19 days to go...

my first Merida is nearly upon me. Builth Wells April 13th and I can't wait.

The training is going well, I'm noticing a definate increase of speed and stamina which has to be good. I am getting in a good mix of on the bike time and turbo trainer sessions (and family time of course!!). The bike itself is another matter...

I have had my eye on a Santa Cruz Superlight frame for some time now and last week I finally took the plunge and ordered one (via Stif bikes in Leeds). I never realised how weak I was at choosing colours, been a designer I thought it would have helped, but not in this case! After many a minute of deliberation I opted for the Anodized Slate, then after many more minutes of filling in details for my order and a phone call from Stif to Jungle (UK importer of Santa Cruz bikes) it was confirmed the chosen colour is out of stock....noooooooooooooooooooooo!.....3 weeks lead time at least......! I left it on order with the other bits I needed (XT front mech, Syncros seat post) and came away very unhappy at the thought I may not have my new bike built up ready for the 1st Merida.

After a restless night of 'what on earth can I do' thoughts I woke with the positive attitude of changing my order to the Anodized blue option, after all they told me they had all othere colour options other than the one i chose. I would of course have to order a new Hope headset in Black as my current headset in red would look a tad odd on a blue bike!?

So, 9.30am came around and I put a call in to Stif, "no problem sir, we can change that over for you sir", "I will just check with my colleague that we can price match your headset", can I give you a call back sir?"

The call back confirmed to me that the Anodized blue is also not in stock! Flippin hec, how hard can it be??! I mentioned to this 'new to me' sales person that they did confirm on Thursday they had every colour other than anodized slate...."can you double check?"...and so that is the call I am now waiting for tomorrow.

Anyway, I gave the Trek a quick wash down this morning to wash away last Tuesday's Pootle remnants so I didnt have to carry all that unwanted ballast, so a quick wash later and with my camelback reservoir filled I was off on a Monday morning mainly road blast. The reason for the 'mainly road' outing is because the Trek is desperatley in need of new bushes. I do hope the Superlight turns up next week so I don't have to have these replaced just now.

The ride out this morning was good, it took in the views of Ackworth, Low Ackworth, Featherstone, Heath Common, Walton, Haw Park Wood and back home - 18.2 miles, 1hr 30mins constant cycling, 12 mph avg speed. I was happy with that.

Had a good wash of the bike once home ready to swap all bits and pieces over to the Superlight next week........hopefully.....fingers crossed.....