Ooooo, custom Serotta!! That may be my PhD present to myself! I always drool over those in the shop. They are out of my league for now though.

I know far too well the "leap of faith" you speak of. People have been trying to get me to get a custom bike for awhile now and I just couldn't get over that trusting someone to build it to fit and ride the way I wanted without me, well, riding it first.

A year of riding with and 2 bike purchases (a Yeti and an Wilier) from Chris though and I had no doubt in my mind letting him get one built up for me. He said "custom Spot" and I said "when's the fitting" without batting an eye.

The first time I ever walked into the shop was about 20 minutes before they closed and on a school night (so I walked in like the typical student with a backpack, etc) wondering if they had an XXS Yeti I could try. It was late and raining so I expected to come back that weekend if they had one (I also never expected they'd have one). Chris spent 30 minutes on a trainer fitting me to that test bike, and then even though they were closed and it was raining INSISTED I go ride it and get it muddy as well as the other bike they had that would fit (a rocky mountain) for comparisons sake. Any other shop would have probably treated me like a stupid short chick that didn't know what she was doing and couldn't afford the bike anyway; especially at that time of day (and even a good shop would have told me to come back at a different time). Chris is just simply amazing.

Do you ever come ride up this way?