1 week later and WOW!

[kalniel]

The one other cool thing is how I've been getting in lots of nice bits (Ultegra/Dura Ace) to put on my bike, as I enjoy doing this. I did this with my Impreza P1 and it's just ended up happening with my bike. The plus side is I've got enough spare parts to thrown on a basic frame for my old man, so he can join me when I am building up my body over the next 12 months.

I'm fighting the same bug, but I'm convincing myself that bike bits are at least far cheaper than car bits!

 

[jonny jeez]

Please Felix, although I'm definitely not a doctor, but I would encourage you, to work with your doctors. You can't, even in the best of personal fitness, have as many years off, and then expect to make major progress in a few weeks. It may take you a couple of years to get into the shape you want to be in. May seem a long time but how long will it take if you continue to re-injure yourself? Ride easy for now. Take your time. Your body and your doctors will decide on how and when to pick up the pace. Even I know that no matter how badly you want to be crushing it down the road, you have to listen to your body, and pace yourself. Don't worry about getting dropped, or whatever. Focus on getting in shape, but only as your body can withstand it. Injure yourself again, and, although I hate to say it, you may never ride again. God Bless,

J.

Excellent advice.

 

[jonny jeez]

After my really busy (for me) day, where I did some errands in the morning, cycled my usual mile, had a meeting that last 75 mins which was pure agony being sat for that long, then doing a 1.7 mile walk in the evening as I was so loaded up on my painkillers I needed to calm down, I left the bike well alone yesterday.

I got on the bike just after a very light lunch and it was really hard on my legs. It felt like I had to really put more effort in to get up the "uphill" section of the loop I do. I'm really spent lol!

I'm just hunting through lots of adverts for the remaining parts I want for my groupset upgrade. Because I've landed myself a set of mint genuine Dura Ace 7800 "Brifters" I am going over to a full 10 speed config. I've been going through a lot of different sites that go into some crazy details about Shimano products and Cannondale products and I've learnt that there is no problem with putting a 10 speed cassette onto a 9 speed (hub-pin?), as the 10 is slimmer and you have to use a 1mm spacer for it to all work correctly?

I will admit I really liked the idea of getting Ultegra 6500 or Dura Ace 7700 STI's as they look really nice and old school but modern. I found out that the FSA Vero crank+chainrings was a standard feature on the 2012 CAAD8 Sora, which makes me wonder if it is worth getting a matching Dura Ace / Ultegra crank and chainrings? It's an FSA BB30 bottom bracket, so I don't know if I just need to make sure I get a Shimano BB30 bottom bracket with the replacement Dura Ace or Ultegra chainrings?

If I end up basically installing Dura Ace 7700/7800 plus Ultegra 6600+ components for my gearset but keep using the stock Cannondale branded hubs or swap them over to NOS Dura Ace / Ultegra ones instead?

I'm not putting these parts on because I am after performance gains or because I'm wanting to be all competitive and do some local sportifs, I'm just enjoying the process up upgrading (blinging up) the bikes weak points. The only real things I wanted to change because of a more "practical" reasons were my saddle (I've got a Fizik Arione) , the brake calipers ( have Ultegra 6500s to go on) and finally the horrid Sora STI's. I utterly loath them as they are just dreadful for my needs. I find the button is in the worst place and the feel on the hoods is really uncomfortable to boot!

Awesome thread.

well done. I was going to suggest that you may wnt to consider a static trainer but see that you have already considered it. Dont feel guilty about fettling with the bike, its important. I find the the more I "do" to my bike the more I fall in love with it and want to keep riding, testing the new bits.

I would heed the advice of folk like @JimmyC who you can trust have your best interests at heart, check in with your specialist to ensure that your progress is within their expectations or comfort.

If it helps, I took the place of a mate of mine last weekend on a charity ride, he entered before having spinal surgery and had to pass his place onto me. He was very frustrated but also realistic

He has already entered for next year, when we shall ride it together.

Good Luck, keep up the great work, your attitude is very inspiring.

 

[Nigelnaturist]

I'm fighting the same bug, but I'm convincing myself that bike bits are at least far cheaper than car bits!

 

[Felix79]

Went out on the bike this morning and it was so easy for me. The slope section of the circuit I do didn't hurt my legs until I got to the crest. Really pleased with the basic improvement with my legs and cardio.

