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My dynamic hip screw is still in there. I don't notice it and I don't think I can feel it - my hip feels different to the touch, but I've always assumed that it's just a by-product of the incision rather than the DHS, as there's a definite indentation along the line of the scar.
Hope it all goes well next week, @Miss_Mouse...
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My physio was based at the Homerton Hospital in East London; the consultant who operated on my hip at the hospital then referred me to their physiotherapy unit. Everybody at the Homerton was terrific.
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Circumstances vary, it's true, but the misery should pass. I broke my hip at the end of 2012, three weeks before I was scheduled to start an 18-month cycle tour. The pain was colossal, and the aftermath was painful, tedious and frustrating. The exercises were a repetitive, uncomfortable grind with little tangible benefit, and you may feel that they're taking you nowhere with your recovery. But eventually, you'll notice improvements. Do whatever your doctors and physios tell you to do, however counterproductive their advice might seem.
I got back on my bike about six months after my break, very gingerly, and then set out rather nervously on the postponed bike tour six weeks after that. All of this was roughly in accord with the timeline that the doctors and physios had set out for me immediately after my operation. The tour is still ongoing, and my dynamic hip screw now has about 15,000 cycling miles on the clock. Modern medicine is amazing. Hang in there.
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Dynamo hubs can be expensive, agreed, but there's essentially no drag with the good ones these days. (This CTC article (pdf) offers a useful guide.) I'm currently touring with a Schmidt Son 28, and it's been terrific. Paired with a PedalPower+ Super-i-Cable, it charges everything we're carrying (iPod, mobile, e-reader, GPS, camera) except our tablet, which needs more power than the dynamo can provide. Portable battery packs should be able to charge a tablet, but they wouldn't be able to charge much (if anything) else once they've done so.
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You can't use a standard track sprocket with a Rohloff hub. Rohloff's own sprockets are reversible and last for aeons; I didn't reverse mine until it had clocked up 14,000km, and it's still got plenty of life on it 6,000km later.
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The good: BA, whose allowances remain fair and who didn't charge me excess when my bike case was a couple of kilos overweight on a recent flight.
Also good: Nice Airport. I've already mentioned this on the Who knows France? thread, but any airport that provides a designated bike assembly area with free-to-use workstand and a few tools in the baggage reclaim area deserves praise in plenty of places.
The bad: Ryanair, who increased their bike charges to £40 per one-way flight earlier this year.
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Speaking of bike-friendly places in France, I was amazed and delighted a few weeks ago to find a dedicated bike assembly area, complete with a workstand and a few tools (all free to use), in the baggage reclaim hall at Nice Airport. Massive thumbs-up. Has anyone seen anything similar at other airports, in France or elsewhere?
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Does anyone have any good tips?
It's been said elsewhere on this thread/forum but it bears repeating: whatever type of case you're using, coat every inch of your bike in pipe insulation and, for awkward bits such as the rear mech, loads of bubble wrap. Pipe insulation costs and weighs next to nothing, and is reusable from trip to trip. If you wrap pretty much all your bike in it, tape or zip-tie it all in place, and then tape or zip-tie everything together so -- as scherrit says -- the bike is one item without any semi-detached bits (eg handlebars) hanging off it, your bike stands as good a chance as any of surviving even the most violent checks if airport security staff decide to take it out of its case.
Also, try to avoid keeping any hard loose parts in the bike bag (eg pedals, which Sod's law dictates will fall out of the bike bag's internal pocket and scratch something in the process); use wheel bags, even within the bike case; and don't forget spacers for the front forks and rear dropouts.
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I'd definitely recommend staying in the centre of town. The public transport network is good but it closes down fairly early for a city that doesn't really get going until 11pm or later, and finding a cab isn't as easy as it might be (for one thing, a fair chunk of central Valencia is pedestrianised). Also, the middle of town is really atmospheric after dark, which is more than can be said for the waterfront. We stayed here, which was both decent and central.
The City of Arts & Sciences is very impressive; it has a wow factor that photographs don't really capture. Otherwise, it's really just a good city for wandering (again, the historic centre is lovely) or lounging around (the beaches are pretty nice).
One word of warning: more or less every street has two names (one in Spanish, one in Valencian), but there's real inconsistency in how they're labelled, both on streets and on local maps (which are further complicated by the array of tiny alleys everywhere). I remember this being a real faff...
When are you going? We were there during Valencia Restaurant Week last autumn, and it's coming up again in a couple of weeks. We ate stupendously well for far less money than would otherwise have been the case. [U][/U]
Currently touring the Americas and writing about it at Contours of a Country.