FINAL DAY: Trek Project 1 / ENVE / SRAM / The Feed Contest

07.31.2013 | 7:20 am

7:00PM Update: The fundraising total, with Trek’s match, is now at $77,258. This means 776 donors have worked together to purchase 576 bikes. Incredible!

2:30PM Update: The fundraising total is now at $74,354 (when doubled by the Trek match), coming from 756 donors. You know how many bikes that is? I’ll tell you how many. That’s 554 bikes. 

That’s a lot of bikes — and a lot of lives changed — thanks to a lot of very generous people. Thank you!

9:00AM Update: The fundraising total is now at 731 donors and ~$67,500. That means 504 bikes.

If I were good at complicated, sophisticated, modern things like looking at a calendar, I would have realized that the final few days of July happened to coincide with an extremely busy workweek for me. One where I simply would not have enough personal time in a day to even exercise, much less write daily blog posts.

Luckily for me, this fundraiser for World Bicycle Relief doesn’t exactly need a carnival barker standing around and shouting nonstop. It sells itself rather nicely.

I mean, think about it. A Trek Madone 7 Series Frameset. Customized with Trek’s Project One program, letting you select from thousands of colors and design schemes.

And then wheels and cockpit by ENVE Composites. I’ve ridden with ENVE wheels, and I’ve never experienced anything like them. They are so fast. The aero advantage is noticeable, and it’s incredible.

Oh, and they’re dead gorgeous too.

And let’s not forget the full complement of SRAM RED – Black Edition components. 

Honestly, the two biggest problems you’re going to have if you win this bike are:

1. Obsessing over the thousands of choices you have to make. This is what I like to call “a really, really, really, really good problem to have.” 
2. Finding a way to make this bike weigh 15 pounds. Yeah, I’m afraid the UCI is going to be pretty upset with the way your bike is going to weigh around 14.something pounds. I know, that’s a tragedy.

Why This Matters

Realistically, very few of you are going to win anything. And you know that. But hundreds of you have donated anyway. In fact, 724 of you have donated so far, raising $32,000 in this short couple of weeks. When the Trek dollar-for-dollar matching is applied, that’s $64,000 dollars. 

And do you know what $64,000 means? It means 477 bicycles to children in Zambia. Which means 477 children are going to be able to get to school by riding a bike for forty minutes each way, instead of walking for more than four hours per day.

Which means those 477 kids are a lot more likely to stay in school, a lot longer.

And these 477 kids will have a much larger geographical radius of job opportunities, once they leave school.

Fetching water from a well a couple of kilometers away will be much easier. And getting to the market — and bringing things back home from the market — will be easier and faster. 

For 477 people living a life without basic transportation, their world is about to explode with new possibilities. 

And this is thanks to you.

Today is the last day of the fundraiser. If you haven’t donated, why don’t you? You have a tiny chance of winning a bike worth around $15,000, but you’re guaranteed to improve someone’s life, instantly and permanently. 

Click here to donate.  

Thank you.