As a person who has compromised a few times on the colour of the bikes I've bought I would say if you're patient get the exact bike you want, in the colour you want it.
I'll second that. Color (frame in general: size, geo, etc) is the one thing you can't [easily] change about a bike.
I'll also second the frustration that a few others have described with regards to salsa's (not mentioned here, but surly's as well) lack of ability to build/deliver the bikes they hype. What's the point in having a big unveiling party in July for a bike that you *might* have ready for stores *maybe* by, what, March at this point?! I can only speculate at how much business my LBS has lost having to repeatedly tell potential customers "sorry they're out of stock and we don't know when/if they'll get them", thanks to Surly/Salsa. The owner is really good at pivoting and directing people to bikes that fit their needs, but let's me honest, if you're looking for bikes with as big of an identity crisis as the ones in Surly/Salsa's line(s), it's gonna be hard to steer you to something else. /rant
I was looking forward to picking up one of the new gx1 spearfish (orig. stated delivery Nov), because i think that raw with the blue accents is money, but who knows when they'll be in at this point. One of last year's SLX builds popped up in inventory spontaneously a week ago and the shop called me so I pulled the trigger on it (it mostly matches my tiColossal, and most of it will be covered up with bags anyway :-/ ).
