I started building my own this Winter while recovering from my broken Tib & Fib with "Intermedullary nailing of the Tibia". (titanium rod through the knee into the tibia).
My miles have been pretty limited this year due to recovery, and then when I started to do a few higher mileage days (in July) back to back (30+) I started getting knee stiffness. I had to back off for about 10 days, doing <5/day.
I finally said enough's enough, I'll worry about stiffness in Aug., and on the 3ist, I rode my hybrid 70.3 miles. That beat my personal best of 50.1 set exactly 2 years before.
Since I'm now 65 instead of 63, I have to think the wheels helped to some extent.
My "training" miles for the month were only 270 vs 550 the previous time and I was much better shape when I finished this time than 2 years ago. Back then I was "rummy" for the last couple miles, weaving all over the place.
I did have more favorable wind conditions this time. When it did pick up, it tended to be 90 degrees to me for the most part. I've also learned to turn the wick back a bit more in head winds and save myself for later. With my emphysema, I think that helped a lot. Thank God for my inhalers and bananas!
I find building wheels to be quite therapeutic too.
I'm even truing/tensioning the wheels on my CL flippers. It makes using NEW parts seem so much nicer!
Last edited by Bill Kapaun; 08-06-13 at 02:17 AM.