Toshi's thread
- Thread starter Toshi
- Start date
I'm trying to look more for ex-rich-people cars from commuting-distance Connecticut and east of us on Long Island. I agree that the cars become more overpriced and beat up the closer to the city one goes, though. (The Escape was a solid 60 miles east but was still beat, go figure )
This led me to wonder whether I could snag such an ex-city car directly and avoid the middleman markup. Next auto auction is Sept 29, and I'm on night float that week (ie, overnight shifts from 9 PM- 8 AM). I suppose that if I haven't sprung for anything by then I could head right there after I finish my shift and partake in the festivities: inspection begins at 8:30 AM and bidding at 9 AM
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcas/html/auctions/autoauctions.shtml
They have a lot of Priuses, apparently. Probably a bad idea but an intriguing one since, well, NYC goes through a staggering amount of vehicles/machinery/real estate in their fleet each year.
So I did make an offer on the Passat: $5k (listed at 6). How come? 1 owner, sure, but it's at 98k miles and hasn't had its 90k mile service--one of the big ones, with timing belt replacement required. That's at least $750 there. Plus 3 out of the 4 tires were on the old side and it had a few dings on the exterior and interior scrapes.Toshi said:This means I'll be free to make an offer on the Passat tomorrow if it's what we want.
If we get it for 5 then I'd be pleased. If someone else gets it for more--he's showing it later today, too--then I'm happy for them, and perhaps it's a sign that I shouldn't be considering VW auto group products.
(No headlights or taillights were out on this example, for the record. heh)
Total about-face from cheap-hunting: we decided to use the cheap car money as a down payment and finance the remainder (at 3.99%!)... on a CPO 2006 Prius.
82k miles, leather, navi, HIDs, backup camera (key for the Prius), under bumper to bumper until 2013/100k miles, hybrid bits under warranty until 2014/100k miles.
It's putting a future financial burden on us as it's a 60 month loan, but given 4% and my future attending income I think we'll be fine, plus this was the car we really wanted for the long(er) term.
82k miles, leather, navi, HIDs, backup camera (key for the Prius), under bumper to bumper until 2013/100k miles, hybrid bits under warranty until 2014/100k miles.
It's putting a future financial burden on us as it's a 60 month loan, but given 4% and my future attending income I think we'll be fine, plus this was the car we really wanted for the long(er) term.
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Nice one. 
When do you get it?
When do you get it?
We're at the dealer now. Paperwork is done. Just waiting for the insurance card to be resent (they missed a middle initial) then out of here, Jessica in the Fit, me in the "new" Prius.
I figure that when/if the battery goes north of 2014 then we can spring for a 3rd party Li-ion plugin pack anyway. This car just fits into our long-term plan much better: sell the Fit in 2014 (or keep it?) and add a Leaf then...
I figure that when/if the battery goes north of 2014 then we can spring for a 3rd party Li-ion plugin pack anyway. This car just fits into our long-term plan much better: sell the Fit in 2014 (or keep it?) and add a Leaf then...
I posted about it over on Facebook, but I'll crow about it here, too:
Key figure from the paper:
Read it yourself if you want, replete with Star Trek reference in the opening line: https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=1DQeZSTM0Rj8c_KIV5Tv7Kg7Eri60TWLqW0Hh2GfiCp8&hl=en#
Booyah.
Key figure from the paper:
Read it yourself if you want, replete with Star Trek reference in the opening line: https://docs.google.com/document/edit?id=1DQeZSTM0Rj8c_KIV5Tv7Kg7Eri60TWLqW0Hh2GfiCp8&hl=en#
Niiice so it's not just big Pharma bribing you guys..... Let the Gravy train roll!!!!! 
Seriously though, nice one Toshi!
Given your tech/apple geekery I can't think of a better recipient.
Seriously though, nice one Toshi!
Given your tech/apple geekery I can't think of a better recipient.
Here's the portrait that my neuroradiology attending snapped of me this afternoon for RSNA program purposes:
For those wishing to pixel-peep the full-res version is here: http://toshiclark.com/images/miscellaneous/random/RSNA_portrait.jpg . It shows each skin imperfection in excruciating detail.