Final bits arrived for the bike yesterday. I've managed to put on the new 10 speed Ultegra cassette with no problem. I've removed one of the "C4" calipers and I've got to clean the threads on the Ultegra 6500 calipers so I can tighten them up properly. Stopped there as my back was hurting and I've not slept last night due to problems with my pain and the weaker medication I take from Fridays to Tuesday early hours. On the strong stuff so spaced out and tired. Hopefully I will have things all swapped over and working before Thursday, as I don't want to go too long without getting out on the bike.

 

[welsh dragon]

Well done on the progress you have made since starting this thread.

 

[Felix79]

Well done on the progress you have made since starting this thread.

Thank you. Once I have the bike all upgraded and working properly, I will have to start doing a bigger circuit around my area as it's now not pushing my body hard enough for me to get any real benefit from doing anymore.

 

[Felix79]

Had my operation today, which has already stopped much of the pain I've been enduring the last 6 months. Very sore from where the needles went in to do all the burning of my bad nerves.

I managed to get my Dura Ace 7800 shifters on the bars, but the gear cable end is not gripping enough for me to get the knobbed end of the cable and pull the rest of it out of the shifter. My old man said he will help finish the bike off for me as I'm not going to be too capable while I recover from the op. Watching all the cycling at the Olympics is making me want to ride my bike even more, but I can't because of the above :'( lol.

 

[Felix79]

Still laid up pretty much all day. I've slowly done tiny bits on the bike at a time. I had a cable stuck in the right shifter, so I learnt how to strip down the lever so I could pull the remains of the cable out. It took me a few tries before I was able to put the shifter back together and it was the main pin that really took the longest. With that done I now have both of my Dura Ace 7800 brifters roughly located on the bare bars.

Next small job I've managed to get out of the way was removing the old chain. It was a pig to get off and it bent the pin in my new chain breaking tool, thankfully the old one I have is made of pretty tough stuff and I got the pesky thing off. I couldn't get the weird link that is meant to make removing the chain to come apart "normally", but some grunt force finally worked. I checked the length between the old chain and the replacement Shimano chain next to each other and the length is slightly longer on the new one, but with it being a 10 speed I guessed that it is all ok.

I've got the bike and all the parts, tool etc in our conservatory and it's so bloody hot in there. It really saps my strength and stamina, which I realise is really poor as I'm really having a crappy time with the recovery from my op.

I'm itching to have the bike finished and be able to work on building my body up, but it's going to feel like an eternity before I am well enough to ride it again

 

[si_c]

Glad to hear your op seems to have gone well. Keep posting

 

[MikeW-71]

Good going @Felix79

I'm glad the operation has helped so much, take it steady and you'll make good progress.

About glasses: Rather than spend a few hundred on some prescription Oakleys, I had a try at contact lenses. They are working great for me and I buy a box of daily disposable ones. That gives me 30 rides worth for about £25 and I can use any sunglasses I like, as well as being able to take the glasses off if it's raining and still be able to see. Worth considering IMO

 

[Felix79]

Good going @Felix79

I'm glad the operation has helped so much, take it steady and you'll make good progress.

About glasses: Rather than spend a few hundred on some prescription Oakleys, I had a try at contact lenses. They are working great for me and I buy a box of daily disposable ones. That gives me 30 rides worth for about £25 and I can use any sunglasses I like, as well as being able to take the glasses off if it's raining and still be able to see. Worth considering IMO

@si_c & @MikeW-71 , thank you for your well wishes.

Mike, the problem is my optical prescription can't be done with contact lenses. I asked my optician about this a few years back and because my left lense is a prism type (bends light) due to the shape of the eyeball changing, it means they just can't do it sadly. My normal glasses are a letterbox style and I just see over the ridge/top of the lenses when I'm leant forward, looking straight in front/ahead. It's stopped me from playing snooker and pool (cruel cruel world ). Jokes aside, I really would like to have a nice pair of sunglasses that I can use, so it's a case of just trying to find the right type of frames and getting a good price on getting the lenses done.

