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Toshi's thread

Toshi

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,262
7,705
Nick said:
Have you spent any time really dialing it in? Shockwiz?
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6thElement said:
Does Big Ring or GBS still have shockwiz for rent? I'd split the costs if we can get a few of us on the right trail for an afternoon.
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Nick said:
I think Eric has one at his shop. I'm going up there this weekend to pick up a warranty part. If it's there I'll grab it for a few days.
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Nick, did you ever snag the Shockwiz from your buddy? This thought occurred again to me today—what if my arm pump issues on Mountain Lion and Longhorn are due in part to my fork being incorrectly set up?

https://www.bigringcycles.com/about/quarq-shockwiz-rental-program-pg108.htm

$60 for both ends isn’t bad.

(That said, even with arm pump today my e-bike Mountain Lion DH time was 2 sec off my PR on the 5010. :notbadobama: )
 
Toshi

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,262
7,705
IMG_6555.jpg

IMG_6556.jpg


Today's damage: the bottom, black grip. Cracked the white plastic inner housing on the Ergon grips and ripped off the outer rubber and plastic end of it. Now the outer portion is all wiggly feeling.

Contrast to the intact plastic on the identical grip on my 5010, whose rubber actual grip surface has seen better days.
 
Toshi

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,262
7,705
Updates on the Volvo saga:

1) I finally have a Volvo Car Financial Services account. Apparently a mailed statement went out 8/7/18. I called them today, got the account number, established my account, and made a payment today that was supposed to be due 8/9/18.



So now I'm paying for a vehicle that I still can't drive. On the upside, the account shows 3 payments credited, only 1 of which I actually made (prior to driving the vehicle away). The other 2 apparently were out of the hide of the dealer: $1,209.94 in my favor thus far.

2) The Denver DMV still doesn't have paperwork for the Volvo. This is not surprising: even if everything FedExed in on Monday was perfect then they take a week to process it in theory. Even if it were ready I wouldn't be able to make it in easily until this upcoming Wednesday.

3) When I register it I'm going to submit the documents for how much said registration cost to the dealer, as they've promised to reimburse this amount. I'll also make a try of submitting my Uber and rental car receipts from July 30 through whatever date the paperwork is complete.

Verdict: Even if I come out $1,700 ahead when all is said and done I'd much rather have made the payments promptly and had a registered vehicle back in May. At what rate I charge for consulting I'll be firmly behind between the DMV visits, phone calls, and time spent dealing with car rental.
 
Toshi

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,262
7,705

Yuna on a pedal bike finally! 3 years and just shy of 4 months.
 
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Toshi

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,262
7,705

Ah, to be able to fly.

I should get a unicycle to fart about on in the driveway as my kids ride. I rode one around a gym in about 2003 and my current rides are not optimal for pedal kicking action.
 
Toshi

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,262
7,705
Today I learned that Zoic doesn't consider the crotch panel separating from the back panel of their outer baggies at the seam between the two to be a warranteeable issue. 2 years and 10 days of use for $80. Not super pleased with that, but perhaps the Korean seamstress at the local dry cleaner can do some magic and get them in one piece again.
 
Toshi

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,262
7,705

Good stuff starts at 20 seconds in.

No Shockwizes today, for the record--they were rented out for the week and the dude I'd emailed to reserve them was canned 3 weeks ago (yet he was still listed as the contact on their website).
 
Toshi

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,262
7,705
Rental car review, since I still can’t register the Volvo:

2018 Subaru Outback 2.5i Limited. 6.4k miles, rented from a neighborhood Budget.

Pros:

- high trim level for a rental! replete with EyeSight, leather, CarPlay, heated this and that
- looks nice enough outside
- feels light on its feet
- quiet road and wind noise

Cons:

- cargo area not tall or wide: have to pull my bike’s front wheel to wedge it in
- 4 banger is absolutely gutless at Denver’s altitude
- dashboard is an aesthetic nightmare of differing fonts, shapes, colors, meld of center tft and conventional gauges
- EyeSight lane keep is useless, ping ponging across the lane

Verdict: I’m glad I didn’t go for this, although it would have been a super cheap lease...
 
Toshi

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,262
7,705
Toshi said:
Nick, did you ever snag the Shockwiz from your buddy? This thought occurred again to me today—what if my arm pump issues on Mountain Lion and Longhorn are due in part to my fork being incorrectly set up?

https://www.bigringcycles.com/about/quarq-shockwiz-rental-program-pg108.htm

$60 for both ends isn’t bad.

(That said, even with arm pump today my e-bike Mountain Lion DH time was 2 sec off my PR on the 5010. :notbadobama: )
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I just bought a single used Shockwiz off of eBay for $220 through an offer and a few counteroffers on a best offer listing. I’ll have to set up an end at a time, but on the other hand can take my time. When all is said and done then I can probably sell it for about that much, too.

:notbadobama:

(Will I even bust out the 5010 at all to set it up or let it languish completely? Probably the latter.)
 
