I have never test ridden a frame and they are all good. As someone said above, by the time you've put a few different bits of kit on it will feel different anyway, unless it's off the peg.

Weight of tyres and wheels
Size and pressure of tyres
Suspension setup (assuming the forks are the same as they have different A-C heights for the same travel)
Stem length and angle
Number of spacers
Seatpost layback
Saddle position
Bar width, sweep and rise

I've ridden other peoples bikes with different setups but essentiall the same. Some I hate, some I love.

PeterPoddy – Member
I've only ever test ridden one bike I've bought. Can't say it's ever been a problem, because there's not much I can tell you about a bike/frame until I've ridden it for a couple of months at least. Usually takes me 2-3 rides just to get everything set up right personally.

The only bikes I've sold because I didn't like them for some reason or other, it took me a year for one and 18 months for the other to work it out! (Both of those bikes are quite popular on STW too! )

agreed!

I didn't test ride my first proper mountain bike, apart from a couple of laps of the car park. I thought it was fine and it was, until I started getting into more technical riding.
At the time though, even if I had taken it off road for a day, I would have found it perfectly fine for the type of stuff I was riding.

Buying a new one this time around though, I definitely wanted to test ride the bikes and as my choice was fairly mainstream it wasn't too hard to find demo bikes. I couldn't get hold of a Zesty to demo so discounted it.
In the end, I test rode a 2010 Stumpjumper & a 2010 Fuel EX9. Did a first lap on the Stumpjumper and the second lap on the EX9. Within about 5 mins of getting on the EX9, I was 100% convinced that it was not as good for me as the Stumpjumper was.

So, for me a test ride was definitely worth it.
I can see how it might be difficult though, if you are hoping to test one frame over another, as the overall build will probably change the feel of the finished bike quite a lot.

My current two bikes, I tested one and love it, did not test the other and love that two…Maybe i just like shiney things?

Saying that my previous bike I built up from a frame etc. It was a pig too ride and took quite a bit of changing about to get to an ok state, it was probably a little short for me.

If you can do a test ride or borrow a bike I would.

Of course it's better to test ride but sometmes you just want a particular bike and you say "sod it, just going to buy no matter what". Not logical, but then a lot about MTB'ing isn't! 😀

the last two frames i've bought, i've bought based on the spec/geometry. never really considered getting a test ride. although, it'd be pretty hard to find any new steel frame to test ride here in Germany as everyone wets themselves about the weight.

i knew after a year of riding in the alps that i needed something beefier than the Sanderson (although, to be fair, it coped admirably). the specials offered at the time by Dialled Mike also helped swing it.

regretted it for a bit after riding around on the Sanderson for a month, but now like having two bikes each with a different attitude….