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My 2009 Giant Defy Advance 3 Triple was starting to show its age. Both Shimano 105 brifters and derailleurs were original and had well over 30K miles on them. I had changed the cassette, chain (multiple times) plus the middle chain ring on the FSA triple crankset. I’d also swapped out the original Tektro brakes for some older Ultegra brakes. I been missing shifts plus not all that happy with the triple when it did work well. Replacing the cables and housings didn’t help anymore. The frame, fork, seat post, handlebars, etc. were in good shape still. I’d had the headset and crank bearing replaced last year. So I had to choose between getting a new bike for about $3000 and fixing up the old Giant for around $800. I opted to buy a Shimano Ultegra 6800 compact double groupset from Chain Reaction Cycles in the UK for $600 which included shipping and taxes. I went with a compact double with a 50-34 crankset and 11-32 cassette. That actually gives me a higher high gear and lower low than the 50-39-30 / 12-27 setup that came with the bike. The kit arrived pretty quickly; however, it needed a few things to be complete. It didn’t come with brake cables or housings. The brake cable kit was about $20. It came with derailleur cables but no housings. I bought 25 foot of the cable housings so I’d probably never need to again. $28. It didn’t come with the small alignment tool needed for the front derailleur. $8. My old 105 had derailleur adjustment mechanisms on the brifters while the Ultegra brifters do not. I need a pair of frame adjusters which were pretty cheap. About $12. Most disappointing was that I needed a new rear wheel. My old rear wheel would not take the 11-speed cassette. So that was another $200. I also put on a new tire and tube for $75. New handlebar tape, but the old tape was dirty and frayed anyway. $20. I took my time and did the install over a couple of days. My biggest worry was the crank. The groupset came with a threaded bottom bracket; however, the Defy uses BB86 pressed-in bearings. Fortunately the crankset fit perfectly with those BB86 bearings. Everything else was straight forward except the front derailleur. I mentioned the FD alignment tool, but there was much more than that! The downloaded installation manual was 18 pages that you need to read very carefully. I almost missed one important step plus was confused about two little pieces of metal in a bag. Also make sure that you have a 2 mm Allen wrench as you’ll need it. A simple thing like a front derailleur was the most difficult part of the upgrade. The second hardest part was wrapping the handlebars as I’ve never gotten that right the first (or second) time. After getting everything installed and adjusted, I took the bike for a 29 miles shake-down ride. I brought a bunch of tools but didn’t need to adjust anything. The bike shifts and stops better than it did when new and quite an improvement over what it has been doing recently. It’s going to take a while to get use to the different gearing, but I’ll do that quickly. Before upgrade with the triple: The old cable setup. Notice the derailleur cables coming out of the brifters. After with the compact double. Much cleaner looking cable routing.

I see four poor ones already. You are going to be working late. Tom

Aside from all this fun stapler business, I get to take time off to train. Made a call to my boss for approval. I need to put in a few hours per week to prepare for an event. She agreed, and just told me not to crash.

He should have placed the bag inside a plastic trash can - the plastic would have absorbed some of the shock and the bulb would have stayed inside and intact. In other words - he would have had more luck with an in-can descent.

Is this your car?

Yes, you can do this on a calculator. You can also spell 'boobies'...

WofTy has spoken. I do not need a permit. She will pay whatever fine is imposed when they issue the Stop Work order. I will proceed accordingly.

Huh? You might as well be talking all the "Schralping seat post dropper, front fork belt drive turn-table" weird mountain bike lingo for all I understood about what you just said.

I hate change.....

The girls here are wonderful. @Kirby @Airehead . Thank you, ladies. One of the boys is just telling me to remove the bra. Stark difference in concern. HAHA

I believe the guy on the right is Ron Howard (during his Richie Cunningham years), the other guy guy is Al (from the diner). They are providing the aerial coverage for the live TV broadcast when Fonzie jumped the shark.

took the fatso out for 9 miles on some trails...tires are still aired up

That's what I said two or three permits ago.

Mr. Aire said the same thing. I'm still mad that I saw the engagement on Facebook an hour before they called, but I am trying to be an adult.

Oh are we talking new footers? I love Tybee footers.

I have to go to Charlotte because daughter 3 has decided to get married there-- on NYE-- back tie. I have to go check out all the decisions she made.

I would suggest you maintain your adult composure and post on Facebook that no way are you paying for the wedding because of this. Then call them an hour later and say "Kidding!!".

Cats do this on purpose. They create the perception that they could never be engineers because no cat wants to be an engineer. Which shows how smart cats really are.

My wife's family is from the DC area and her two brothers and her were married out of state. At the yougest brothers wedding my MIL was grousing about having to travel to all of her kids weddings. My wife chimed in, what are you talking about you weren't invited to mine!?!?!? We ran off to Vegas so it was just us, well and Elvis!

Because if th decision is wrong, you don't want to end up living under a bridge. or in a van, down by the river.

Change is bad and commitment is a lot of work.

