Thanks, @joeyduck. I think legroom and price were the two big factors. Stepping up into the Santa Fe sport with similar packages/trim would have been close to (or over) $30k easy. They were able to sell me the Tucson sport for $24,900. So that gave me a lease payment of $265 for 36 months with $17,300 residual. So that got me under the $300 monthly I was also looking for. Can't fit a bike without putting the seats down. But that's always been the case with the Passat as well. Well, I qualify that with at least leaving the rear wheel on. Taking off both front and back wheels, then I could just fit the bike in the Passat without putting down the rear seats.

Sad that you didn't become a fellow CX-5 Zoom Zoom owner, but the new Tucsons are nice, too. We got our CX-5 pre-owned 2 years old, purchased instead of lease, for right at $300/mo, and under 60K miles.

My wife and I visited her mother in Florida Thursday through yesterday. Yesterday, I went to the gym at her place yesterday and worked out harder than I ever had. I wanted to hurt myself (in a good way) and got really sweaty. We got off the plane late last night, and knowing I would be tired and in a whole world of hurt today, I didn't ride to work. No regrets. Tomorrow is looking good.

Oh, I leg-pressed 310 pounds, many reps, and that's twice my weight.

I been off the bike most of the winter. This last weekend was nice and I got a couple good rides in to prepare for commuting. I rode to work and back yesterday and rode in this morning. Man do I miss bicycle commuting!

Mild, 1C/34F, but misty with lots of puddles on the ground. Fortunately, at 6:45am, there wasn't much traffic so I could go all the way around them without interference or having to go through them and risk being splashed from my tire as well as from passing cars.

A forecasted high of 6C/43F with a bit of rain this afternoon but I'm prepared.

Have a great day everyone!

Nicely done!!

Day 2 of April weather in February, 52F. A lot more cyclists on the trail - winter hibernation must be over early

Second ride went better than the first. We had some misty drizzle. But with the Temps in the 50's, it was rather pleasant.

Nice ride, but I'm still a good 10 minutes slower than my morning average over 20 miles. I'll probably be a good half hour off target tonight when I ride the 30 miles home.

A bit of over night rains left the streets damp, but really only enough to get the bike dirty. 52F and I'm wearing shorts. I even got a bit too warm as I got close to work and had to shed the gloves.

Because of the mild weather, I took a longer route home last night to enjoy the 70F temps, but I was tired this morning and it was a struggle to make myself commute today. However, I knew if I didn't ride I would regret it, especially since we are expecting a record breaking temperature of around 77F this afternoon! So... I got up and, as usual, once I was on the bike I was REALLY glad I did it. It was around 50F out the door with light winds.

We were supposed to get some rain during the night, but that didn't happen. At least, it hadn't happened yet, when I left the house. Not a mile into my ride I started seeing raindrops in the beam of my headlight! Doh. I picked up the pace and rode between the drops.

Today was probably the last time I ride a non-winter bike for a while. Supposed to get 6"-18" of snow tomorrow, and another storm is predicted to hit on Tuesday. The next week of commuting will undoubtedly get interesting.

Raining yesterday evening and this morning but not cold enough to really be a bother. I got a honk this morning, the first in months. Just a light tap, not long or repeated and I didn't have a clue what it was about. I hadn't pulled in front of anyone, was in the same position I always am (right of the fog line), and it was light traffic with room in both lanes. It surprised me just a little and I gave an ambiguous low wave in case it was someone who knew me.

Rainy day yesterday. It stopped raining in the afternoon, but then started raining again about an hour before I left. It wasn't much at all. In the 15.8 mile ride home, it went from light rain, to no rain but wet, to sunny and rainbows but still wet, to dry, and then back to raining again just before I arrived home. I just had to stop and take some photos.

Damn, you're fast. And skinny.

29F, frosty, patchy clouds

Was 45F this morning and am looking forward to 54F this afternoon. I dressed for 40's but used a second layer with the short sleeve jersey to get by in the morning. For the ride home, I'll just not wear the second baselayer. I noticed that a DS spoke came loose on the rear wheel yesterday after getting back to the car. I tightened it. Can anyone recommend a good wheel builder guy/gal in the north NJ or Manhattan areas? I could also drop off the previous wheel that has a pulled spoke through the rim. Maybe I can ask them to try a new build with the Velocity A23 32-hole offset rim instead of the standard one...

Yeah, we only ended up going to Subaru and then to Hyundai. It was a marathon 6 hours to trade in my exicting car and drive off the lot with the new car. About 2-3 hours were sucked up just test driving, negotiating price, and waffling over whether to buy or lease and other BS. "Oh you work for a hospital?" I think I can get a discount for that." :-/ It also helped a bit that my parents know a guy there and got one of their cars from them.

My bike is completely covered in salt and sand. It might just be a Huffy, but I am washing it right now because I care. Salt is bad.

Warmer temps expected for the next two days and with warmer temps there is no ice on the roads. I was able to ride today(yay). The temp was 33f degrees this morning and a very nice uneventful commute to work. The temp should be up around 60f degrees this afternoon and I intend to take advantage of the longer daylight and warmer temps on my ride home today.

Yes, buying or leasing a car takes so stinking long. One time my wife and kids were all there and I just wanted to go grab some food and come back. It was like they were trying to hold me hostage. "My kids are hungry!"

Nice morning with some thin fog. Just enough to make things look cool.

I've been getting out the door late every morning this week. Last Saturday we adopted a cat from the Humane Society. She was a stray that came in with fleas and worms (all fixed up now, though.) But she is the sweetest cat I've ever seen. I don't know how she survived as a stray because I don't think she has an aggressive bone in her body. Anyway, when I get up in the morning she wants about 15 minutes of nuzzle time, and I'm too much of a softie to say no. But this throws a wrench into my usual routine. I'm going to have to start getting up 15 minutes early because of this cat.

Blizzard warning starts at 6 PM. Prior to that we're supposed to get rain, then the temps drop below freezing, then the snow hits, then the wind increases from it's current 20 mph up to 30+ mph with gusts much higher. I decided to suck it up and ride the slow winter bike to work even though right now the pavement is perfectly dry and clear.

My big fear is the rain after the temps drop on the way home. Might be some icy patches hiding under the snow and I'd prefer the insurance of studded tires.

Of course, because I rode the winter bike it's probably a guarantee that the system will pass by us without a drop of precipitation.

A chilly 53F this moring (yeah, I know how insane that sounds in February!) - wet and foggy

Wet and damp, but warm

Low 60s, I didn't even pack any warmers for tonight's commute! Clear, calm, great day to ride the bike. Rufous-sided towhees are starting to claim their territory, maybe this is the real spring this year?