[Toshi]

I visited Campbell Nelson Nissan in Edmonds, WA today and they have a fantastic lease deal on the Leaf going on through the end of the month: capitalized cost of $9,775 off the invoice price, money factor of 0.00003, and for a 12k/yr lease residual of 56% and 48% for 24 or 36 month terms, respectively. (Other fees and charges are Nissan's $595 acquisition fee and $370 in title charges.)

For an SL it works out to just over $270/month for 24 months, iirc, with nothing due up front. The capitalized cost, in non-lease non-EV-tax-credit terms, is essentially equivalent to $2,275 below invoice with that money factor equating to a 0.0072% interest rate.

:notbadobama:

 

[Toshi]

Latest reply to my periodic emails to Toyota USA regarding RAV4 EV support:

Relevant to the above is the last 30 seconds or so of this video, in which the Toyota lady pretty much states that the current 2012-body iteration of the RAV4 EV, whose production runs through 2014, will remain an exclusively California-only product:

 

[Toshi]

The Accord PHEV supposedly is going on sale in Cali and NY (!) on January 15.

Technical details here: http://www.honda.com/newsandviews/article.aspx?id=6824-en . Since then the release date (Jan 15), price ($40k), and efficiency (115 MPGe as EV, 47 MPG as standard hybrid) have been clarified.

(Also, merry Xmas to all.)

 

[Toshi]

I'm going to have my hands full with house (and kid!) stuff in Seattle. The mother in law's house, in which we will be for the 2013-2014 academic year and in which we are staying this week, is a HVAC nightmare. Two of the three upstairs rooms are essentially unconditioned: no heat and no ventilation. In the 100% humidity winter this isn't pleasant and probably isn't healthy, either, both for us and for the due-in-Feb infant. Won't somebody think of the children?!

The bathroom upstairs is also a mess, stemming from a 1970s? done-on-the-cheap remodel of its original 1920s construction. No heat. Tiny shower stall with its head oddly low at face level--and I'm no giant. Tinier toilet yet. Original construction windows through which the cold cuts like a knife.

Gah.

It'll still be worth it to live here for the rent savings, built in child care, and wife-sanity via cooking with and hanging out with her mom, but this place is going to take some work.

(Realistically the extent of what I will do is replace the shower head/neck [ed: halfway done, great success!], and situate dehumidifiers and resistive heaters as needed. The extra electricity would be much cheaper than redoing things properly, at least over a single year... In the summer things should be much better: throw some screens in the windows so that the 3 cats can't escape, open all the doors, and let everything air out.)

 

[Toshi]

Cross another 90s dream car off my bucket list: I'm officially too tall of torso to rock an NSX.

In the targa top '97 that I got to drive I fit without a helmet, but with my not so long hair contacting the headliner there's no way that things would work with the track day-requisite headgear mounted up...

Of course, race seats with side-mounted rails would probably lend enough extra room. Hmm. Sure was a nice ride otherwise: forward visibility and the non-power assist steering were especially superb.

 

[HAB]

You've got to be the only person in the world who could drive an NSX and only talk about headroom and forward visibility.

 

[Toshi]

This one wasn't stock, so saying more wouldn't apply to most NSXs. CompTech supercharger, coilovers, big 3 piece forged wheels, carbon fiber bodywork... It was quick, at least when I was riding along instead of driving. Faster than I was willing to drive someone else's car on a wet day, for sure.

 

[Toshi]

Update: Meh.

 

[Toshi]

Non-car-related crap for a change:

Christmas in Seattle

Chihuly Glass Museum

A few highlights:

Christmas tree bokeh

 

[Toshi]

The [Acura's] pull to the right really bugs me for some reason.

I had the alignment shop recheck the Dec 15 alignment and the toe-in is in spec, so I caved in and now Kumho Ecsta 4X UHP all seasons in the stock size are now on their way to my local installer via Tire Rack.

The non-factory-adjustable camber is way out of spec and is very asymmetric, though: -0.8 on the left and +1.3 on the right. Hmm. The front end was rebuilt some thousands of miles ago after my parents offed the car into a curb. Maybe this is the culprit.

If the tires don't fix the tracking woes of the car then I'll get a camber kit with enough adjustability such that a decent alignment shop should be able to bring both tires at least back to the same, neutral camber if not a little negative for handling.

 

[Toshi]

Update: It's hard to get excited about new Subarus, EyeSight or not. Meh.

