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Did I ever tell you how I got my road bike?  No?  Well, a story like that is too good to pass up….

In the fall of 2005, the bike I had was starting to get a little long in the tooth.  It was actually in pretty good shape, but needed some money spent on it to keep it riding passably well.  The problem was, I had the itch for a new bike.  You see, I had been saving my money, and every time I went into Sunshine Bike, I couldn’t help but drool over the shiny new carbon fiber Giant OCR’s on display.  I wanted one of those so bad that I could feel it.

The problem I had, however, was that wasn’t the only bike I wanted.  Pam and I rode a lot with our good friends Sam and Barbara, who rode a tandem.  I was convinced that Pam and I needed one of those also.  I was just sure that owning a tandem would help Pam enjoy cycling as much as I did.  She was a reluctant participant at best, never feeling comfortable with her bike skills even though I could tell she was a pretty strong rider.

I knew I couldn’t afford both bikes, so what’s a guy to do?  When I need to make a decision like that, I take the easy way out.  I do nothing.  While still considering options, of course.

We were riding the MS150 for our third time that year.  We joked that we would do it long enough to earn the “lifetime rider” jersey, then stop.  Sure enough, that’s the last year we rode it.  We rode with Sam and Barbara and a couple of other folks every year, and each year the guys in the group made a big game out of going to the evening rally in hopes of winning one of the bikes they gave away.

The guys went as usual that year but it was raining so the women stayed at the hotel.  Instead of handing out raffle tickets as you went into the auditorium as years past, they did all their drawings based on the number imprinted on our wrist bands.  I nearly fell out of the bleachers when they called my number as the winner of the very Giant OCR-C bike that I had been drooling over!  I had won the bike!

Later that evening when we were excitedly relaying to Pam and the other gals what had happened, Pam looked at me and said, “You realize, of course, that you’re wearing my number?”  Huh!  Sure enough, when we had put our wrist bands on, we somehow got them swapped.  If I had been wearing my own, I wouldn’t have won.  Pam graciously allowed me to keep the bike, and I’ve ridden it hard in the intervening years.  And, since I was now the proud owner of the bike I had been drooling over, we used the money I had saved to buy our tandem.  I’ve got to say, that’s the best investment we’ve ever made!

I’ve always heard that lightning never strikes the same place twice, but here’s an e-mail I got the other day.

Hi there you three lucky people,
Could you give me a call at your earliest convenience? My phone number’s xxx-xxx-xxxx, and we really ought to talk soon.
Thanks!
Elden “Fatty” Nelson
www.fatcyclist.com

No stinkin’ way…… I’ve won another bike.  A sweet Trek Madone 5.2.  Can you believe that?

Here’s a link to the details.

I had to run down to A & B that night to figure out what size I needed, and while there, I got to look at and touch one.  They had to wipe the drool off when I was done.

A heartfelt thanks goes out to Fatty for the opportunity.

God bless…

TW

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This entry was posted on July 18, 2011 at 5:00 pm and is filed under bicycle, Cycling. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: bicycle, Cycling, tandem

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