I don't know what think of test riding before buying, a lot of people buy bikes over the internet, and quite a few of them are expensive and or custom made bikes and people don't report problems doing it that way. I bought my Lynskey over the internet and I love the bike. So I don't think test riding is always necessary, but all those internet companies allow you to return the bike if for some reason you don't like it, but you will have to pay for return shipping. The Lynskey was my first mail order/internet purchased bike, all my others have been test ridden first before I bought, I pretty sure my touring bike I want to buy will be another internet purchase since I can't find a dealer that stocks them anywhere near where I live.
I just say to say I wouldn't be scared to buy a bike without ever test riding...unless you have some weird physical proportions that prevent you from fitting on a off the shelf bike, but then we would be talking custom made anyway and that's an entirely different story.