I don't know if anyone else has ever found it as impossible to get test rides as I have. With the exception of main Harley Davison and Triumph dealers, I have never been given the opportunity to test ride a bike before I buy.
What I propose is to start this thread to give anyone who has a bike and would like to give others the opportunity to have a go before they buy.
Naturally, all I ask is that you respect the fact that it is my pride and joy and go easy (no doughnuts or wheelies) and that you have a full licence with appropriate insurance. Any dings or scratches are to be paid for and any excessive fuel used is recompensed. As well as that, you get yourself to me, unless we meet on a ride out or similar.
If anyone else has a bike available to test ride, then please post on this thread.
I have an '03 Triumph Sprint ST 955i, which is available to anyone who would like to give it a blast.
When i've shown interest in a bike at a dealers they've always offered a test ride , all i had to do was bring my license n insurance doc n the all important riding gear .
Good idea tho Mark , think i would have to do it on a u ride my bike n i ride ur bike basis , that way u can keep an eye on said pride n joy.
Kwak -
Never had a problem with test rides, Triumph dealers are usually well set up with demo machines.
And there's not much out there at the moment would tempt me off a Hinckley triple.
Great offer tho Blueboy
Can only say it must be a fairly local problem then.Whites,the main Honda dealers in Darlo don't even like you to sit on their bikes and set them up to make it very difficult.When i was interested in buying a shadow and wanted to sit on it i was allowed but only with much huffing,puffing,shaking of heads and tuts.Needless to say i took myself and my money elsewhere.
Blue and i have visited numerous bike shops as far south as york and as far north as newcastle and many places in between,out of all those only two had bikes available for test rides,Triumph in york and just harleys in Newcastle.
Would be interested to hear what other people have experianced.
Miles Kingsport (Handa Main Dealer) in Hull have always had a policy of having demo bikes....ok it's not the full fleet of Hondas but I beleive they'll arrange a test ride on any of their 2nd hand stock too. Not sure if a security deposit is needed but I've always found them very helpful even accomodating in the past!
Our local dealer, Castle Motorcycles, are very good and have a good selection of demos.
The Assistant Manager, Bob, who I've known for a long time even pulled several bikes out of the way in order to pull a CBR600 out for Roachy to sit on, even though we'd told him that particular bike was well out of our price range.
So it does sound like it's a local issue Blue and Cassie.
I agree if a dealer wont let you have a test ride i would tell them to stuff it...plus i would recommend ringing Honda Uk and have a good old moan !!!!!!!!!!!!
Incredible that a dealer objects to you even sitting on a bike.
With an attitude like that, can't see them lasting long. Certainly wouldn't be getting any of my business.
Kwak - if only you were just 5 mins up the road
wota bout the insurance side of it ? we allways said if u ride a mates bike and bin it u buy it !
its nice to ride other stuff but i would only lend my bike to some one i know and trust and that they were able to cope with the machine so i would tread very carfully with this one !!
This must be more of a northeast thing,,,,,i was interested in a bike from Whites myself 2 yrs ago before i got the pan, to cut a long story short, i ended up swearing at salesman as he showed no interest at pulling bike out to even have a sit on it,,,,never been back,,,,,,,,similar at newcastle untill good friend became salesman at M&S........
The thing with bike shops as a lot of others, they do get a hell of a lot of wannabes want to sit on the new stuff in the shop and very few in reality buy! So unless they are "very good" sales people they could not see a buying signal if it was put up in neon lights above their perspecive buyer lol.
This in turn leads to a blanket policy of no sitting on the shiney bikes, after you've dragged that pan out from the back put some fuel in it put trade plates on then, made sure all t's are crossed and i's are dotted, the punter comes back with a filthey bike just to criticise it and or make some other excuse about not quite having enough cash just yet............ You then have to drain the excess fuel clean polish and maybe order a new rear tyre as it's now been flat spotted as the rider got a bit enthusiastic comming upto a bend! Think you get the picture!
So maybe we could start a Directory of bike shops who will do test rides??
BMW are more than willing , but a tedious process, licence checks etc, but read smallprint as the one I testrode had a £2000 fee for ANY damage caused on ride, I would expect realistic excess as per my own insurance if any misshaps did occur during test ride.
But after saying all this I think the percentage of people that buy bikes without a test ride must be the greater?? Ive done it !!
My local Suzuki dealer (in Hyde, Cheshire) has a number of the new stock available as test rides, and as mentioned above, the same with second hand stock.
I find it incredible that a shop won't even let you sit on a bike, let alone test ride it!
There was a time if you remember darling when you went to look at bikes for me before I got Vinny, there was one place you went to that would not let you test ride ... mind you from what you said about the condition of it it sounded like it would have fallen to pieces before you got far
I'm only 5' 2 and a bit and ride sports bikes. Newcombe Bros in Chelmsford even went so far as to change a shock for me so i could take out a ZX10 - that's some service. The I went and bought a blade but that's another story. I have never experienced issues with pulling bikes out to have a sit, or in my case see if I can touch the blooming floor, bit it's a different issue when seriously trying to buy a bike as a woman. But that's a whole different thread.
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