Ok, it's taken me the best part of 24hrs to decide whether to post this up or not, for reasons that will become apparent, but I guess there's a story to be told.
As some of you may know, I've been suffering with depression on-and-off, trying deperately to sell off almost all my bikes/frames as (in all honesty) I didn't see that I'd ever ride them.
And so last week, and a weird twist, This came up for sale, and I pounced on it.
Mark's a great guy, and I know how much this bike meant to him, so I was keen to actually have my first Ti 'rider' as well.. a deal was struck..
And so yesterday at 11am, this arrived at GT towers, and I was shaking with anticipation as I pulled each of the split-down components from the box...
With the missus out for the morning, and with tools in hand, I set about getting it into a bike shaped mass, ready for a quick 'fresh out the box' photo session...
It looked great, felt great, and I was definitely happy that I finally had something again I could use offroad, rather than an amalgam of boxes of components..
And then, I spotted this:
Naturally I was absolutely gutted, for both me and Mark actually, and I'd have to be honest and say that as I was shaking, a tear rolled out my eye.. :cry:
So I took the natural course of action, and emailed the pics straight to Mark, who again has been a star for the last 24hrs, and a few phone calls during the day too.
So the story really begins here, with a claim being raised/pending with the couriering company, and no future plans for the bike at the moment, until that part of the story is complete.
As some of you may know, I've been suffering with depression on-and-off, trying deperately to sell off almost all my bikes/frames as (in all honesty) I didn't see that I'd ever ride them.
And so last week, and a weird twist, This came up for sale, and I pounced on it.
Mark's a great guy, and I know how much this bike meant to him, so I was keen to actually have my first Ti 'rider' as well.. a deal was struck..
And so yesterday at 11am, this arrived at GT towers, and I was shaking with anticipation as I pulled each of the split-down components from the box...
With the missus out for the morning, and with tools in hand, I set about getting it into a bike shaped mass, ready for a quick 'fresh out the box' photo session...
It looked great, felt great, and I was definitely happy that I finally had something again I could use offroad, rather than an amalgam of boxes of components..
And then, I spotted this:
Naturally I was absolutely gutted, for both me and Mark actually, and I'd have to be honest and say that as I was shaking, a tear rolled out my eye.. :cry:
So I took the natural course of action, and emailed the pics straight to Mark, who again has been a star for the last 24hrs, and a few phone calls during the day too.
So the story really begins here, with a claim being raised/pending with the couriering company, and no future plans for the bike at the moment, until that part of the story is complete.