Retailers:

[GPSS]

If you were to be buying a bike for £500 to £800, would you buy it from an internet dealer, or would you want to purchase it from a Bike shop. Im asking as Im considering buying a Powerbyke electric cycle over the net, as thier is not a dealer anywhere near me.

[WildCards]

I bought my last bike over the net, that was £1200 and the two bikes before that through ebay.

[prand]

If you know exactly what you are looking for, the internet is ideal.

However, judging by your other post, you might not be quite sure, then I would get a shortlist together and visit some local dealers. There's nothing like seeing something in the flesh and talking through requirements with "experts" that helps the buying process. If you're not too comfortable with fixing bikes yourself, then buying from a local shop and having bit of rapport with them will help no end when you have little tweaks to do & advice to get in a hurry.

Edit to add - if you get on well with your local bike shop (LBS) then I feel that's more than worth the 5-10% or so online discount you might be saving.

Edit again - just read your post properly..... if you're looking at electric bikes, these are very niche/specialist things and you're unlikely to find many smaller local shops stock them (as you have found). My concerns about you getting one of these aside, these are relatively rare things, I would not buy one of these until I'd ridden one and seen/lifted it in the flesh. Also, maintenance might be quite hard to come by.

Edited by prand on Monday 16th June 09:50

[Marcellus]

I've always bought my bikes from my local bike shop even though it's not so local to me now......I've just made a 2 day trip to get there which invloved flights, car hire and drives which added another £500(ish) to the cost of the bike but still worth it imo.

You might find "something" cheaper in the net but will it be what you really need or what you think you'd like?

Also when I've found deals on stuff from the net cheaper than the lbs we've come to an agreement as to whether they match it or not.

[gbbird]

if you know what you want, and have basic set up/tweaking skills, then the net is usually the cheapest and sometimes quikest option

Edited by gbbird on Wednesday 18th June 11:22