Understandable. I guess it depends on the shop and how many bikes they can normally afford to have on display. You can also look at it this way: if they're just building up something they already have the parts for there then it's not really any big deal (if you don't buy it someone else will). However, if you ask them to bring something in for you when you're just kicking tires basically, then that sucks a bit. C.T. has had to deal with people making esoteric special orders and then backing out at the last second, leaving us hanging with product that doesn't go to someone else for ages.

The big time for cross bike sales will be mid-summer (a bit after the normal spike in sales), so if you can hold you for a few more months you should see stuff appearing. The production run for many 'cross bikes is also staggered to coincide with the season (you get next year's really early, not the current year's really late).