It fit well, rode nice, campy drivetrain, and this is a bit unusual to see where i live.

I wanted a touring bike for my tour across Canada, and I thought that a custom made bike would be too much. Richard Sachs doesn't make touring bikes, and I always wanted a bike made by him. The LHT I thought was too much bike the Salsa Vaya, not enough for what I thought I wanted. I enjoyed the ride of the 520 but not the drive train. I thought I wanted S&S couplers, so I had those added to the 520 frame my LBS scored for me. Trek doesn't sell frame only, nor do they sell replacement decals. So after the couplers, traced logos, sandblast, prime, paint custom yellow metal flake, airbrush logos and some additional details, clear coat, and assemble with a mix of Ultegra, XTR and XT components. For the tour, I had to have a SON 28 dynamo to charge my devices, and tail light. The bike is a delight to ride, BUT my Oryx mountain bike is a dream, which I saved for a couple years to buy, and my Cannondale tandem is the best....but only if my wife is with me! In the end, I could have, maybe should have, just bought the CoMotion......LOL
Custom Trek 520


Because it fits in here!

In a word, size. Cannondale offered the largest XL fame at the time. Even then it still had to be ordered and took 2 months to arrive. It was also a great compromise of components for the price.