It’s here! It’s finally arrived and now has pride of place in my den. I am so stoked with this bike — very glad I waited for the Green and Black as I just love the look of it. However, as the biking gods would have it …

…I only had possession of my beloved Ripley for just over a week (including one very wet weekend!) before I headed off for four weeks holiday overseas. So, I spent as much spare time as I could in that week ON the bike rather than BLOGGING about it! In the meantime, till I get back with a full low down, here are some pics.

Here is my long anticipated Ripley – I have just wheeled it out of the shop and it’s ready for a short ride around the block before being loaded into the Mazda.

For it’s first ride off the tarmac I headed up to an easy single track that runs along side Dora Creek at Cooranbong, NSW.

Ready for its first taste of single track

The single track runs right behind the spot where my Mum was laid to rest back in September 2013. She is the main reason I chose this as the first ride – “Grace” paid for this legendary rig so it was only right she should be one of the first to see it.

Along side Grace’s resting place. She would have approved the purple peddles!

Pretty soon it was dark so it was lights on. Ben and I had to dodge a couple of dozen frogs along the way as they recklessly hopped across the track in front of us, aiming for the safety of the creek. I think most of them made it — they would have been in real trouble if they’d made a mess of the Ripley!

No frogs were harmed in the shooting of this shot (as far as we know!)

I did manage to clock up the best part of 200 kilometres in the first 10 days so I do have a pretty good impression as to how she is going to perform. And so far, I can only look forward to a long and very happy relationship. Those K’s included a pretty good mix of terrain including fire trail, bike park and cross country single track.

One of the rides was the 50 km circuit round Woy Woy, mainly on bike paths. Originally I thought I’d use the Anthem 29er on bike paths and save the Ripley for the dirty stuff, but after enjoying her speed, handling and finesse on this ride, I can’t see that happening to be honest!

I am looking forward to trying her out on some of my favourite longer rides, especially Dubbo Gully.

Meanwhile, let me leave you with this photo of me all decked out with some new shorts to complement the colour scheme! (“Stealth” is still the theme, believe it or not.)

Love the colour of these shorts (don’t you?) and they are soooo comfortable to ride in. They were given to me by a very generous car pool buddy, who may well have said, “Now wear these, get riding and shut up about your new bike!”