Said goodbye to an old friend today.

[Triskeliongirl]

Exactly Mimi. I remembered you feeling the same way when you sold your bianchi. I didn't even try to sell Athena, but offered her to anyone willing to put the work into rebuilding her. I was so glad that this fellow accepted my offer, and that I think it will suit his wife so much. He is not sure he'll be able to finish building her by christmas, so I gave him a picture of her to wrap inside a big box just in case. I am more happy than sad, but as you said it was still a bitter sweet sadness. As I packaged the parts I noticed the MS150 sticker on the stem, just reminded me off all the fun times we had together. Getting rid of the crashed bike on the other hand was a relief, didn't like staring at the crashed frame, reminded me of my accident, but I did keep her for the spare fork and parts and again glad I did.

I almost rebuilt her for my daughter, but my daughter has a long upper body so it didn't make sense for her. Its so great to give her to someone that appreciates her. I sent him the frame specs, and he immediately noticed the slack seat tube angle from the geometry chart. His wife has long femurs just like me and also couldn't get fit on the modern bikes with steep seat tube angles, and custom was out of the question with 2 girls nearing college age and a lot of expenses from her cancer treatments.

[Triskeliongirl]

Today the couple I gave Athena to road over to show me how she looked 'resurrected.' She came out beautifully. He cleaned her up so well she really did look like a new bike. He managed to put her together and snuck her under the tree last night. She fit the women perfectly, and she was so happy she just had to ride to my house to thank me personally. I don't think she'd ever been on a bike that truly fit her. I remember that feeling when I rode her for the first time. Even though I am not a Christian, to me that is the spirit of this holiday. Seeing LeeAnn ride away on Athena really did bring meaning to the 'joy of giving.'