big john

I'm all for track days. We even sell cars that aren't street legal, new from Chevrolet.

On another note, we have a butt-load of the new all-electric Bolt cars. Seems they aren't moving like management thought they would.

revchuck 

My '16 Focus is nimble and has surprising acceleration. It's decently comfortable on trips - did 700 miles in a day on the way out to Tucson in February with no ill effects. The only downside is that road noise is pretty loud; I guess that it's due to minimum sound insulation in order to keep weight and costs down.

big john

I think some nice tires might help with the road noise.

carpediemracing 

+1

Tires make a huge difference in road noise, just like bike tires make a huge difference in comfort/feel/performance.

I've had some howling tires, ditto some super quiet ones. The Expedition came shod with pretty old OEM all seasons, super loud, terrible in the rain. Put some studless snows on, super quiet and super smooth. Due to low annual miles driven I keep the snows on all year, no problems, even tow the trailer with snows. 8?k miles in about 4? years, plenty of meat left on the tires.

I had really loud snows on the Golf TDI, to the point where you had to raise your voice when talking. Studless snows also, diff brand. Had studdable snows on the Civic hatch, those were super loud and set up a vibration in the car due to the knobby tread. Both cars quieted down considerably with quieter tires.

If the car is out of alignment or the tire has a damaged cord, the tread will wear unevenly and make a lot of noise - my Z came from the factory with toe-out to improve turn in. Problem was the tires were scuffing while driving down the road, howling noise within 8-10k miles. Run your fingers over the tread, if they're fish-scale like then you need an alignment and probably new tires. The Z had such symptoms.

Lumpy tires means probable cord damage. This could be from anything. Usually more a thumping than a howling. I've had a couple tires go south on me, including one on a trip from FL to CT.

globecanvas

Hi everybody! Back from a family vacation in Mexico which was relaxing and excellent. Probably a few pounds heavier but managed to stay active enough that I don't feel totally disgusting. Beach, cenotes, ruins, beer, tequila, music, just a great vacation.

Here's a top notch vacation tip for anyone visiting the Yucatan: spend a day on rental bikes at the Coba ruins. The ruins are far-flung in several areas a couple of miles apart throughout the jungle, and they are unique for the stone roads that connect the areas. They have a fleet of beater single speed MTBs there (they all look like NYC food delivery guy bikes) that you can ride on the stone roads through the jungle and it's just a spectacularly great way to spend a day, you can stay cool in the shade on a bike even on the hottest day. You can climb the 150 ft high main pyramid too. I considered doing a couple of intervals on it just to be a dick but climbing down the thing is no picnic so instead we just did a few more laps of the whole ruined Mayan city.

Follow it up with a cool swim in a half-underground cenote and you've got a best day ever situation.

mattm

sounds rad!

post more pics pls.

TMonk

+1 more pics!

globecanvas

Instagram, Facebook. I didn't take many photos because we were too busy doing stuff. My sister took a ton of gopro photos and video but knowing her it will probably stay on the camera until she misplaces it.


[edit] Google takes pretty good photos though. Pyramid at Coba, Cenote Dos Ojos.

carpediemracing 

Every time I come here it's 22 people on. Tonight 23. Is that pretty much it for the 33?

scheibo

went out and rode these TT stages yesterday on the way back from the RR I DNFed.

still not sure what the exact segment for the real TT will be, but i rode the entirety of the road it will be held on (of which the TT will probably use 50% of). much different than i remembered, pretty flat/gradual with rollers. *however*, wind will make a huge difference. last time on one section i averaged 25.5mph on 187W vs. 20.8mph w 236W, ie/ i had a big headwind this time vs. a large tailwind last time (i was hardly going all out either occasion, but its still a very noticeable difference). so: if the wind is similar to yesterday i'd probably be OK with the handling on a TT bike after some practice, but if theres a tailwind/cross wind on the 'out' section like the first time i rode it i would likely be uncomfortable. pretty fun course though, i hope to become confident enough on the TT bike that the wind won't be such a concern, but either way it should be a cool place to race.

the prologue TT course is amazing. i really really like it. its definitely this - went out and tried to ride it kind of tempoish/hard. couldn't shift into the bottom half of my cassette on the gradual uphill so was kind of limited there (which hopefully wouldn't be an issue on race day), but the 1.5mi climb at the end was nice and steady. also, on the flat and the climb there were frequent mile markers which is dope (i guess i could set up my computer to tell me that, but for some reason i always prefer the road side markers because theyre like physical checkpoints). i think during the race i'd try to hit maybe 300Wish on the flat bit (only did 270W yesterday because shifting and unfamiliar) and then the ~360W for the climb again. with a skinsuit/race bike + wheels/adrenaline etc i think theres another minute or so i can take off, i'm pretty hyped for it. i'm a little worried that its not an excellent 'prologue' though - there will definitely be several minute gaps after this first stage (i usually think a good 'prologue' would be like ~5-8 minutes in length and keep the spread to like less than a minute, this one is like 16+ minutes and is selective enough for big gaps). however, i think the fact that its not just a climb favors me, as hopefully i can TT the false flat start better than the 'pure' climbers.

wktmeow

Oh hey, I'm thinking about coming up for that. I've been meaning to visit the bay, and I might as well race as my old team is helping promote this one. I'm not expecting to do well in the RR though... going to get creamed on the long climb. Might do ok in the TT and crit though!

