Les, only the most myopic and oblivious driver sideswipes the car/truck/bus next to them.

“If your back end swings out as you’re accelerating, ease off the gas.”

When I was driving a manual-shift Chevy S-10 in snow, I just pushed in the clutch. Rear-end slides corrected themselves instantly.

Automatic transmissions are a BIT more interesting.

This is why my father had a set of stock rims with snow tires mounted for each of his vehicles except the International Scout pickup. They were in the garage, stacked in a corner, and at the first hint of a ‘snowfall’ forecast he got the jack and a lug wrench and changed out all the tires on both cars.

(The Scout was…

Won’t have to, it flew into the brush/crowd.

(Watch for it on eBay, or the next Tijuana flea market.)

I grew up with “ranch cats” that didn’t get to hang out in the house. We fed them once a day, in the morning when my dad got up to make coffee (early). The rest of the time they were outside, free to run around, chase birds, keep the sheds mouse-free, and so on.

What was odd is, they didn’t scarf the food down. They…

You would think so. However, there’s the question of “where did you buy it from”... if Amazon no longer carries it, and you’ve blown the DRM metadata off (if all else fails, record to a Red Book standard CD-RW and re-rip), then Amazon has no foot to stand on saying you “licensed” it from them. “I’m sorry, Jeff Bezos,…

My totally passive-aggressive solution (for those who just can’t complain to a real live person) is this:

This refers to “truck lanes” or “passing lanes” on uphill sections, which aren’t that common in states with mountainous terrain, states like, oh, Oklahoma for example. :P

Solid write-up, thank you. I remember doing this exact procedure on a 1987 Yamaha FZ-700... it was made more ‘interesting’ by the fact that the previous owner had swapped out the wheels for 2001 R1 wheels, and somewhere in the disassembly I lost a shim washer that kept the new wheel from moving side to side along the…

So, here’s the view from someone who spent every summer of childhood/adolescence in the Colorado mountains, and by mountains, I mean “down 7 miles of jeep trail that gave a lot of drivers the heebie-jeebies.”

What made the 1970's era Broncos, Jeep CJ’s, Dodge Power Wagons, and Toyota Land Cruisers what they were, was…

The problem with the safety ratings is, they only measure risk to the occupants.

Pedestrians, bicyclists, motorcyclists, drivers of smaller cars? Collateral Damage. But we have Safety Ratings! so we don’t need to drive like we’re piloting three thousand pounds of metal at lethal velocity, oh no.

That, to me (owner of a…

The secret is to BACK into the parking space, not pull in frontwise. *nodnod*

Agility adds something to the equation... as long as there’s visibility to take advantage of it.

See my note on oil-tanker-sized SUV’s, above.

THIS.

You know what? The first photos (even blurred) suggested to me a late-model Jaguar coupe. Looking at the taillight profile of the Jag XE, it might work. The front end also has that teardrop lamp shape that was remarked upon. (of course this also means it could be a Ford Fusion...)

Then again, I don’t know a lot about…

This is one of the Thou Shalt Nots of motorcycling. I’ve been tagged by a car, sent me wibble-wobbling into the next lane and scuffed my sidecase. In all honesty, I THOUGHT my lane change was clear, but... not so much. When the driver swerved again as if to try for round two, I decided, fuck it, it’s not worth…