Info: 5DII, 135/2L, 1/200, f/8, ISO 3200, 580EXII on camera, another 580EXII off-camera as a weak "hair light", and a 420EX aimed at the wall behind me to blow it out a bit. Pushed a bit, cropped, and straightened in Lightroom with a lot of color noise reduction.
For those wishing to pixel-peep the full-res version is here: http://toshiclark.com/images/miscellaneous/random/RSNA_portrait.jpg . It shows each skin imperfection in excruciating detail.
Info: 5DII, 135/2L, 1/200, f/8, ISO 3200, 580EXII on camera, another 580EXII off-camera as a weak "hair light", and a 420EX aimed at the wall behind me to blow it out a bit. Pushed a bit, cropped, and straightened in Lightroom with a lot of color noise reduction.
One of the high points about the house that we're renting as of Oct 1 is its central air conditioning (CAC). Why should one care about the presence of CAC? Central systems are more efficient than room or wall-mounted air conditioners, per energysavers.gov, although I suppose that effect is mitigated by the larger houses in which they're typically installed. Additionally, having one lets one participate in some interesting programs that combine energy use reduction with civic duty. What am I talking about here? LIPA Edge, that's what.
The Long Island Power Authority's Edge program gives residential and small business customers with central air conditioners a free all-singing-and-dancing thermostat (see above) and provides for installation as well. Above and beyond being an Energy Star certified thermostat this one has the perk of being able to be controlled remotely. Remotely, you say? How and by whom? The resident/business owner in question can control the thermostat via the internet, changing the time or programming in fancy schedules based on time or day of week. I think this is a pretty cool feature, and this is why I plan to sign up for the program: it's like having a rudimentary home automation system a la X10, only the utility company is paying for the whole setup!
Additionally, however, LIPA itself can control it via a 2-way radio setup that they also provide gratis: on up to 7 summer days during which there's critical demand on the electric grid they'll raise the thermostat to lower air conditioner usage from the hours of 2 PM to 6 PM. While 7 days x 4 hours maximum doesn't seem like much, multiply it by the ~30,000 customers who have signed up since the program's inception in 2001 and it becomes quite non-negligible, to the order of 30 MW of direct load control capacity under LIPA's thumb.
It's intriguing to me that 30,000 Long Islanders with central air, so presumably doing quite ok--as I said, central air is usually in larger houses--have been willing to cede some control over their thermostat, and indirectly over their personal comfort, in exchange for technological geekery that many of them probably don't use. I actually quite like this concept: 30,000 Long Islanders performing their civic duty by sweating a tiny bit more in exchange for averting a brownout or blackout on the overloaded power grid for all. It makes me a bit less angry at the umpteen jerks cutting people off on the parkways…
The Long Island Power Authority's Edge program gives residential and small business customers with central air conditioners a free all-singing-and-dancing thermostat (see above) and provides for installation as well. Above and beyond being an Energy Star certified thermostat this one has the perk of being able to be controlled remotely. Remotely, you say? How and by whom? The resident/business owner in question can control the thermostat via the internet, changing the time or programming in fancy schedules based on time or day of week. I think this is a pretty cool feature, and this is why I plan to sign up for the program: it's like having a rudimentary home automation system a la X10, only the utility company is paying for the whole setup!
Additionally, however, LIPA itself can control it via a 2-way radio setup that they also provide gratis: on up to 7 summer days during which there's critical demand on the electric grid they'll raise the thermostat to lower air conditioner usage from the hours of 2 PM to 6 PM. While 7 days x 4 hours maximum doesn't seem like much, multiply it by the ~30,000 customers who have signed up since the program's inception in 2001 and it becomes quite non-negligible, to the order of 30 MW of direct load control capacity under LIPA's thumb.
