WE HAVE A WINNER
March 14, 2008, Missoula, Mont. -- Everyone who was a current member of Adventure Cycling as of December 31, 2007, was automatically entered in the 2007 Bike Giveaway. Out of those thousands of names, however, only one was selected to be the big winner … well, in this case, two were selected, because Susan Christie and Matt Mathews belong to the organization as a family (fourteen years and counting). The Corvallis, Oregon, couple’s winnings include a Co-Motion touring bike and free registration for one of Adventure Cycling’s 2008 seven-day event tours.

	The 2007 Co-Motion Americano

“Because Matt and I have a joint membership, we decided to share the prize,” Susan explained. “Matt rides only recumbents, so we ordered the Co-Motion Americano for me. We then agreed that he would select the seven-day trip of his choice and I would pay to accompany him. As it turned out, Cycle Washington was the only tour that fits into our schedule this summer, and we’ve registered for it already.”

Being selected for the 2007 Bike Giveaway has been exciting, Susan said. “And now Matt and I can no longer say, ‘We never win anything.’ We visited Co-Motion in Eugene a couple of weeks ago for the fitting, and Elayne [Goodban, in sales] was great.”

Susan and Matt first became acquainted with Adventure Cycling when they ordered maps from the organization while preparing for a self-contained cross-continent ride in the spring and summer of 1994. Up until that summer they had ridden Cycle Oregon several times and participated in a variety of weekend rides, but had never done self-contained touring on their own.

“My mom and our young adult kids thought we were nuts,” Matt said.

“However, we had a fabulous time that summer. It was truly a life-changing experience.” He and Susan followed the Northern Tier much of the way, but digressed when they crossed the international boundary at Sault Ste. Marie and continued all the way to Kingston, Ontario. On reentering the U.S., they steered back onto the Northern Tier and followed it to Maine.

“Somewhere in the Adventure Cycling archives, there are probably photos of us on our red and blue Tour Easy recumbents, with our trailer,” Susan said. “We stopped by headquarters on the way and spent the night at the hostel in Missoula.” 

Susan recently retired from the corporate world; until last June she was a technical writer at the environmental engineering firm CH2M HILL. Now she freelances, and is just finishing up a lengthy report on pollution in the western national parks for the U.S. EPA and the National Park Service. Matt retired from social work in 2004, having most recently worked with Senior Services in their area.

“Now that we’re free of regular employment, we hope to do more bike touring,” Susan said. “We like writing stories and illustrating them with our photographs, and we’ve also prepared some Powerpoint presentations, so we might set up a website and/or publish some of our work.”

Congratulations to a winning couple!

To sign up for our 2008 Bike Giveaway, click here.