Chevy Mailibu.
Toshi's thread
- Thread starter Toshi
- Start date
I guess I was aiming up a tier with the Malibu 
I put the ski boot bags and coats up on the shelf. I took down the Santa Cruz, pumped up the tires, and let some lube sit on the dropper post’s seal until it freed itself up. I’m ready to make the switch.
I just need the Volvo to come already. While I’d willingly rent a car for a day of skiing 3-6 hours that seems a bit much for a 2 hour bike ride, especially since I’d need to rent a big SUV to either fit the bike inside or have a hitch to surreptitiously use.
Edit: Decided to be un-cheap. Nissan Armada or similar rented 7:30 AM May 2 - 7:30 AM May 4. I'm on academic time May 2 and 3 but could be called in on the 2nd. Ideally I'd get 2 morning rides out of this rental.
I just need the Volvo to come already. While I’d willingly rent a car for a day of skiing 3-6 hours that seems a bit much for a 2 hour bike ride, especially since I’d need to rent a big SUV to either fit the bike inside or have a hitch to surreptitiously use.
Edit: Decided to be un-cheap. Nissan Armada or similar rented 7:30 AM May 2 - 7:30 AM May 4. I'm on academic time May 2 and 3 but could be called in on the 2nd. Ideally I'd get 2 morning rides out of this rental.
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Timed well with all the trails being covered in snow over here
We probably got ~7" in the areas it settled, I'm hoping for trails by the weekend which is probably optimistic. I'm sure a week from now for your window it will be fine.
We probably got ~7" in the areas it settled, I'm hoping for trails by the weekend which is probably optimistic. I'm sure a week from now for your window it will be fine.
RR-MW-DR-DRS. Just sayin'. For you, I'd suggest like... 8 laps?Timed well with all the trails being covered in snow over here
We probably got ~7" in the areas it settled, I'm hoping for trails by the weekend which is probably optimistic. I'm sure a week from now for your window it will be fine.
@Toshi
FTS! Let's plan something. Pencil in something on the 3rd?? Perhaps the ride referenced above? Beware: I'm slow and fat... and those are my good traits. And I can get those fucking 10sp bits.
I'm game. Working 5-10 PM on the 3rd so a lunch/late lunch ride would work for me. Where/when do you want to meet? Remember to bring a book to read while you wait for me at the top of climbs.
Ima take this over to the MOAR JohnE thread.
Gearing up for lift access:
(That'd be a Bell Super 3R MIPS. I have limited faith that Bell's largest size, L, will fit me, but I'll give it a shot via REI.)
Watz proved to be wise in his dotage. Arrived yesterday, tried on this morning, returned already.
The 62 cm max head circumference bit actually fit my head, which is good since that's +4.8 SD from the mean.
The chin bar is way too narrow, though. The cheek pads pushed on my mandible mightily and were incredibly uncomfortable. (Yes, I know how full faces should fit from my DH and motorcycle helmet experience. This was nowhere near proper fitment and my masseters are still a bit sore several hours after doffing the lid.)
The design of the detachable chin bar was very slick. I don't think I'd use such a detachable functionality--full face for DH and I don't think the local climbing rides here are rowdy enough to warrant a full-face for the downward pointing bits. I should look for a dedicated full face that's on the light and vented side, one where I can try on the thing in person.
On wifey's 100% Aircraft helmet She was between sizes but they offer different thickness pads for the cheek/jawline. She ended up with the smaller helmet fitting perfectly with the thinner pads.
Rental car review: 2017 Nissan Sentra SV. Or maybe a 2016? 28k on odo. Rented at a neighborhood Hertz in Denver as the "manager's special". Bah.
Pros:
- doors, roof, windows, windshield wipers
- keyless entry and push-button start
- Sirius XM
- unexpected sunroof on a rental-trim car
Cons:
- extremely narrow car, to the point where it's physically difficult to jam my left hand and arm between the edge of the seat and the driver's door to get to the manual seat controls
- engine is both gutless and super agricultural sounding, exacerbated by the CVT--remind me to never buy a gasoline car with a conventional CVT
- seat feels like it is concave in the lumbar region, with negative support, if you will
- loud road noise. With the engine noise added to this this is very much not a quiet car.
Verdict: I think I got this for $82 for 96 hours. The experience is worth about $0.90 per hour, I'd reckon.
Pros:
- doors, roof, windows, windshield wipers
- keyless entry and push-button start
- Sirius XM
- unexpected sunroof on a rental-trim car
Cons:
- extremely narrow car, to the point where it's physically difficult to jam my left hand and arm between the edge of the seat and the driver's door to get to the manual seat controls
- engine is both gutless and super agricultural sounding, exacerbated by the CVT--remind me to never buy a gasoline car with a conventional CVT
- seat feels like it is concave in the lumbar region, with negative support, if you will
- loud road noise. With the engine noise added to this this is very much not a quiet car.