It's intriguing to me that 30,000 Long Islanders with central air, so presumably doing quite ok--as I said, central air is usually in larger houses--have been willing to cede some control over their thermostat, and indirectly over their personal comfort, in exchange for technological geekery that many of them probably don't use. I actually quite like this concept: 30,000 Long Islanders performing their civic duty by sweating a tiny bit more in exchange for averting a brownout or blackout on the overloaded power grid for all. It makes me a bit less angry at the umpteen jerks cutting people off on the parkways…
Portland, Schmortland
Looking into things further it seems that OHSU, not being a huge institution, only has a single fellowship spot each year in neuroradiology, body imaging, and MSK radiology. This does not bode well for me: no matter how competitive of an applicant I may be what with this and that, it is simply unsafe to count on landing the one spot at a program given that it's likely to fill internally.
Gah.
Therefore if we do want to end up in Portland we might have to look elsewhere for fellowship, in yet another leg of our circuitous journey about the country. We do know for certain that we want to leave the NYC metro area for the fellowship year, at the very least. Where to start looking beyond that one, not-so-strict criterion, however? Findyourspot.com is one possible resource, I suppose. For what it's worth, these are the city suggestions that it spit out when I input my preferences:
Portland, Oregon
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Seattle, Washington
Little Rock, Arkansas
Cincinnati, Ohio
Knoxville, Tennessee
Fayetteville, Arkansas
Eugene, Oregon
Corvallis, Oregon
Las Vegas, Nevada
Greenville, South Carolina
Bellingham, Washington
Tacoma, Washington
Kent, Washington
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Charleston, South Carolina
Salem, Oregon
Nashville, Tennessee
Johnson City-Kingsport, Tennessee
El Paso, Texas
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Medford, Oregon
Olympia, Washington
Bloomington, Indiana
Not bad for a first pass attempt by a website algorithm! Unfortunately, this list isn't terribly helpful for my fellowship search as most of these places, however nice, aren't populous enough to support in turn a hospital sufficiently large to have body imaging or MSK fellowships. Narrowing it down to suitable cities from the list (and taking out anything on the east coast) yields:
Portland, Oregon
Seattle, Washington
Little Rock, Arkansas
Cincinnati, Ohio
Yeah, not much left there, eh? Gah, again. That's why I think I might have to go on a bit more of a scatter-shot approach, choosing whole regions of the country and applying to all the programs that exist. Although I dutifully included the suggestions from findyourspot.com, in general I'm trying to think westward. This list of cities on my list of fellowship options is not in preference order but instead is sorted alphabetically by state then city:
Little Rock, AR
Scottsdale, AZ
Tucson, AZ
Los Angeles, CA
Orange, CA
Palo Alto, CA
San Diego, CA
Denver, CO
Chicago, IL
Ann Arbor, MI
Detroit, MI
Royal Oak, MI
Rochester, MN
Cincinnati, OH
Cleveland, OH
Portland, OR
Dallas, TX
Houston, TX
San Antonio, TX
Salt Lake City, UH
Seattle, WA
Madison, WI
Gah x 3.
I suppose things will work out when I finally actually getting around to applying for said fellowship (after deciding which subspecialty field is right for me, a different story!): If I end up getting a ton of interviews then I'll try to schedule my preferred places first and, with any luck, will have a rolling acceptance to an OHSU or a UW in hand before I have to fly to, say, Detroit. If I don't get a ton of interviews then I'll take what I can get, buckle down for that year, and reset my sights westward for the "real" world once that year is over.
Looking into things further it seems that OHSU, not being a huge institution, only has a single fellowship spot each year in neuroradiology, body imaging, and MSK radiology. This does not bode well for me: no matter how competitive of an applicant I may be what with this and that, it is simply unsafe to count on landing the one spot at a program given that it's likely to fill internally.
Gah.
