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Yes.

Today though, not Friday. Needed the chainrings swapping out, like.

It's nice. It's silver. It's light as flip.

It's got clipless pedals.

Egads.

It took ages to get used to them. But now they're second nature. In fact, it took about 30 seconds to go from "aaargh, this is impossible" to "wheeeeeeeeeee!!!!". That's life, I guess.

One sausage sandwich (Gas Mark 7, 15 mins, jolly nice) later...

It has 24 gears. I haven't quite got around to changing gear yet, though. So yes, I rode all the way from the shop in the same gear. It has a bit for attaching a pump, which I haven't really looked at yet (also, Paul still has the pump...). It's Valentine's Day, after all, I was already super fortunate to be allowed out to the shop :-)

The first review of the 880 (actually the second, but the one in 220 doesn't count for some reason) said:
"The Merida reminded us of what it was like heading out on a road bike for the first time, way back when we were kids. We’re big kids now but the Merida took us back to a time when that excitement of speed fuelled our desire to ride"

That.

(Will do a picture if I can, it's v.pretty.)