Here's the starting point of that Locost you've been wanting to build. :D

Okay... the price is a little more than what you'd normally buy for a donor car for a Locost build, but the car is a PERFECT candidate. 

 

HERE it is. 

 

I've been looking for the perfect example of a 318IS to use to possibly graft into the 2002 for a more updated engine that is able to make bigger power with lower emisions.  I can make the 2002 carburated motor put out plenty of horsepower.... as much as I'd ever really want in a light weight car like that.  But when you build big horsepower like that, the cam shaft has enough valve overlap that it spits a fair amount of raw fuel out.  That is super cool when you're power shifting through the gears and 3' flames shoot out, but not so cool if you think about the hydrocarbons that you're releasing into the atmosphere. 

 

Oh well.  This auction will not be won by me.  I thought I'd blog about it though.

 

Pete

Street Car of the Day 3/7/2008

Holy crap!!!

 

You look at this Lotus 23 and you'd swear this is a post for the Race Car of the day.  The only detail putting it in the street category is that THIS THING IS STREET LEGAL!!!!  WHOOHOOO!!!!   I'm all for driving race cars on the street.  I think more people should do that.  Imagine how much faster we'd get our groceries home in something like this?

 

Have a good weekend.

 

Pete

What do we miss by reading Velonews.com?

Hey peeps!

 

Welcome to your daily dose of spam from me. :D 

 

I was marooned in a book store a few days ago and picked up the VeloNudes buyer's guide for the hell of it.  I'd gotten away from reading the print version since I spend a little time reading the .com version almost every day.  I kinda ejoyed the experience, so I bought it.  I really don't spend much time reading buyer's guides.  There just isn't enough space to give a bike its due in the little paragraph snippets.  It is an interesting way to find frame builders that you didn't know existed though.  I kinda liked that. 

 

Primus Mootry is one.  The guy went to school in boulder at a time when big-name bikes were getting stolen a lot.  He put a sticker that said "Primus Mootry" on the lugged steel frame that he'd made himself so that no-one would bother stealing it.  He recently was asked by a messanger to not put stickers on the bike because his name is now well known in the area enough that thieves look for them to steal. 

 

Crisp Titanium is pretty cool too.  The web site is really cool too... though it is so cool that it is FUCKING ANNOYING!!!  Pardon my french. :D

 

The offspring of Faliero Masi is back at it again.  I don't know what Pops would think, but there are some cool bikes in there.  The new 3V looks pretty cool.  I'm not sure how long Masi has been back making frames.   I remember when they stopped.  I think they even gave up the name rights for a while. 

 

The other cool thing about this issue is that there are a number of factory tours of different frame builders.  They tour some small, one-man shops like Primus Mootry and also take a walk through Specialized. 

 

I'm part way through reading the issue, but thought I'd share what I found.

 

Hugs and kisses to you all.

 

Pete

"Street" "Car" of the day 3/4/2008

Okay.  It isn't really made for the street and it definitely isn't a car, but it is worth looking at for sure.

 

1966 Land Rover Defender.

 

Make sure to look at the photo gallery. It has the whole build process documented. 

 

Pete

Spa Sport Leg Warmers Review

Good morning.

This review will hopefully be less sarcastic than the review for my new camera that I did yesterday.

Cold weather cycling necessitates the adding of layers. There are always a few items of clothing that can be added to a cycling ensemble to make it a hair warmer than it otherwise would be. Arm warmers make a short sleeve jersey into a long sleeve one with the option of removing them once you warm up.
Leg warmers provide much of the same functionality, though I haven't ever done a ride where I actually remove leg warmers once they're on. The added benefit of leg warmers is that they give me a place to hide my energy gel packets so that they're easy to access during a ride.
My anceint Sugoi leg warmers are finally ready for retirement. They're pilled enough that they aren't as comfy as they once were and the zippers are really on their way out.
I'd seen ads in VeloNews for SpaSport.com... a NY company selling cycling clothing and accessories (gloves, hats, arm and leg warmers, etc.) for a while. Their prices looked great, so I thought I'd give them a try.
I'm 6'4" and have a 92.5cm inseam and the size Large looked like they should come close to fitting. The ebay store price is $29.99. With shipping it came out to about $34.
Service was amazing. I ordered late on Saturday afternoon. They were in my mailbox Monday when I got home from work. You don't get much better shipping than that!!!.
On first look, the leg warmers were awesome. They are advertised as fleece leg warmers and there really isn't much loft to them. They're basically a very thick lycra... not unlike most of the leg warmers on the market in that price range. They're made in Pakistan and the severything seemed to be really good quality.
They had a really funky smell. It was a combination of the chemicals used in production of the materials and silk screening of logo mied with a fair amount of cigarette smoke. I popped them in the washing machine and sent them through a double cycle to make sure they were really clean. The smell came out immediately and there is no remnant of it.
I put them on this morning for my ride to work and they are great. They're a hair warmer and much more comfortable than my ratty old Sugois. The fit is perfect and the grippers at the top functioned exactly like they should.
This inspires me to try some of their other products. Their cycling jackets look like they might be a great value.
In the end I saved about $8 or 9 by purchasing these over buying Sugoi or Pearl Izumi leg warmers. These will not be mistaken for the $70 Assos leg warmers, but they work well and seem like they'll hold up pretty well.

Spa Sport's ebay store can be found at www.spasport.com.

Pete

New Camera and Facial Recognition Software -- Canon SD1100 IS Reiew

Oy oy. 

 

I purchased a new camera over the weekend.  It just hit the market... it hadn't even been put on the shelf yet at my local camera shop.  It is a Canon SD1100 IS. It has many new features that I really liked. 

 

The facial recognition feature is really cool.  The idea is that when FR is turned on, the camera will autmatically identify, focus and optimize the photo for anything that it thinks is a face.  I tried this out on humans and it worked PERFECTLY on every test subject available (meaning Laura and me). 

 

I also confirmed that it works on different species.  Mao and Gracie (our cats) were the first candidates.  It had NO problem with them.  The red-eye elimination routine is great too.   In the cats, Laura's A570 would actually give them glowing gold eyes instead of the red ones that normally are seen with a flash.  This camera had no trouble with either kind of glowing eyes. 

 

I decided to see how the camera did with inanimate objects and facial recognition.  I then got out a stack of different toys that we have in the sun room to see what it would recognize and what would have problems with.  Mike Wazowski (one-eyed monster from the movie Monsters, INC.) was no problem.  In fact most of the characters of Bug's Life and Lilo and Stitch provided no trouble at all.  All of my toy dinosaurs had faces that were easily identified with the facial recognition software.

 

There were some things that did not work so well.  Barbie and Ken were not recognized as having faces (no big surprise there). They were posed side by side and the camera could only focus on Barbies oddly proportioned boobs and legs. 

 

I found a few plush toys (beanie babies) that also didn't work.    Hello Kitty didn't make the cut. 

 

I then took the camera to work to continue the testing.  After snapping many photos of friends and co-workers, I was surprised to find one individual that was continually out of focus.  I couldn't figure this out, because obviously this guy has a face.  Then I realized it...  It wasn't that the camera couldn't recognize his face.  It was that the camera couldn't figure out which face to focus on.   Once I swithced the FR feature off, the photos of this individual came out perfect. 

 

This concludes my camera review/social commentary for the day.

 

Hugs and Kisses,

 

Pete