I bought my Motobecane LeChampion SL in August of 2005. I believe I paid $1100 for a 16 lb Ultegra bike with American Classic wheels. 20,000 miles later, and this thing JUST WILL NOT DIE.




Eleven Cat5 races, seemingly thousands of crashes avoided, and one not-so-well avoided. It didn't die.





Dirt roads everywhere in Michigan. Michigan cobbles, as it were. The Paris-Roubaix of the midwest. It didn't die.





Logging roads up mountains, and then logging roads DOWN mountains. It didn't die. Mining roads. Trespassing in the dark to the top of Black Mountain in Kentucky.

Mt. Mitchell, Brasstown, Onion Valley, Whitney, Whiteface, Lincoln. Mineral King, Death Valley, Wildrose, Diablo. Bohlman, Umunhum, Canton Ave, Clingmans Dome, Beech. It didn't die.





So finally, a couple of weeks ago, after being fed up with keeping the SAME DAMN BIKE for almost four years, I decided to ram it into the side of a car at 25 MPH.

Me? Faceplanted into the asphalt. Ripped open my chin, broke my jaw, and was bleeding out of my ear. Like, a LOT of blood. Like, the blood is still there RIGHT NOW.




The Motobecane? Laughing at my insolence.

I think it's possesed.