About to test ride 1st road bike - expectations?

[dhague]

Hi folks,

I've been commuting to work (8-10 miles each way) since February on a hub-geared hub-braked hybrid I bought for pure low-maintenance commuting duty (Giant Expression N7). Familiar story: I got addicted, and now I'm shopping for a road bike (N+1). My plan is to build up training, enter a few UK-based sportive events this year, and look at taking on L'Etape du Tour next year.

Thanks to a lot of the good advice here, I am going to my local bike shop in a couple of hours to test-ride a Specialized Roubaix Elite - I went for a bikefitting.com session at another LBS last week, and the Spesh's geometry should be pretty much spot-on for me (long legs, short torso). Nothing wrong with the other LBS, by the way, but they didn't stock Speshes.

So, now to the Q & A part: bear in mind, this is my first road bike.

1. What should I expect from a test ride, and how long should it be? I'm thinking of a 7-mile loop from the bike shop - does that sound reasonable?

2. The bike shop (Evans in Woking) is listing the bike at full RRP - what is the likely actual price? I'm thinking in the region of 10% worth of accessories (I need cages, track pump, etc. anyway).

3. Would you expect them to sell me the very bike that I test ride, or would that be a "demonstrator" model and they would build me another one from the crate?

4. What else do I need to know?

Cheers,
Darren

 

[RedBike]

You'll be lucky if you get more than a ride around the car park.
Be prepared to pay for a test ride, circa £50, then have your money refunded back if you go on to buy a bike from them. (I have no idea how Evans opperate)

You'll probably know within 10mins if the bike feels right or not. I would want to do 1/2 a mile up and down a steep hill with a few different bikes instead of 7 miles with one.

 

[dhague]

You'll be lucky if you get more than a ride around the car park.
Be prepared to pay for a test ride, circa £50, then have your money refunded back if you go on to buy a bike from them. (I have no idea how Evans opperate)

You'll probably know within 10mins if the bike feels right or not. I would want to do 1/2 a mile up and down a steep hill with a few different bikes instead of 7 miles with one.

Evans' policy seems to be to charge 1p to your credit card, and then to keep the credit card while you're out. I will scale down my ride ambitions though, and merely seek out the nearest hill.

Thanks,
Darren

 

[ianrauk]

I would be suprised if Evans have any more stock left of the Rubaix apart from demo models. I notice on Evans website that that have no stock available. When I bought my Roubaix from Cycles UK last month it was the last one they had, luckily it was in my size. The new 2010 models come out in a couple of months so most of the 2009 stock is sold out.
Haggle for 10% + accessories, that's what I got.

 

[Mothyman]

hi dhague...my friend bought at evans - 1p on credit card then he went off as long as he wanted-assuming its dry.
I tested 2 roubaix at the w/e - went 3 miles on each..dif fram sizes but they both felt great...I was hoping one would feel wrong yet they just put me in slightly diff positions..the 58 was nearly straight arms pn the hoods and the 56 i had fairly bent arms...any advice which was the better for me? i have short legs and long body (5'11'')so interested to see dhague's fitting suggested Spesh suited the opposite...did they say much else dhague?

 

[dhague]

Well, N is now equal to N+1.

Evans indeed allowed me to go out for as long as I liked - I tried a couple of hills and came back. Seat height and reach were fine for me (52cm frame for my long-legged 5'8"), but the bars were a bit too low. No problem - Paul in the shop flipped and raised the stem (the Roubaix has a 4-way stem) and then I went out for another run to try it out - big improvement. Even though it was late in the day and they were busy in the shop, there was never any undue pressure; yes, I had to wait a few minutes to be served because they were busy, but otherwise this was a good LBS experience. When I mentioned that this was my first road bike, another assistant showed me how the gears & shifters worked (obviously a lot differently to the grip-shift on my hub-geared hybrid).

On the first run out, I was really surprised by how twitchy the steering felt and how light the bike was. On the second run, I was getting used to it - and on both runs it was really noticeable how much the frame absorbed the bumps on the road. I will need some practice to get used to everything, but fit-wise it's pretty much there. About the only problem with the test-ride was that I had to use the stock flat pedals that came with the bike - they didn't have any spare SPDs to fit my existing MTB shoes. They were of course good enough to fit the SPD-SL pedals I brought with me, once I'd bought the bike.

Price-wise, they were very hard to budge from RRP. They knocked 10% off the helmet & track pump that I got, and threw in a couple of bottle cages for free, but wouldn't budge on the price of the bike. Possibly this is because they have been selling like hotcakes - everywhere else has been sold out, and it was sheer chance that I noticed Evans having any at all in stock (and fortunately, in the 52cm I wanted).

My original criteria for a bike included a triple crankset, and the Roubaix (in the UK at least) has a compact double. To be honest, the bike is so light that I don't see this being much of a problem - in the UK at least. By the time of Etape du Tour next year, I may look at upgrading to a triple, depending on my fitness at the time.

I was actually going to buy a Ribble Ribelle last night, except that their site refused my credit card. Today, I feel that the extra £200 for the Roubaix is well worth it, because I actually got a proper test ride, and I have a local bike shop to shout at if anything goes wrong.

I am now officially a happy bunny - until I start thinking about that winter training bike...

Cheers,
Darren

P.S. Geometry note - the bikefitting.com analysis recommended a 533mm top tube for me, and 766mm from bottom bracket to saddle. Top tubes of that length imply a short or sportive-oriented frame, and then it's just a matter of making sure that the seatpost can extend far enough, and that the stem adjustment allows for the reach & drop specified by the bikefitting.com analysis.

 

[Mothyman]

enjoy it - i might by roubaix this week...will keep you posted
thanks for the Geo note

M