 

[Toshi]

With regard to headroom, here is a thread in which the original poster has similar complaints to me, not only with having adequate headroom but also with regard to the inconsistency of provided measurements. Case in point: The Acura has 37.5" and our Prius 39.1" of front headroom, yet I have three to four finger-breadths of clearance in the latter while my hair literally brushes the headliner in the former. Actually, that sounds about right given 1.6" difference. How about that the CL and NSX feel equally tight despite the NSX only being 35.x"?

It's a farce, like rear seat legroom and Hyundai's MPG specs… This will leave me no choice but to test drive madly when I'm in the market post-Leaf-for-Jessica. As to what I'll be test driving I have little idea. My thoughts on the matter have been vacillating wildly, thus the untold number of edits to this post and thread.

 

[Toshi]

Kumho Ecsta 4X UHP all seasons in the stock size are now on their way to my local installer via Tire Rack.

They arrived quickly! Just 1 day transit time from their CT warehouse to NY, I believe. Got them installed today and the Acura now tracks worlds better. No more constant wheel pressure to keep the thing driving straight.

Here's a visual of the badness of the old tires. Note the rolled off shoulder (through wear, not by design!) at the lower edge of the uppermost tire in this stack, or the upper edge of the next tire down, if you prefer:

Just say no to Zexius brand tires, people. You apparently get what you pay for.

With these new sticky-for-an-all-season shoes I might go autocrossing after all, reclining the seat madly a la my RX-8 to fit with a helmet. Judging from last season's schedule there should be local events on Long Island not 10 miles away in April and May, and there'll be plenty more around Seattle once we get back there given the sundry clubs that put on events (at least four groups that I can think of including NWR-SCCA).

 

[Toshi]

[Headroom specs] are a farce, like rear seat legroom and Hyundai's MPG

Today we reconfirmed in spades that rear seat legroom claims are farcical, as per the above.

Toyota says that our '06 Prius has 38.6" rear legroom; Acura claims that our '01 3.2 CL-S measures an even 33.0"; and Nissan pegs the Leaf at a mere 31.1". How our brand spanking new rear facing Chicco KeyFit 30 fit (or didn't) didn't reflect these numbers at all:

The Prius had perhaps a whole inch extra clearance between the leading edge of the infant seat and the driver's seatback as compared to the Leaf, with the driver's seat set for me in both cases. There was certainly nothing like a 3" difference, let alone the 7.5" implied by the specs! Passenger side car seat clearance was roughly equal for the Leaf and the Prius, with the passenger seat having to be scooted just a bit forward.

On the other hand, passenger side car seat clearance in the ostensibly 1.9"-greater-legroom-than-Leaf Acura was much, much tighter. I had to move the front seat so far forward that I was left with just an inch or two left for knee breathing room (recall that I'm short of leg so this is saying something).

Additionally, the Acura illustrated nicely why parents don't drive low-ish 2 door coupes. Securing the base was an exercise in flexibility, and there are no LATCH anchors, either, which only came to this model in 2003. Once the base is secured, the body positioning to mount the seat on the base is comical, with one's head above the roof and one's arms blindly reaching inwards with the seat in one's grasp.

(At least the Acura's front seats get sufficiently out of the way to let the seat fit in there in the first place: hitting a lever sends the seat back forward and also causes it to motor all the way forward on its rails. It turns out this auto tilt 'n slide functionality is present on the driver's seat as well, but I didn't test fit the car seat in the back on that side.)

Verdicts:

- Either the Leaf or our current Prius would work essentially equally fine with one or two car seats based on our front legroom needs. (Carrying the strollers/associated junk for two theoretical kids beyond the seats themselves is a separate issue.)

- Our Acura will work with a car seat, but only barely. The two doors make it enough of a pain that it'll be reserved for emergency kid-carting use only.

- Finally, published legroom specs should be taken with a softball-sized grain of salt, akin to headroom figures but perhaps even more so, as one simply could not have anticipated these results from the numbers. Even in the age of the Internet, nothing substitutes for heading down to the dealer in person… Well, I guess cars.com's car seat check blog is a reasonable substitute, but then one has to assume that their driver that day is similarly sized and proportioned to oneself.

 

[Toshi]

This is a fairly amazing snow chain design. That they demoed it indoors with a Leaf is a nice touch, too. Their price is equally amazing at $450 (!) but that's cheaper by far than owning a 4x4 just for skiing…

 

[Toshi]

Either the Leaf or our current Prius would work essentially equally fine with one or two car seats based on our front legroom needs.

