“Cyclists see considerably more of this beautiful world than any other class of citizens. A good bicycle, well applied, will cure most ills this flesh is heir to.” – Dr. K. K. Doty, Adventurer & bicycling evangelist

Monday morning I loaded my beloved Domane carbon road bicycle into the back of the SUV and drove it over to the Trek dealer in North Raleigh for an evaluation. It was more, it turned out, a drive over the rainbow bridge.

The guy in the store – Nate – was all kinds of helpful. He took his time, he was genuinely sorry to pass on bad news, and he hooked me up with a lot of useful information. But the bottom line is structural failure and there you go.

This is hard because: A), My bicycle was a beautiful and generous gift (granted it had experienced several really good years of riding prior to my ownership, traversing many thousands of miles of road and even doing the “Mountains to Sea”). The bike had already been in several spills over its history, but it was a great bike and I loved it.

Then B), My friend Steve had straightened things out after the wreck, making sure that everything was humming and in good working order. Too good I think, because the bike looks so darned inviting the safety verdict seems implausible.

The word from Trek, however, is that the carbon frame is now cracked/split and the structural integrity is irreversibly compromised. I can’t argue with that, and riding a fractured frame makes no sense – especially when I am not quite so young any more.

So that’s it. I put around 2,000 miles on the bike from my first ride in the spring all the way through to that sudden stop October 21st. But my Domane is being put to rest and I have to say I am very sad.

The good news is that Rebekah came with me and she looked around the store while I talked with the Trek guy. She is actually possibly a little bit interested in – maybe – hopping on a bicycle and having a try.

This could be a huge development. Regardless, I am impatient to have my wrist heal so that I can engage with whatever comes next in this story.

The lesson I am drawing from this saga is that riding, like anything else, is a journey. There are always course corrections along the way and the most important thing is not so much what happens as how we respond.

Where this current disappointment leads is still a question. What is not a question is my commitment to engage life and opportunity and possibility with all the enthusiasm I can muster.

It’s not so much that I go fast… but that I go. – DEREK