Therefore if we do want to end up in Portland we might have to look elsewhere for fellowship, in yet another leg of our circuitous journey about the country. We do know for certain that we want to leave the NYC metro area for the fellowship year, at the very least. Where to start looking beyond that one, not-so-strict criterion, however? Findyourspot.com is one possible resource, I suppose. For what it's worth, these are the city suggestions that it spit out when I input my preferences:
Portland, Oregon
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Seattle, Washington
Little Rock, Arkansas
Cincinnati, Ohio
Knoxville, Tennessee
Fayetteville, Arkansas
Eugene, Oregon
Corvallis, Oregon
Las Vegas, Nevada
Greenville, South Carolina
Bellingham, Washington
Tacoma, Washington
Kent, Washington
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Charleston, South Carolina
Salem, Oregon
Nashville, Tennessee
Johnson City-Kingsport, Tennessee
El Paso, Texas
Chattanooga, Tennessee
Medford, Oregon
Olympia, Washington
Bloomington, Indiana
Not bad for a first pass attempt by a website algorithm! Unfortunately, this list isn't terribly helpful for my fellowship search as most of these places, however nice, aren't populous enough to support in turn a hospital sufficiently large to have body imaging or MSK fellowships. Narrowing it down to suitable cities from the list (and taking out anything on the east coast) yields:
Portland, Oregon
Seattle, Washington
Little Rock, Arkansas
Cincinnati, Ohio
Yeah, not much left there, eh? Gah, again. That's why I think I might have to go on a bit more of a scatter-shot approach, choosing whole regions of the country and applying to all the programs that exist. Although I dutifully included the suggestions from findyourspot.com, in general I'm trying to think westward. This list of cities on my list of fellowship options is not in preference order but instead is sorted alphabetically by state then city:
Little Rock, AR
Scottsdale, AZ
Tucson, AZ
Los Angeles, CA
Orange, CA
Palo Alto, CA
San Diego, CA
Denver, CO
Chicago, IL
Ann Arbor, MI
Detroit, MI
Royal Oak, MI
Rochester, MN
Cincinnati, OH
Cleveland, OH
Portland, OR
Dallas, TX
Houston, TX
San Antonio, TX
Salt Lake City, UH
Seattle, WA
Madison, WI
Gah x 3.
I suppose things will work out when I finally actually getting around to applying for said fellowship (after deciding which subspecialty field is right for me, a different story!): If I end up getting a ton of interviews then I'll try to schedule my preferred places first and, with any luck, will have a rolling acceptance to an OHSU or a UW in hand before I have to fly to, say, Detroit. If I don't get a ton of interviews then I'll take what I can get, buckle down for that year, and reset my sights westward for the "real" world once that year is over.
A sore neck?
Life?
Life?
Ripped 
I understand your preference to live in the PNW, but there's some pretty good hospitals in Boston where you might land a fellowship........
I don't want to live in yet another expensive, crowded place. I love Boston, but I want to spring out west… Another factor to consider is that my current program is very modest and community based. Paradoxically, the farther I get from NYC (and Boston, too) the easier it should be to get a spot since no one will know about the place and it looks better on paper than in reality.
Updated, pared down list of top choices. I hope they're realistic.
Updated, pared down list of top choices. I hope they're realistic.
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Housing update:
Signed the lease on a 3 br house with garage, shop and central AC 6 miles from work a week or so ago, got the keys Sept 30, started painting this past weekend, finished packing on Monday, moved in, dropped off the keys to my old apartment, and made an Ikea run for some of the furniture we need today (Tuesday).
Oh, did I mention that all of this happened over two weeks during which I'm working nights? Yeah, not a lot of sleep between all of this activity. In any case, it's done: lease is good through June 30, 2013; the interior of the house looks awesome with its fresh non-rental-flat-white paint; all of our stuff is out of the apartment and into the house albeit still in boxes mostly; and I'm officially moved out of the resident housing, never to look back.
Signed the lease on a 3 br house with garage, shop and central AC 6 miles from work a week or so ago, got the keys Sept 30, started painting this past weekend, finished packing on Monday, moved in, dropped off the keys to my old apartment, and made an Ikea run for some of the furniture we need today (Tuesday).
Oh, did I mention that all of this happened over two weeks during which I'm working nights? Yeah, not a lot of sleep between all of this activity. In any case, it's done: lease is good through June 30, 2013; the interior of the house looks awesome with its fresh non-rental-flat-white paint; all of our stuff is out of the apartment and into the house albeit still in boxes mostly; and I'm officially moved out of the resident housing, never to look back.
This looks AWESOME. Controlled by an iPhone over WiFi, uses the gyroscope and accelerometer for control, two video cameras streaming live feeds back to the iPhone in real time...