Very randomly yesterday a guy who is working in the hospital next to my housing area (the same hospital that did my op), walked past my house and noticed my Impreza P1 parked on my driveway looking a bit sorry and in need of someone taking it on as a project. He left a note with his name and number saying he would happily take the car off my hands etc. After a 45 min phone call with him, he discovered that actually what he thought my car was, was just a bog standard Impreza WRX STi. He failed to notice it was a 2 door Impreza and all of the "Prodrive" badges on the car. After I educated him about the car, he pretty much said he would accept the price I said and the fact it was not negotiable. He's coming over today in his lunch break to have a proper look at the car and with a nice juicey deposit in he pocket, as he's really, really keen to take the car on as he's just finished a car project he had been working on and was looking for the next fix. So I now have some spare funds, which means I am going to get myself a really nice set of wheels. I am a brand junkie and would like to have some Mavic wheels or just some Dura Ace ones. That would mean my Cannondale frame would have a total upgrade and I've only had the bike for 9 weeks lol!

Got to admit, a Gibson Les Paul Custom and an American Fender Stratocaster are more than likely going to appear, as I must not fall into the trap of getting a new frame when I am only just starting to be able to enjoy my Cannondale CAAD8

 

[Elybazza61]

Nicely done on your fitness and the fettling.

Re the wheels I'd be tempted to hold on say for this year and see how you progress;if things continue to improve then maybe it would be a better idea to then look at say a super six or even one of the new top end caad models as you like Cannondales.

If you want some ideas on how nice a super six can look here's a couple of links(warning may damage credit card/bank balance);

http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=40042&t=13042198&start=700

http://weightweenies.starbike.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=67421&start=1965

 

[johnnyb47]

A truly inspirational post. Well done to you buddy. :-)

 

[Felix79]

After being messed about by the guy who posted the note to me and then by another guy who I'm friends with on Facebook, I finally decided to put my car up for sale on eBay Tuesday lunchtime. I had set a reserve of £5000 for the car and then put an inflated "Buy It Now" price of £6500. After the advert being up for less than 4 minuets, I had well over 30 offers and someone had decided to choose the buy it now feature. The Impreza P1 is going up in value, but because my car has 127,000 miles on the clock and because the rear arches need replacing as well as a few other bits of bodywork, plus the fact the car has a custom built engine, I didn't think anyone would be so keen to buy the car and would offer me around £5000-£5500. So you can imagine I was shocked by the interest in my car. I even had people pretending to be the successful buyer and ask if they could get my address so they could collect and pay for the car!

As I mentioned on my post last week, I was wanting to get myself a couple of nice guitars and then put a few grand away in a savings account that my folks have, as it will stop me from blowing the lot. I am getting a 1979 Gibson Les Paul Deluxe next week, as I was already paying the guy in small lumps every couple of weeks, which is now not needed any more. I am wanting to spend another £1500-£1600 on another top range guitar, which means I have about £1500-£1800 to spend on my bike.

I have been upgrading my CAAD 8's groupset to Dura Ace 7800 , with Ultegra 6500 front and rear brake calipers which I got for a steal. This means that the only thing I need is a nice set of wheels that will be as good as the rest of the Shimano parts on my bike. I honestly don't want to replace my bike, as I really love how well it's been put together and just how cool it looks, with the fat tubing that Cannondale are known for.

Because I do not known very many different brands, I have just put " Shimano Dura Ace Wheels" in the search on eBay. The only other brand I know of is Mavic. I don't want to spend massive amounts of money for a set of normal wheels, as I am going to have to train for at least a year or more, before I will be fit enough to take part in any Sportives or group rides. Please could you give me some brands and model names that I can search for online/eBay? I would really love to have Dura Ace 7800 hubs/wheels , just so more of my group set etc is all matching and of the same "era"?

Finally, what are the name plates on top of the STI's actually called and where is the best place online to purchase them from please? The previous owner of my Dura Ace STI's had put on carbon fiber ones and they just look really cheap/"naff".

I am still recovering from the operation that was done 11 days ago and I've not been well/strong enough to do much work on my bike, so it's sat in our conservatory on the bike maintenance stand, with loads of new and old parts, tools spread across a dining table

I think in another weeks time I will be ready to get back on my bike and get back to the level of finding the lap around my housing area too easy and for me to start venturing further away from home and start to get a few miles ridden each time I am out.


Thanks for taking the time to read all of this waffle and giving me your support and advice. It really helps keep me going when the pain is so bad all I am able to do is curled up and crying from finding life difficult when I hurt so much.