[The Thule CU-9] is a fairly amazing snow chain design[…] cheaper by far than owning a 4x4 just for skiing…

Mix in the above-mentioned chains with the snow tires and hitch rack I already have, and it becomes clear that a hypothetical Leaf + Prius duo would meet all of our practical needs quite well without resorting to SUVs, AWD, or any such business. Kid shuttling and errands would be handled just fine by either car, and the Prius would get me +/- the small clan to the mountains adequately, at least through hypothetical kid #2.

Also, the relatively low value of the Prius due to its age and high mileage means that I wouldn't feel bad about keeping it around mostly unused, as an extra car… but extra to what? Well, that choice appeared daunting just a day or two ago due to too much freedom of choice, but I've narrowed the scope a bit since the below quoted post.

As to what I'll be test driving I have little idea. My thoughts on the matter have been vacillating wildly, thus the untold number of edits to this post and thread.

If I don't need AWD the natural choice would be a car rather than an SUV, especially since I'd like Acura-level levels of powertrain and suspension entertainment. I don't want anything more extreme, though: I really don't need 556 hp, for instance. Given that I wouldn't need a car-seat-capable rear seat or doors, either, a coupe might be nice, not only for styling but also for better visibility (B pillar further back). Finally, both headroom and visibility are paramount, deal-killers in their absence, followed closely by noise suppression.

Given that many of these ideals are also valued by Consumer Reports' reviewers I was keen to note that they rated the BMW 135i very highly, at 97/100. I don't think the turbo-ed 135i would be the one for me, though.

Above is a 128i, the normally aspirated model. I'd go with it for reliability (no HPFP to fail!), lack of turbo lag, and the ability to order or theoretically find a used one without the headroom-robbing moonroof. Consumer Reports' road test mentioned "Visibility is good, thanks to thin windshield pillars and a lot of glass area" and "Short drivers found the seat too low" so I probably would be able to get comfortable in it, too.

The current gen 1 series probably will be updated with a new FWD based lineup by the time I'm ready to buy, unfortunately, so I'd probably have to scrounge around the used market for a rare non-sunroof 128i of this RWD generation. (I doubt that there exist many non-moonroof BMW 1 Series in the US.) If it is somehow still available new, though, then I could order one up to my odd specifications through the European Delivery program, which could be a quite awesome mini-vacation.

Outside of the cat-bellied car above I feel the call of the electrics, but the reality is that there's not much choice when looking for one with a sporty bent. Perhaps a BMW i3 or a small battery Model S would do. The water is murkier for these models, though: It's too early to speculate about i3 production specs, let alone driving impressions, and Tesla hasn't started to produce 40 or 60 kWh Model Ss and certainly hasn't demonstrated long term solvency as a company yet.

 

[Westy]

Not having the 1 series hatch available in the states is an abomination and reason enough to boycott the whole brand.

 

[Toshi]

The hatchback itself may be the abomination

The featureless back end is apt to give me nightmares tonight, akin to Voldemort's noseless face.

 

[Westy]

The majority of modern cars are featureless and generic, design guided by regulations and CFD with efficiency in mind. Why not have a similarly featureless and generic car with improved functionality/utility without going to to a bloated SUV?

Improved functionality aside I have always preferred the aesthetics of a hatch/wagon.

 

[DaveW]

The hatchback itself may be the abomination

The featureless back end is apt to give me nightmares tonight, akin to Voldemort's noseless face.

Still better looking than your versys and that 3 wheeled freakbike (both before and after your modifications to both).
By a loooooooooooong way!

 

[Toshi]

Still better looking than your versys and that 3 wheeled freakbike (both before and after your modifications to both).
By a loooooooooooong way!

The Versys was an ugly Cylon, no doubt, but the MP3 wasn't bad until I put the giant toenail windscreen on it, IMO.

The majority of modern cars are featureless and generic, design guided by regulations and CFD with efficiency in mind. Why not have a similarly featureless and generic car with improved functionality/utility without going to to a bloated SUV?

Improved functionality aside I have always preferred the aesthetics of a hatch/wagon.

Fair enough. I like the concept of station wagons, too. I just don't like the execution of most of them.

 

[dan-o]

Just get a 211-model E350 4matic benz wagon.
Seats up to 7, decent mpg, wicked nice interior, functional space, pleasure to drive, safe etc.
Plenty of headroom (I'm 6'4) even with sunroof.

We paid less than $20k for our loaded 06 (1.5 yrs ago) with 80k on clock.
Best bang for the $ family car out there, imo and gives you the bling you seemingly crave without the payment.

