Truer words have never been spoken.

If you have to ask you can't afford it, another rule.

Today I plan on going on another short ride in the evening with the girlfriend. My collar bone isn't completely healed yet, but the doctor told me I can ride around a little, just nothing crazy. It feels SO good to be able to ride again, longest 2 months of my life.

That's exactly what could've pahapened.

Will do

A schoolmate of mine recently crashed his bike, split his head open, and some how beat the chance of not dying. When I asked his friend if he was wearing a helmet, they said no.

I was just like "yep, that's what happen when you're stupid."

Today I realized that my Kilo TT won't be coming with a freewheel (I'm not comfortable riding fixed quite yet), and needed to do research on gearing and what freewheel I'll need to get. Sounds like I need to wait and see what chain size they send, and just get the standard freewheel in that size.

today i got my new shoes in the mail, and got a call from the lbs that my pedals are in. so, i ran down to the shop, picked up my shoes, and let them mount the cleats. i am fully prepared to fall over tonite on my first clipless ride. interesting side note... it's been around 105 degrees and brutally sunny for the last week. i step into the shop, but i forgot my shoes. go back to the car and it is pouring down rain! finish up and the rain is gone.

Well, not today, but yesterday I decided to finally switch back to clipless on the fixed gear. I've had the spare MTB pedals for a long time, I originally took them off to put on the road bike until I got road cleats for the original 105 pedals that came with the bike. After I got road cleats, I put the 105s back on and never put the MTB pedals back on the FG because I didn't have shoes for them, but I bought some casual MTB shoes from nashbar for $20. They have been sitting in the box for like 4 months until yesterday, and man I'm an idiot for not switching back sooner, I forgot how much fun a clipless setup on a FG is. I just feel like it makes the experience of riding a FG 100x better.

Don't waste your time, riding fixed isn't nearly as scary as people make it out to be, just jump right in. I promise it's not very difficult, except for getting into the clips, that's a pain in the ass, but only for the first week or so and then it's second nature.

Last night at work I pulled a muscle in my right hand. Probably no biking (among other things) for a little while. Today I cleaned about 100lbs of dust out of my room and am eating a lot of donuts.

looking for parts/bikes online... building frankenstein

Haha, I was hoping nobody would say that! You're being pretty persuasive... ;)

I guess I can try out fixed, and if I don't like it or want some flexibility, I can always install a freewheel later. Guess we'll see.

I originally converted my bike because I wanted a singlespeed, not a fixed gear. But I bought something with a flip flop hub just to try out riding fixed for fun, I even told myself I'd probably never use it. However I switched around the wheel one day just to try it for fun, and the freewheel on the other side hasn't touched a chain since then, which was about 2 years ago.

Just do it, it's fine to be scared. And clips get super easy, as in you can get both in before a full pedal rotation.

I've done a bit of fixed riding before (but not a lot), just not totally sure I want to go all the way quite yet, as this will be my first time commuting in NYC. Lots of other things to worry about besides pedaling.

As long as you know how to use a brake it'll all be fine.

Some people just like to coast...it's my favorite thing about riding my road bike, personally.

Today I:

1. During a casual browsing session, found something I wanted on ebay and bid on it :innocent: .

2. Skipped my usual ride on the rollers because it was 94F INSIDE when I got home. This was after spending the day wearing a jacket to keep warm in the 68F office.

Today I finally fixed my drivetrain issues on my bike, and took it on a 7 mile ride but shhh... don't tell my doctor :x

I've broken my collarbone 3 times, once on one side and twice on the other. In all cases I was back on the bike in 3 weeks and racing in 6 weeks. Unless you've had complications or some medical condition that affects healing, I can't understand how you still need to be so careful after 2 months. The collarbone is probably the least important bone you can break as it doesn't carry any load, so even if it isn't fully healed it doesn't matter. Sounds like maybe you've got one of those nanny worry wort doctors.

Today I found a old Trek 600 in my friends backyard. Shimano 600, Campy derailers, tubeless mavics to record hubs, cinelli bars and stem. All manner of fun stuff, time to restore.

Well at 4 weeks, my bone had barely began to reheal, both pieces were separated a good centimeter or so, even at 7 weeks the space between both halves of my bone wasn't completely filled. It doesn't hurt anymore, which is why I've been riding recreationally along with commuting (the doctor said I could do that though). One thing I did notice, which I don't know if its just me, is that I cannot wear a backpack anymore, the straps go right over the break and I get a sharp pain from it.

Nice find! Sounds like a good project.

OK. In my case the bones weren't separated that much. They were offset and formed noticeable bumps. Maybe in your case you should have had surgery to reset the bones. The pain you are feeling is probably from scar tissue that has formed around the break. Have they given you any rehab exercises to do ? It's very important to keep that scar tissue from getting too big or you'll continue to have pain for a long time.

Today was my second cigarette-free day in a row. It's not much but it feels like quite a victory as I made it through a 10-hour shift with only about two cravings.

Awesome!

You are a non-smoker the moment you truly decide to quit.

Understand that you will have yearnings for years. Be prepared for them and deal with them accordingly and you will be fine.

That bite I had yesterday has turned into a swollen red lump - definitely a spider, hope it goes away soon. It's really awkward itching the inside of you thigh...

Thanks for the kind words. My issue is that I don't really want to quit. I'm young and active enough to not feel like ****, and a lot of my friends and a great deal of my co-workers (the restaurant industry is full of smokers) smoke too. I smoke(d) nice cigarettes, etc. I just know that one day I'm going to wake up 40 years old still smoking and that's when it'll really suck and it will kill me. Forcing myself to get off the train now (and posting about it on here and Google+ feels helpful).

Speaking of which, does anyone want a Google+ invite? Just pm me your email address and I'll send you one.

It sounds like you've already got a handful of excuses lined up for why you aren't going to really quit and that you are merely on a "break" from smoking.

I think you should take a more serious approach to quitting.

Quitting is not easy, but it is well within your reach.

Accept and appreciate the support, but do not rely on others to get you through this. No one is going to hold your hand.