(New bike) . . . and The Winner Is….
The Giant SCR LTD
I went back to the excellent Edinburgh Bicycle Cooperative (artwork, left, from their site) in Byker (no, really) at lunch time today, and asked ‘em if I could have a go of the Giant with aerobars on. So they fitted a set of Profile T2+ aerobars for me (this took three guys about ten minutes - I’m sure there’s a gag in there somewhere, but let’s just leave it for now), and set the bike up for me on a turbo trainer. Actually, they offered to just let me out on the road, but as I’ve said before, the traffic in Byker & Walker’s pretty busy, and far from ideal for being on a new bike with aero bars.
After ten minutes or so, I’d worked up a bit of a sweat (lovely - just what you wanted to know), but other than that I felt fine. The breathing was easy, and the on the bike position pretty darned comfortable.
So now I’ve phoned the Manchester store, which is 150 miles away to order the bike. They’ll then ship the bike from Byker (9 miles from where I’m sitting) to Manchester, so that I can go all the way there to collect it, and take advantage of the Manchester store’s 20% opening discount. I’ve asked the local store if they’d honour my 20% token, I’ve asked the Manchester guys if they’d deliver it to me here, and I’ve even phoned their head office and asked if they’d bend the rules just this once.
But to no avail. Allowing for the cost of fuel, I’ll still get the bike at a £100 discount, which isn’t to be sniffed at, but this is still pretty insane. If I try hard, I can kind of see the tip of the ‘thin end of the wedge’ argument that would be used to keep the local discount local, but this is still a pretty daft state of affairs. The bike will travel 150 miles on the back of a van, I’ll drive 150 miles to meet it, and then we’ll both drive 150 miles back home, where I’ll have to act all surprised:
“Gee honey, I guess the little fella must have followed me home. He’s pretty cute though . . . can we keep him? Can we . . . can we . . . pleeeease!”
