Scratch & sniff, its new bike time.

The daily commute does take it’s toll on a bike, & after 3 years the Jamis Exile (MTB single speed 42/16 with slick tyres) was coming across little dog eared. Even though the intrinsic connection a rider gets when riding a single speed can be intoxicating at times, my weathered frame has been feeling the climbs as time has passed and I began to look on with a degree of envy as the rider alongside me simply snicked down to a more suitable ratio & powered on. The attraction of levelling out the terrain while on the go with science was the catalyst for me to turn my back on new parts & an open tool boxto neaten up the Jamis, for a chat with my local bike shop salesperson & web searching bike manufacturer product ranges.

For me, it was something of ‘Back to the future’ moment where my head was turned once again to the weirdness that is winter in Europe – the cyclocross bike. These fall into two broad groups of product, the hardcore cyclocross racer with a low(ish) ratio double up front, or what can be considered a touring bike – a drop ‘bar roadie with nod to MTBs with disk brakes & a triple crankset.

Oddly, my short list of just 2x bikes were either the Spcialized Tricross Comp (2012) – solely on the strength of how cool it looked in anodized black & red bits, as well as the Boardman Pro from Wiggle, because, again it was black, but ran disks (albeit cable Avid7s) and priced very keenly.

The hot-shoe amongst the various bike outlets in Melbourne revealed the supply of Specialized Tricross Comps not due until June 2012 (we’re in January) & CX bikes in various shades of unsuitability – yes in the end it was basically all about what they looked liked… So, I reverted to the information superhighway to rescue me from my vanity & doubled clicked onto the Boardman CX Pro  .

So now that anxious wait for that big box from that smelly man in the courier van.