Hi,
I'm having a few issues with trying to buy my first road bike. I've been riding MTBs for a long time, and really got into riding this year as a break from work/studying.
I'm pretty sure of my sizing on a MTB, and I have a really vague idea of my road bike sizing (~53cm).
Now, the plan was to go down to a local cycle shop, and try and ride a 53cm frame, and see how it felt. I don't really trust buying a bike without having ridden it first - especially when I have no idea on frame sizing!
Unfortunately, the Evans nearest me has no road frames that are 53cm, and seem to have absolutely no knowledge about what the fit should be like for me - also, they want to charge 25% of the bike price as a deposit just to order it in so that I can see what the frame sizing is like. This seems pretty stupid, since I don't even know that 53cm is the right size for me - they're just going to be holding onto a chunk of my money for a while for no huge reason (I mean, isn't this the reason that they're a chain, they get the economies of scale of moving bikes around? I might understand if they had to order it from a distributor...).
I've got a few other cycle shops around (being in central London), but I'm really unsure as to what to do about getting fitted - places like CycleFit seem to offer quite a limited (and expensive!) selection of bikes.
Does anyone have any thoughts on a good place to buy in London, or how to get around the whole fit problem? My fallback option is likely to be going back up North under the pretense of seeing some family to buy a new bike ;-)
Thanks in advance!
Rob
I'm having a few issues with trying to buy my first road bike. I've been riding MTBs for a long time, and really got into riding this year as a break from work/studying.
I'm pretty sure of my sizing on a MTB, and I have a really vague idea of my road bike sizing (~53cm).
Now, the plan was to go down to a local cycle shop, and try and ride a 53cm frame, and see how it felt. I don't really trust buying a bike without having ridden it first - especially when I have no idea on frame sizing!
Unfortunately, the Evans nearest me has no road frames that are 53cm, and seem to have absolutely no knowledge about what the fit should be like for me - also, they want to charge 25% of the bike price as a deposit just to order it in so that I can see what the frame sizing is like. This seems pretty stupid, since I don't even know that 53cm is the right size for me - they're just going to be holding onto a chunk of my money for a while for no huge reason (I mean, isn't this the reason that they're a chain, they get the economies of scale of moving bikes around? I might understand if they had to order it from a distributor...).
I've got a few other cycle shops around (being in central London), but I'm really unsure as to what to do about getting fitted - places like CycleFit seem to offer quite a limited (and expensive!) selection of bikes.
Does anyone have any thoughts on a good place to buy in London, or how to get around the whole fit problem? My fallback option is likely to be going back up North under the pretense of seeing some family to buy a new bike ;-)
Thanks in advance!
Rob