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/10/the-300-quadrocopter-your-iphone-is-a-remote-control.ars
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2010/10/the-300-quadrocopter-your-iphone-is-a-remote-control.ars
Royal pain in the ass to get these speeds, it was. Wireless has tons of interference around here so I was getting crap speeds on my reception-deficient mini (Jessica's recent Macbook was fine), so I had to pull cat5 through a wall, fishing it out on the other end, in order to relocate the router close enough so that I can connect directly.
Went to Newport. Polarizer is like, whoa.
More photos here: http://toshiclark.com/images/trips/newport - october 9, 2010/
I'm also proud of the mileage I logged returning from Newport to Plainview, NY (our place in Long Island):
That was all at 0-10 mph over, mostly cruise control, a little coasting on the medium hills on the 25-45 mph limit roads. Not bad for a car rated by the EPA as 45 mpg highway!
Pretty consistent, too, these results with the Core i5 Hackintosh that I built and set up last weekend:
Royal pain in the ass to get these speeds, it was. Wireless has tons of interference around here so I was getting crap speeds on my reception-deficient mini (Jessica's recent Macbook was fine), so I had to pull cat5 through a wall, fishing it out on the other end, in order to relocate the router close enough so that I can connect directly.
In other news I've decided to suck it up and ride my bicycle to work whenever possible, even if that means slumming it up at 10 mph on the sidewalks. I rode about 20 miles over the past two days and decided that the sidewalk is the only sane option on the arterials. On 25 mph residential streets, sure, I'll ride in the street like I'm supposed to, but on 40 mph roads where the traffic is actually doing 45-55 mph with no shoulder or bike lane I'm not going to risk life and limb to be "correct."
In the interests of safety I ordered some lighting for my commute, which will generally be in mostly-daylight hours except when on day float call, in which case I'd be leaving the hospital after 9 PM. This is in distinction to my surgery year, where my commute to and from the hospital was almost always in the dark, except for those few precious weeks in the summertime when the sun would rise during my trip in to start the day Anyway, the lighting that I chose:
Cateye HL-EL450 front light. LED. Main virtue is that it flashes, doesn't suck totally, and was cheap: $20 + 5 s+h through an amazon 3rd party seller, marked down from $50 MSRP.
Portland Design Works Radbot 1000 1W rear tail light. LED as well. Supposed to be one of the brightest ones out there, with an epileptogenic flashing mode that I quite like--reminiscent of the lighting I added to the motorcycle, too
Just as with the choice of the bike itself it's a conscious decision to only buy as much as I actually need instead of what's possible/out there. I.e., it would have been easy to drop $120 + shipping on a killer 900 lumens (claimed) LED setup with Li-ion pack, rear light driven off the main battery, etc. but I have no real need for that with my route and hours. Besides, having lived with a CatEye Stadium 3 for many years, packing up a heavy light + bottle battery every morning and night is kind of a pain in the ass. Much easier to slide on and off a self-contained, lightweight light.
Taking further advantage of our .edu Amazon Prime subscription(s--me through wjh.harvard and Jessica through NYU), we ordered Jessica up a bike of her own, too. She'll be using this one for the 1 mile ride to the supermarket and Trader Joe's that's literally down the street, so utility and cheapness were the main goals, along with being eligible for Amazon Prime shipping.
The one that I steered her to, and that she picked ultimately, is this one: a Schwinn Network 7 700c hybrid.
$230 shipped from amazon. I figure it has the right bits: fenders, integrated-appearing rear rack, a modicum of suspension and suspension seatpost action, 700c wheels befitting its around-town purpose, and just enough gears to make flat ground riding work nicely. Pair it with a cheap cable lock (done), a zip-tied milk crate (to be done) and a front mounted basket (ordered, below) and it'll work. Whether she'll actually use it is another matter, but she wanted one, it seemed silly to be driving such short distances, and a mile is just long enough that one doesn't want to be hauling grocery bags by hand, on foot.
I decided that I wanted an auxiliary input to our Prius's stereo, as burning audio CDs is a chore and the cycle repeats too quickly (even with the 6-disc changer), and I have no faith in Toyota's interface for picking/navigating through MP3 or WMA files on burnt data discs. Thus I went looking… and then I found out that, lo and behold, our Prius already had such a thing. Package #8, our model in 2006, is all singing and dancing, and the car literally came with everything, including an aux in port hidden away next to a 12V charging jack in the center console.
