Changing Bikes.......

The Aladdin's Cave that is Scott's Garage 

 With all the filthy weather that we have had recently my mileage has really taken a tumble...
Up until I reached 10,000 miles I was managing up to 320 miles in a week....since then the weather has deteriorated and that coupled with the lack of pressure to achieve a target means that I am now doing no more than about 160 miles each week. 

Mind you...all the extra non cycling time that I find that I now have means that I am able to spend more time on other things such as the planning of future trips...bike maintenance....and most importantly spending a bit more time with Anne.... 

Following the visit to the recent Bournemouth Bike and Tri show my son-in-law Scott had told me that he wouldn't be changing his bike for a while.....    

Scott's Carrera TDF

 Regular readers will remember that about a year ago he made his first move into road riding after being a keen mountain bike rider for some years....
He managed to buy a Carrera TDF for a very good price and I predicted at the time that he would probably upgrade within a year....
Well after our visit to the bike show he kept on emailing me with details of bikes that he had seen on Ebay....all this after saying that he would be sticking with the TDF for a while longer....

Anyway he eventually put a bid on a Felt Z100....I won't tell you what he got it for but it was a real giveaway price...For some reason nobody else felt inclined to place a bit on it so Scott ended up acquiring it  for very little money at all....

The bike is very nice...Condition is really good and the bike appears to have been looked after very well indeed...It's not a huge jump up from the TDF but Scott has wanted a Z series Felt for some time and this one gets him on the ladder........

The Felt Z100 -( It would have been a good buy at twice the price)

 So the next thing was what to do with the TDF....
Scott really wanted to move it on quickly as he needed the space in his garage. 
I have to tell you that his garage is a bit like a bikers Aladdin's cave with bikes and frames all over the place....how he manages to find anything is a bit of a mystery to me......

It so happened that Peter Calcutt who often accompanies me on cycle touring trips has been thinking about getting a cheap road bike for some time....
I knew that Peter needed a bit of a push and this would probably be the incentive he needed...
I got on the phone and told Peter that the time was over for thinking about getting a road bike...
It was make up your mind time!! 
I told him about the TDF and within 24hrs Peter made the decision to have it.... 

On Sunday morning Peter and I went over to Scott's to checkout the Felt and to pick up the TDF.... We entered the Aladdin's cave that is Scott's garage and eventually the bikes were retrieved from the inner depths and the lads were able to play with their new acquisitions...... 

Scott with his Felt and Peter with the TDF

Hopefully Peter will get on with the TDF and it will have the same effect on him as it has had on Scott......
The problem that I now have is to get Peter into some decent looking lycra kit rather than the baggy shorts and assorted baggy tops that he likes to wear on his tourer.....
I'll turn him into a roadie yet..!!!