After getting rid of the zip-ties, foam sheets, and cardboard protections, all I had to do was mount the tire, handlebars, pedals and seat. The bike helmet was included in the box as well. It’s been a pleasure being a Pepsi drinker this summer.

If you’re not familiar with this, Pepsi and Coca-Cola products have a ten or twelve digit code located somewhere on the packaging. Usually, they can be found on the underside of the bottle caps. If it’s a pack of cans, it’ll appear on the inside of the box somewhere. You take those codes and submit them to each company’s respective website where you earn points for each code. You can use those points to either “buy” goods or products, or use them towards sweepstakes where each entry is worth a certain number of points.

I had been skeptical in the past as to whether or not these prizes that Pepsi and Coca-Cola are giving away were actually awarded to anyone. The goods you can buy are usually pretty cheap looking or require an outrageous amount of points in order to get them. The sweepstakes appeared as black-holes for points. I was quite wrong.

I have no idea what the Trek bike is supposed to look like or even what model it is. There wasn’t much information along those lines. Only the retail price of the prize is given at $330. I’ll have to throw a few more dollars towards my IRA next year to offset the 1099 claim on the taxes.