Score.
I'd seen it before but had never been able to select it through the stereo's interface, because Toyota, in their infinite wisdom, decided that it shouldn't be selectable until a cable has been plugged into it. (I, on the other hand, had assumed that it wasn't working because it wasn't selectable, thus had never plugged in a cable.) In any case, after asking the friendly folks at priuschat.com--yes, a Prius-dedicated forum--I plugged in a cable and gave it a try.
It worked. Sort of.
The connection using a simple unshielded 3.5 mm to 3.5 mm cable was staticky enough that the Voice Control feature on the iPhone's iPod app kept on thinking that I wanted to switch songs or fast forward. Not so good, especially since Voice Control can't be turned off. Not all is lost, however. I could either get a <$2 higher quality, shorter 3.5 mm to 3.5 mm M-M cable from monoprice or could bypass the headphone jack completely.
These two products, < $20 shipped together from amazon, should do the trick:
1)
Amazon.com: Fulfilled By Amazon - 4ft iPod / iPhone / iPad Gold-plated 2-in-1 Apple Dock Connector to 3.5mm Audio AUX and USB Charge/Sync Cable. Compatible with All models of iPod, iPhone and iPad. Works with All Firmware Versions. Enables Charging and Playing at the Same Time.: Electronics@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51mJBO8%2BseL.@@AMEPARAM@@51mJBO8%2BseL
2)
Amazon.com: Griffin Technology Powerjolt Dual Universal (Black): Electronics@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/317DBT-hKCL.@@AMEPARAM@@317DBT-hKCL
I don't think that Voice Control should be activated if the audio out's coming out of the dock connector, the sound quality should be better regardless, and the phone can be charged on the road as well. With the extra USB port on the charger, even, we could plug in a second iPhone USB-to-dock cable and charge up both of our phones on long trips. Excellent.
Score.
I'd seen it before but had never been able to select it through the stereo's interface, because Toyota, in their infinite wisdom, decided that it shouldn't be selectable until a cable has been plugged into it. (I, on the other hand, had assumed that it wasn't working because it wasn't selectable, thus had never plugged in a cable.) In any case, after asking the friendly folks at priuschat.com--yes, a Prius-dedicated forum
--I plugged in a cable and gave it a try.It worked. Sort of.
The connection using a simple unshielded 3.5 mm to 3.5 mm cable was staticky enough that the Voice Control feature on the iPhone's iPod app kept on thinking that I wanted to switch songs or fast forward. Not so good, especially since Voice Control can't be turned off. Not all is lost, however. I could either get a <$2 higher quality, shorter 3.5 mm to 3.5 mm M-M cable from monoprice or could bypass the headphone jack completely.
These two products, < $20 shipped together from amazon, should do the trick:
1)
Amazon.com: Fulfilled By Amazon - 4ft iPod / iPhone / iPad Gold-plated 2-in-1 Apple Dock Connector to 3.5mm Audio AUX and USB Charge/Sync Cable. Compatible with All models of iPod, iPhone and iPad. Works with All Firmware Versions. Enables Charging and Playing at the Same Time.: Electronics@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51mJBO8%2BseL.@@AMEPARAM@@51mJBO8%2BseL
2)
Amazon.com: Griffin Technology Powerjolt Dual Universal (Black): Electronics@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/317DBT-hKCL.@@AMEPARAM@@317DBT-hKCL
I don't think that Voice Control should be activated if the audio out's coming out of the dock connector, the sound quality should be better regardless, and the phone can be charged on the road as well. With the extra USB port on the charger, even, we could plug in a second iPhone USB-to-dock cable and charge up both of our phones on long trips. Excellent.
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I built a new bike for the wife. Keep in mind that she's a very recreational rider, and the main goal of this bike was to have something that she could tool around on in the neighborhood, and make the odd 2 mile roundtrip to the grocery store down the street. She's about 5'5" - 5'6" and likes to sit upright, so this is my initial guess at the ergos.
