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OK, it's when I lived in another state, and there was a 20-mile bike trail. My wife and I were doing some late-season riding (October), and were towing the cubs along in a Burley. In this state, the wind shifts to blow in your face no matter which way you're riding; and I *swear* that when we reached the 20-mile point and turned around, the wind shifted directions for the sole purpose of continuing to taunt us by blowing in our face all the way home.

Anyway, after the ride, we were pretty worn out, and we stopped a C-store for carbs and such. The bikes were on a cheapy rack on the back of the car. We hear a scraping CRUNCH and ran out. Yep, some clown had backed into our car.

And yes, I *do* mean a clown. It was right before Halloween, and the driver of the other car was in a clown suit. Obviously on his way to a party, as we were nowhere near Washington DC.

After we got the insurance information, we surveyed the damage: despite the fact our car had been hit so hard it had left skid marks on the ground, it was undamaged. As luck would have it, all the damage was to my new Cannondale R800.

Well, after yanking around the insurance company, they agreed to give the price of a USED bike of that age. But that's when the bike shop stepped in, and appealed to Cannondale, who has a pretty good replacement program. However, since this was a rural area, the bike shop wasn't officially an authorized Cannondale dealer. So Cannondale hedged: they sent a replacement frame, but required the dealer to salvage all our old components, cogs, shifters...

And, as luck would have it, since it was so late in the season, Cannondale didn't have the exact frame anymore, so they gave me a free upgrade to the next higher frame, the R1000. So I had the Shimano 105 components from the R800, on the R1000 frame. A "hybrid" if you will.

And it's the same main road bike I'm riding today in events (MN Ironman, MS 150, etc.)

Cheers!