How do you buy a bike that you can't test drive?

Thanks to input from the forums I am very interested in the Redline
Mono Cog. Unfortunately all the dealers near me do not have one for a
test ride. It seems to be a special order item only. So the question
is - what should I do?

On Tue, 23 Mar 2004, Lobo Tommy wrote:

Thanks to input from the forums I am very interested in the Redline
Mono Cog. Unfortunately all the dealers near me do not have one for a
test ride. It seems to be a special order item only. So the question
is - what should I do?


When buying a custom, special- or mail-order bike, you need to have a good
sense of what you need as far as bike fit, features, and ride quality
goes. If you know from experience, for instance, that you're comfortable
on a bike set up with 81 cm from saddle top to BB and a top tube + stem
span of 68 cm and like the bars 1" lower than the saddle, you can
determine whether a particular bike could be set up to fit you properly
without doing anything to make it look or handle funny. Similarly,
certain combinations of fork rake, head tube angle, and chainstay length
can make a bike handle squirrelly, stable, or sluggishly.

It's not as complicated as it sounds, though. Fit is the main issue for
most commercially available bicycles. If you get that right, you'll be
OK.

Trent

Lobo Tommy wrote:
Thanks to input from the forums I am very interested in the Redline
Mono Cog. Unfortunately all the dealers near me do not have one for a
test ride. It seems to be a special order item only. So the question
is - what should I do?

Buy it and tell us how it is.

(Lobo Tommy) wrote in message om...
Thanks to input from the forums I am very interested in the Redline
Mono Cog. Unfortunately all the dealers near me do not have one for a
test ride. It seems to be a special order item only. So the question
is - what should I do?

What lame forums suggested the monocog?

JD