Verdict: I think I got this for $82 for 96 hours. The experience is worth about $0.90 per hour, I'd reckon.
I took a gander at the cheek pads, and the pads themselves didn't seem removable. They also weren't firm at all despite having some depth to them. Unless I went without pads entirely and had my beard nuzzle with the chinbar itself it wouldn't fit--I bet they have one chinbar size for all of the helmet shell sizes given that fancy removable-tech aspect of it.
Damn.
I just had this conversation with some other spirited descenders in town. To carry the detachable piece in your pack prob isn't any effort, and if you've ever crashed hard on Apex or at WR you know there is plenty of opportunity to lose teeth or otherwise fuck up your face. I'm starting to see the potential and if I was needing a new helmet I'd have to give a look. I mean, you hit what, 20+ mph coming down Longhorn? Tell me an endo wouldn't be messy.
Talked about updating wifey to one after her crash, hasn't happened yet. We normally Chimpex/Apex without a pack so not sure how best to carry the jaw on the way up.
Yeah - endo'ing on anything FR'ish is inadvisable.
#nopadsorfullfaceforlyfe!
I'll probably change my tune if I smash my face into shit.
BMW iX3 announced.
Photos at link, but it’s a BMW X3 with ugly grille, Tron wheels, and a charging port. 70 kWh pack, 150 kW CCS charging. Claimed to start production in 2020 in China.
I imagine Volvo’s XC40 BEV will similarly be along these lines in terms of capacity, charging rate, and timeline. Either would work for my use case, but the future is just not here yet, both in terms of them existing and fast charging along I-70 on the way to ski areas. The future may well be here at the end of my gas Volvo’s term, though...
Photos at link, but it’s a BMW X3 with ugly grille, Tron wheels, and a charging port. 70 kWh pack, 150 kW CCS charging. Claimed to start production in 2020 in China.
I imagine Volvo’s XC40 BEV will similarly be along these lines in terms of capacity, charging rate, and timeline. Either would work for my use case, but the future is just not here yet, both in terms of them existing and fast charging along I-70 on the way to ski areas. The future may well be here at the end of my gas Volvo’s term, though...
Does that mean you're buying beers next time??I put in for two internal/department grants back in March. One was rejected but the other was funded.This is my first real grant.
This is to support the salaries of staff that'll work on my study. Not a penny goes to my pocket.
Thanks, Obama.
3 years ago, I found a faily new C63 AMG sedan in new orleans airport at Hertz under the "Todays special"... some guy from texas dropped it off at NOLA, and they were giving it away for like +$60 per day over your kia/hyundai/nissan rental...
Yeah, airports with pick-yer-own lots are the way to go for that. At the neighborhood outlet they'll apparently always have economy cars on hand, so that option is dead to me.
My wife was heckling me about selling the RAV4 EV (which physically left my possession at the end of February)--"don't you wish you had kept it?"
I'd been meaning to look into this, so here are the stats from March 1 to April 27:
Possible days or evenings at work: 38 (some vacation and a conference in there lowering this).
Bike commuting days: 6 round trips--I slacked on this in the winter as I was getting my exercise via skiing.
Uber days: 23 days related to working or renting, albeit not always both ways--some trips to rental places.
Car rental days: 12 full days.
(The astute reader will note that 12 + 23 + 6 > 38. 2 car rental days were on weekends and a few times I Ubered to or from the car rental place.)
So what did this cost?
$267.40 for Uber including tips
Per-trip cost decreased over the course when I found out and applied a 30% discount for trips to/from work and started using Uber Express Pool instead of UberX. For the later trips it's around $10-12/day for the round trip commute to/from work.
$535.95 for car rentals
So just under $45 per day. I'm ok with this cost since I didn't have bargain basement rentals always: Nissan Sentra but also an Armada, Toyota Avalon, Lincoln MKC, GMC Yukon XL, Dodge Charger SXT and apparently another I'm forgetting.
In total, that's $803.35 for transportation over 2 months. (I took the train + bus combo once for $2.75 but I'm going to ignore that.)
So did I save money through this escapade? Probably not, since depreciation on the RAV4 EV would have been on the order of $300-400/month and insurance wasn't that expensive, either. (I also wasted a few minutes with picking up/dropping off rentals, albeit not too much since these places were ~10 min. from my home.)
But I did get to try some new-to-me rental vehicles, and had someone else drive me for half the time. I am ok with how this turned out, although at this point I'm quite ready for my Volvo to arrive so that I can move on and concentrate my thoughts on what to drive after its lease term is over...
