how far did you drive to buy your bent?
 

so, i just bought my road bike today. now i'm shopping for next year's xmas present....a swb bent. the lbs's near me that carry them rarely have any in stock. how far did you have to drive to test ride/buy your 'bent?

are there any lbs in the northern IL area that carry a large selection in stock?

You're fairly close to the Hostel Shoppe in Stevens Point, Winsconsin. The other "huge" bent store is Bicycle Man in Alfred NY.
~

In Northern Illinois, I'd try a trip to the Hostel Shoppe as mentioned, or, if it's just the standard stuff like RANS or Bacchetta (good bikes, by the way), there are some decent shops in Chicago and the burbs. The Bike Rack in St. Charles had a decent selection of bents the last time that I was there a year or so ago. I've also heard there is a decent shop in Madison and I think Wheel and Sprocket in Milwaukee is supposed to be good, too.

I own a Challenge and I heard Amlings in one of the Chicago burbs is now a dealer besides carrying Bacchetta and some others.

BTW, it's a 6.5 hour to the Hostel Shoppe from my house near Peoria and it was worth every mile. I bought a Volae Team there. Nice people and nice shop. Tell them Dennis sent you. It won't get you a discount, but maybe i'll get one next time I'm there. :D

I didn't drive anywhere. I bought my trike sight-unseen online. Never even thought of it as a 'bent as much as a go-cart missing a wheel and engine. Never looked back from the first turn of the pedals. ...then I found BROL and BF.

I drove about 60mi. round trip from the south to the north Indianapolis suburbs (and back again) to buy my pre-owned Tailwind from a guy whose legs were too long for it.

I ordered my Volae sight unseen from the Hostel Shoppe. They have a good return policy so its fairly low risk. Great bike BTW.

I have just found a Bacchetta dealer in town so I can actually go try an Aero without any hassles!

A total of about 60 miles to get 5 'bents.
The GTT and the BikeE were factory direct.
The GTX, the Hurricane and the Tour Easy were all local used buys.

About 600km. LOL. That's about as much driving I had to do when I got my first shipment in. The process is a little more streamlined now...

I didn't drive, I rode my old wedgie bike that was the trade in for my Vision R40. When I was deciding if I wanted to buy my recumbent I rode my wedgie to the LBS each time I talked with them about it or test rode the 'bents. I had one last ride on my wedgie when I purchased my new recumbent.

The mileage was about 4 miles.

For my first bent, it was about 35 miles round trip. For my trike, which was used, about 600 miles round trip.
The bent shop in Madison, WI is Budget Bicycle. But I live just as close to Hostel Shoppe and they are great people, so I most always go there.

Man I'm envious......I haven't purchased one yet but nearest dealer is probably 300 mi round trip and not sure what he has in stock. I'm not sure I mind driving that far to get one but test riding and getting repairs are going to be fun....not.

If your in Northern Ill I'd do the Hostel shoppe in Stevens Point Wisconsin. I live just north of Milwaukee and went there to purchase my Rans Rocket. They know Bents, they are bents. It's "THE" place to go. You will not be disappointed.

Jim

Where ARE you??

Ha! Probably thinking the moon at this point........well not quite but at times it looks like it. Sent you a PM

I didn't drive, the Rans dealer did. He brought a Stratus and Tailwind to my house for me to test ride. If I give a credit card number, he'll let me test ride it for a week. I can drive about an hour to his place and test one out on a Saturday if I'm off work. When the 2007 new bike arrived and he had it ready, he delivered it to my house.:D
www.spincyclz.com

I looked at two SWB bents about 160mi away on the east side of Atlanta and almost
bought one before the vague email responses of the bike shop owner put me off.
Ordered my Rotator Pursuit sight unseen and have only once thought about another
bent.

About 25 miles, each way. Luckily, I won't have to go back. I tried to get them to order an idler wheel (easy racers) but they couldn't come up with one after 6 weeks. This seemed like lackluster customer service to me. Hostel Shop had it at my door in 3 days. Guess where I get parts from now? bk

Good news for me:
I was planning on taking a trip of about 200 miles one way when today I was making a pick up in a town about 35 miles away, as I slowed down I saw a bike shop and my son said they have bents. My reply was Yah Sure, then I looked and sure enough. I stopped and looked in the window and saw three or four burleys and two suns. They were closed today (sat) so I plan on making a trip tomorrow after church.
Hope they are not to expensive. :)
Steven

I'm from Birmingham and was in Salt Lake City on bussiness and bought an R-40 off craigslist, 1340nm

ding! ding! we may have a winner! hehehe

so, i've been doing some window shopping on line. the rans rocket is the first bent i want to try out. the hase tagun looks REALLY cool. however, i'd like to stay under $1k. looks like that will be hard to do and still buy new.

here's another question;

i noticed that quite a few bents use sram shifting systems. are there any brands/makes that use shimano?

I guess I'm pretty lucky. We have a Bacchetta / RANS dealer in OKC that almost always has one each of the models in stock. Since a Bacchetta was what I wanted I went, rode, paid, and put her on back of the Jeep.

You might want to start a new thread for that question.

i stopped at a local bent dealer. they had this bike http://www.getitbent.com/htmlfiles/SpecStiletto.html all of a sudden my pricepoint is creeping up there!

I didn't drive as I bought it online ( and I don't drive anyway ), however to try out the beast I got the train from Bristol to London and tracked down Bikefix, a shop on Lamb's Conduit street that I found online. I took the Scorpion round the block once and that was it, it HAD to be mine!