On the other hand, from less civilized part of the world - LBS (at least locally) do not offer anything other than:
Bring your money, you maybe will be serviced and we would be interested in you…but maybe. You want a test ride? So buy a bike and after that we have this big 50m^2 parking lot and there you can have your first ride on the bike.
The only dealer that offered me test ride was a BMC and it was the only lbs that was remotely interested in selling me the bike (didn’t buy any yet). And this is not only my experience but also the experience from other people. The pinnacle of “customer service” was when I was buying a stem for my old bike and the salesman after hearing what bike it was laughet and told me that this is too good steam for my “shitty bike”. So that is why I do not see any value in support of my lbsps. What is really interesting the level of customer services is not changing when I was buying a bike for a 1000usd and was talking about leaving 4000-5000 usd, experience was similar.
RE test rides, I was trying to organize some test rides of XC bikes, and was living in Park City (i.e. a mtb Mecca). Basically, I’d have to not buy a bike until very late in the season if I wanted to test ride any of the bikes I was looking at. What’s the point in waiting until August/Sept to buy a bike? If I’m buying a new bike, I want it basically as soon as the snow has melted and the trails are ready.
To me, early/pre-season, there should be test ride events daily and over perhaps a 100 day period, so anyone that wanted to try a bike, would have a couple days in their state to make it work.
This would be for road and mtb.
Or at the least, a test ride through the manufacturer where they BikeFlights.com the demo bike to you, and you have 72 hours, then send it back.
There is not a business model in the world where that would be sustainable. You are talking about 100’s of thousands of $$ just in equipment investment.
Yes, I totally agree. We can’t get just the white frame over here. Otherwise I would have built it differently ( Shimano instead of Sram groupset ) . But, yeah, the white color really stands out with the black wheels.
When I was considering which bike to buy from my LBS, the owner literally grabbed his Allez Sprint off the wall, adjusted the saddle, pumped the tires and gave it to me for a long weekend ride to see how I liked the frame. From what I can tell, he’d have done the same for any of the other bikes I was interested in. The shop also has several sets of carbon wheels that they will let you test ride on the weekly group ride.
His philosophy is basically that nothing sells a product better than trying it out in a scenario you’re familiar. That will let you actually feel the difference. If you try those 60 mm rims in the group ride and you suddenly are at the front of the group when you’re normally at the back, you’ll notice and it will influence you to purchase. Smart dude, even if the concept carries some risk.
" Specialized is making 100 limited editions of the Bennett frame design, which will cost $6,500 with a portion of all proceeds going to the Outride Foundation, an organisation dedicated to proving that cycling benefits your brain. Through research, cycling programs, and grant-giving activities, Outride provides evidenced-based cycling interventions to improve social, emotional, and cognitive health."
Unless I missed it earlier in this chat, but curious if any new SL7 owners have tested out the tire clearance on it yet? They saying 32mm was something I really wanted to try out but still waiting for mine to have a go
Has anyone tried to install a D-Fly wireless unit (EW-WU111) by connecting to the junction in the seat post? Connecting to the Junction A seems like the easiest way to install one of these, but then the wireless unit might be too far from the front of the bike to connect to a bike computer.
We installed the wireless unit in the seat post, inline with the battery. Garmin 530 seems happy, but it has only been a couple of rides because of poor air quality.
