BOTW – Merlin/Spectrum Fat Ti x Tom Kellogg

Our friend Atom describes how he came to be the owner (with the help of craigslist) of this week’s Bike Of The Week:

“I was the first serious nibble they had received on their fairly vague ad with a crappy picture. After further inquiry I had found my grail. Turns out the guy lives next door to famed frame designer and all around amazing bicycle guru Tom Kellogg!

I tell the guy I’m in, drive the 2 hours from New York City to Allentown, Pennsylvania. The crappy photos made the paint job look pretty bad, one of the reasons no one else was into the ad. Since when did Merlin paint their Fat Ti’s? Who is this Spectrum company with all their badges and logos littering this master work of a bike? This question was answered quickly by searching for Spectrum online. http://www.spectrum-cycles.com/index.htm If you are as ignorant as I was go read the ‘about us’ page.

The fellow I bought the bike from bought it new from Spectrum “a few years back”, he doesn’t remember when. I’m not sure if this frame was made within the time period the Extralight was offered. The way Spectrum works with Ti orders is they take the measurements and design the frame specs and then have Merlin produce it.”

More great pics on Atom’s flickr page.