Would you expect a new bike to be road tested?

[LimeBurn]

I'd be mortified if someone had ridden my bike before me

 

[raleighnut]

Depends where you're buying it from.
A local bike shop is probably less likely to make mistakes compared to a larger sports/motoring stores with staff trained in various departments/product types.

I bought my Carrera Virtuoso from the local Halfords, they did their pre-delivery inspection & 22 point safety check. So I didn't take it for a test ride and put it straight in the car.

First ride out and bang! The crank had absolutely mangled the front mech, I bent it back and tired to adjust it. When I couldn't get the set up right I took it to a LBS. Turns out Halfords forgot to fully tighten the front mech to the frame. As I changed gear it swung round & fouled the crank.

Lesson learnt, I will always go for a quick spin before taking a new bike home, if it fails there & then at least it's easier to sort with the retailer.

I think all halffrauds "mechanics" should be forced to ride anything they have "worked" on preferably in front of an HGV at rush hour!

 

[summerdays]

the real answer is, all bikes fresh from the shop are in a horrendous condition. The factory will do a poor job of most things, and then the LBS will just f*** it up a little bit more for you.

If I ever buy a complete bike (I try and avoid doing this) the first thing I do is completely take everything apart and rebuild it properly - this usually take several hours. You always find absolutely nothing greased, usually not a single bolt. Most bolts over or under torqued. Gear / brake cables not greased, cut poorly to length and the end caps crimped badly......... the list is very long. Remember, straight from the shop it will be a poor job every time. I might not be as fit or fast as a professional rider, nor use top end kit, however, I do like my bikes to be in the condition of a pro bike and tuned to perfection.

My lbs would agree with you, when you buy a bike from them you have to wait to pick it up after they have checked it over and regressed bits etc. I don't think they ride them but I think they are very good at setting it up in the stand. And they will sort look at it if you brought it back in as something was rubbing for example.

And everyone ought to learn how to do a basic bike check, and to be aware if their bike starts producing different noises than normal (I'm not saying that everyone would be able to fix/find the fault but at least recognise something is wrong).