Weird-assed shoes.

Hi people. :D

I saw these on the internet recently. I was thinking to myself, "Self? What kind of freak would buy a pair of these?"

Vibram Five Fingers Shoes

Oh yeah... I would

They're actually really comfortable. They're a little tough to put on, but they will replace my old Keens. :D

Pete

The Commuting Bike Upgrades

Oy oy. 

 

I haven't talked about this bike for a while and it has evolved a little.  I'm on a blog simplification kick, so I'm gonna post this here instead of on my wrench blog.  

 

At the end of last riding season, I decided to build a dedicated commuting bike for this year.  I like riding the road bike, but quite honestly it I don't get a full workout in the time that I have to ride to and from work.  The ability to coast makes it a little too easy and at 5am I'm not motivated enough to keep pedaling to push the speed and thus the workout value up.  At the end of the day, I'm dogged enough that I don't really feel like hammering home.  Additionally, I shouldn't be riding faster on the bike path since that is't really safe. 

 

The new commuting bike is a fixie.  I took an old MTB frame and put a bunch of old parts on it.  I have a 44 tooth ring on the White Ind. ENO cranks and an Eno rear hub to take up the chain slack.  Most of the other parts are ancient mountain bike stuff. I put 700c wheels on it even though it is designed for 26" wheels.  I used a Paul's BMX brake up front that allows me to line up the brake pads with the larger diameter rim.  It was originally built with flat bars and bar ends. I've got full fenders on the thing and they're great on days like yesterday.

 

I liked this build a lot.  I finally got the gearing right (44x16) so that I could fly down the hills and still have enough power to crank up them too.  Riding the fixie is a lot more of a workout and I'm not really going any faster.... in fact my commute time is a bit longer with the fixie than it was on the road bike. 

 

This week I made a change.  I wanted some more hand positions.  For road bike positioning (very low handlbars so that my back is flatter and I'm a bit more aggressive) makes it a little uncomfortable to just have flat bars.  I like the ability to crank up hills with them, but I needed more variety and the ability to stretch out if I want to. 

 

My pals at Speedgoat hooked me up with some 45cm-wide drop bars that will fit my MTBstem (made by Nitto).  They're AWESOME!  I put some 1980s vintage Dura-Ace brake levers on it so that I can grab the hoods when I'm out of the saddle.  That seemed to work great.  I raised the stem up a hair so that I had a little higher bar since the drop bars stretch me out a little more.  That ended up being almost perfect.  I might go for a slightly shorter stem.  We'll see.

 

I really prefer the feel of the drop bars for almost everything.  The positioning is much more intuitive for me on a road bike.  The one thing I definitely noticed is that they're not as wide as my old flat bars.  As a result I don't have the power up the hills like I did before.  I noticed it a little on the early morning climbs yesterday morning.  I noticed it a TON on the climbs on the way home.  It is going to definitely take more arm strength for me to stomp up the hills with this thing.  I guess that is good.  For now I'll go slower up the climbs but with time I'll hopefully get better technique and stronger upper body. 

 

I'm super happy with how the bike has turned out.  All I need is a basket on the front and I'll be set to go.  That will probably have to wait until I return from vacation in July. :D

 

See you on the trails.

 

Pete

Flattracking the Fixie.

Oy oy.

It was rainy and wet for the commute this morning and Dr. Einstein left the tire pressure set at 120psi for the ride in. DUMB MOVE! I didn't crash though. It was by the grace of god that I didn't though.

As always with an incident like this, there are many factors that contribute to the crash.

1. It was wet and slick.
2. This part of the trail has a groove parallel to the direction of travel and lots of paint on the pavement.
3. There was this headphone-wearing pedestrian walking erratically that jumped 2' to the left when he finally heard my bell.

Fortunately I was taking it easy today and moving pretty slowly. I jumped to the left to miss this guy and my front wheel skidded a little. The back tire dropped into a groove that is about the same width as the tire. That sent the front end sliding a bit more. As my weight shifted, I instinctively clicked my right foot out to balance. The back wheel jumped to the left a little. I countersteered just a bit and somehow the tires got grip and I straightened back up. The left foot kept pedaling as though nothing had ever happened. I clipped my right foot in and went on.

I don't honestly know how I stayed up. It was sheer dumb luck.

I lived to ride another day. :D

Pete

Osmond Mania

In honor of the Osmonds getting the band back together I went out on ebay and found something to wear to the show.

Love,

Pete

I am alpha cat!!!!

Cats are definitely hierarchical. My wife and I have two cats. Mao and Gracie are brother and sister from the same litter. Mao is a 15 pound behemoth and Gracie is a dainty little 10-pound cutie. For most of their 3 year life, Mao has been alpha cat and Gracie has been beta cat. That changes from time to time when Gracie gets sick of her big brother beating up on her. She'll go ape-shit all over him and he'll be beta cat for a day or two while she enjoys some time on top of the feline hierarchy.

Oddly enough, my wife and I often fit into the different levels of cat-ness. I usually slot in just below Mao, my wife goes back and forth between being just above or just below Gracie on the pecking order. (Keep in mind that this has nothing to do with the human hierarchy of the home. That is pretty well defined. My wife is in charge and I am a step down. I sometimes ignore what she says, but she's always on the top of the ladder.)

Last week all of this changed. The cats have their own ways of letting us know that it is time to wake up. Gracie is usually quite respectful and cute. Mao is often a bit more aggressive. As alpha cat, it is his right.

I was napping on the weekend and he decided to wake me up. He snuck a paw under the covers and extended his claws on my stomach. In my reaction to getting needled in the ribs, I moved to protect myself. I accidentally kinda whacked Mao on the side of the head. He went flying off the bed and ran away. He wasn't hurt at all, but he definitely changed his outlook on things.

