Respect

As I get ever so close to the completion of my Winter project, I figured it was a good time to bust out a pic of the first piece of art I hung on the wall post-paint.



Yep, that's my old bike still in 3D. Once I got my new Cannondale SystemSix last January, I rode it exclusively until maybe April. I rode the old CAAD 5 to work one day and within a mile was convinced the frame was cracked with all the noises the bike was making. After inspecting all the welds and getting a clean bill of health, I realized it was just 6 years older in design than my Sys6. Holy shit was 6 years of evolution can do.
After that, I didn't really want to ride the old bike after that. Just couldn't bring myself to do it. Since the top tube was dented from my dog crash I couldn't sell it, either. So it hung from its hook in the garage for the rest of the summer until I needed the shifters for cross season, then it started getting cannibalized until I fully decommissioned it.
I wanted to show it some respect and do something special with it instead of just throw it in the closet. It was, afterall, my first road bike and heavily contributed to my cycling passion. I just felt too connected to it to hide it or get rid of it. My buddy Matt suggested mounting it to the wall and framing it in with some decorative molding. Wanting to go for a bit more simple, I decided to just mount it on the wall. We played around with locations and both liked the above location; Prominent yet doesn't stick out like a sore thumb.
I figured I'd get some retro cycling posters to frame and hang on the wall around the bike. It even loosely ties into my previous art theme of either pictures or engineering drawings of engineering structures, like the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (St Louis Arch for those not so learned), bridges and of course the Eiffel Tower. Even if it doesn't fit, it stays. It's too much like an old friend. In fact, it is an old friend.

Hi old friend.

-the ATM