Today is a good day.

I’ve been going through it a bit for a number of years now (more than I’d admit to), a violent relationship, job issues, money issues and consequently depression and general illness. All a bit grim and I’ll be honest, it’s been a major struggle. It got to a point where the only thing that gave me some form of happiness (riding my bike) became a chore and I stopped doing it which only compounded the issues.

A while ago things came to a head which resulted in me living back with my mum – not something I really want to be doing at 38 years of age but needs must. However it’s meant over time I’ve sorted my money out, I’m finally enjoying my job again and the fog has lifted somewhat. I’m in the process of getting my house back at last (after 7 years!) and things are improving every day.

During the money troubles I had to sell the one possession that meant most to me – my Storck road bike. Sounds silly and materialistic but I’d lusted after one for years and finally I thought I was in a position to buy it – so I did. Built up in my dream spec with Dura Ace and fancy pants wheels it was everything I’d expected it to be. Unfortunately a run of bad luck and bad choices meant I had to sell it before I’d had chance to ride it much and even when I did, I didn’t have the fitness nor mental capacity to fully enjoy it.

In the past month I’ve started riding again, a lot more than I was and for fun rather than needing to for transport. As luck would have it, browsing Ebay one night I noticed that the Storck importer is changing and the old importer is selling off frames on the cheap. So I managed to bag the newer version of mine along with an Etap groupset. Today is the day that my new Storck frame is delivered. I am Excite.

I’m going to ride this one a lot more – not keep it for sunny Sundays only. I’ve got some holiday left over that I have to take before the end of the year so I’m going to take Friday’s off and plan a trip out on the bike – Wales, Scotland, the Peaks and so on.

I’ve still got a long way to go building relationships back up with friends and family that I’ve lost contact with over the years when I thought trying to keep a failing relationship going was more important. But today is the day I get my dream bike back and as the saying goes, money doesn’t buy happiness but it does buy bikes and that’s pretty close.

Anyway – build pics to follow and probably some route requests in there too. Here’s hoping 2018 is a better year than the previous…x number of years.

Have a good one.

Good news & good luck pal. I think we can all relate to at least some of the crap youv’e gone through.

Good for you mate , been through something similar to you, chin up it does get better.

Keep on keeping on, glad you’ve got back on the bike – must have been gutting to see that original dream bike go. Amazing how much good a little exercise can do. Often the hard part is to motivate yourself to get out, once out there it’s always worth it.

Cheers gents, appreciated.

Yeah, it does take some effort, especially this time of year. However I’m gagging to get home now so I can build up the bike so I’m hoping that translates into getting on it too!

Brilliant. 🙂

Glad to hear Flange, keep on riding.

Nice one. Keep writing it down, keep talking and getting it out. Enjoy the bike.

There’s an offer of a riding mate here if ever you fancy a ride Oop North.

Even if you insist on road bikes…

The bit about the road bike is pure fluff ..can you do a part 2 and include an exotic mountain bike .. 😉
The heartwarming part is getting your life back on track ..a lot of which I can also relate to ( only to well..but not the violence bit ) ..
Good luck for the future ..onwards & upwards ..

Thanks HonourableGeorge – I do find it pretty cathartic to right stuff down even if it means boring others!

Ha – I’m up your way this weekend actually Tom, riding with my brother in the Peaks. I’ll be up there a lot from now on so we’ll have to go for a ride and you can tell me how to set up a pair of Fox 40’s…

Top banana glad to hear it

Screw that.

Why haven’t you got back to me about those 650 rims from Superstar?

Bloody slacker!!!!!

(meh – nice to read a “good news” story)

Again, thanks for the kind words folks, it’s appreciated.

Scotroutes – apologies! It’s a bit of a work in progress at the moment, as I’m unsure on what bars/shifter set up to go with so yet to be ridden. However I can confirm that they’re pretty nice and not a bad weight. The horizons come up quite wide (think its 27mm internal width) but do fit with plenty of room (keeping in mind I have a 29er Project 2 fork in the front). Tension is good and the build seems pretty solid, only downside is that the graphics are a bit loud.

Just trying to host a pic that I took at the weekend to give you an idea..but photobucket is an ad-ridden nightmare!

Glad to hear a happy story, lost 4 mates through depression, we have a long way to go as a society to being open and talking but great to hear a good story.
Hope the build goes well and pedalling helps even further

Congratulations. You’ll like Etap. Riding has kept me sane during some pretty tough times over the past two years.

Get your mum an Ebike #dernypacing 🙂

https://photos.app.goo.gl/B7x4zKsMiF833SM13

Not sure if the above works? First time using google images..

Soooo I’ve started building it up at last. Tyres need a clean and I need some new cables. I’m also in a dilemma over chainset – I’ve got an Ultegra Stages set up but obviously the rest of the stuff is SRAM so that would offend me more than most. I’m currently waiting on the correct conversion kit for my Cervelo BBRITE so I might bang the stages on there and get a SRAM red for this.

Oh saddle and post are just on for the sake of it. Saddle height and angle will be lower!

Please so far, just need to get it finished and ridden!

Good thread.

I’m always up for a ride if you are in South Wales at any point.

Good on you for picking yourself up and having the courage to post about it.

That’s rather cool.

Cheers folks and I make well take you up on that Molgrips.

Knee issues at the moment keeping me from riding but it just means more time in the garage!

Riding = happiness #simplemaths

Glad to hear Flange, keep on riding.

+1, Well done Flange good to hear.

Nice one mate, the bike looks evil. In a good way of f course.

I like your bad ass approach to grabbing your life by the balls and grabbing your bad ass bike which’ll make good positive memories.

Where’s the thumbs up smiley cause that’s what you deserve.
😀

Missed this!

looks like you’re well on the way to rebuilding yourself (and a shiny new bike) 🙂

It’s bikes like that that make me more road curious!

Well done you.

Enjoy it

the fog has lifted somewhat

Can empathise with that.

Lovely upbeat post Op.
Inspiring stuff.
Long may it reign.

I love a positive story too.
Good for you. Don’t sell this one!

Cheers folks and I make well take you up on that Molgrips.

Cool. Road/off/mixed all possible.

Missed this first time round!

It got to a point where the only thing that gave me some form of happiness (riding my bike) became a chore and I stopped doing it which only compounded the issues.

Have been there for different reasons, it’s a horrible place to be. But getting to this stage:

Please so far, just need to get it finished and ridden!

is great 😀

Get it built, ridden and loved. Really like a thread with a positive note to it 8)

Bit of an update – things still going well and I’m riding (road) quite a bit at the moment and enjoying it. Still need to travel a bit more but I got out on my first club run in years last weekend and thoroughly enjoyed it. I’ll hopefully be off out again with them this week.

Bike building is coming along nicely. I’ve converted my Cervelo to a ‘winter bike’ by fitting some extra-rub crud racers and SPD pedals and it’s lovely to ride now. I think after a year of ownership I’m finally starting to get along with it. The Storck brakes turned up this week so I’ve stuck those on – just need some bar tape and to charge the Etap and it’s good to go. I’ve swapped to some alloy rims for now.

And finally another project that’s been a long time coming, I’ve rebuilt an Airborne Carpe Diem that I bought from a chap called Mick on here ages ago (like years and years ago). I got a mate to repaint it for me and I’ve stuck some 650b+ wheels in it. Plus the obligatory Jones bars. I’ve had a build thread on LFGSS but I like to show it off so here it is. This will be ridden down through France in June for a weeks holiday at the end. In all honesty this is the bike that excites me the most!