Obviously I was now faster and more powerful than him, so I instantly became alpha cat. I can tell this because he now pays attention to what I tell him. He loves to play with the phone cord. Now when I tell him to stop, he stops and goes to do something else. That is one example. He really has changed his entire way that he deals with me.

The changes are not only in the dealings between Mao and me. Gracie treats me differently too. As charlie cat, she now works really hard to please the new, more affectionate alpha cat. With that in mind, she gets first pick of where to sleep on the bed when it is time to hit the hay. She chooses a prime spot up by our heads. Mao is relegated to the bottom of the bed. She also gets some respect when it is time to play. Usually Mao just takes over any game that Gracie and I are playing. Now he actually waits his turn until she's done.

My wife seems to jump between charlie cat and delta cat. That hasn't really changed with my ascention to alpha status.

I'm a benevolent and kind alpha cat. He still gets play time and lots of affection. At some point that will be seen as weakness by him and he'll try to assert his alpha status. I'm working on ways to keep alpha status without whacking him on the head. My guess is that a squirt bottle with water in it might be used. :D

Later.

Pete

One less tooth makes a difference....

Oy oy.

I've been baaaaaaaaad lately. I either haven't had much to say or haven't had time to say it. I'd like to change that a bit. A lot has happened lately and I'd like to get back to blogging about it.

One of the changes for me lately is getting back in the swing of commuting by bicycle. I was seriously sick earlier this year (reason #204 why I haven't been posting much) and a few weeks ago got the thumbs up from the doc to really get back to riding as much as I want.

I'd been riding a few days per week, but not alot of intensity or distance. I was just putting miles in.

Two weeks ago I started riding to work again when my schedule allowed. That had me riding Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. The big difference is that I've been riding the fixed gear bike lately. I was a little worried about getting the right gearing and I thought I had it about spot on.

Running a 44x17 gear I was a little uncomfortable on both the downhills and uphills. I'd have to be ready to hit the brake if I got spinning too fast and needed to back off on the downhills. The flats and gradual inclines/declines felt pretty good. The steep climbs were pretty tough. Some were a pretty normal stomp, but two climbs on the way in and three climbs on the way home were slow, tough cranking to get to the top. That kinda made me feel like I had the right gear.

This weekend I got a 16t cog and thought I'd give that a try. What a huge change 1 tooth makes. The hills that were slightly uncomfortable became much faster and much easier to keep up with the spin. The downhill near home that has one of those radar-activated speed signs recorded me at 19mph with the 44x17 when I was pretty close to spinning out. I hit it this morning and was going 24mph and didn't feel bad at all about the spin. It was really nice.

The climbs were another story. The two slow cranks on the way to the work required even more cranking, though I don't think I really moved any slower up them with the 44x16 gear.

Overall my normal commute time to work was cut by almost 11 minutes. Everything rolled faster.

It will be interesting to see what happens on the way home. Riding home is mostly uphill, though there are realy only 3 hills of the slow cranking variety. In theory I should be able to stomp up the others with only a little more effort than with 44x17.... I'll be moving a little faster though. I should also get more recovery on the short downhills that I have leading up to the bigger climbs. That should make the climbs a little easeir. 44x17 didn't give me much recovery time because I was having to work so hard to keep spinning so fast.

One last comment... I'm spinning 180mm cranks. Chris Jabberhockey is thinking of ditching his White Industries cranks. He doesn't like the way the chainrings are set up. He's doinked at least one by hammering it on a log. If he feels like selling them, I might drop down to 175s. It would make my spin a lot better. I'll see how this works for a while first.

As usual, I've babbled on about shit hat no-one but me cares about. :D

Talk to you soon.

Pete

Quuote for the day...

Guy Noire:  "She walked into my life wearing a Mt. Rushmore t-shirt.  Those guys never looked so good, particularly Washington and Jefferson.... kind of bloated, but definitely happy."

 

Love,

 

Pete

My friend's new dog.

My friend Maxine got a new dog.  It is a long story how it found her and I will gladly spare you that. 

 

It is a breed of dog that someone is trying to establish.  It is called a Poochi.  That is a cross between a poodle and a chijuajua.  I suggested that the name is boring.  They should have called the breend Chiwoodle. 

 

Okay.  That's the end of my marginally funny story.  You can pretend to laugh now.

 

Pete

Mexican NASCAR

Oy oy.

 

Yesterday was the NASCAR Busch series race held each year in Mexico City.  It is a road course event and I've really grown to love it.  It was broadcast in Spanish on ESPN and in English on ESPN2.  I watched ESPN.  It was extremely cool to see the difference in coverage, even though I could barely understand a word. 

 

I like that NASCAR has slowly become a little more international.  Not only do they now have Toyota in the line-up, but they've also got some foreign drivers.  There were 7 drivers from Mexico in the race.  The top 10 had a Colombian, 2 Mexicans and an Aussi.  The race was finally won by Juan Pablo Montoya.  It was a great race!

 

One of the things I enjoyed was the pronunciation of some of the names by the Mexican announcers.  My personal favorite was "J. J. Yeley", which in Spanish comes out, "Yay Yay Yeley". 

 

NASCAR has the rap of being an American sport that deosn't really interest the rest of the world.  It was very cool to see 72,000 Mexicans show up to enjoy some racing.  NASCAR and the Mexican hosts for this race seemed to put on a great show.  With luck, it will bring some new fans to racing as well as some tollerance and enlightenment to American race fans. 

 

I can' wait for next year's race.  Maybe we'll even get a cup race down there. 

 

Pete

Building a new fixie...

Ahhhh... the project has started.  I ordered parts and they'll start trickling in over the next week or so.  Hopefully I'll have it all and built by the middle of next week.  Finding time and a place to ride it are going to be tough. 

 

What is it???? 

