I just got back from the bike shop a couple of hours ago with my brand new gorgeous candy apple red Trek Madone 5.2 road bike! I went for a quick 5-mile ride just to check everything out and I’m really jazzed!
I ordered it through Project One and got Campy Chorus w/Bontrager compact cranks.
Certainly it’s a great bike but what’s is even more significant is what buying this bike means…
It’s means that I’ve been well enough consistently enough to rebuild my body to a point where a new bike is even warranted. As some of you know, I was off the bike for years due to chronic illness (pituitary failure). A year ago I weighed about 330 lbs. I now weight 205 and I’m still losing…
It means I’m truly blessed to have the financial means to not only support myself but buy such an expensive bike. Although I was covered at my previous job with great Long-Term Disability insurance, I was fortunate that after 2 years of being denied, that I was finally granted benefits. - especially since I haven’t been able to return to work.
Anyway, I took pictures and put them on my website. Here’s the direct link to the photo album:
Thanks John! Notice that Trek toned down the decals a bit. The bike doesn’t have any of the decals such as “Madone 5.2”, "“Ridden to 5 Tour DeFrance victories”, etc.
Jim, F-img awesome all around, brother. Lost 80lbs a few years ago and have kept it off. Great bike, but PLEASE fo not lean the painted part against metal posts. It makes me grit my teeth like nails on a chalk board!
I have followed your postings for a while and I admired the story you have to tell. The bike is very nice and represents a big step for you I’m sure, but the pictures of you tell the real story here. I have admired your courage and conviction but seeing the before/after shots really sealed the deal. There are some great athletes out there, and from your postings your talents are indeed formidable, but all of that pales in the face of the changes you have made in your life. You are among my heroes.
Thanks Lou and everyone for your kind comments. I don’t think it has all quite sunk in that I’m actually a bike rider again… For years it seemed so for away.
I could have gotten by without a new bike. I have an old Trek 2200… But frankly, I have been in the ‘just get through the day’ mode for too many years! It’s time to fly not just get by!
So I guess the bike carries as much symbolic value as it does functional capability.
BTW – I tried placing the seat and then the wheel against that green post for the pictures. But the bike would roll to the low spot so I put it in the low spot and let it ever so lightly lean against the post. Yeah…I’d hate to mess up the paint from just taking pictures!