Recently I found myself in the fortunate position to buy a new Mountain Bike. I’d cracked the frame on my beloved Enduro rig and the resulting insurance pay-out meant I was now in the market for something new. I decided to take some time and try test a few bikes on my dream bike list. The experience was a huge eye-opener and I can highly recommend it to anyone in the market for a new, potentially different type of bike. If I didn't test the bikes I would probably have bought a different bike and probably bought the wrong size. I decided I wanted a new bike or frame so at least if I broke something I might have a warranty. This ruled out my normal go-to of second hand bike purchase. This would be the fifth bike I'd be buying in about 6 years, but the first time I'd be buying a new bike for myself in nearly fifteen years. Step 0: What is available locally? I would have loved to test and buy some of the latest Enduro exotica, but some brands are just not that widely supported locally. Even if the brand is available locally, they may not focus on your type of bike which may result in poor sales advice, waiting for stock/parts and compromised service if they don't work on a particular type of bike that often. I would have loved to sample a Canyon Spectral, Mondraker Foxy or Yeti SB5.5, but this was just not on the cards. It may also be possible to buy something for cheaper while overseas, but again - check the warranty support. I know a guy who bought an incorrectly sized bike while on holiday because it was cheaper, but could not exchange it with the local agent for the correct size when he returned to South Africa due to the conditions of sale. Bleak... Step 1: What do you want? If you know a thing or two about the biking world, make a wishlist of bikes you might like to buy or may be interested in. If you don’t know much about bikes, try and describe the type of riding you do, the frequency of riding and your aspirations for the near future. For me I was looking for a decent climbing enduro bike or a brawny trail bike. My wife allows me to spend whatever I want on one do-it-all mountain bike so it better be a pretty versatile beast. There is some overlap in the trail and enduro categories and there has been some evolution in the biking world around geometry and suspension design which made the tests even more interesting. I basically selected about ten bikes which had reviewed well and which were available from local suppliers. It is worth mentioning that I actually just wanted a frame, but would consider a complete build if the price was right. Step 2: Make friends. It helped a lot that I was a customer at a few local bike shops affiliated with the brands I was interested in. If you are an unknown entity it is not always likely that a local bike shop will lend you a bike for testing. I reached out to each shop/brand and explained I was interested in testing and buying a new bike. I guess I have a trusting face because most of them were able to arrange me a test bike relatively quickly. Visiting a local bike shop will also allow you to do an initial size check – I sort of sit between a medium and a large for most brands so this was especially important. I had two negative experiences with pushy sales-people where these guys tried to either sell me something just because they had stock or something ill-suited to my needs> "all you need is our marathon rig with bigger tyres and a longer fork". Meh… Be careful of these overzealous sales types trying to force a solution on you. With the best sales people they offered useful advice for free and let me move at my own pace. Even if they don’t have the exact model you want, it is still worth testing something from the same family. One brand only had aluminium test bikes, but the fork and shock were similar enough to what I wanted for it to be comparable. Similarly, if you test the top end bike, but only plan on buying the entry level model things may not be rosy with your purchase if key components are very different. Step 3: What if you can't get a test bike from a shop? My local bike shop was affiliated with a brand who no longer had test bikes available. They were not very helpful when I explained what I was after which was a great disappointment since they’d been fantastic with service and my insurance claim. I went elsewhere to another bike shop who had their own fleet of test bikes. Moral of the story – don’t be afraid to walk away and find a bike shop with an awesome sales experience. I found more than a few so don’t settle for average. I wasn’t winning with another local bike shop so I emailed the brand directly. They pointed me in the direction of a “brand ambassador” who could arrange a test on their personal bike. How awesome is that! Step 4: Terms and Conditions Certain brands have shared test bikes for a few shops while others force individual shops to buy demo-bikes. In each case the conditions for a demo can be very different. Some brands have big demo days which are great, but often don’t align with your timeline for buying a new bike. Some places had me fill in a shared liability form saying I would pay a certain amount if I damaged the demo bike while others just let me take the bike out for a spin. Respect the terms and conditions. Stick to agreed test periods and give the bikes back in a good condition. If you can, hose off the bike before you return it and the let them know if there were any issues. Test bikes are also a serious cost so they are not there to be abused or for your mate to use as a spare bike for the weekend. I took one test bike on a shuttle day, but only after asking the owner. If you break something, be prepared to offer to pay for it or contribute to the repair. It is just the polite thing to do. Step 5: Take the time to set it up Initially this was my biggest mistake. I expected to do a car-park suspension bounce, set the saddle height and off I go. Listen to what the bike shop or sales-rep has to say about setting sag, rebound, compression and cockpit. Better yet, get them to set it up for you. If you prefer running wide bars for example, see if the demo bike has similarly wide bars to try and get you comfy as soon as possible. I found that I really needed to write off one ride to suspension set up – especially on suspension with many adjustments and a narrow “sweet spot”. My suggestion would be a short ride on a trail you know well to just get the feel of the base suspension settings. Tweak it as you need (or based on the advice of the sales rep) and then go into full trail-test mode. It also goes without saying that you should try and test bikes on the same trail as much as possible. I had three test tracks which allowed me to do a reasonable comparison over varied terrain. Some bikes might only be good on smooth, flowing trails while others excel at rough stuff – that is why you need some variety (or something representative for your riding style). This is not to say I rode every bike on all three trails, but I did get to expose each bike to an apples-with-apples comparison. Step 6: Give feedback and be honest There were no lemons, but there were some bikes I just did not like. This is not to say they were bad bikes, but just not well suited to what I wanted or the kind of riding I was used to. No big deal, the bike shop okes were glad to get the feedback and they understood when I told them it wasn’t for me. If you tell a sales rep you didn’t get on with the bike and they make you feel dumb, slow or guilty then be warned. Some guys suggested I try the bike again after some tweaking which is far more constructive. If you don’t think you will be interested in a bike, let the rep know and don’t keep them hanging on. Step 7: Make a shortlist and test again if you need to From my initial ten bike wishlist, I’d narrowed it down to three. Two of which I tested again before deciding on my final selection. All the time I was honest with the bike shops about my opinion and why I wanted to test the bikes again. In my case I’d thought the first new dream-bike I’d tested was the best thing since sliced bread. In reality, it was just so different to what I’d ridden before that it felt disproportionately good. When I tested it a second time it was still good, but not as amazing over different terrain as I’d initially thought. The second bike I retested was a strange beast that defied fitting into a certain box. Unfortunately as much as I liked it, the second test revealed it was just not enough bike for me and I wanted something with a bit more suspension. Step 8: Have some manners You should not feel like you owe the bikes shops anything other than a polite thank-you. Just as you are not expected to buy every car you test, you are not beholden to every bike shop that arranged a demo for you. That said, hopefully your parents raised you with some manners and you thank those that helped you. Similarly, it is a d!ck move to test a bike with one shop and then buy the same bike overseas. I had a situation where one shop that had been really helpful had a higher price than another less helpful shop. I gave the helpful guys a chance to improve their price which then resulted in a sale. If you don’t ask, you don’t get. Happy bike hunting and I am happy to answer private questions about my experience in more detail. I would also like to say a special thanks to following rockstars: Stirling Junior at Revolution CyclesMarc DeDecker at This Way OutBrenton Bowers at Trailtech CyclesThomas Rood at Giant Cape TownRoman Kumpers at YT Industries