 

I've wanted a big-tired fixie for riding off road for a while.  This will be fully rigid and at this point will have absolutely no brakes.  The frame is designed around the Surly 3.7" endomorph tire and Large Marge rim.  From what I was told, there are only 6 of these frames in existance.  The frame is steel and the welding work on it is seriously cool looking.  The fork is definitely a little different than what I'm used to.  It uses a through axle and a kind-of unique bearing set-up.  I can't really describe it more until I actually see what it looks like. 

 

I went with shorter cranks than usual -- 175mm.  The bottom bracket spindle is one of those 48 spline variety.  ISIS cranks and BB were an option, but I went with the weird splined ones because I also went with tubular chromoly cranks for strength.  It is easy to mess up your cranks when you can't coast over obstacles.  Someone my size has to be careful with that.  I'm also going seriously retro with this and getting platform pedals for it. 

 

To start out with I'll just be getting used to riding this thing.  I'll use it as a grocery getter and just do some urban riding on it so I get used to not coasting.  Hopefully by early spring I'll be hitting the trails with it.  In the beginning it will be mostly mellow stuff... Wakefield, Rosaryville and maybe Schaeffer.  I'm definitely going to have to learn to deal with log hops on this. 

 

I'll post photos when I start getting stuff in.  I don't mean to be so mysterious.  I'm just not sure how it is going to turn out until I have parts in hand. 

 

More to come soon. :D

 

Pete

 

 

My Political Commentary for Today

US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates said today that the US is not planning a war with Iran. You can read the story HERE if you want. It has nothing to do with the comment I'm going to make.

I'm wondering if that headline is supposed to make Americans feel better? Obviously the Bush Administration didn't plan a war with Iraq either. That did not stop them from invading.

Love,

Pete

Severe Weather Warning.

I got sick of my Mom sending all of these tales of snow and woe from Colorado. They've had 9 major storms since December 19th. She's still got many feet of snow on the ground. Though it melts a little here and there, another storm comes along and adds to the pile.

In response, I decided to make up my own weather advisory for the DC area.

Our weather-free winter is taking a radical turn. We're expecting a severe dusting of snow tonight with some drifts reaching 2" by morning. Mild breeze warnings have been issued and they've advised people who are driving that the roads might be moist. The local authorities are making urgent "don't drive unless you feel like it" pleas to the public. I can only hope that we'll pull through this one smoothly.

It reminds me of the weather advisory from Kent Brockman, Action News anchor on The Simpsons, "The death toll from today's killer storm is still at zero, but it is poised to shoot up at any moment!".

I hope you all survive this storm with grace and serenity.

Pete

A Love Story...

A friend of mine sent me a link for an on-line madlib love story.  I decided to give it a try.   Here's the story that came out of it: 

 

My Love Story

 

One squishy summer day at Rhode Island you see the most intense creature you have ever seen. Their name is The Queen of England , and every move she makes just turns you on more and more. You nudge your best friend Kareem Abdul Jabar and say, "Wow, that has to be the most tart body I have ever seen." Suddenly, she looks in your direction and starts walking right towards you!!! she says, "I noticed you staring at me from over there. I just had to tell you, that I think you are so Portuguese , and was wondering if you'd like to go to Tasmania with me and harvest radishes in the moonlight ?" With a stupid smile on your face you say, " Chicks dig guys with green shoes " and go with them. When you finally get to Tasmania , she moves closer to you, and gives you the biggest kiss ever. The two of you are passionately kissing, when you feel a plumber hit you on the back of the head. You open your eyes to find out it's all a dream, but there is a note left next to your bed.

It reads: " The Queen of England is the love you've been waiting your whole life for. she will ask you out in 69 days or less, but only if you send this e-mail to at least 10 people within the next few minutes. The more people you send it to, the sooner they will ask you out, and you both fall in love. Do not take this lightly, because if you simply ignore this, you will have bad luck in love for the next 69 years!"

 

 

Farticus! FEEL MY POWER!!!

Kids are great.  I've got friends who have particularly strange kids.  My friend Kwan has two AWESOME kids.  This story is about his boy Ty.  Ty is in second grade. 

 

Ty came home this week and announced that he has a new nickname:  Farticus.  It is like Sparticus, but different.  He runs around and says, "I am Farticus!  Feel my POWER!" and then he farts. 

 

When he told his parents this, his mom hung her head in shame.  Kwan, on the other hand, did an okay  job of pretening not to think it was funny.  He really had to work at it though.  Kwan told him that this was a bad thing to do and that if he continued to do it, he would lose all his friends.  Ty's first response was to say that wasn't true. People flocked around him because they thought it was funny.  He then added that he didn't really care if he lost all his friends bechasue HE thought it was funny. 

 

What makes this story even funnier is that Kwan is now trying to teach his son to control his farts.  Kwan should probably change his name to Burpicus because he's completely incapable of controlling his own burps. 

 

I'm obviously on a similar intellectual level as Ty because I think it is funny and I can't wait till he comes over to my house and I can teach him some more naughty, but harmless stuff.  :D 

 

Pete

Modified Cars in Germany.

Hey folks.

I just got back from a week in Germany. I was doing work stuff the whole time and got almost no opportunity to relax. I did a little touristing, but not near enough for my taste. The one day that I would have had time to walk around and shop had hurricane force winds and we ended up staying in.

As always, I enjoyed seeing the cars that people drive. I had a few observations that I thought I'd relate.

1) There's a BMW that we don't get here in the states that looks pretty cool. Imagine if they made a Z4 in a 4-door wagon. Well you don't really have to imagine it because they do. They don't sell them in the US though. It is a cool looking car.