I hate destination Weddings. So presumptive!

It's Wilbur's first time in the left seat and a flight instructor long ago resigned to the knowledge he would not live to an old age.

That guy saved you from some serious egg on your face. You owe him lunch! Tom

I'll leave the thread when you pry the miniature Hershey bars from my cold dead hands.

I just noticed that Eldred Bird release a short story!

Doing edits and rewrites on the first ten chapters of Cold Karma, the third James McCarthy adventure. Also plotting book four and working on some details for a new series based on Nestor Yazzi, a character introduced in book two.

From the hair style, I'm going to guess the guy on the left is SW, sporting a beard from his hippie college days and wearing clothes he got at the Salvation Army store. The guy on the right might be Napoleon, because he's got his hand stuffed into his jacket. But that's just a wild guess, because if it really were Napoleon he'd have one of them fancy hats on his head.

There's tons of stuff, mostly on radio, commemorating the revolution, I love history, I love the radio. Last night I fell asleep listening to 10 days that shook the world. I read it some years ago, after the film came out. Joke Q What do you call a Marxist with an open mind? A Trotsky

I just realized it was a parody. Totally ignored by Kzoo, I give it a 10.0

12.5@17.7. Snuck in a quick ride before taking WoW out for a couple birthday drinks. Temp in mid 50s. Felt colder on the ears by the end!

I'm here and there, only I have streamers now. I've gotten fancy.

Me either. No respect, I tell ya! One time, my mother said she wanted more kids, so my dad showed her my picture. She replied, "What was I thinking?!"

My coworkers son had his wedding on NYE last year (black tie optional). The parents weren't thrilled with the idea originally, but the couple and their friends really liked it, and after the fact, the parents liked it as well. If the groom is the right guy for daughter #3,, it will be perfect whatever decisions she makes.

That's "progress." Our very local Brooklyn Park High School in Maryland no longer exists - it was merged with another in the late '80's, and we aging alumni and residents have a private Facebook page called "I Grew Up in Brooklyn Park." One guy does a regular, "Can you name this location?" photo and others do similar stuff, school pictures, etc: the old Fire Halls and Strip Shopping Centers and Parks, etc. In some cases, what replaced those long-gone things is an improvement, in others a loss. The real feeling of loss is of a simpler time! Here are some recently posted pics: Saint Rose of Lima - the old Catholic church in which I was baptized, after it burned in the 1950's. The replacement where I had First Holy Communion and Confirmation collapsed under snow in the 60's. The pastor of my youth, Bishop Murphy, joked with me that I should get married in another church! My Mom's favorite supermarket: Our local "fancy" restaurant:

I think he and Soy dreamed of buying a cottage/cabin up in the UP. I think they finally achieved that dream. NTTIAWWT. Tom

I see my avatar on the list - I decided I'd use a bicycle pic for here. Over there I used a cropped version of my Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University ACE Recital video cap where I'm playing Chopin's Prelude in E Minor on a Steinway Concert Grande Piano:

32.27 after work miles, 1:48, 17.9 average. Ride put me at 4,000.41 miles for the year. 114,934 feet climbed.

Glad to hear that you are on top of this DH--- I love you and don't want anything to happen to you.

I'm here, but not there. I was there, but not then, but now there is no now there, and I'm still here.

If you miss them, you're likely to be in them soon, so just give it a few years. Tom

Healthy. Normal. I do have a PVT. Those are normal. No idea what was going on. My heart appears to be fine now. Honestly, I think I pushed into sort of hypoglycemic bonk. My heart rhythms became weird on a very long beast-mode ride and I didn't eat or drink optimally I have been wearing a monitor now. If my heart acts strange, I will just check out what my watch says. Cardiologist and GP both tell me that I am fine. Stress test showed nothing remarkable.

Yes. Your suffering and travails are a great source of amusement to us all.

Take her coffee and Danish when you go. Porch is a safety hazard of course must be rebuilt. But please don't let it go to smoothly or we wont have anything to read about. Permit Lady is almost as good as LAJ.

It happens a lot. I have a friend who is still going through the fallout three years later. My wife works in identity and access management for a large financial corp (not one of the ones that have been breached), and put together these recommendations based on her research and her experience in the industry. Rather than cut and past it here, I'll attach a document. Basically what she is recommending is to request your free annual credit report from each of the big three (not freecreditreport.com or creditkarma.com), then lock down your report. You will also want to go to SSA.gov and add second-factor-authentication to your account. If you haven't setup an online account with them, do it and lock it down before someone else does. If you have kids with SSNs, do all of the above for them as well. When a child's SSN gets stolen or used fraudulently, it often isn't discovered until they mature and file taxes for the first time. Here's what she put together: Equifax Train Wreck.docx Oh, and if credit monitoring makes you feel better, do it but don't use the free one Equifax is offering. These are the same people that didn't protect your data in the first place. Also, get those free reports from all three every year and look them over. The fallout from this will be happening for a very long time.

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I enjoyed reading it.