 you see this bike? I love it but I'm giving it away. I bought this beautiful machine back in the summer of 2016 when my old Trek 8000 finally gave up and broke in half. oh crap that is not normal that there that there is a broken bicycle. that's when I got this bike the Trek 920. I essentially needed a new workhorse bicycle. I needed a new adventure bike, a bike that I could go on bike tours with but also go grocery shopping with and that's what this machine was. later that same summer I rode this bad boy from Boulder to Burning Man out in Nevada and it was about a thousand mile adventure. we went through Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Nevada and this bike was solid as a rock. I love you world! you hear that? I love you! I love this bike. it's fast on the roads. you can take it off-road. it's comfortable. I even like the cool color. it looks like something you'd find in an aisle of like Whole Foods or something. it's got that organic look to it. but the truth is I really haven't been riding this bike much in the last nine months. you see back in June of 2018 I got a Trek checkpoint and I rode that bicycle across the country with my girlfriend Ali and you all know about that beautiful story and the Trek checkpoint is pretty similar to the 920. it's not quite as beefy as this bike but it's a similar ride and I've been riding the checkpoint a lot more than this one. so this one has sadly been sitting in my garage. and then I got a message just this past week from a friend that I made last summer and this is what the message says. hey Ryan, I was wondering if I could maybe ask for a little bit of help. I'm getting ready for this riding season and I've been saving to buy a good bicycle. one that I believe will meet all of my needs. I don't know if you remember but I was having quite a bit of trouble mechanically last year on rag bride. I want to get a Trek 920. I have some money but I'm not sure I will have even enough to buy a good used one by the time I head out on my first trip this spring. is there anyone you know at trek who could maybe assist me? some of you might be putting this together people who follow the love cycles adventure and specifically rag bride but this message is from that awesome guy luke that I met that one morning. he stopped me and told me all about how cycling changed his life and how he lost over 200 pounds and how motivated he is now to ride bikes. I was in the doctor's office something was going out of my heart and the doctor told me it was like listen if you're done and I was like what do you mean I'm done and he said you got you got two choices you're either going to change your ways or you're going to die very young. I was 544 pounds and I developed AFib and so now it ripped me in my heartbeat and I left there that day and I started a diet and I set goals for myself and I lost 44 pounds in the first month and 74 pounds by the end of the second month and then I started swimming for a little while but then I got on a bike and I started riding and that's where I found you on on youtube because I was just constantly youtubeing different stuff trying to learn about it and just your positive nature and how positive you were about everything and I realized like I developed kind of a funk where I was real pessimist and I was constantly really negative and I thought I need to be like that guy I need to constantly just be smiling and happy and learn how to be that kind of excited and I think it'll be part of it has to do with the fact that you ride a bike everywhere and you're just you're more in touch with I mean the world with life we just had a baby I mean that's a huge part of all this for me because my baby like here I'll show you a picture man yeah let's do it I don't want to get to a point where like when I'm 45 or 50 or something they're like I can't do this kind of stuff with her I want to be able to take her on these adventures and go do cool stuff with her and you know I have this dream that someday maybe me and my wife be able to go on bike trips and you know I could have the baby at some point one of those little trailers and then eventually maybe on one of those little those little piggyback bikes that hangs off the back or whatever and then eventually there's my kid riding right alongside me and hopefully my kid never knows what it's like to be obese I was morbidly obese and a big part of it was because we just growing up like you know my parents and carters just go outside and play in everything but I just was never really an active child and so I want to try to encourage my daughter to be as active as possible and get out and see the world and just do cool stuff. Meeting Luke was very impactful this guy's story is incredible and I saw him throughout the week at Radbrie and he was having a great time but it was really hard for him he had never done anything like this in his life and Radbrie you ride you know anywhere from 50 to 70 miles a day it's it's hard and he was riding a very cheap bike that kept on braking and he was telling me about every night he was going to the mechanic with busted spokes and wheels and you know I felt for the guy because it's like why you want him to have this great experience but he's also riding a machine that's not really up to the adventure you know his bike was like a probably a hundred and fifty dollar Walmart bike that's just not a touring bike. Luke and I have been in touch since Radbrie we're friends on Facebook we chat back and forth and when I got his message this week I really wanted to help but I didn't know quite what I could do because the truth is my contact at Trek isn't there anymore so I don't really have a connection to get deals but you know what I do have I do have a Trek 920 and I was like dude I'll just give you my Trek 920 how does that sound so here it is Luke come and get it just kidding buddy I know that you live in Illinois I will pack this up and send it your way it fills my heart with joy knowing that this Trek 920 this beautiful machine is going to have a new life with Luke it's been sadly sitting in storage for the past nine months and that is no place for a bicycle to be this bicycle needs to be free and I know that Luke and this bike are going to go on many adventures together when I told Luke that I would give him this bike straight up he was overwhelmed and he said well what what can I do and I said well you said that you had saved up some money for a new bike why don't you donate that money to some sort of organization that you truly believe in and he said awesome and you know the more that I sit here and I stand and I'm talking about Luke I think why don't we just let's just call Luke what's up Luke can you see me yet I cannot see you yet oh there we go let's see oh there yes oh look who it is duty handstand duty handstand hi so are you psyched or what about this bike oh my god I'm beyond psyched about this but I didn't even think it happened I'm gonna tell you man like when when you sent me that message and said that you wanted to give me your bike I started crying I've never been able to afford a bike that was like a real good quality bike and it's always kind of been a dream that you know if I could get into this enough I could save up enough and if I do enough of these trips then I feel like I could justify spending that kind of money on that bike because you gotta understand I mean it's been the kind of money on a car yeah yeah exactly but all of it led up to this lifestyle that now that I wake up in the morning and I and I just I look forward to my daily bike right I look forward to what's coming this summer I look forward to what might be next year I look forward to the adventures to come so you mentioned you saved up a little bit of money that you would have spent on this bike and now maybe you can donate some of that talk about that uh the nonprofit that you love working with the American Heart Association has been working for all of us we have a juvenile obesity problem in this country I was a fat kid I have no better way to play yeah and there's so many of our kids out there that are extremely obese and you know if a child becomes obese as a child they have an 80% likelihood of being an obese adult I kind of feel like you know I got a hard problem because I allowed myself to become so incredibly obese and I think it's just largely because I just didn't I didn't really know any better until it was a problem yeah the American Heart Association is the only organization I've seen that is making that much of an effort to make children aware the importance of diet and exercise before it becomes a problem for them thank you very much man I can't tell you thank you I'm not we have a wonderful night get back to your beautiful girls and uh yeah we'll be in touch dude thank you all right see you bud wow what a guy the connection wasn't great but man he is he's not only helping himself out they becoming a healthier human he's spreading it to everybody he meets and uh he's doing a lot of good in the world I couldn't think of a better guy for this bike so Luke enjoy it my friend cheers we got Luke on the right side we got Ali on the left side