 

[Toshi]

dan-o, I thought you were a disciple of the W124s. Moved onward and upwards, eh?

I'm don't crave bling so much as uniqueness and the feeling of having something special. Call it the anti-Honda Fit sentiment, if you will. Thus I have no desire for, say, an Escalade, and even "respectable" Mercedes like your W211 in non-AMG guise give me pause. I'm sure the W211 would make for a great family car, as you attest, but our medium-term family car bases are pretty much covered with our Prius and the planned future Leaf.

In any case, the short-lived BMW 128i idea is now shelved: I sat in one with moonroof at the local dealer this afternoon and it has barely if any more hair clearance than the Acura, with the seat dropped all the way down and the steering wheel telescoped all the way towards me to achieve the maximum amount of recline, of course. Even if I special ordered one without a moonroof to gain 1.2" then I'd still have clearance issues with a helmet. Thus the BMW would be rendered a car just for street driving and tooling around… In other words, with it I'd gain nothing over the Acura besides having a 12 years newer car, an extra inch of headroom, a stick shift, a snooty badge, the intellectual satisfaction of having a straight 6 and RWD, and a car payment. On the whole I'd say it's not worth it.

For now my daydreams have returned to the BMW i3, as 170 electric hp + carbon fiber monocoque (built in part in Moses Lake, WA!) could be fun; and the Tesla Model S.

Finally, to Westy: While at the BMW dealer I realized the US pretty much does get a 1 Series hatchback. It's just maybe an inch further off the ground and is labeled as the X1.

 

[dan-o]

dan-o, I thought you were a disciple of the W124s. Moved onward and upwards, eh?

I'm don't crave bling so much as uniqueness and the feeling of having something special. Call it the anti-Honda Fit sentiment, if you will. Thus I have no desire for, say, an Escalade, and even "respectable" Mercedes like your W211 in non-AMG guise give me pause. I'm sure the W211 would make for a great family car, as you attest, but our medium-term family car bases are pretty much covered with our Prius and the planned future Leaf.

I do love the 124 but, after our last one was killed via getting rear-ended I was unable to find a nice one for replacement. They tend to get driven into the ground by the original owners. We briefly had a 210 as an interim car but it had wicked high miles and that body's rust issues made me hesitant to invest in that car.

I hear you on the 'bling', I'm a very low key guy. The wagon is my wifes and the '06 lacks the mega-chrome adoration that the 07 facelift brought; though the front end is still a bit fussy for my tastes. While I don't drive that car much (being a contractor in a small town, driving a benz isn't conducive to my contractor-shabby image so I tend to stick with the duramax when local) it is a mile-eating machine on trips to NYC etc. I own them for their safety, quality and road manners but despite owning 4 benz's now still feel like I'm driving my parents car.

I am closer to Joe Dirt than Wall Street but I always get out of that car smiling.

 

[Westy]

Finally, to Westy: While at the BMW dealer I realized the US pretty much does get a 1 Series hatchback. It's just maybe an inch further off the ground and is labeled as the X1.

Hence bloated SUV

 

[Toshi]

The X1 barely qualifies in my book as a tall wagon. No way would it make the jump to CUV/SUV classification, IMO, whereas the X3 and X5 most definitely do.

The photo you quoted is of the i3 concept, just for the record. I dig its glass area and high roof, understandably. Looking at this video of it, though, I'm a bit worried that it might not be that fun after all except for being an EV. It's rolling on bicycle wheels!

Seriously, those front tires have to be 145 or 155 section width.

 

[Toshi]

despite owning 4 benz's still feel like I'm driving my parents car.

[With a BMW 128i] I'd gain nothing over the Acura besides having a 12 years newer car, an extra inch of headroom, a stick shift, a snooty badge, the intellectual satisfaction of having a straight 6 and RWD, and a car payment. On the whole I'd say it's not worth it.

So my internal pendulum has swung back to the "keep the Acura" camp. Seeing how its road manners perked right up with a proper fresh set of tires did wonders for my Acura morale, as did realizing the futility of replacing it with something essentially the same but new and expensive.

The headroom issue is my biggest outstanding gripe, now that the steering pull has been resolved 95%. As the headliner isn't going to elevate itself any further barring structural changes to the roof, the answer to getting more noggin clearance would seem to be to take some foam out of the seat base. (It'd still work for Jessica, as she could just raise the seat up a bit more to compensate, provided I didn't take so much foam out that the comfort became unbearable.)

