Ted's shake-down Ride

After giving up hope (due to lack of funds) on Thursday, I thought my new dream bike would never be complete. However, on Saturday I had yet another surprise waiting for me. As well as the new canti's he had bought me on Friday, I was amazed to find Mullerton had also bought me some girl-friendly bars & tape. So now, with a little reshuffling (ie, loans from Mullerton and borrowed bits from my hybrid bike) the bike formerly known as not-Bob had everything he needed to make him complete.

Ted was finally rideable!

I was so excited - but at the same time extremely anxious - Argh, what if, after all this money and effort, I couldn't ride him? I knew my thoughts were irrational, as I'd managed to ride Mullerton's cross bike, which was a size too big. Surely, if I could do that, I could ride a bike that had been custom built to my own specifications.

Anyway after spending Saturday evening adding the final bits, yesterday was the big day. The sun was out, the roads were dry and dusty and the wind was gentler than it has been for a long time. The weather was on my side and the conditions were perfect, yet I still couldn't help but worry. Thankfully my excitement was greater than my doubts and no sooner as I sat on the saddle was I pedalling merrily down the road.

Overall, I really enjoyed myself and was surprised at how well I was riding - LOL! I even managed to leave Mullerton in my wake halfway up a hill, when I accelerated off without warning him. There were a few dodgy moments, where I struggled with the twitchyness of such a light bike - when the smallest of pebbles felt like they would send me careering off balance, but this all added to the fun and excitement. I had a shiny new bike and nothing was gonna stop me! I was loving every minute. We had only intended to do a few laps round the local roads - not venturing too far from home, just in case adjustments were necessary. But as the weather was lovely, we continued on our journey, stopping briefly to say hi to my Mum then fix her bike so that she could join us.

It was all great - apart from one horrible moment when I stupidly decided to take a short cut by venturing off the quiet country lanes and onto a busy, yet narrow, main road. I've done this road numerous times on my other bikes with no problems - so I wasn't really prepared to be so scared. Eek! Oh why, did I decide to take this route? We were now on a very narrow "national speed limit" road, where of course the cars won't wait and there's nowhere safe to tuck in. Much to our dismay, no sooner as we started down this road, a huge convoy of Porsche's and other mid-life-crisis-cars soon came hurtling past at +60mph and far too close for comfort. At this point, my nerves got the better of me and made me feel even more wobbly and ridiculously vulnerable as they all squeezed to overtake us at illegal speeds. Phewph. Somehow, we made it and got back onto the quieter roads and the fun could re-start!

By the time we got home I was on a complete high. I even found a clean cloth to wipe off all the dust that had accumulated on the bike - something that usually I will try to convince Mikey to do for me or leave it for another day . ;-)

Ted had exceeded all my expectations. I knew having a cross bike would be fun, I knew it would be lighter, I knew it would be faster, but I really hadn't realised how much so. It was awesome! I just can't wait to get out and ride him again.