How xbiking and you helped me to recover…

I just wanted to give a quick shout-out to all of you in this sub for keeping my mind (and body) on track, introducing me to a new hobby, answering all my stupid questions, and giving me feedback and inspiration whenever it was needed.
In June last year, I had a pretty bad skateboarding accident where I dislocated and broke my ankle. It was fixed with a plate and seven screws, and to make things worse, I caught a hospital-acquired infection during the second surgery. That wasn’t fun at all and added another two surgeries and half a year of extra recovery.
There were times when I could barely do anything other than lie on the couch and browse the internet — and that’s when I discovered xbiking.
As destiny would have it, just a couple of days later, I found a nearly perfect GT at a flea market for 10€ — from then on, I was hooked.
Even though I couldn’t walk without crutches, working on bikes in my workshop was totally doable. Spending a couple of hours per day on the bike and searching the internet for parts at night — this hobby really kept me going.
After I finished the GT, I felt kinda lost because it was so much fun learning how to build a bike. So I wasted no time and built one for my wife. Done in no time, with a pretty unique mystery frame — I was more than satisfied with how it turned out. So… what’s next?
I needed a rat bike / everyday beater.
In the courtyard of our apartment building, there was this abandoned bike (at least 3 years untouched and rotting), already half-covered in vegetation — so I made that my next project.
Around the same time the bike was finished, I started physiotherapy and working out A LOT.
A big part of my recovery was just riding bikes — it allowed me to move around without pain and strengthen my muscles at the same time.
Fast forward a couple of months — to be exact, yesterday — I was riding my beater through the city on the way to a skate session and thought… fuck yeah, and all of this because I discovered xbiking and a new hobby.
THANKS!