With this in mind I went to a local car upholstery shop that does lots of work fabricating whole interiors for hot rods: recall that Long Island has lots of old white dudes with money, and they love their hot rods. While a nice looking, busy shop, their quoted price of $380 to take out an unspecified amount of foam from the base seemed too dear to me. I would have sprung for it without a question at $150 or $200, but I balked at $380.

Thus I now have a new project to pursue in between assembling changing tables and moving furniture around to satisfy Jessica's nesting instinct.



The good news is that seat upholstery doesn't seem to be rocket science. There also are some good model-specific how-tos out there, by virtue of the CL/TL having been around long enough to depreciate fully and attract cheap/DIY-inclined owners. This walk-through, intended to guide the reader through fixing seat heater elements, will be my main guide. I also will use zipties instead of hog rings to secure the seat cover.

 

[Toshi]

Great success!

As depicted above, I shaved away ~1" from the foam of the seat cushion's center-back portion (and more than that from the thigh bolsters, to create a flatter surface overall). I reattached the seat cover with zipties per the last post, and they seemed to work well enough. There's not a lot of force acting upon those joints, as they just serve to tie the seat cover down to the frame. I even managed to not screw up any of the better part of a dozen electrical connections such that all of the power and memory functions still work!

The primary goal was achieved, too. I now have about 2.5 finger widths of clearance between my noggin and the headliner, enough so that my hair doesn't rub any more! It's only a small difference, yet it's easy to perceive in terms of the relationship of my head to the top of the windshield and the cowl. I no longer feel like I'm sitting astride the car.

There's also a significant secondary benefit of this project: I now have a stronger sense of ownership of the Acura, which is understandable given its provenance. Modifying it myself this way means that I now sit more comfortably in it, and not just in the physical sense. I even took it (and Jessica) for a little spin after finishing up my seat-work, just for the hell of it.



(On the other hand, a new problem emerged today, as the stereo ate a CD of mine and now won't do anything with any CDs. I think I'll just ignore this, as the FM radio works fine as does the tape deck, presumably, for which I ordered an 1/8"-to-tape adapter.)

 

[Westy]

Great success!

(and more than that from the thigh bolsters, to create a flatter surface overall).

Japanese and Caucasian parents. You were doomed to a flat ass from the very beginning.

 

[Toshi]

Japanese and Caucasian parents. You were doomed to a flat ass from the very beginning.

I'd say I'm more doomed to a fat ass, as it is proportionate to the rest of me. One's ass, per se, has little to do with the bolsters in question, though. They're more for one's thighs and were already beat to oblivion from 12 years of use, so I just finished the job.

 

[ALEXIS_DH]

while nursing a broken collarbone (i got 35 days of paid medical leave, yay!), i came across the pinacle of human development. iracing.
am seriously addicted, 50+ races and almost 1500 laps completed over the last 9 days.

if you havent tried it... do it. $50 for a year to test it (or $15 for 3 months). do a few races, put up with the n00bs who cant drive until you get a better license. then, its the most awesome online sim racing ever.

the physics, tire model, suspension model, track surface model is SUPERB. dave kaemmer is the new messiah.

 

[Westy]

I'd say I'm more doomed to a fat ass, as it is proportionate to the rest of me. One's ass, per se, has little to do with the bolsters in question, though. They're more for one's thighs and were already beat to oblivion from 12 years of use, so I just finished the job.

I feel very lucky as my GTI has seats that fit me perfectly. I question how anyone bigger than me could fit. Seats are so comfortable that I have essentially driven coast to coast in it non-stop 3 times. For new years I road-tripped from Seattle to San Diego nonstop on the way back in perfect comfort. Unfortunately I cannot say my gut felt the same way with the gallons of coffee required for such an effort. Also I have learned that no sleep + gallons of coffee = cold sores.

 

[Toshi]

while nursing a broken collarbone (i got 35 days of paid medical leave, yay!), i came across the pinacle of human development. iracing.
am seriously addicted, 50+ races and almost 1500 laps completed over the last 9 days.

Nice. I sold my wheel, pedals, and GT5 setup a year or two ago. I haven't felt the prove-I-am-fast bug lately regardless of venue, and when I get that urge I can always just turn to google to find my Seattle/RX-8 era autocross records.

On a related note, I looked through the list of all the cars that competed at the SCCA Solo (autocross) Nationals, and found that not a single one sounded appealing. Old I am indeed, pacified merely by a nice exhaust note, some white faced gauges, and pulling some middling g forces on an on ramp here and there.

