The Life Bike - Vassago Cycles - Taylor Brooks Foundation

Below is an email from Seth and Linda Owen and their plan:

The Life Bike

Jeff,

My name is Seth Owen. My wife (Linda) and I are amateur cyclists. We have two children (Raegan 8 and Grant 5). I would like to take a moment to introduce myself and share with you a project I've started because of your family's story.

Along with 12 of my riding partners (Linda included), I entered the Dirty Spokes event in Conyers, GA. We had lots of friends and family out to support us. During our last transition, I told my wife she should enter the raffle for the Vassago frame. I didn't know anything about the foundation. I only knew that the $10 would benefit cancer research and heck we might win a frame. So she paid our $10. After the 6 hour event, we anxiously waited for the drawing.

The first name drawn was your name.
The second name drawn was your wife's.
The third name drawn was, you guessed it, my wife Linda.

I went home and read Taylor's story. To be perfectly honest with you, it made my heart ache and I cried. I pictured myself in your position and my own daughter's pictures on that web site and knew that we had to do something meaningful.

We thought we'd would sell the frame and donate the money to the Taylor Brooks Foundation but decided not to. We thought we could do more. So we talked about building the bike up with top of the line components, auction it on eBay and donate the sales price to the foundation but decided not to. We had to do more. With that said here's what we've done and are in the process of doing:

"The Life Bike" and it will go to every event we ride.

The objective is to keep the bike in constant motion for the duration of the race. After all, battle to cure cancer never ends.

Here's how it works:

We solicit donations from family and friends to sponsor the bike (not the rider) for a lap or the whole race (kind of like Walk America). If the lap is sponsored in memory of someone, that person's name gets painted on the bike. The first names on the bike are Taylor's and Linda's Mom.

We're focusing this as a sponsorship of the bike which represents the cause as opposed to sponsoring a person. The bike is black and white. Black is in memory of those we've lost and white represents life and hope.

We've not solicited any donations for parts or funding to build the bike. We're footing the bill for that. We are also not using donations for entry fees or any other race support. 100% of what we raise is to be donated.

The Bike: Vassago JabberWocky - Pearl White with black lettering

Wheel Set: Custom laced White Syncros DS28 rims laced to white Syncros FL hubs with 31 black spokes and one white spoke

Rims: White Rims signify the Circle of Life

Look for more info on the life bike coming soon here and on the Vassago web site!