Skint and excited!

A new speed weapon is on the way!

After months of investigating and deliberating I've just placed an order for not one, but two triathlon bikes!

Now, I'm not being greedy - one of them is for my good lady wife… Some women like diamonds, posh shoes or expensive handbags but I'm lucky that my better half is as mad as me and she'd far rather have something sporty.

We'd been down at the London Triathlon and had looked at a selection of triathlon bikes from quite a few manufacturers, although to be fair, I'd liked to have seen more examples at the expo. The guys on the Planet X stand were great and loaned us a head tube bung to replace one of my wife's bike that had been damaged in transit. We both liked the stealthy matt black carbon fibre Exocet 2 bikes on display and they were coming in at a pretty decent price for the specification.

After reading tons of reviews, I toyed with the idea of the Van Nicholas Blaze - a titanium framed tri bike that had been awarded great marks, especially for comfort - something vital for 112 miles in the saddle. I found a second-hand one online but unfortunately the frame size was too large for me.

We decided to go and get a bike fit to work out which bikes would best fit us. This is a great deal more complex than simply taking an inside leg measurement or rider height and comparing against a chart to see which bike fits. I'd already tried that route with a Specialized SHIV and ended up with an XL to try - it was so large I could have put an additional seat post in there and had a passenger along for the ride.

We headed off to a RETUL fitter and after a wee bit of jiggery pokery worked out that I needed a medium and the missus an extra small in a…

… Boardman Air TT  :-)

Now, I confess I am a Chris Boardman fan and I already have a Boardman Pro Carbon road bike and had bought L. a Boardman Fi road bike for her 40th. The fact that the bikes are designed in the UK is a bonus, although like most high end bikes these days, they're assembled overseas.

After doing the sums - man maths is my speciality - I decided that I couldn't possibly afford either bike, so I bought them both! A quick online loan application and voila - money magically into my account. Just like Dynamo - I'll make it disappear, very, very quickly!!!

After a few phone calls, I've just placed the order with Allan from B Spoke Cycles in Peebles. Must say, they have been great to deal with and are making a couple of modifications for L's bike so that it is exactly what she is after. All going well we should pick up the bikes and get them fitted to us next weekend.

L gets the red 9.0 and I'm getting the white 9.4...

Now, given the Brownlee brothers raced Boardman bikes in their stunning Gold and Bronze podium places at the London Olympics and Pete Jacobs has just won the Ironman World Championship at Kona, Hawaii this year on an Air TT 9.8 these bikes have serious pedigree. Will it guarantee an amazing bike split and help me qualify for Kona next year, or the Glasgow Commonwealth Games in 2014 ?? I highly doubt it, but trust me, I'll have fun trying ;-)