Giving it away

I recently gave away my first true racing bike. I had it laying around as a frame and fork for quite some time, because I couldn't really bring myself to sell it. It was worth far more than the $150 I would have got on eBay for it. So I put out the call to the PSU Cyclists, and I luckily found the right candidate - someone that wanted to race but had a 1970's Motebecane and not a whole lot of scratch.

I had this bike through most of Collegiate racing. I even won my first race on it: Grant's Tomb (B), and then won my second race the next day (Princeton Circuit B). It's seen countless miles in Western PA, all over Central PA, and countless crits and road races all over the East Coast - including a few trips to the Beanpot Crit:

It took me to Tour de Toona a few times, and brought me into the lead group of 10 on the last climb up Sugar Run... and helped me limp to the finish after cramping that day and suffer through the crit the next day:

It even saw a brief rebirth as a Time Trial bike at my last Collegiate Nationals:

But now it was just hanging on the wall looking like this:

When the kid came to pick it up at The Bike Shop and was very grateful - it felt perfect. Then he threw the bike over his shoulder and jumped on his old Motebecane and made a graceful and sharp one-handed turn down from the sidewalk and back up the road towards campus - weaving through pedestrians on the way out. Thats when I knew I gave it to the right guy.

I highly recommend giving something away that was near and dear to you. It is so much more gratifying then getting a few dollars for it.