Ever bought the wrong bike?

I bought the right bike last time i bought one. It felt great. The first year of it was love!

But if i knew then what I would be using it for now I would have bought a different bike, I like the bike but its limitations frustrate me.

Bought a Cube Ltd Race hardtail MTB a few years back, too big a frame, would of been fine as a tourer, in fact I nearly did buy a rigid fork and luggage for it before eventually selling it to fund my new MTB.
When I went to buy my current road bike I came out with a different bike from the one I went in for, and I'm glad I listened to the advice I got in my LBS.
After that the next bike is a definite want so I'm going to have to travel to get it and give it a go as the only stockist in Ireland doesn't carry a great range.

The Puch my parents bought for me as a kid was the wrong bike. I wanted it at the time but soon realised I should've asked them to get me another bike instead. It weighed a lot and was slow and ponderous to ride. That said, it clocked up many, many miles and after I got a roadbike, remained gathering dust in my parent's garage until rescued many years later by my niece. She liked it for its uncool appearance that meant thieves weren't interested and she rode it all over until it finally fell apart and made its final journey to the rubbish dump. She apologised for having scrapped it but I was just amazed it'd lasted so long.

I bought an Alfine 11 Pompetamine Versa from Planet X. It is in fact a really nice bike. But i wouldn't have bought it if i had had a chance to try it. I am a London commuter and so much of my commuting is stop start. I like getting away from the lights to take, where appropriate, primary. My word that hub is heavy! it simply took too long for my weedy legs to get some speed up. It would be different if my commute was not stop start but it began to suck the joy out of riding. Aside from that i always feared getting a puncture. Its too fiddly to unhinge etc. the wires/cables to the hub and then you have to realign it just right. I would need to carry my reading glasses just to see what i was doing! So, it sits at home looking all forlorn waiting for me to sell it/the hub and bits while i commute on my crosslight pro6.

Is 'I brought this bike, but it is the wrong size, so trying to sell it so I can buy the next size down' a euphemism for 'I nicked this bike and I want to get some cash for it'?

Road bike, no.

Mountain bike, a fair few times.

Even test rides and living with the bike have proved very different for me with the latter.

If you buy blind then you may get lucky, but personally I would need a great incentive e.g a large monetary saving to take the gamble. If it is not right then I'd want to reduce my losses. If you go to your LBS, borrow their test bike, get fitting advice and take their time then do the decent thing and buy your bike from them and accept that a reasonable additional cost is part of the package.

My last bicycle purchase mistake was from buying a bike without riding it for at least 2 hours. So now my shopping process involves a 2 hour test ride and if the shop won't do that then they can keep the bike.

I have nothing against buying a bike from the internet - but only if you really know what you want.

If you are unsure, then buying from the LBS - and trying before you buy -makes a lot of sense.

When I last purchased a bike - I had two models in mind, both were from the same manufacture, both at the same price with mostly identical specs - the difference was that one was designed with a more comfort orientated geometry, while the other was (slightly) more racey.

I went into the shop expecting to buy the comfort bike, but after test rides was really surprised at how different the two bikes felt - I left with the 'racy' one, which felt right from the first pedal stroke.

The other aspect to think about is size. Having seen a number of 'new' bikes for sale online, the common complaint is 'I brought this bike, but it is the wrong size, so trying to sell it so I can buy the next size down' . Again going to the LBS would solve this problem.

[Edited to fix a few typos]
Strongly recommend trying the bike if you can. When I bought my race bike, I tried loads of bikes, back to back, over a few miles each time. At the end of all that, my choice came down to very minute feelings, but it was definitely right. That was around 5 years ago and I still LOVE that bike.

My winter training bike, was bought without trying it, and it's fine, but despite getting it set up to exactly the same position as my race bike, it is still not quite 'right'.

But then both my fixed gear bikes I built from old frames I acquired over the years. Neither was perfectly chosen for me - they were just what I managed to get at no/low cost. But having built them up and ridden them a lot, I have really grown to be at one with them. So if you love the bike, you can probably adapt quite a bit.

But there's nothing that can quite match trying a bike and knowing before you've parted with your cash that this is the bike for you...