BTW,
as reported in the Members' Bikes Gallery section, where I also
posted some more photos of the bike, I did actually take it out for a short 25 mile shakedown ride with a friend on Saturday (after fitting the second bottle cage).
The ride quality is fantastic, not harsh, not noodly - think this is partly the frame, partly the Veloflex Master 25 tyres (and latex tubes) - despite being skinny, the latter give a beautifully smooth ride.
Acceleration is ludicrously quicker than on my Hewitt Cheviot and it seems to fly up hills. Shifting at the rear was impeccable.
On the downside, think some adjustments are needed:
1) Whilst I found the Gilles Berthoud Galibier saddle to be fine and it didn't give me any comfort problems, I did keep on finding myself moving forward on it - probably need to move the rails forward on the seat clamp a bit, it is quite far back currently, will try in 5mm steps.
2) When I rest my hands on the hoods (as I would certainly do in a group ride, to have quick access to gears and brakes), my arms are almost (but not quite) locked, think the reach is a tad too far, and I did have some neck stiffness after the ride (though I am a bit prone to that). Moving the saddle forward may help a bit, but I suspect I should have gone for an 80mm Nitto Pearl stem instead of a 90mm one - on the bike the latter is actually closer to 100mm - this is a bit of a known issue with this stem, but I thought the short reach Nitto M106 NAS bars would compensate enough. In the drops and elsewhere on the bars it's okay. Bit annoying to have to change a quill stem, though, especially as Mercian did a very good job with the bar tape and mounting the Ergos (and getting the relatively tight curve of the shallow drop bars to fit into the stem)
3) I dropped the chain once, although that was when trying to change down to the small ring at fairly low cadence (was a bit of a last minute thing, when I had to stop because had a fly in my eye). No damage to paint, though. Also a few times it halfheartedly tried to pick up the chain when changing up to the big ring, but failed. Think the front derailleur needs more adjustment - the limit screws, perhaps (although the cage positions at either end look okay)? When it worked, which was most of the time, though, the front shifting was surprisingly quick, considering the 16T jump, and the Ergos make it easy to shift up a cog or two at the back quickly afterwards.
Other than that it was excellent.