I feel very lucky as my GTI has seats that fit me perfectly. I question how anyone bigger than me could fit. Seats are so comfortable that I have essentially driven coast to coast in it non-stop 3 times. For new years I road-tripped from Seattle to San Diego nonstop on the way back in perfect comfort. Unfortunately I cannot say my gut felt the same way with the gallons of coffee required for such an effort. Also I have learned that no sleep + gallons of coffee = cold sores.

I tested a GTI right after the DSG came out and don't recall not fitting in it. Then again, this was probably six years ago.

Wrt gallons of coffee, that reminds me of the Car and Driver (?) story from years back where they outfitted a VW TDI with enough extra tanks to drive cross country non-stop, without refueling. They used two drivers, reclined the seat while on cruise and climbed over each other to switch drivers, and pissed in bottles under a blanket for privacy.

 

[HAB]

I feel very lucky as my GTI has seats that fit me perfectly. I question how anyone bigger than me could fit. Seats are so comfortable that I have essentially driven coast to coast in it non-stop 3 times. For new years I road-tripped from Seattle to San Diego nonstop on the way back in perfect comfort. Unfortunately I cannot say my gut felt the same way with the gallons of coffee required for such an effort. Also I have learned that no sleep + gallons of coffee = cold sores.

Mk V? I agree, the seats in those are great. I'm 6' 170 and they fit me perfectly.

 

[Toshi]

[With a BMW 128i] I'd gain nothing over the Acura besides […] the intellectual satisfaction of having a straight 6 and RWD

Jack Baruth over at TTAC posted the articles that were his greatest hits and misses for 2012, and in reading through a few of them I came across this previously unread by me piece that's relevant to the quote above: http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2012/02/avoidable-contact-color-my-world-the-case-for-front-wheel-drive/

It’s a fair series of questions. In an era when even Hyundai is pushing rear-wheel-drive as a selling point – a time when the Issigonis-inspired tranverse-engine layout has become inextricably associated with the very cheapest of cars – can there be any compelling reason to choose FWD? The answer is yes. I believe that FWD continues to be the best choice for a purely street-driven car, even if the driver of that car considers himself or herself to be a driving enthusiast. And since I don’t expect you to take that answer on faith, I’m willing to show you how, and why, FWD comes out on top in nearly every real-world driving situation… if, that is, you’re ready to listen. Are you?

Click through for his full reasoning.

----------------------------------------

In other news, Nissan USA released 2013 Leaf details today, and it has all that was expected (leather, 6.6 kW charger, heat pump, 17"s, around view camera). I'll find a real press release and post it in the alt trans thread.

Jessica and I are pretty much set on grabbing a '13 Leaf for her now that the specs are finalized. An SL in Metallic Slate over black leather with or without the Premium Package (stereo + camera business) would work. Mmm, heated steering wheel… just like my idolized Lexus LS!

The only question is whether to lease or buy. I favor a 36 month lease, as it'd be a bit less money up front and we could finalize the deal and take the car home in autumn or winter 2013, once I pay off some deferred expenses from this winter. If we bought outright we'd have to wait until Jan 1, 2014 at the earliest, as I'll have well under $7,500 in Federal tax liability for 2013.

 

[Toshi]

Car news hasn't been entertaining as of late, so it's time to think about… bikes! What a concept. I'd like to snag an all mountain ride for myself once I return to Seattle, so my goal will be to scour the geometry of various 160ish mm travel single crown 26" wheel full suspension offerings to find one that should in theory best suit my short legged, long torso-ed configuration. I'd ideally like a standover of 29" or less and a top tube of 24", pulling numbers semi-out of my ass.

I haven't bought a bike magazine in years and only looked at these bikes briefly last year, the Ibis and Specialized offerings in particular, so this'll be a learning experience. (The things I do to avoid studying for oral boards. They're in June, shortly before we move. Too far off to panic as of yet.)

 

[Westy]

Where do you plan on riding out here?

 

[Toshi]

Duthie, the normal slogs around Tiger, the odd trip to Hood River. I like to be able to ride any jump or drop if I feel up to it instead of worrying that my wheel set will fold, etc.

 

[Westy]

Haven't ridden hood river but quite familiar with the rest. Folks around here seem to love their longer travel bike which I find a little strange but just figured there are trails I have not been riding that require it. Different strokes for different folks.

If you want to "not fold wheels" just go with anice 36 spoke setup.

 

[Toshi]

I've never actually folded wheels, mind you. It's just the perception one has when rocking the 1.9" tires and aggressive XC geometry, that something could break, whether you or the bike. I don't want that. Not racing again any time soon, and no one's timing me on the climbs.