We'll get to race each other! (if you're not a cat 2 before then) I suspect that since we're different types of riders, we won't actually be participating in the same parts of the race though.

scheibo

cool! we'll see how the RR goes, ive never done hamilton 'hard', and im worried about the descents, but i think it will be a fun race. i can merckx TT pretty well but from all my recent posts you can probably tell im concerned about doing it on a 'real' TT bike, so that might not be great for me. and yeah, my goal for the crit will just be to not crash. i don't think i'll be cat 2 by then, if the racing goes well i could get it that weekend (though im unsure if i'd upgrade right away and race pesky/berkeley as a P12 - seems like a tough baptism by fire. that's putting the cart way in front of the horse though). excited to do a stage race though!

merlinextraligh

GM management knows they are a tough sell. They don't build the Bolt to make money, they build the Bolt to meet Zero Emission Vehicle requirements, particularly in California, and CAFE standards nationally.

Make Bolts to hit the percentage requirements for ZEV's (or buy credits from Tesla), lose money on them, but sell enough so that you can sell big SUV's that people want, and have high profit margins.

Thus GM can take a hit on big rebates to eventually clear those vehicles out, because by doing so it allows them to sell more profitable vehicles.

It has nothing to do with making cars that people actually want, or making cars profitably.

Tesla, wouldn't be profitable selling electric cars, but for the Federal and State subsidies to buy them, and the amount of money they make selling ZEV credits to other car companies.

globecanvas

We are looking at buying a Bolt. Should we wait for some new incentive, if they are overstocked?

topflightpro

A coworker has the BMW i3. He previously had the Nissan Leaf. He's been very happy with his electric cars, but he also has the ability to charge it while it sits in the garage during the work day.

He said Nissan used to have a deal that if you owned a Leaf and needed to make a greater than 300 miles, Nissan would provide a free loaner vehicle. I think the BMW has a small gas motor to charge the batteries if needed, but I could be mistaken.

I also read that Chevy is dropping built-in navigation from the Bolt, saying that it's kind of useless since everyone has mapping on their phones, and the built in wireless provides the coverage needed for the phone.

merlinextraligh

It appears you can get pretty good discounts now.

Chevy Bolt discounting proves its 'dead,' says Tesla bull

Not sure they'll increase if you wait. GM may be motivated now to get some on the road and try to build some momentum.

big john

I hear there are some cheap lease deals in the works, plus if you want to buy you can ask for a discount.

big john

On the Volt, there are 2 electric motors. When the battery reaches 30%, the engine starts and drives one of the motors, which becomes a generator but doesn't charge the battery, instead drives the other motor.
The battery can be charged a little by the regenerative braking but to really charge it you have to plug it in.

mattm

Came close to buying an eGolf, but got a regular one. They say the 2017 model will have 120 mile range, not enough for my weekend excursions. I bet in five years it'll be closer to what I need and I'll get one.

Plus work will charge it for me, which would be nice.

himespau 

Broke out my (admittedly terrible) Eddie Vedder impersonation for a couple of bars of "Hunger Strike" in class today. Unfortunately, most of my students don't know who he (or Chris Cornell or Temple of the Dog) is and weren't born until after Hunger Strike came out. That song was a big part of the soundtrack of my adolescence.

topflightpro

Mine too.

About ten years ago, we had an intern at our newspaper who was about to interview Jerry Cantrell for a preview on the upcoming Alice in Chains concert. She had no idea who they were. I even commented, "Wow, I didn't realized they were still touring since Lanye Staley died." And of course, she asked who that was.

himespau 

I don't suppose you took over the interview so she didn't embarrass herself?

globecanvas

I'll raise you one: I was a musician in the seattle scene in the early 90s, when everybody who wasn't already famous was about to be famous. I was in at least 2 bands that were supposed to be the next big thing. Every band was about to be the next big thing.

The major life lesson I learned from that time was: if you are deep into a scene, just when you think it's jumped the shark is actually the moment when it goes supersonic. And just when you come around to thinking it's here to stay is actually the moment when it jumps the shark.

Much later I was in LA visiting friends and ran into Layne Staley shortly before he died. He basically already looked dead.

miyata man

^^^^ Log onto strava to dig through my saved routes for something to do this afternoon. See he snuck in a ride before the rain. Look outside to see the first rain drop of a storm forecast to last until noon tomorrow. NOOOOOOOOOOO.

Easter candy my old friend, we've got some time to get reaquainted.

topflightpro

Did you know Jason Everman?

The Rock ?n? Roll Casualty Who Became a War Hero - The New York Times