2) There are very few modified cars in Germany. I saw 2 or 3 cars with aftermarket wheels and only one car with enough modifications that it really changed the body lines at all. It was a pretty cool Alpha Romeo spyder with flared fenders and wide, deep-dish wheels. That's it! Everything else was stock and 95% of the cars had steel wheels. I know it is winter and many folks will bring out the bling for summer. I just thought it was interesting.

3) In America, VW's large van is called the Eurovan. That made me wonder, What do they call that same model in Europe? The Amerivan? NOPE. It is the Transporter. I actually knew that from previous trips and plenty of time on Vortex. What I didn't know is that they have a special edition model called the California Cruiser. :D

4) In the 90's VW made many themed editions of the Golf. One that I hadn't seen before, but saw three examples of last week was the Bon Jovi edition VW Golf Wagon TDi. I didn't see much special about it except for the badging.

5) Driving on the autobahn is pretty cool. Conditions were not ideal to really fly, but we got our Passat wagon TDi up to about 180kph in the left lane.

Later folks. It is good to be home.

Pete

Geography Lessons.

I read this article at my desk this morning and thought it was funny.

LIMA (Reuters) - Royal Nepal Airlines has apologized to Peru after mistakenly using a photo of the Inca ruins of Machu Picchu to promote tourism in Nepal.

Peru's foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday the flagship carrier of the Himalayan kingdom, about half way around the world from the Andean country, had put the picture of Peru's tourism icon, Machu Picchu, on a poster under a slogan "Have you seen Nepal?"

Here's the whole article.

Have a nice day, dammit!

Pete

Finally a good run.

I'll keep this short. After over 3 weeks off my workout regimen due to injury, I finally got a good run in last night. It wasn't long. It wasn't fast. It was, however, 100% pain-free.

I took it slow and easy and made sure that I stretched well before going out and I used good form while running. It is easy to fall into the trap of shuffling along and not lifting your knees when you're trying to run slowly on a recovery run. That can start bad habits which lead to injuries.

I can't tell you what a relief it was to complete a whole loop after coming up lame the last three times I tried.

We'll try it again today. :D

Pete

New Combos Commercial.

I saw a new Combos commercial while watching the Broncos' game. This teenager goes into his Mom's room, looking sick and kind-of sweaty. He says something like, "Mom. I think I've got a fever." His rather rotund Mom rolls over in bed and you find out that Mom is rather masculine looking. In fact it kinda looks like John Goodman win a wig and nighty.

(S)he feels her son's forehead and says, "You're probably just hungry. These will make you feel better. They've got pizza stuff inside." and gives the lad a bag of combos. He eats a few and goes back to bed.

Then the announcer says the slogan:

"Combos: What your mom would feed you if your mom was a man. "

Bwahahahahaha

I need to go buy some Combos. Any advertising guy that uses big, transvestite moms to sell pretzels with cheeze in them deserves a big raise! That's the best bit of marketing that I've seen since Quiznos used the sponge monkeys to sell sandwiches.

Now that I go out and look at Youtube, there are a bunch of these commercials. Search on "Combos Commercial" on Youtube.com and let me know what you think.

Love,

Pete

Movie Review... Apocalypto and Van Wilder II

My wife and her friend wanted to go see Apocalypto. I had no desire to see anything that violent, so I went to see a new suspense movie out this weekend. Van Wilder 2. A suspense movie, you ask? Yes it truly is. There's a lot of suspense involved. Is she, or isn't she going to take her top off? The answer was always "Yes".

If you saw the first one, then you know the plot of the second one. Kal Penn is awesome, as always. If you liked the first one, I think you'll like the second one too. I did at least. There are some VERY GOOD and funny lines that got the whole theatre laughing (all 5 of us).

It'll be good to see the unrated version. :D

While Mr. Gibson's Myan epic might have a bit more social relevance in the long term, I personally feel much more enriched for having a lighter, more entertaining movie going experience.

Love,

pete

Two Hot Dogs and a Finger

Ahhh... It is nice to be back posting on my blog again. I found a juicy little nugget while driving cross country for Thanksgiving. I thought it was devious enough to post.

This little gem was found at a Sheetz truck stop in Western Maryland. First of all, I think the cartoon chick may be a little too hot for ordering hot dogs. I'm not sure that would pass the PG13 test.

Second: What does she mean by giving the peace sign with her left hand? Is this an anti-war statement? Does she want you to order 2 hot dogs? Is there one finger left up on that hand for each button on her top?

Third: What the heck is going on with the right hand??? That bitch is flipping me off! Damn! the marketing works with me. I LOVE it when cartoon hotties flip me the finger, flaunt their cleavage and show their contempt for the war in Iraq at the same time. That definitely gets me all hot. I'm guessing it does for truckers too.

Oh well. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the topic. What do you think of the hand gestures that she's making. Is there something to be read from the way she's holding the hot dog?

You're all perverts. (That's a good thing).

Love,

Pete

The Wrong Lessons.

Hey folks.

 

Sorry for going political today, but I need to. 

 

President Bush was touring Vietnam yesterday and talked about the Vietnam War and compared it to the war in Iraq.  He commented that we need to learn the lessons of the Vietnam war and make sure that we don't pull out too soon. 

 

That isn't the lesson that we needed to learn from Vietnam.  There are many that we can learn from decades of war in Vietnam.

 

1)  Never underestimate a people's desire to fight against an invading force.  This was true on so many levels with Vietnam.  American policy makers and generals could not comprehend the casualties that the North Vietnamese were taking in the war.  America lost its will to fight with fewer than 60,000 dead or MIA.  Vietnamese deaths have been estimated as high as 1,000,000 and they were still putting up a fight.  In Iraq, for every insurgent that is killed, another steps into his/her place. 

