My first post on 3 October 2009 read, stripped of salutation and sig, read in its entirety:
I'm new here. I'm coming up to the first annual service on my Rohloff hub, so I've been reading the excellent archive. Thanks for the good information already received!
I arrived here because, after years of getting my back and wallet done in by the incompetent LBS operators in Ireland, I decided to do what I do well and take matters into my own hands. So, because I had been forced to trust these ripoffs and incompetents because I knew nothing about bikes, first I had to inform myself, and that's how I came across Andy Blance's writings on various components. He impressed me more than the boutique wafflers, and from there I discovered this forum. I lurked for years, but then I decided that soon I would have spent more on inadequate Shimano hub gear boxes than the cost of a Rohloff. I realized that when I went over to Rohloff I would need expert, experienced advice, but all my gurus, people like Jobst and Sheldon, were retired or ill and dying or dead, so I delurked. My early posts were signed "Hobbes".
By 5 October 2009 I'd already received good advice; to quote the end of a message I sent on that day:
"I must say though that I feel better about the process now that I've found a support group. On hand of my experience with the Shimano sprockets, I was anticipating viewing the Rohloff sprocket with some trepidation, now much lessened."
Only too human, feeling trepidation about anything to do with a thousand pound plus bicycle gearbox...
I've been here ever since. I feel at home here. Thanks, fellows.
***
Since we're all in sentimental mood: I don't suppose that now I'll ever get to beat Stutho's chain mileage. For newbies: Stu was moderater when I arrived, and he was -- maybe still is -- a four-seasons long-distance commuter in the wet South, and he got absolutely ginormous chain mileages whereas I was replacing chains and sprockets and chainrings at the rate of a set every thousand miles.