Toshi

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,262
7,705
I emailed my neighbor requests for what I want from the Volvo dealership:

>>>>>

What I’m seeking is either:

1) The dealer to compensate me for my time expended thus far (at a rate equivalent to that which I get paid for extra shifts at work, which is $XXX[elided]/hr, since that’s what this time spent has displaced), reimburse me for all Uber and rental car charges that I have incurred from 7/30/18 until today (estimated as $544), and to provide a rental vehicle equivalent to the leased Volvo (so a luxury SUV from Hertz or equivalent) from now until such date at which the DMV says I can actually register it.

Or

2) The dealer to take the car back: buy out my lease with Volvo Car Financial Services such that they own the vehicle, compensate me for the expense of putting a trailer hitch on this leased vehicle ($714) as I’ll be unable to use this due to the early termination of the lease, and ship the vehicle at their expense from my garage to their location of choice.

<<<<<

Have I mentioned my neighbor is a lawyer with a firm that handles contract law and is furthermore licensed to practice in both Colorado and Illinois?
 
Pesqueeb

Pesqueeb

bicycle in airplane hangar
Feb 2, 2007
40,301
16,741
Riding the baggage carousel.
Toshi said:
I emailed my neighbor requests for what I want from the Volvo dealership:

>>>>>

What I’m seeking is either:

1) The dealer to compensate me for my time expended thus far (at a rate equivalent to that which I get paid for extra shifts at work, which is $XXX[elided]/hr, since that’s what this time spent has displaced), reimburse me for all Uber and rental car charges that I have incurred from 7/30/18 until today (estimated as $544), and to provide a rental vehicle equivalent to the leased Volvo (so a luxury SUV from Hertz or equivalent) from now until such date at which the DMV says I can actually register it.

Or

2) The dealer to take the car back: buy out my lease with Volvo Car Financial Services such that they own the vehicle, compensate me for the expense of putting a trailer hitch on this leased vehicle ($714) as I’ll be unable to use this due to the early termination of the lease, and ship the vehicle at their expense from my garage to their location of choice.

<<<<<

Have I mentioned my neighbor is a lawyer with a firm that handles contract law and is furthermore licensed to practice in both Colorado and Illinois?
Click to expand...


Paying him in Bitcoin I assume?
 
Toshi

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,262
7,705
Pesqueeb said:


Paying him in Bitcoin I assume?
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Unconscious bias: she’s a lawyer. Her boyfriend is a handyman, as best as I can tell.

I’m closed out of all cryptocurrency on Coinbase now. Came out to within a hundred or so of the Pivot Shuttle’s cost.
 
Toshi

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,262
7,705
Thought of the day:

Riding the Shuttle to work a week or three ago was amusing but the tires are a roaring, quickly wearing 20 psi mess. Instead of getting something like that 28 mph-assist Specialized Turbo Vado 6.0 I could get a 29” extra wheelset, fully outfitted with Schwalbe Marathon * tires as on the belt drive commuter, identical rotors, etc.

The 29” DT 350/XM 331 wheelset I have on the belter would be perfect were it not for ever-changing hub standards:

Belter: 29”. 100 x 15 mm through axle front, 135 x 9 mm quick release rear

5010: 27.5”. 110 x 15 mm Boost through axle front, 148 x 12 mm through axle rear

Shuttle: 27.5”+ or 29”, stock on the former. 110 x 15 mm Boost through axle front, 157 x 12 mm Super Boost Plus through axle rear
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With a nice 29” wheelset for the Shuttle I could see how it feels with normal 29 x 2.3-2.4” tires, too, not that I have much to complain about with the 27.5 x 2.8” Maxxis Minion DHF/Rekon combo when on dirt. Hmm.

Even a nice wheelset (LB ~30mm i.d. again?) would be a fifth of what an entire new commuter would cost. (Or I could just ride the belt drive commuter and the Shuttle as is, but that’s not as entertaining... got to stimulate the world economy.)
 
Toshi

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,262
7,705
This upcoming week I have Wednesday and Friday to ride. I have no car as above, though. Both are even numbered days.

Due to my Tuesday night rehearsal schedule it’d be most convenient to rent from Monday to Friday, and a medium sized SUV locally for that duration would be just under $500. As I have no assurance that Volvo will be picking up that tab or past expenses I’m not going to do that.

So Wednesday will be an experiment: ride the Shuttle in Eco mode to Central Park Station, take the A Line to Union Station, take the W Line to JeffCo/Golden Station, then ride an Apex/Enchanted loop or two before repeating the process in reverse, dependent on battery charge status.

1:04 between the two trains and a 5 minute transfer. $4.50 each way. I still have a rental lined up Thursday to Friday night in case this sucks.
 
Toshi

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,262
7,705
Pesqueeb said:
You know, I've been toying with the idea of the volvo subscription for our next car, with an eye on the electric xc40 in 2020. You might have talked me out of it.
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This is entirely on the Illinois dealer. A local dealer wouldn’t be expected to be as incompetent, and the car itself is fine...
 
