Custom LIVESTRONG Road Bike with Video

My name is Tim Thome and I live in Greenville, SC. First off, I’m not affected by cancer but quite the opposite, I’m inspired by it.  I have, however, had loved ones near and dear to me lose their battle with cancer.  This is my dedication to my grandmother, grandfather and uncle all of whom were taken by this disease. I watched all 3 of them fight for years until they could no longer continue. I watched cancer rob them of their future and dreams. Cancer is a thief; it takes the ones you love away without saying a word. Cancer took my grandmother away, robbing me of the pleasure of having her hold my children; robbing me of having her see me graduate high school, college and get married.

I built this dedication bike for various reasons. First and foremost to honor my grandmother who was my teacher, my support system and probably my biggest fan ever. Secondly to spread the word about what we can do together to fight cancer. And lastly, I have been inspired by someone that just a few years ago I didn’t know much about other than his achievements in the Tour de France, Lance Armstrong.

I started riding 3 years ago and quickly fell in love with cycling. For me it’s a love/hate relationship. I love riding, but hate it when it gets hard to pedal. I can only think how this feeling must translate to cancer patients. You have good days and bad days.

When I had read that Lance announced his return to cycling to spread the LiveSTRONG message I quickly became drawn to it because of my newfound cycling experiences. I knew I could help out the cause with my cycling efforts. Yes, I had heard of LiveSTRONG; yes I knew it was about fighting cancer, but so are many other charities, but LiveSTRONG included cycling so I knew this was different. I recently finished reading the book LANCE: The Making of the World Greatest Champion . I didn’t know just how much I and this other 38 year old dude had in common. I, too, am 38 and I had come from a broken family, had many less than favorable father figures, and wanted to prove everyone wrong and break the cycle by making something out of myself and raising a family in a stable environment. This isn’t a review of the book; it’s just that I could closely relate to this guy and his attitude and how he’s been able to channel his anger into many positive things including beating cancer. Trust me when you’ve had nothing in your life; you fight hard not to go back. You fight HARD!

It wasn’t until I started cycling that I figured out I can help many groups who not only fight cancer but also those stricken with MS by riding in the MS150. I could help the home bound by riding in our Wheels for Meals ride which supports Meals on Wheels. I could do a number of things. So I asked myself “what could I do to spread the message besides just riding in these charity rides”. What can I do to support this effort? I thought maybe I would buy a Trek Madone themed LiveSTRONG bike.  Well if anyone has visited the Trek Website to see just how much it would cost to sport this awesome piece of machinery and the  LiveSTRONG name you better be ready to shell out some dough. I, for one, don’t have $10,000 for my dream bike, which is a Trek Madone 6.9 LiveSTRONG bike, so I thought I could at least duplicate the Madone 5.9 version which is about half the price at $5500.  Still way too much for what I could ever dream to get for one bike. (see the picture below). 

Now to say I would give my left “lower male body part” would be inappropriate to many of the cancer survivors who are reading this, so I’ll coin a phrase from Wimpy of Popeye fame, “I’d gladly pay you Tuesday for a Trek Madone Today” (anyone from Trek listening?).  If, by some chance that Lance Armstrong ever reads this please let him know I'd be very willing to trade him mine for one of his spare bikes.  I'd only need one.  Who knows someone at TREK might take me up on it.  I can dream, can't I?

Lastly, I have 5 children and a wonderful wife who I support, and in return support my riding efforts. I know that my children are influenced by my actions and I wanted to show them that even though you might not be able to afford the things you want, you can still get the same amount of joy and excitement and be happy with it if you build it. I’m trying to teach them that good things happen when you DO GOOD THINGS. That being said I decided I would build my own LiveSTRONG dedication bike.  I want to continue to support and spread the message of what LiveSTRONG is all about. I had a plan, a budget and a vision. This is the story of my build; it’s for my grandmother, the hope that my kids can live a cancer free future and most importantly YOU. IT’s ABOUT YOU!