literbike for poof!
The mailing list is jonesing for Peter and I to swap bikes and do an SVS/SuperHawk comparo. What do y'all think? Is it me?

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Today, I spent most of the morning finishing up the orders for the replacement bike bits. I know I've said this before, but I really recommend the no-injury, low-speed, rear-ending. I'm really cashing in on this. Now that I'm done ordering everything, here's the list of what dingleberry is buying me:

• Front brake lever from Flanders. It's silver, 5-way adjustable, and forty dollars cheaper than OEM.
• OEM parts: the local Suzuki dealer is providing me with a new righthand fairing, a righthand footpeg, and a chain guard. Not much in the way of aftermarket for that stuff, unless I wanted to spend more than OEM. Which I don't.
• Rear brake pedal from Woodcraft. OK, so this one is more than OEM, but I've heard such good things about Woodcraft's quality that I just had to try it. The pedal is actually comprised of three parts (bracket, shaft, and pedal tip), so if the tip breaks off again, it's a $25 replacement for just the tip, instead of the $72 that the dealer wants for replacing the whole damn lever. The pedal is actually a race pedal, with no provisions for the brake sensor, so I also had to buy an attachment to splice my brake sensor wires into. This part is what bumped the cost over OEM's. *sigh*
• Yoshimura Zyclone exhaust from, er, Yoshimura. I decided on this particular exhaust because it's street legal (most aftermarket exhausts are "race only") and is supposedly the quietest aftermarket exhaust you can get. It's rumored to make the idle sound more "growly" but not obnoxious. Sounds good to me, no pun intended. Why replace the exhaust at all? Well, let me tell you. Dingleberry put a quarter-sized scrape in my stock muffler, which the insurance company was happy to include in the list of replacement parts. The full system Yosh exhaust (i.e. not just a slip-on) was two hundred dollars cheaper than the OEM can. I ask you.

The insurance company also included reimbursements for the mirror and the bar ends, but, frankly, I'm not going to replace those. I'd rather have the cash, and black nail polish will cover up the scratches.

The best part is that there was money left over even after ordering all of the above, so dingleberry is also buying me a nice brand new set of Bridgestone Battlax tires (BT010 front, BT020 rear) to replace my sad, squared-off, worn-out stock Metzelers. Thanks, dingleberry!

I'm going to be doing most of the parts replacement myself, so I'll keep y'all posted as the mail-ordered parts start trickling in. On Wednesday morning at 9am, I'm riding the bike over to Hare Racing to do the Yosh installation and the tire swap. I contemplated doing the tires myself, but decided that it was worth the $50 mounting fee ($25/tire) to not have to worry about finding (a) a stand, since I need to remove both wheels, (b) a ride to/from Hare Racing, and (c) the time to remove the wheels myself. As for the exhaust -- I figured I would hang out with the technician and happily watch him/her install it for me. Maybe I'll even eat a donut and merrily sip coffee while they get their hands dirty. As long as the labor costs ain't my dime, I have no problem with not wasting an entire Saturday wrestling with a full set of pipes.

i will drink the kool-aid.
I've turned into a complete physical therapy convert. I used to picture rehabilitation clinics as places that you went after you had every bone in your body broken, or had your arm go through the farm implement, or whatever. No. People, this is the best thing ever. They are magic workers. You will remember that I have been bitching and moaning about my hands/arms for just about a year now, and no one -- not even the orthopedic doctors I went to -- could help at all. I mentioned this to Leda The Miracle Worker at my first appointment, and she gave me A Look and said, "we will help you." And lo! I have been to exactly two sessions, and my whole life is changed. And that's only a minor bit of hyperbole.

The secret? Stretching. No shit. Stretching. Leda gave me a set of maybe 10 different stretches that I now do twice a day (I do some of the arm ones throughout the day if typing starts to bother me), and it's made an incredible difference. It takes me maybe 10 minutes a day, and I can ride again. I can wrench on the bike. I can -- mostly -- type, though that's what gives me the most trouble. Stretching. That's it. A year ago, I couldn't even commute the 5 miles home, and now I'm doing 12-hour rides through twisties again with no pain at all. It's amazing.

In addition to the at-home stretching, I have eight therapy sessions -- an hour twice a week for four weeks. I've already been to two sessions.

In the first one, Leda asked me a bazillion questions about my activities and etc, tested my strength, that sort of thing. She showed me how to do the stretches and gave me the exercise routine. She also told me, correctly, that I have horrible posture, and showed me how it actually influences my arms/wrists. She did a few minutes of trigger point therapy, also called myofascial therapy, which is sort of like deep tissue massage. Trigger points are just hyper-irritable sections of soft tissue -- oftentimes, the symptoms are referred, which means that you feel them in some other part of your body. For example, when Leda presses on a spot on the top of my forearm, I feel a "zing" of amazingly intense pain running all the way down my arm and over the tops of my hand -- it's this trigger point on my forearm which causes the tops of my hands to burn and itch when I'm typing. Here's some more info on trigger points. I also have a book called The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook, which explains it pretty well.

After the trigger point therapy, Leda set up contrast baths for my arms. They're rectangular-shaped tubs about the size of a flower box. One is filled with cold water, one with hot. A very small electrical current is also run through the hot water tub. I put one arm in each tub, and every 2 minutes for 16 minutes, I stand up and walk around to the other side of the table, to switch which tubs my arms are in. Going from the hot to cold, and vice-versa, improves the circulation in the arms.

In the most recent session, Leda also did about 15 minutes of ultrasound therapy on my arms, which was sort of weird. To quote from this website: "An ultrasound machine produces high frequency sound waves that are directed toward the sore area. Passing through the body's tissues, these waves vibrate molecules. This causes friction and warmth as the sound passes through the tissue. The rest of the sound changes to heat in the deeper tissues of the body. This heating effect helps flush the sore area and brings in a new supply of nutrient and oxygen-rich blood." I can't say that I felt a damn thing while Leda was running the ultrasound wand over my arms, but they did feel a lot better when she was done, so there you go.

So, yes, I am a complete physical therapy convert now. I bought a book today called, simply, Stretching, which Leda recommended. I figured, hey, if the arm stretches help this much, maybe some overall stretches will help with other stuff, too, like the Computer Programmer Back(tm) and "I'm Short And Fit In Nothing" Neck(tm). Can't hurt.

Anyone still with me? Hello? You in the back? Nope, you're asleep too. This did end up rambling on today, didn't it?