2)  Learn about a people and their history BEFORE invading their country and you'll make better decisions.  Vietnam had a long history of imperialism, and a long history of fighting it.  Not understanding that lead to the problems listed in #1.  Iraq has had years of friction and violence between its Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish populations.  Invading the country, removing the government and disbanding the police and military is NOT going to make things better. 

3)  Tell the truth.  Public support on the home front dwindled during the Vietnam War in part because the folks back home stopped believing that they were being told the truth.  The media said one thing and the government said another.  What the government was saying didn't match up with what the people perceived as reality.  The Johnson and Nixon administrations railed against the press coverage of the war, but the information they were putting out didn't match with reality.  They lost credibility. That seems to be happening again with Iraq.  We invaded Iraq on bad information and from my point of view, almost EVERY word about the war that comes from the Bush administration does not ring true. 

4)  Treat the cause, not the symptom.  There are a lot of causes to the problems that we faced in Vietnam and are facing in Iraq.  Unfortunately the biggest cause is one that we can't treat.... entering the conflict on false pretences with bad information.  We never were able to overcome that in Vietnam.  The cause of that conflict was imperialism.  Fighting that war just made the root cause worse.  It isn't that different in Iraq.  The Bush administration said the cause of the problem was Saddam Hussein.  That obviously wasn't true.  He had no links to al-Qaeda.  He's out of the picture.  Things are much worse than they were before we invaded.  The country is, by many standards, in civil war.  We're in the middle of it.  We're the cause of it.  We don't appear to be able to do anything about it.  We've created a terrorism problem that may never go away.

 

Don't get me wrong.  I don't think that we need to cut and run.  Pulling out of Iraq now would be truly disastrous for everyone involved.  We do need a new strategy though.  Start telling the truth about the war.  Make sure that our troops have EVERYTHING they need to succeed.  Get back to winning hearts and minds through making life for every day Iraqis. better.  Just killing people isn't working because no matter how many people we kill, there will always be more who step up to fight.  We cannot win a war like that.  Handing off to the Iraqi military is not the solution either.  We need to address the cause.  There in lies the problem.  If we're the cause, how do we deal with it?  We can't pull out.  Chaos will rule. 

 

Do something good.  Win some hearts and minds.  Make their lives better in some way.  Keep on the high ground.  Don't murder and rape civilians.  Don't torture prisoners.  Don't insult Islam.  We need to find a way to be the good guy, even though we've invaded another country and are killing its people. 

 

I hope someone finds a way that we can win this war... or at least get out of it alive.  There are no easy answers.  Every action will have a high cost.  It burns me that we entered this war so casually.  War shouldn't be casual.

 

Sorry for ranting.

 

Pete

 

Canadian humor.

This month's T-Shirt Hell newsletter was AWESOME. :D

I drink in moderation.

My new favorite t-shirt.

I love you!

My friend Chris sent me this cartoon. I was deeply offended because I think I'm Danny the Donkey. I hate him for that. :D Now leave me alone. I'm going to find some creative new uses for the stick. :D

Pete

MkI VW Rabbit all wheel drive.

Oh man this thing is AWESOME!!!

I'll just let you look at the photo and the listing on e-bay.

All wheel drive VW Rabbit.

Pete

Something not car-related. ;) Museuming in DC.

Oy oy.

Laura and I had fun last weekend hitting a few museums and doing some stuff downtown. We went to the Sewall/Belmot House to start out with. It was and is the headquarters for the National Women's Party. We'd seen the movie "Iron Jawed Angels" and wondered how much of it was artistically licensed and what was based in reality. Interestingly enough, if you remove all the romantic intreague from the movie, the basic historical facts are pretty close to right. It was very cool to learn more about the women's sufferage movement and the people involved.

After a good lunch at Chipotle, we headed over to the new National Portrait Gallery. Wow what a great museum. This is my new favorite in the DC area. It is HUGE! The first floor is packed with stuff (and people) and there are 3 more floors above to explore. It is located in the old National Pattent Office building. The first floor has a neat section where they display portraits of different inventors next to a glass case containing their invention. Edison, Morse, Singer and others were included. It was definitely cool.

The other thing I liked about the museum is that it is organized by theme and they really do a good job of giving historical background to all of the portraits, the people depicted in them and the artist who created them. Part of the reason why it takes so long to go through the gallery is that there is a LOT of information on EVERY bit of art in the builing. We felt like we barely scraped the surface.

Definitely check these out. Google will find them for you.

Pete

Better yet... another Mini.

This one is a 1961 Morris Minor. The thing is in unbelievable shape and only has 42000 original miles. It is fully restored and has a new motor and a damn clean interior. I also like that you can buy the car from a guy who has Olympic Gold and Silver medals. I'll just shut up and post the photos and the link.


Here is the link to the listing. It makes for good reading.

1961 Morris Minor

Take care,

Pete

Mini. Something else to add to the mix. ;)

I was reading about someone who is putting Honda motors into classic minis. They freaking fly with the extra horsepower and revs. That got me thinking about a classic mini. Here's a great example on Ebay right now.

This is a fully restored 1.3Liter mini. This was the fast and cool one. It has been upgraded with the interior from a 1990s mini. I like the classc wheel and even the color. This little bugger is fast and cool. I'm a geek about right hand drive cars too. I'd have a lot of fun with this thing.

Here's the listing.

1976 Mini 1.3 upgraded to Cooper spec.

Pete

Craptastic photographer with really bad writing habits and a damn cool car.

Sorry about the title of this post. I often think that I'm pretty funny. I know deep in my heart that I'm not. ;)

Okay... the car on the block this evening is a 1969 BMW 2002 Turbo. This thing is freaking amazing and must be really wild to drive. The photos of the outside obviously don't do this car any good.