Not bad for $230 shipped to my door through amazon.com, eh? 700c wheelset that needed a bit of truing but is otherwise workable, some measure of suspension up front and in the seatpost, full fenders, a kickstand, 1 x 7 gearing, and a fairly nice looking body-colored rear rack. The milk crate and reflective tape are courtesy of my lack of good taste and desire to make the bike a practical grocery-getting machine. A handlebar basket is coming in the mail to complete the package, as it were.
In a world of $1000 forks and $4000 framesets it's the simple, utilitarian things that matter, imo, and this particular bike is probably an order of magnitude more expensive than the typical fare astride which most of the world's population tools about.
After commuting into work twice this week on the pedal-bicycle I have to admit that I actually feel unsafe riding on Long Island's roads. The drivers here are assholes of the highest caliber and the roads are completely devoid of any sort of bike lane. I'm going to have to figure out a different route to take else risk insanity and grievous bodily injury.
I took the motorcycle in today and it was so much nicer to zip along at 50 mph with the cars rather than feel like I was going to become one of their hood ornaments. Even at 25 mph with the old electric bike it would have been unsafe on the road itself, and the sidewalks are no good: they're very bumpy, there are too many overhanging bushes and there is a real danger from cars pulling out of driveways and side streets oblivious to traffic coming at them from the sidewalk.
The problem with finding an alternate route is that the main streets that I detest so greatly are the only ones that pass through. Everything else is a maze of culs-de-sac and other suburban monstrosities.
I took the motorcycle in today and it was so much nicer to zip along at 50 mph with the cars rather than feel like I was going to become one of their hood ornaments. Even at 25 mph with the old electric bike it would have been unsafe on the road itself, and the sidewalks are no good: they're very bumpy, there are too many overhanging bushes and there is a real danger from cars pulling out of driveways and side streets oblivious to traffic coming at them from the sidewalk.
The problem with finding an alternate route is that the main streets that I detest so greatly are the only ones that pass through. Everything else is a maze of culs-de-sac and other suburban monstrosities.
???? Hicksville????
Your commute takes you via Tennessee??
Your commute takes you via Tennessee??
I'm glad my mailing address isn't actually in Hicksville! (We're in Plainview as per my profile.)
Fun factoid: Hicksville and Levittown are among the first post-WWII tract housing developments anywhere. You can blame them and their designer, Robert Moses, for suburbia and the freeway-heavy sprawling layout from which the world now suffers.
Fun factoid: Hicksville and Levittown are among the first post-WWII tract housing developments anywhere. You can blame them and their designer, Robert Moses, for suburbia and the freeway-heavy sprawling layout from which the world now suffers.
One of the things on my bucket list is to build a kit car.
Caterham range, of which the Roadsport probably would be the proper option. Substitute a nice direct-injected 4-banger for the Duratec specced and I'd be happy. Something like the mill from the Nissan Juke would be ideal.
There's the NZ-based Murtaya, which uses a Subaru STI drivetrain and is distributed by a Durango, CO-based outfit as a kit:
Finally, there's the Ariel Atom 3:
(I say "finally" but there's a ton more out there, Factory Five, etc. etc.)
All of these would be street legal if built up and registered as a kit car. None would be street legal if bought as a turn-key. I think something like this would be great fun both to build and to drive, and would make for a marginally more comfortable/practical option for day and weekend trips with Jessica while still maintaining much of the rawness of the motorcycle experience. Even a Miata or a Boxster Spyder likely would be tame in comparison to one of these beasts. On the other hand, a car with factory support (and factory crash testing) has its own merits…
Caterham range, of which the Roadsport probably would be the proper option. Substitute a nice direct-injected 4-banger for the Duratec specced and I'd be happy. Something like the mill from the Nissan Juke would be ideal.
There's the NZ-based Murtaya, which uses a Subaru STI drivetrain and is distributed by a Durango, CO-based outfit as a kit:
Finally, there's the Ariel Atom 3:
(I say "finally" but there's a ton more out there, Factory Five, etc. etc.)