Pesqueeb

Pesqueeb

bicycle in airplane hangar
Feb 2, 2007
40,301
16,741
Riding the baggage carousel.
Toshi said:
This is entirely on the Illinois dealer. A local dealer wouldn’t be expected to be as incompetent, and the car itself is fine...
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You must have the patience of a saint. How have you not contacted a corporate entity by now? Were I you, I'd have been so far up the ass of Volvo.us that they would be burping drunken noodle.
 
Toshi

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,262
7,705
Pesqueeb said:
You must have the patience of a saint. How have you not contacted a corporate entity by now? Were I you, I'd have been so far up the ass of Volvo.us that they would be burping drunken noodle.
Click to expand...
I’m not necessarily patient, just have finite attention to pay given this is what I’m juggling at the moment:

- Volvo shenanigans
- one paper awaiting revisions
- one paper out for review
- clinical trial that got funded but isn’t off the ground yet
- never ending code revisions for my ongoing MRI modeling work (fuzzy teapot images a week or three ago) and ultimately a paper from that later this year
- seeing if refund goes through for ebike parts shipped internationally +/- hazmat (lithium ion!), one package of which inexplicably ended back on my porch after shipping instead of making a beeline for Vancouver BC
- dealing with super laggy boutique trumpet maker who has one of my trumpets for cleaning since the spring and who took 7 months (!) to build and ship ultimately the wrong mouthpiece for the other trumpet
- prepping my not-easy parts for wind ensemble
- watching the Marvel Cinematic Universe
- riding whenever possible
- work
- sleep now and then

The annoying thing about right now is that there’s just not much I can do at the moment on many of these fronts. So I watch movies, ride that Pivot, and practice trumpet.
 
Toshi

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,262
7,705
Pesqueeb said:
You must have the patience of a saint. How have you not contacted a corporate entity by now? Were I you, I'd have been so far up the ass of Volvo.us that they would be burping drunken noodle.
Click to expand...
I just made another attempt to reach out to Volvo Cars USA, and now a ticket is in for the dealer and the regional manager to look at covering a rental car. Still waiting on my lawyer neighbor for any word, too.

Meanwhile when I called the DMV this morning for my usual check she mentioned something like "we're caught up through documents received August 1". Yikes. I was told a week latency. If this is true AND the paperwork was sent correctly on Aug 6, arriving Aug 7, then they might have it complete by the end of August.

Even if that happens I want to get reimbursed for my time and rental car expense... just booked another rental car, for Mountain Lion a week from today. Light rail isn't going to take me there. :D
 
Toshi

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,262
7,705
Nick said:
Just ride your motorcycle!
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Something crazy like that (but slow, on Eco or Trail mode for range) might actually be possible when that second battery gets in. As it is I + the battery have enough juice for probably two ML laps on Trail Mode or 1.5 on Turbo, but that doesn't account for getting there, or, importantly, back.
 
Toshi

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,262
7,705
Current Volvo status:

Dealer contact lady: "Will you please send me a copy of your rental fees so that I can go about seeing a reimbursement for your expense."

"Go about seeing" is not very definitive, plus the end date is not yet clear--what if they fucked up this set of paperwork, too? Another month yet?

Meanwhile my law partner neighbor wants to discuss this all with me, hopefully tomorrow.
 
6thElement

6thElement

Schrodinger's Immigrant
Jul 29, 2008
15,943
13,194
Where's Volvo HQ? I'd be contemplating crashing through the front doors at this point.
 
Toshi

Toshi

Harbinger of Doom
Oct 23, 2001
38,262
7,705
Lawyer neighbor says it's too low-dollar a transaction to formally hire her firm at $425/hr. They could send off a letter on their letterhead for an hour or fraction of an hour's time, but I'm not sure what that'd accomplish.

Meanwhile the Volvo corporate ticket I opened seems to have some traction. New round of phone calls from sales guy regarding the ticket and how to resolve this. Easy: Rent me a car until this shit's all figured out.

I reiterated this request in addition to submitting my receipts for transportation expenses incurred 8/1-8/20 and now the ball's back in the general manager's court, with hopefully added pressure from Volvo Cars US/their regional manager.
 
Westy

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
54,408
20,200
Sleazattle
Toshi said:
Lawyer neighbor says it's too low-dollar a transaction to formally hire her firm at $425/hr. They could send off a letter on their letterhead for an hour or fraction of an hour's time, but I'm not sure what that'd accomplish.

Meanwhile the Volvo corporate ticket I opened seems to have some traction. New round of phone calls from sales guy regarding the ticket and how to resolve this. Easy: Rent me a car until this shit's all figured out.

I reiterated this request in addition to submitting my receipts for transportation expenses incurred 8/1-8/20 and now the ball's back in the general manager's court, with hopefully added pressure from Volvo Cars US/their regional manager.
Click to expand...

That there be Dentist pricing. Neighbor ain't making no bro deals.
 
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