You wouldn't want the car to look too good in the ebay add. It might actually sell for a high price or something. The money he saved in having good photos posted will more than make up for any increase in the sale price that really good photos would bring. (Sorry. Mr. Sarcastic is on the loose again) ;)

The engine bay is amazing. There's no two ways about it. That is one freaking impressive car. I would LOVE to have this thing and drive the freaking snot out of it. :D

The cool thing is that as long as I made sure the air/fuel mixture was right, it would most likely give me years of "thank you sir may I have another" use.

I like what the guy did with the photo of the front end. It is very cool looking.

Here is the listing for the car.

Enjoy.

Pete

The project car that I WON'T be buying. ;)

This MkI Golf is absolutely amazing. The level of detail on this car is amazing. Absolutely everything is more beautiful and better functioning than it was in its original form.

The body work is flawless. The interior is just creamy. The motor and engine bay are both functional and beautiful to look at. I love the twin carbed, 1.8Liter, 16valve motor. The motor is quite a bit more refined than what VW originally intended.

Another thing I like is that the left hand drive is as exotic in England as the right hand drive ones are in the colonies. Very cool.

Below you'll find the listing for the car:

MkI Swallowtail.

Take care,

Pete

Bunnies!!!

Okay. My project car posts lately have been mostly non-vw cars. I thought I'd get back to my roots again with this little one.

I've wanted an A1 GTI for as long as I can remember. The first one I ever drove was amazing to me. They're light, they handle quite well, they're pretty fast. This is the car that started the sport compact car craze back in the mid 1970s.

This particular car would almost be a shame for me to buy since my goal would be to strip the interior and go crazy with it. I would say that I'm sure I could ebay all the interior stuff for a lot of money and that would help finance the project.
Below is the link to the listing.

1983 VW Rabbit GTI

Enjoy.

Pete

2002 Reasons to love this car...

You've seen me post some BMW 2002s on the blog lately. This one is SUPER cool and completely out of my range. I'll post it up because it is just too perfect to ignore.

This car is an almost flawless BMW 2002 Tii. The Tii version of the 2002 got fuel injection and a few other performance bisquits. It also had a really cool dash clock that looked great, but really didn't keep very accurate time... at least not after 30 years or so.

I'll just let you look at a few photos of the car and the listing on Ebay. The "Buy It Now" price is $20k. We'll see if it is worth that.

I'd consider it if I had the $20k laying around.

HERE's the listing.

Pete

Rice Rice Baby!!!

Oy oy.

I had another good ad for an AE86 show up today. My guess is that there's something fundamentally wrongwith this car that is making this guy sell it 3 weeks after he bought it. Since my plan would be to strip the whole dang thing down, I guess I'd probably find the problem and hopefully be able to fix it. :D

This is actually an SR5 that has been converted to a GT-S. They put a GT-S rear axle on it that has disc brakes and an LSD. They also put in a GT-S motor and gauge cluster. There are plenty of things about the add that make it suspicious. First, the title isn't in the name of the guy who is selling it. Also he lists that the gauge cluster is from a different car, but lists the mileage as what registers on the gauge cluster. Hmmmmm.

That said, I'm interested. Maybe not interested enough to actualy try and buy it. I'm interested enough to post it on my blog. :D

HERE's the listing.

Pete

Hachi Roku: Toyota Corolla GT-S AE86

I love this car. If the planets all align, I'll have something like this as my next project car. This is an awesome example of a Hachi Roku (Japanese for 86). This Corolla was made from 1985-7 and was pretty much the last of the front engine/rear wheel drive compact cars in the US. The Nissan 240sx was around until 1998, but it is a much larger and heavier car.

The appeal of the GT-S is that it is a quite light car (2100 pounds) and can be much lighter. With careful modifications, it can get down below 1800 pounds.

The motor in the GT-S is a dual overhead cam, 16 valve, 1.6 liter, fuel injected motor. It has a high redline and puts out about 130hp and 104 lb/ft torque. While that is enough to power an 1800 pound car pretty well, a lot of folks opt for the 20 valve, high compression motor from Japan that puts out 160hp and 120 lb/ft torque. Definitely a good upgrade. Horsepower mods can be made from there.

The AE-86 is in high demand among drifters. Though they don't handle as well as some newer cars, they've got a lot of heritage to them. That bumps the price up a bit. Even so, they can be found for under $2000 for one in rough, but complete shape. The one pictured here is for sale for $6200. It whould definitely get that price.

Thanks for reading,

Pete

Hachi Roku: Corolla GT-S AE86

Here's the most likely candidate for my new car. I love these things. I'm sure I'll offend Hachi Roku (Japanese for 86) owners when I say that I think they're kinda funny looking. That's their appeal to me. :D

These things are pretty much the last of the front engine/ rear wheel drive compact cars sold in America. The example that you see to the left has been modified a bit, but it is a great example of the car I love and would like to buy.

These things handled pretty darn well when you consider that the rear suspension and drive system was a relatively simple and heavy live axle not entirely unlike those found on American muscle cars. The thing that really makes these things extraordinary is their weight, or lack thereof. In stock form, they weigh about 2100 pounds. Strip out the interior and anything that you really don't need, install a racing seat and roll cage and replace the heavy stock wheels with something truly light weight and you can have a race car that weighs between 1700 and 1800 pounds.

The stock motor of the GT-S is a 1.6 liter, 16valve motor making around 130 hp and 104 lb/ft torque. The japanese motor which some swap in makes around 160 hp and 120 lb/ft torque. It uses a 20 valve setup and a higher compression ratio that accounts for the greater horsepower.

Drifters LOVE these things. These were some of the original drift cars in Japan. They're not the easiest cars to drift, but the sense of history makes them in pretty high demand.

I'll be keeping an eye on these this winter.

Pete

Very Tempting 318is

This one definitely cought my eye.