All of these would be street legal if built up and registered as a kit car. None would be street legal if bought as a turn-key. I think something like this would be great fun both to build and to drive, and would make for a marginally more comfortable/practical option for day and weekend trips with Jessica while still maintaining much of the rawness of the motorcycle experience. Even a Miata or a Boxster Spyder likely would be tame in comparison to one of these beasts. On the other hand, a car with factory support (and factory crash testing) has its own merits…
For your Friday amusement, chief complaints from people presenting to my hospital for head CTs:
Did face plant off a workout bicycle
Obtunded, found in the strawberry field unconscious
Change in mental status as per family request
Head trauma: fell while sniffing toxic gas
Coughed up foreign body (ham)
r/o UTI, currently has UTI
Fell out of tree on feet and then tree trimmer fell on head
Dissociation: found in a stranger’s car and not responding to questions
Swallowed plastic spoon and reported trauma to rectum by plunger
Seeing typewriters and boxes (not a delusion)
Pole dancer, first night at work, fell while on stage, now with back pain
Patient eats rocks once weekly and had one the size of a potato yesterday
Not feeling well, using cocaine most of the night
Full term baby fell into toilet at birth
Dramatic Brain Injury
Pedestrian hit by helicopter
Patient s/p dickectomy now with pain
Lethargic, irritable after mother fell on daughter
Overdose heroin in ER waiting room
Patient has rectal bleeding during BMs following what he describes inserting some wooden chopsticks into…
Child, while doing cartwheel, fell down a flight of stairs
Struck by passing car in the face while looking to cross
Pedestrian vs. stationary car
Fell off of roof of kiddie house
Beaten repeatedly about the head by female (after he attempted to flee with her purse), complaining of head pain
Intoxicated bicyclist trapped under SUV
Did face plant off a workout bicycle
Obtunded, found in the strawberry field unconscious
Change in mental status as per family request
Head trauma: fell while sniffing toxic gas
Coughed up foreign body (ham)
r/o UTI, currently has UTI
Fell out of tree on feet and then tree trimmer fell on head
Dissociation: found in a stranger’s car and not responding to questions
Swallowed plastic spoon and reported trauma to rectum by plunger
Seeing typewriters and boxes (not a delusion)
Pole dancer, first night at work, fell while on stage, now with back pain
Patient eats rocks once weekly and had one the size of a potato yesterday
Not feeling well, using cocaine most of the night
Full term baby fell into toilet at birth
Dramatic Brain Injury
Pedestrian hit by helicopter
Patient s/p dickectomy now with pain
Lethargic, irritable after mother fell on daughter
Overdose heroin in ER waiting room
Patient has rectal bleeding during BMs following what he describes inserting some wooden chopsticks into…
Child, while doing cartwheel, fell down a flight of stairs
Struck by passing car in the face while looking to cross
Pedestrian vs. stationary car
Fell off of roof of kiddie house
Beaten repeatedly about the head by female (after he attempted to flee with her purse), complaining of head pain
Intoxicated bicyclist trapped under SUV
I guess your job does keep you entertained then..... Bloody impressive list Toshi!
I pick up my new bike in 2 hours.... Hope this weather abates!
heavy rain and winds gusting to 75! won't be much fun on brand new slippery un scrubbed in tyres.
I pick up my new bike in 2 hours.... Hope this weather abates!
heavy rain and winds gusting to 75! won't be much fun on brand new slippery un scrubbed in tyres.
I kind of like it. 530 lbs, sure, but 5.68 gallon tank, the VFR800 motor in 102 hp tune, chain drive, single sided swingarm, combined ABS, and long-legged road bike aesthetics much like my Versys, only writ large(r).
2011 Honda Crossrunner 800: http://www.asphaltandrubber.com/bikes/2011-honda-crossrunner/
The new Triumph Tiger 800xc has caught my eye.
My wife recently declared that her love for me has eroded to the point where a moto is now OK (took 20 years!).
If my accountant sees a way to justify it as a business expense (a green alternative to my 7400# truck for estimates, site visits etc) I might pull the trigger.
My wife recently declared that her love for me has eroded to the point where a moto is now OK (took 20 years!).
If my accountant sees a way to justify it as a business expense (a green alternative to my 7400# truck for estimates, site visits etc) I might pull the trigger.