A Sad Goodbye To My Lemond Zurich

In my junior year of college I finally mustered up the courage to go on a ride with my University bike club. The only bike I had at the time was my Fuji Touring bike… and I was uncomfortable in my tight bike shorts and school riding jersey, but I was able to keep up with the group (for the most part) and had a lot of fun in the process.

After that first ride with the club, I knew I had to get a new bike if I ever wanted to come back and ride with the group again. My touring bike is a great bike for long slow rides, but for going fast, it just wasn’t going to cut it.

That weekend I went home and visited my local bike shop. I tried out a bunch of different road bikes before spotting a white and red (my school colors) LeMond Zurich in the corner.

“What about that bike?” I said to the salesman.

I grabbed the bike, took it out for a short test ride, and instantly knew that this was the bike I wanted. The frame was used and had some pretty heavy scratches on it, but the components were all brand new and the ride was as smooth as hell.

I bought the bike the next day and was the envy of the bike club the following week. It was nice to be able to keep up with the riders in my club… and I actually beat a few established members of the long uphill climbs.

I ended up riding with the University bike club until the end of my senior year, but after I moved to Utah, the bike has been sitting unused in my condo all this time. There is a ton of mountain biking up where I live, but the road biking is extremely limited. There just aren’t that many places to go!

That being said, I recently decided to sell my treasured LeMond. I put an ad on Craigslist.com and a few weeks later the bike was gone. The new owner is a 20-something war veteran, back on leave from a stint in Iraq.

The bike represents some of my best times in college, so I was sad to see it go. But I’m glad I could give the bike to someone else for them to enjoy. I was also glad to free up some room inside my condo and add some much needed money to my “long term savings” account. I’m saving up to go on another bicycle tour… so this money will really help.