I'd been meaning to look into this, so here are the stats from March 1 to April 27:
Possible days or evenings at work: 38 (some vacation and a conference in there lowering this).
Bike commuting days: 6 round trips--I slacked on this in the winter as I was getting my exercise via skiing.
Uber days: 23 days related to working or renting, albeit not always both ways--some trips to rental places.
Car rental days: 12 full days.
(The astute reader will note that 12 + 23 + 6 > 38. 2 car rental days were on weekends and a few times I Ubered to or from the car rental place.)
So what did this cost?
$267.40 for Uber including tips
Per-trip cost decreased over the course when I found out and applied a 30% discount for trips to/from work and started using Uber Express Pool instead of UberX. For the later trips it's around $10-12/day for the round trip commute to/from work.
$535.95 for car rentals
So just under $45 per day. I'm ok with this cost since I didn't have bargain basement rentals always: Nissan Sentra but also an Armada, Toyota Avalon, Lincoln MKC, GMC Yukon XL, Dodge Charger SXT and apparently another I'm forgetting.
In total, that's $803.35 for transportation over 2 months. (I took the train + bus combo once for $2.75 but I'm going to ignore that.)
So did I save money through this escapade? Probably not, since depreciation on the RAV4 EV would have been on the order of $300-400/month and insurance wasn't that expensive, either. (I also wasted a few minutes with picking up/dropping off rentals, albeit not too much since these places were ~10 min. from my home.)
But I did get to try some new-to-me rental vehicles, and had someone else drive me for half the time. I am ok with how this turned out, although at this point I'm quite ready for my Volvo to arrive so that I can move on and concentrate my thoughts on what to drive after its lease term is over...
concentrate my thoughts on what to drive after its lease term is over...
Another Volvo?
http://www.thedrive.com/news/20496/volvo-unveils-its-first-landfill-compactor-at-wasteexpo-2018
They’re looking out for safety what with their ROPS/FOPS protection, too.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/fops-level-1-2-how-would-i-know-matthew-turner
Volvo Trucks is totally distinct from the Geely-owned Cars company, though.
It hath arrived. The monitors are here, too, and will get dropped off to my office when I'm around there on Wednesday. Then I'll gladly turn in my 2014-era Dell laptop and 1920 x 1200 24" Dell monitor... and shall be left with the 15" screen of the laptop, two 27"s, and my own 24" HP 1920 x 1200 display.
It shall be glorious: can't have too much screen real estate.
I dug into this a bit more, and here are some of the supported CarPlay car-screen resolutions:
So it looks like the 800 x 480 is what I don't like. Fonts and icons are too big, and it's annoying to not be able to see the car's own interface buttons (on my wife's PacHy that'd be the top bar with temperature, etc. and the bottom row with quick access buttons for seat heat/cool and the like) at the same time as CarPlay. Another thing to add to the car-buying checklist: what's the center stack screen resolution?
(Volvo keeps their Sensus screen resolution close to their chest, but Uconnect is apparently 1024 x 768, which means that the displayed CarPlay resolution is probably the 960 x 540 option above.)
Locals: anyone free for additional midweek rides on May 21-25 (any/all of these days), May 30, June 15?
Right monitor still off the Hackintosh since the MacBook Pro can’t drive its display, two 4K monitors, and the fourth one at the same time.
Related gripe: Color and contrast are much better on the MacBook's built in monitor than these HP Envys even with messing with the settings. Hmph. Also not sure what I should do with the Hackintosh. Probably best just to shut it off and never turn it on again.
In retrospect, @Nick has been a source of many pieces of good advice in this thread: to get off my ass and pick up mountain biking again, to not ride a recumbent , to get a season pass and look toward Winter Park for family friendly skiing. At one point he also inquired why I don't just keep a gas hog around for ski trip purposes, although I can't find that exact post.
After today's sobering experience on truly nasty road conditions inclusive of those at Mary Jane itself I'm seeing the wisdom in this, too. (Some day I'll see wisdom in Watz's posts, too... but not yet.)
Running through my prior car ideas, even shod with Nokians most of them would have been absolutely awful:
- Prius Prime: stuck without a doubt
- Fusion Energi: ditto
- Hyundai Kona EV (or a Bolt or a Model 3 or probably a future Model Y): stuck, even with AWD on those Teslas. Just too low.
