The moment came last night to let go.  I somehow always knew this day would come.  I sold my Trek 3700 last night to a good buddy.  He called me up and had a bike in the back of his car that he was contemplating purchasing.  I was asked to take a look at the bike and give him my honest opinion.  The bike in question was a mid 90's full suspension GT XC bike that was in major disrepair.  The rear hub was loose, the brakes were shot and the tires were dry rotted.  Both front and rear derailleur needed adjustment.  The cables were all rusted up, the front forks (RST) had about a quarter inch movement and the rear suspension was loosey-goosey and squeaked.  He called up the seller and started negotiating and I advised him to start really low.  The seller was convinced that because he paid a lot initially that he was entitled to make a lot on the sale.  The bike was just plain old, neglected and needed at least a few hundred dollars worth of restoration (most of which I probably could have mustered up for next to nothing).  Negotiations were stalling pretty bad and I lost hope for this future bike-commuter in training, I looked up at my Trek hanging from the ceiling of my workshop.

I had put a lot of money and time into upgrading her over the last year but I couldn't fight the feeling that my Trek would be perfect for him.  I had recently completely rebuilt the brakes, replaced the rims with Sun RhinoLites and it had a new set of IRC Trailbears on it. I replaced the front RST fork with a RockShox Dart 2 and it had a very nice Shimano XTR rear derailleur on it.  I told him I would possibly be willing to part with the bike dirt cheap and his eyes lit up.  He took it for a spin around the block and came back with a BIG cheesy grin on his mug.  This bike belonged to him already, you could tell.  I was planning on using this bike as my winter ride but after seeing him get stoked on it I had to offer it to him.  I pulled the Crank Brothers Smartys off and put some stock plastic pedals on.  He loaded his new bike and homeboy's old clunker into the hatchback of his car and drove away a happy man.

 

My buddy called me about 9pm last night to tell me that he taken his dog for a walk on the multi-use trail while riding and that his dog was the most tired he has ever seen him.  A great deal for him and hopefully we have another bike commuter in town...