I'm drawn to the 318is because it is light weight, fairly modern and has a great suspension. All the bimmer guys tell me I should go for the 325 because the straight 6 motor has more power. I've always been an underdog kinda guy. I like the better balance and lighter weight of the E30 318is. That's just me. I'm a freak that way.

This car in particular is of interest to me because it is bascally stock and it has a blown head. That means I get to do a project on it and I get it at a very good price. I'm sure that there's a ton of work to do to the car. I can see what looks like rust stains on the carpet. Who knows what I'll find when I pull the interior to check the inside of the floor pans. That is part of the mystery of a project.

The time isn't right for me and this car. If I'd seen this ad at the end of February, I'd click that "buy it now" button in a second. I just don't have room, time or money at the moment. I can still enjoy looking though. :D

Pete

An Awesome Project 2002

This car is an awesome example of a motorsports 2002. It has a ton of the work already done. The fenders are flared. It has the motorsports spoiler. The interior is mostly gone. It has little or no rust. It has the battery in the trunk and an upgraded fuel pump, filter and FPR.

The motor is the only part that really needs work. It has a ton of stuff that needs help. It is the perfect project. :D

The car is even local. :D

You can find the link to the auction below:

1972 BMW 2002

1986 Toyota Trueno AE86 Hachi Roku (AKA Corolla GT-S)

I hate to say it but I love these cars. They're ugly as hell and really quirky. They're pretty much the last of the front-engine, rear drive small cars that made it to America. They've got a huge following in the drift community. There are some guys autocrossing and doing SCCA or NASA racing with them too. Since I'm looking to do motorsports stuff with it, it is a good candidate.

Don't think that I dislike the car because I think it is ugly. I LOVE ugly cars. This thing is really ugly in my eyes and I think that's a good thing. It is just damn cool.


The other appeal to it is that the car is very light. In stock form, it weighs in at about 2100 pounds. Strip out the interior and put in some racing seats and these things can weigh as little as 1800 pounds. If I really go crazy and replace the dash with fiberglass, it can get even less weight. Use a light weight battery and add a good roll cage and you've still got a track-ready car that is between 1700 and 1800 pounds.

The motor on these were pretty cool too. It is a high compression, 16 valve motor that revs really high. With minimal mods, they can get up around 150hp at the wheels with 110 lb/ft torque. While that doesn't sound like much compared to the Corrado or GTI, just keep in mind that it is about 1000 pounds lighter than the Corrado and 1400 pounds lighter than the GTI.

The rear suspension is pretty simple. It isn't a fancy multi-link system. It is an old style, live axle with trailing arms. Even with the simple rear end, they still handle pretty well.

I'm seriously tempted by this car. They're getting rare, but you can still find decent examples for between $2000 and 4000.

The one in this auction isn't really to my taste. It is the hatchback that I LOVE, but I really don't like the wing very much. I'd prefer to have one with few or no mods so I could do the work myself. That motor looks like it has been seriously worked, and I like that the guy did the full polyurithane bushing kit. Very cool.

HERE is the listing on Ebay for this car.

Love,

Pete

When car guys dream....

Okay. Continuing on the car theme...

My project car thang has led to some interesting Ebay searches. Most recently I came up with this hit....

Here's what the car is supposed to look like.

It is a 1967 Toyota Sports 800 Yotahachi. There were only 48 of them made with right hand drive and only some of those were ever shipped to the United States. This car is SUPER rare and a really amazing little sports car.

As with many project cars, they're a litle bit of a "work in progress. You noticed above that I used the term "supposed to" when referring to the car's looks. Well this is how it looks now:

It definitely needs some love. Even so, you can really get a feel for the shape of the car and the potential that is there.

More photos. :D










Yeah. It needs some serious love. I'm not sure you'll ever find the lens covers for the headlights. I can't imagine that many of them are floating around.



It does look like most of the other parts are there though.

You can see the listing below.

1967 Toyota S800

Pete

Project Car Candidate #74

I recently retired a blog that was my outlet for a lot of car-related things. I am chanelling all that blogging energy into this blog. :D

I've always got my eye out for a few interesting and weird cars to be my next project car. I haven't decided what that is going to be yet, but I keep my eyes out. You'll see posts from time to time that talk about something that catches my eye. This is one of those posts. :D

I found this BMW 2002 on e-bay this week and kinda liked it.

The engine bay was definitely pretty amazing for a 30+ year old car. There are a lo of these things out there, but not many are as beautiful inside and out as this one.

You can find this listing on Ebay at the link below:

1975 BMW 2002

Pete

NASCAR goes Colombian. :D

Hey hey. 

 

I was a little surprised earlier this year when one of my favorite F1 racers decided to leave Formula 1 and race in the NASCAR Nextel Cup series.  Juan Pablo Montoya has been a guy who's career I've enjoyed watching for years.  It blew me away that he would ditch the most prestigious race series in the world for a series that, though loved in America, is pretty much laughed at anywhere else. 

 

RACER magazine had a really good article about the move this week.  You can read it HERE.

 

The article talks a lot about Chip Ganassi, Montoya's new boss.  To me, the real interest is in Montoya's decision to switch.  His reasoning was pretty good in my book. 

 

1) The racing is awesome. Formula 1 races are great, but you may only see a small handfull of passes for position while on the track.  Many times you'll see races where the only pass for the lead is done in the pits. 

 

There are some NASCAR races where you'll have more changes for the lead in one lap than you will in an entire F1 race. 

 

Wheel to wheel racing is scary and hair raising in an open-wheel car.  In NASCAR it is not unusual to go wheel to wheel, fender to fender at 190mph for lap after lap.  It takes skill, technique, wisdom and balls to be successful at that week after week.

 

2) He wants to be a great all-round racer.  He's one of two racers to have won the Indianapolis 500 and the Monaco Grand Prix.  How amazing would it be to add the Daytona 500 to that list?  How about a NEXTEL cup title to go with his Champ Car title? 