This brings me back to mental masturbation from even earlier, about the merits of various AWD/4WD systems. This is relevant once more:
- Volvo XC40 T5 AWD: Haldex system, FWD with "full locking torque" available, from which I infer 50% torque split is possible
- Volvo XC60 T8 AWD, the plug in hybrid one that'd otherwise be up my alley: rear axle only driven by an electric motor that kicks out 87 hp and 111 lb-ft. One can engage a mode that basically cripples the front gas engine + small electric motor setup to match the rear's output lb-ft for lb-ft, at least, but that's still a super imbalanced system given 400 hp overall output
- Toyota Highlander Hybrid AWD: very similar system, with rear axle only driven by a 68 hp, 103 lb-ft electric motor. No such mode to equalize torque output
...
What I'm saying is basically that I should get a new Land Cruiser post-Volvo... It'd be quick, it'd have the safety and audio features that my 2007 was lacking, and it'd be an unparalleled ski shuttle with Nokians. (It also has less headroom than my 100 series and would be expensive and a half, so maybe not a good idea in reality, but still.)
, to get a season pass and look toward Winter Park for family friendly skiing. At one point he also inquired why I don't just keep a gas hog around for ski trip purposes, although I can't find that exact post.After today's sobering experience on truly nasty road conditions inclusive of those at Mary Jane itself I'm seeing the wisdom in this, too. (Some day I'll see wisdom in Watz's posts, too... but not yet.)
Running through my prior car ideas, even shod with Nokians most of them would have been absolutely awful:
- Prius Prime: stuck without a doubt
- Fusion Energi: ditto
- Hyundai Kona EV (or a Bolt or a Model 3 or probably a future Model Y): stuck, even with AWD on those Teslas. Just too low.
This brings me back to mental masturbation from even earlier, about the merits of various AWD/4WD systems. This is relevant once more:
- Volvo XC40 T5 AWD: Haldex system, FWD with "full locking torque" available, from which I infer 50% torque split is possible
- Volvo XC60 T8 AWD, the plug in hybrid one that'd otherwise be up my alley: rear axle only driven by an electric motor that kicks out 87 hp and 111 lb-ft. One can engage a mode that basically cripples the front gas engine + small electric motor setup to match the rear's output lb-ft for lb-ft, at least, but that's still a super imbalanced system given 400 hp overall output
- Toyota Highlander Hybrid AWD: very similar system, with rear axle only driven by a 68 hp, 103 lb-ft electric motor. No such mode to equalize torque output
...
What I'm saying is basically that I should get a new Land Cruiser post-Volvo...
It'd be quick, it'd have the safety and audio features that my 2007 was lacking, and it'd be an unparalleled ski shuttle with Nokians. (It also has less headroom than my 100 series and would be expensive and a half, so maybe not a good idea in reality, but still.)
(8 minutes left on my busy 5-10 PM shift!)
But the Lexus list is longer, as per my prior writings on this hang-up of mine: some cars (GS, LS, LC) but also the NX, RX, and the 2016+ LX, the latter being the uglified Land Cruiser variant. Hmm. Full circle from a few years ago, possibly?
The Land Cruiser is not among the small group of Toyotas that have stop and go adaptive cruise: Prius, Prius Prime, Camry, C-HR. None of those would do, although maybe that list will be longer 2 years from now.
But the Lexus list is longer, as per my prior writings on this hang-up of mine: some cars (GS, LS, LC) but also the NX, RX, and the 2016+ LX, the latter being the uglified Land Cruiser variant. Hmm. Full circle from a few years ago, possibly?
i have a somewhat similar list of requirements as you do (kid carrier plus high altitude/sub-freezeing shuttling, plus some off-road abilities in mud/sand), and the best vehicle I found for it is the LX570 (post facelift). the 200 is way too agricultural.(8 minutes left on my busy 5-10 PM shift!)
The Land Cruiser is not among the small group of Toyotas that have stop and go adaptive cruise: Prius, Prius Prime, Camry, C-HR. None of those would do, although maybe that list will be longer 2 years from now.
But the Lexus list is longer, as per my prior writings on this hang-up of mine: some cars (GS, LS, LC) but also the NX, RX, and the 2016+ LX, the latter being the uglified Land Cruiser variant. Hmm. Full circle from a few years ago, possibly?
only reason I dont have one, is I work for mercedes-benz.
I´d truly rock one, if I knew I´d not loose my parking space (or job!), by bringing a Lexus to work.
Sweet jeebus are they still expensive:
https://www.cars.com/for-sale/searchresults.action/?mdId=21371&mkId=20070&normFeatureId=20003502&normFeatureId=20006101&normFeatureId=20004525&page=1&perPage=20&rd=99999&searchSource=GN_BREADCRUMB&showMore=true&sort=price-lowest&yrId=35797618&yrId=30031936&yrId=58487&zc=80238
On the other hand, for the comparable 2018 new it's something on the order of $90-95k...
woons: