Have to agree about not buying without a test ride, if only to gauge size and geometey. I’ve said it before but I test rode a Giant Defy from the Giant shop by racing it in an E1234 race. That is a proper test. It told me that, comfort bike sales blurb aside, the Defy is a race bike. The alloy TCR I also have is a lovely bike too, more like CAAD10. It isn’t as nice as the Defy, but the difference is about 20% and the price was 10x lower (bought it used).
For the money, there are no bad bikes, but I wouldn’t be swayed by shiny groupsets. The manufacturers are all trying to balance components, frames, wheels and profits.