 

3) It is a good springboard for dabbling in something else.  Sports car endurance racing has been growing in popularity in the US of late.  There are plenty of NASCAR guys who race in the endurance races when their schedule allows.  Not many F1 guys get to do that until they've retired.  Adding a LeMans or Daytona 24-hour win would add to #2 above pretty nicely.

 

4) Rednecks are nice people.  Montoya talks about another thing that NASCAR has that other racing series may never have:

 

“Every driver I’ve met so far has been mega-nice,” he says. “‘Anything you need, we’ll help you.’ I’ve never seen that before. I’ve been shocked. In six seasons (of F1) I’ve been to the Williams motor home and to the McLaren motor home. I’ve never been to any other motor home. In 10 minutes (at Chicago) I’ve been in Jimmie Johnson’s motor home, Roger Penske…I was at every bus and every motor home.

“And everybody is nice. They are just happy to be there. It’s great to see people loving and enjoying the sport.”

 

I've got a new favorite racer in the pack.  He makes his debut in Chicago this fall.  It is going to take him a year or so to really learn the ins and outs of NASCAR racing.  I'm psyched to see how that goes.  He'll give Boris Said someone to hang out with. :D

 

Pete

My September 11th Post.

Hey folks. 

 

I think most Americans have had some deep thoughts today.  I haven't talked to anyone that didn't have something to say today about September 11th. 

 

My normal reaction to almost any anniversary is a show of grattitude for friends, family and the good that is done all around me.  I sent out an e-mail to a group that I work with that expressed those feelings.  The e-mail was heartfelt and sincere, but it didn't fully express what I felt.  Until this afternoon, I didn't have a grip on what I felt. 

 

It is easy to Monday Morning Quarterback the Clinton and Bush administration for things that they should and shouldn't have done.  That's been beaten to death and someday I'll get to the point where I stop doing that in my head. 

 

What is hard for me at this point is the circle of violence that has resulted from September 11th.  This is a gross over simplification of the situation, but it is good enough for my blog.  The US is attacked and 3000 people die.  The US invades Afghanistan and Iraq to fight a war on terrorism against al-Qaeda.  The deaths and violence in that war inspire insurgents to take up the terrorist fight against the US.  It keeps going and going. 

 

Ghandi may have said it best when he said, "An eye for an eye only makes the whole world blind." 

 

I firmly believe that is true.  That isn't a solution though. 

 

Oddly enough, it was the Chinese Government's statement in regards to the 5th anniversary of the September 11th attacks that ring true: "Only when the root cause of terrorism is stopped and not just the symptoms, will the war on terrorism be won." 

 

They said it better than I could. 

 

How do we destroy the root cause?  How do we change the perception of America around the world?  I have no idea.  Obviously the "kill them all and let god sort them out" isn't working. 

 

I might know something that could take the first step.  We can't stop fighting the war on terrorism.  Pulling out isn't the answer at this point.  We can't keep going at it alone though... not when every military action we take causes two problems that we've got to solve down the road. 

 

What we need is something that will generate a little bit of good will.  We need to do something in our foreign policy that has a positive and selfless affect.  We need to do something that will let people know that we're not the imperialistic, self centered, egotistical country that we appear to be. 

 

What is that thing?  I don't know for sure, but I've got some good ideas.  The countries of Sub-Saharan Africa could benefit immeasurably by a significant development effort on the part of the US.  I'm not talking about dumping a bunch of food out of airplanes and dropping it all over Africa.  I'm talking about a sincere effort to help the people help themselves.  Work with international organizations or help fund the organizations to do the work that they are to help people stop the spread of the AIDS virus, solve problems that prevent these people from helping themselves.  Give them the step up that they need to make the next step on their own. 

 

It isn't easy.  It is darn cheap to do that when you compare the amount of effort and money to what is spent on the war on terror and on Iraq. 

 

I'm not saying that we take funds away from the defense department.  If we have to spend a few tens of millions of dollars to help out in Africa, it would be money well spent.  It would start winning the hearts and minds of the people of the world. 

 

My Africa idea is an example.  Obviously there are details that need to be worked out.  It wouldn't instantly solve our problems, but it would be a first step towards doing something good in the world.  The US needs to do something good in the world.  If it isn't Africa, then maybe it is somewhere else in the world that has people in need.  Heck, feeding our homeless people or truly helping those recovering from hurricane Katrina wouldn't be a bad thing either.  We need to do SOMETHING good... something more than we're doing now.

 

Sorry to rant.

 

My thoughts are with you.

 

Pete

The meaning of the word "done".

Oy oy.

 

This was one of my posts on ECE today.  My friend Jimmy was giving me grief because I used the word "Done" to describe a Corrado project that someone is doing.  "Done" is a swear word in the Corrado community.  Nothing is ever "done" with a corrado with very few exceptions.  Below is the post describing the incident.  It was kinda funny. 

 

*********************************************

Quote:

Originally Posted by sKunkman OMG! You said DONE!

I'm such a hypocrit. In my own defense, the word "done" has many meanings in the Corrado world. I left out one of the others. As earlier stated, "done" can mean that you just sold your Corrado. It can also mean that you just totalled it by driving it into a tree. The less known meaning, and possibly the one that describes my Corrado best, pertains to a particular project. At the moment, the engine work on my Corrado is "done". By "done", I mean that I'm not working on it at the moment, and it is at least functioning within acceptable parameters, but that it might break at any moment sending me to a firey death and thus changing the definition of "done" to the second one I list above.

Thanks for keeping me real and reminding me what an ass I am. I need that pretty much every moment of the day.

************************************************

 

I thought you'd enjoy that.

 

Take it easy.

 

Pete