to take a long ride to be sure it's what you want.

They didn't keep my license or credit card or anything like that I've been in there before but not that much. Of course my truck was in their lot so maybe they were pretty sure I'd come back.

Joe

Taking a test ride on the road isnt stupid for a LBS to do. Implying that it is, in my opinion, is stupid. Would you buy a car from a dealer if you were only able to drive around the parking lot or just around the block? Not me. I know plenty of LBSs that allow you to take a 20 to 30 minute ride with any bike, just as long as you have a valid ID and credit card. All of them have a you scratch it = you bought it clause. In one summer I test rode as many as 15 different bikes from several LBSs...Colnago, Klein, Bianchi, the list goes on. You just take the chance that if you scratch, ding, slide or wreck it, you bought it.

Well, I must live a a pretty nice place, my experience, it's never been a problem to test ride a bike beyond a parking lot around here.

When we decided my husband was getting a Blur, we went the LBS for a test ride. They asked for a CC, and allowed us to take the bicycle 15 minutes away for 2 hours to test ride. Now, to "demo" a mtb bike, you pay a refundable deposit of $25, leave your CC#, and it's yours for the weekend. With our road bikes, we were encouraged to ride them around the neighborhood, and even to take them down to our local river trail for a 25 mile ride. We keep going back.

There's one shop in town that only allows a "parking lot test," but I've never bought a bike from them b/c of that.

haha, I left my mom there as collateral...when I got my bike, I couldn't drive, so I didn't have any collateral...I think I left my shoes in the shop too.

Talk about selling your own mother for a ride!

Heck..I think a parking lot is more likely to have a problem than a quiet road. My two road bikes they let me take out on a minor ride, but did not limit me to the parking lot. When I bought my Klein I probably rode it for two miles before deciding to buy it.. My older road bike was in their store. They did not require a DL or CC. They knew me just a little. Not from the town where the shop was located. Probably had been in the store two times prior to the test ride.
I appreciated the one mile ride. Got a feel for the bike at speeds in excess of 10 mph...

Erratic rider-
"Sounds like you got a great shopping center there. I would even bet that a lot of those organic whole food buyers are also customers of yours, or that almost all of your customers stop at the whole foods store when they come see you."
Surprisingly few of our customers are also customers of the grocery store. ( I ask, as I have had numerous problems with the groc. including the manager of the store accusing me of stealing in front of my co-workers, a false and slanderous statement)
For the customers of this groc. we exist as a childcare for their children. Most of our customers come from the neighborhood and they dislike this store replacing the Winn Dixie that was there.

You would only need to ride a bike from one end of the lot to the other to agree that the people driving in the lot are A-holes and spend one afternoon here to figure out most cars contain people that will be going into the groc.
They block up the lot so much during lunch that it probably cost us customers.




AND, yes you can get a feel for most bikes in the parking lot if the lot is big enough. For a mountian bike more so than a road bike.

Someone mentioned that you're allowed to try on a jacket before you buy it.
Anyone ever tried on a jacket, walked out the store with it, came back from lunch?
Ever tested a fridge, taken it home, checked if it'd keep your food cold enough, taken it back w/o purchasing it?
Ever gone into glen cove auto and said, here's my drivers license and 1 credit card, lemme test drive that ferrari 360 F1, oh yeah, and you don't get to come with me.

With that said, my girlfriend went to one bike shop where they practically INSISTED she try on a bike when we told them we did not want to buy a bike at the time. They actually took up 2 bikes from the shop for her to test out on the streets. All we did was leave behind her bike, which was worth 1/5th the price. We went around the block.

If the service is good and friendly, I wouldn't completely shun the shop just because they didn't allow me to go further than the parking lot. Especially in NYC.

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).

This statement is completely ridiculous. A jacket fits or it doesn't an appliance works or it doesn't, it does not require you take it out of the store for a "test drive" - besides nearly all stores I shop in will allow you to return and item, for a refund, after a purchase for whatever reason. I would fully expect an adult, with the means to purchase a Ferrari, to be allowed to test ride one alone.

When I purchased my entry level bike, I did not test ride it - I would not have known what to look for anyway. When I purchased my road bike, I test rode several and picked the one that fit me best. The differences were minor, and I would not have been able to notice any difference by riding around a small parking lot. BTW, the bike shop employees did not know me, and the did not ask for any ID or even my name.

i gotta agree with NW NJ Biker here...

besides, assuming you are a customer who could reasonably afford a Ferrari, you DEFINITELY CAN test it out! they have insurance and the small cost of cleaning it and/or possiblity of something going wrong is WELL worth the potential of a $$$$$ sale.

if it's an inexpensive bike then ok, but for an "expensive" bike (subjective - but definitely over $800) you cannot reasonably determine the capabilities of the bike without a test ride.

again, if they give you a problem, offer to leave keys, credit card, etc. if that doesn't work, then offer to make a deposit or even pre-authorize the cost on your credit card and then do a demo/test ride. if they won't work with you, then buy somewhere else! (this doesn't apply if you're shopping at Wal-mart but then don't buy a bike there anyway)

Service is part of what you pay for at the LBS (otherwise order it online or from Ebay), so you should actually GET service. (I have never, and probably will never buy a bike online as i can't test-ride it -- and going to a LBS and test riding and then ordering online is WRONG - you're *stealing* their service if you never intended to buy from there)

You're taking my examples out of context, as far as using the item is concerned, my point was you shouldn't totally discount the store if they don't allow you a ride outside of the parking lot.

About any good bike shop will let you test ride as long as they know you are serious about buying. I've had shops let me ride around the parking lot and after I found one I liked, offer to let me take it for the weekend. The higher the price of the bike the more likely you are to get an offer like this though.

Okay-- a couple of quick points. First, I wouldn't frequent that shop either-- as I recall, they're in a very small parking lot, so it's not much of an area to ride. In addition, I looked at a kayak there once, and found the sales help to be a) snooty and b) lacking knowledge. Not a positive sign.

That said, if it's the shop I recall, it's located a bit up from the Rio road/route 29 intersection on Rio. Both of these roads are heavily travelled, with 45mph speed limits. I would not take a new, unfamiliar bike on either one. I would not be hot to let some ride a new, unfamiliar bike on either one. I'd only take a very familiar steed that I knew well on either of these roads. The location of the shop may have something to do with the lot only policy. Those two roads, especially at that juncture, are hideous urban/suburban road sprawl/design at it's absolute worst. That may be an understatement.

The OP has plenty of other shops in the C'ville area to choose from. Blue Wheel is still on Elliwood; there's a Performance out 29 as well as another shop; and there's always the fascinating collection of junkers at Basic Cycles. Probably another couple shops somewhere around. I'll tell the OP not to bother with the trip to Richmond, as none of the shops here are terribly impressive.

If they're friendly and they try their best, I'd still go to them and respect their reasons for keeping me in the parking lot.
Though overly friendly makes me feel guilty...

Rev Chuck, that just sucks. Sorry to hear it.