Seattle moto commuter, 6 yrs... but at least mine had proper 17" wheels, big 320mm twin-disc front brakes with 4-piston calipers, and required a standard skills test to own and operate (laughable in the US vs. Europe or Japan, but in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king). It also had 74 bhp, considerably…

If you owned that one... count me among the supremely-jealous that never got to. ;)

Despite being ‘only’ a 400cc, 360-deg big-bang V4... it’s always been a goal of mine to own the keys to (if not the ones to its 750cc big brother — a considerably harder catch these days)...

Getting back to inline- vs. V-config motors...…

Number one, pedro... you weren’t there. The girl behind the counter had a plainly visible hearing aid, and was being quite calm considering the guy was leaning over the counter and waving his finger in her face. I think you read into a bit too literally about bile rising — it’s a euphemism for, “I was disgusted”.

Two,…

Arkansas. Seems like those who choose to move there, deserve to move there...

In the same jetty airlift article, commented on a gentleman from Little Rock I met a couple of months ago here in my hometown, who didn’t quite comport himself to standards of polite society. Also, while driving through on I-40 on a similar…

Was in a sandwich shop in line a couple of months ago. In front of me was an old fella, who seemed agitated with his order. The girl behind the counter was new and also hearing-impaired, trying to help this codger get a turkey sandwich, and he was just unloading hard-of-hearing epithets on her, generally being a…

The mechanic who mentored me into becoming a tech myself in the ‘90s (chief mechanic for the Penske Indy car team in the ‘80s) had the XJ13 as his all-time favorite design. This is a guy who had an Elan in his backyard ready for a 13B REW swap, and who ported & tuned a Honda Elite to hit 80 mph (70cc jug... I can…

LOL... they might’ve bleeped the ‘ya bahstid’... but the impacts mask the ‘fook’ right before the ‘right... ‘owzzat?’

I have a feeling being able to maintain horizon in their heads under duress, does result in pretty devastating understatement. #burnsieburns

I’ll add my own exp with pre-’96 Toyotas... my ‘92 Toyota Paseo 5-speed...

Bought used 45K, $10K — robbed, IOW... but I needed a fuel sipper that was reliable but not narcoleptic to drive (my 25-yo self didn’t care about things like roominess or back seat access yet).

POUNDED this car hard from ‘96 to ‘12 — sixteen…

LOL — yeah... while I’ve not done much of anything with my cars (they’ve always been support / snow vehicles for my bikes up until a few years ago... and stock tends to cost the least), with motorcycles it’s much the same... except when you don’t know what you’re doing on a motorcycle... it’s much more difficult to…

Here’s an inline-Four... that sounds and acts like a V-4:

Excluding all the amazing flavors of Colombo V12... Matras were among the V12-iest of the V12s...

If your riding is on less than 50% blacktop, where less braking performance and traction off-road is more priority, get the KLR/KLX/XR-L/any supermoto or dual-sport. If not, the SV is the better bike for the street by a long way... I commuted hardcore in WA with very experienced riders from all over the country, for…

0-60 times are just as relevant for electric as for IC... because it still means the douche in the Tesla can cut you out of that spot in traffic quicker than you can. It’s a standard (if an overly broad one) for the ability to do that vs. slower cars, as it’s always been.

“I’ll be willing to throat a year of add’l…

You’d love a heated vest, then. About $120 closeout at New Enough in the link above (great store — good prices, originally where I got all my Seattle gear from).

A vest gets you so warm, sometimes you don’t even need grip heaters. They used to be about double what the TM one is in the link, so if you have the coin…

Seattle is... unique for motorcyclists, I think. No place I’ve called home has had more informed or skilled riders as a community, both commuting or as enthusiasts... because the conditions sort of force you to ride (the ferry from the kid-safe Kitsap Peninsula to the jobs in Seattle, is almost $30/day for a car, but…

Living in Seattle and working in the IT epicenter up there... knew both owner/racers of Miatas, and my own single-track commuting, wrenching, and racing community... can’t really distinguish which group is the more hardcore about their vehicles. But suffice to say, you like a vehicle when you’ll commute in 25 degF…

Big question is — has the head gasket problem been addressed on this unit? My guess is no... but if so (and only if so), may actually be a good buy.

IME Rain-X beam wipers tended to flutter, spot water back onto the glass, and make big noise on both the cars I had them on, a ‘99 Escort & current ‘04 Civic. They also lost their clean wipe after only a few weeks, much worse than the Bosch InSights I use now... and no difference in wipe (not at all like applying…

IME Rain-X beam wipers tended to flutter, spot water back onto the glass, and make big noise on both the cars I had…

Why they plonked Sentra base output, into anything with even modest sporting intention, is baffling.

Aw, sorry to hear that, man. My day job is a deep-tissue bodyworker... and your wrist is probably one well-placed pull in the right place, away from being right again. I see tons of shoulder, elbow and wrist problems in the office...

Aw, sorry to hear that, man. My day job is a deep-tissue bodyworker... and your wrist is probably one well-placed…