New Bike Born Today...

Last night I entered the realm of the bicycle riders that have more invested in their bikes than their cars! Here in this picture of the American Niagara Falls, you can see my historical ride that I bought in Atlanta many years ago... more about the falls later... here is also the bike!

It is a Trek Madone 5.2. It is replacing my 1990 ride, the Giant Carbon Cadex 980C upon which I have many, many thousands of great miles. It was a fourteen gear ride that caused me to really learn how to climb hills with little help from the gears. The guys at Bike-Fit in St. Catharines told me that I have missed a couple of generations of bikes, even though I had upgraded the Cadex a couple of times. When I tried upgrading for 'the ride' they said... it is done! Even the carbon fiber is getting shook! A writer from the bike section of the St. Catharine's Newspaper tried to buy it from me during a training ride last month... he hadn't seen one in years, and it was a collectors item!

So, having rationalized the next investment in my life by committing that I wouldn't be replacing my 1998 Jeep Wrangler any time soon... it is the new Bike that will make it to Austin, TX. The name Madone came from Lance Armstrong, who rides Trek bikes... Madone is a road in the South of France near the Italian border that he used as a test for his conditioning during the years he was winning the Tour de France. Since it was Armstrong's book... "Its Not About the Bike" that had a lot to do with winning my intellectual (if not physical) war with cancer, and since I am using 'the ride' to Austin as my personal test... I chose the Madone all carbon bike. It is also the only competitive bike completely made in North America by Trek... the Madone 4.5 and 4.7 are actually made in Korea... not for me... my politics and economics are coming through, eh!

It will be a great ride.