Thanks for everyone's compliments!

As to SpongeDad's question, I ended up not going with the internal cable routing. Tom said that the welding necessary to insert the internal cable routing tube weakens the top tube a little bit, such that they have seen some crack over the years. It would've been covered by the warranty, but I don't mind the external routing and didn't want to possibly have to deal with having a repair done.

The reason for Spectrum instead of Merlin was basically because of the personal attention from Tom Kellogg (including a fitting at his place in PA!). He's forgotten more about bikes than I'll ever know, and on top of that, he's a really great guy. I can't recommend him enough.