Test rides for a new bike

I want to upgrade from a MTB to a good road bike.

My question is, is it possible to test ride a good road bike ?
Do shops in general let you test ride a new bike, and what about the pedals,
are they just standard ones, or is there drama with having shoes clippless
ones ????

I just want to feel what a good road bike goes like before I make the
change, and to see if I like it, as I have never ridden a road bike, its
always MTB's.

Bill

Originally posted by Billy Maston My question is, is it possible to
test ride a good road bike

Generally, yes. Take in a driver's license (urgh) and most shops will
let you test ride their bikes. You should be serious about it. Shops are
obviously going to be a bit wary of Joe Blogs rocking up in flannies and
wanting to ride their $13k LE Madone...

Pedals could be anything. If you have a pedal system, take in your shoes
and see if they will swap pedals. You might just ride in flat soled
shoes on whatever pedals they have fitted - depends on how busy the shop
is I guess.

I just want to feel what a good road bike goes like before I make the
change, and to see if I like it, as I have never ridden a road bike,
its always MTB's.

Explain that to them. Also, do you have any mates with road bikes? What
budget are you looking at and where are you - people might be able to
suggest test-ride-friendly shops...

hippy



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On Fri, 18 Jun 2004 20:19:22 +1000, Billy Maston wrote:

Hi Billy,

I want to upgrade from a MTB to a good road bike.

My question is, is it possible to test ride a good road bike ?

IME most shops will let you ride any bike around the block, if the
weather's fine and the road is dry, but that's it. Otherwise you have to
make do with a trainer (holds the bike upright and offers resistance to
the back wheel with a roller). That demonstrates the bike's fit, when
adjusted properly, but not its handling, of course.

Do shops in general let you test ride a new bike, and what about the pedals,
are they just standard ones, or is there drama with having shoes clippless
ones ????

Since you don't have any cleated shoes, they should be willing to put
pedals with toe clips on for you. These are still standard on some low-end
road bikes (e.g. the Giant OCR3), so you might try such a bike first.
Avoid anything really cheap with a steel frame. Since you can already ride
your MTB with regular shoes, you'd presumably get clipless pedals and
cleated shoes if you decided to get a road bike.

I just want to feel what a good road bike goes like before I make the
change, and to see if I like it, as I have never ridden a road bike, its
always MTB's.

Well, you probably won't like it at first, simply because the riding
position is much less upright and more extended, and the handling is
much more sensitive. Until you learn to keep your back straight and relax
your upper body, it'll probably make you ache a bit, too.

Because of your aerodynamic riding position and the narrow, thinner
tyres, any road bike will be much faster than a MTB for the same effort.
Increasing price gets you relatively subtle improvements in smoothness,
lightness and the drivetrain, even though they're blown out to religious
proportions in groups like this :-)

Good luck!

--
bpo gallery at http://www4.tpgi.com.au/users/mvw1/bpo

hippy wrote:
Originally posted by Billy Maston My question is, is it possible to
test ride a good road bike


Generally, yes. Take in a driver's license (urgh) and most shops will
let you test ride their bikes. You should be serious about it. Shops are
obviously going to be a bit wary of Joe Blogs rocking up in flannies and
wanting to ride their $13k LE Madone...

Pedals could be anything. If you have a pedal system, take in your shoes
and see if they will swap pedals. You might just ride in flat soled
shoes on whatever pedals they have fitted - depends on how busy the shop
is I guess.


I just want to feel what a good road bike goes like before I make the
change, and to see if I like it, as I have never ridden a road bike,
its always MTB's.


Explain that to them. Also, do you have any mates with road bikes? What
budget are you looking at and where are you - people might be able to
suggest test-ride-friendly shops...

hippy



--




Pedals are an issue but most shops will have some crappy platforms to
use. Generally, clipless pedals get scratched as soon as you use them so
don't expect them to let you ride on some nice new Look pedals.

If you're in Melbourne, Cecil Walker have a couple of trainers you could
jump on. I'm not sure if they'd let you ride out on the street though.

Freedom Machine have a smallish space out hte back where you can ride
their bikes.

It's a good idea to trawl some bike shops and find one you like, talk
to them about your requirements and budget and when they know you're
serious, your chances of a test ride will improve.

--
Nick