test rides

What's 'reasonable' to ask in terms of taking a new bike for a ride to
see how you get on with it? Unfamiliar territory here - am I taking
the **** by asking to take a bike out of the shop for an hour, or
what? Is it just a case of leave them a credit card and they're happy,
or will they expect me to stay in sight?

"Aard" wrote in message
...
What's 'reasonable' to ask in terms of taking a new bike for a ride to
see how you get on with it? Unfamiliar territory here - am I taking
the **** by asking to take a bike out of the shop for an hour, or
what? Is it just a case of leave them a credit card and they're happy,
or will they expect me to stay in sight?

I suspect it may depend on the bike. Would you let an unknown person out
on a £1500 bike?

When I bought my £400 bike the shop were quite happy for me to ride around
local roads for 10/15 minutes. Given the type I was buying I didn't feel
the need for more.

Aard wrote:
What's 'reasonable' to ask in terms of taking a new bike for a ride to
see how you get on with it? Unfamiliar territory here - am I taking
the **** by asking to take a bike out of the shop for an hour, or
what? Is it just a case of leave them a credit card and they're happy,
or will they expect me to stay in sight?

Very much up to the shop. What you need is enough time to tell if you
basically get on with it or find it fiddly and/or uncomfortable, and
also if you're trying more than one if you like one or the other better,
which should only take a few minutes.

Since the way to fine tune how a bike feels is by fiddling with the bars
and (especially) the saddle with lots of incremental testing, and that
takes time and patience, you're only really looking at broad
brush-strokes with a test ride like this. But that's the most important
thing: if it's basically okay it can probably be tuned better, if it's
basically not good then it'll probably stay that way.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

On 8 Sep, 10:35, "Graham Harrison"
wrote:
"Aard" wrote in message

...

What's 'reasonable' to ask in terms of taking a new bike for a ride to
see how you get on with it? Unfamiliar territory here - am I taking
the **** by asking to take a bike out of the shop for an hour, or
what? Is it just a case of leave them a credit card and they're happy,
or will they expect me to stay in sight?

I suspect it may depend on the bike. * Would you let an unknown person out
on a £1500 bike?

When I bought my £400 bike the shop were quite happy for me to ride around
local roads for 10/15 minutes. * Given the type I was buying I didn't feel
the need for more.

The more you're paying, the more you need to try before you buy. Good
shops understand this.

In message
Simon Brooke wrote:

On 8 Sep, 10:35, "Graham Harrison"
wrote:
"Aard" wrote in message

...

What's 'reasonable' to ask in terms of taking a new bike for a
ride to see how you get on with it? Unfamiliar territory here - am
I taking the **** by asking to take a bike out of the shop for an
hour, or what? Is it just a case of leave them a credit card and
they're happy, or will they expect me to stay in sight?

I suspect it may depend on the bike. * Would you let an unknown
person out on a £1500 bike?

When I bought my £400 bike the shop were quite happy for me to ride
around local roads for 10/15 minutes. * Given the type I was buying
I didn't feel the need for more.

The more you're paying, the more you need to try before you buy. Good
shops understand this.

Of course some shops such as St Johns Street Cycles offer a money back
if your not satisfied with one of their Thorn bicycles within 100 days
of purchase.

Mike
--
o/ \\ // |\ ,_ o Mike Clark
\__,\\ // __o | \ / /\, "A mountain climbing, cycling, skiing,
" || _`\,_ |__\ \ | caving, antibody engineer and
` || (_)/ (_) | \corn computer user"

"Mike Clark" wrote in message
.uk...

Of course some shops such as St Johns Street Cycles offer a money back
if your not satisfied with one of their Thorn bicycles within 100 days
of purchase.

Yeah - they don't offer any kind of trial before you buy.

Clive George wrote:
"Mike Clark" wrote in message
.uk...

Of course some shops such as St Johns Street Cycles offer a money
back if your not satisfied with one of their Thorn bicycles within
100 days of purchase.

Yeah - they don't offer any kind of trial before you buy.

They do if you ask; I know someone who went their to test different frame
options.
They did it a couple of months ago.

- Nigel


--
Nigel Cliffe,
Webmaster at http://www.2mm.org.uk/

In message
"Nigel Cliffe" wrote:

Clive George wrote:
"Mike Clark" wrote in message
.uk...

Of course some shops such as St Johns Street Cycles offer a money
back if your not satisfied with one of their Thorn bicycles within
100 days of purchase.

Yeah - they don't offer any kind of trial before you buy.

They do if you ask; I know someone who went their to test different frame
options.
They did it a couple of months ago.

- Nigel


Two friends of mine used Thorn cycles for a tour to Australia. St Johns
Street cycles exchanged Mark's frame for a more rigid one after a year
on the road.

see http://tinyurl.com/n98zdw

Mike
--
o/ \\ // |\ ,_ o Mike Clark
\__,\\ // __o | \ / /\, "A mountain climbing, cycling, skiing,
" || _`\,_ |__\ \ | caving, antibody engineer and
` || (_)/ (_) | \corn computer user"

On 8 Sep, 09:40, Aard wrote:
What's 'reasonable' to ask in terms of taking a new bike for a ride to
see how you get on with it? Unfamiliar territory here - am I taking
the **** by asking to take a bike out of the shop for an hour, or
what? Is it just a case of leave them a credit card and they're happy,
or will they expect me to stay in sight?

I guess shops vary. Evans had a formal procedure where they took my
photo and logged some ID, maybe credit card I can't remember, but then
let me test ride several bikes on several occasions for at least 1/2
hour each and even had others delivered to the shop for me to try.
Wizzbikes were happy for daughter and other parent to go off a 20 min
test while I hung around the shop.

Aard wrote:
What's 'reasonable' to ask in terms of taking a new bike for a ride to
see how you get on with it? Unfamiliar territory here - am I taking
the **** by asking to take a bike out of the shop for an hour, or
what? Is it just a case of leave them a credit card and they're happy,
or will they expect me to stay in sight?

Evans let me loose with a stock tricross for an hour or so, just holding my
credit card as security

Corridori lent me a Spec Roubaix for a weekend to ride a sportive (they have
a stock of test bikes) - As it was I did not get on with the bike (100kg me
needs a triple for 10% hills!) so did not use it for the sporive.

pk