New Shoes

Flatted my moto's rear a few weeks ago. Gave me a chance to try plugging it. Harder than it should be, so I ordered a better kit.

And it's time for a new set, so checked around and decided I was better off putting the new tires on myself. Very smart. A bit of a project. I learned a lot. Kind of like self-surgery. Nice to know you can do it, but maybe better off left to Pro Motorsports.

Continental Trail Attacks. More dirt-oriented than my old Bridgestone Battlax's. So way more solid on the occasional gravel and dirt. And the appropriate footwear for my dual sport bike. Great on highway, drop into corners even a bit quicker than the Battlax's and a little squirmy when on edge due to bigger voids. But I'm not going to be pushing them in the corners anyway. Nice!

Punched

Been riding with Dan most Tuesdays and Thursdays. Rollout at 0600, back by 0800. I can hold my own on the Green Circle with me on my 'cross bike (it fast) and he on his unicogger mountain bike. But on the road I do pretty well to just hang on. Getting dragged around the county like a rag doll in the hand of a three-year-old. It's fun and it has helped the fitness.

On the way in today we saw a commuter about four miles out. He saw us too. A serious rider, wearing a nice kit and riding a Colnago. He held us off pretty well for a mile. But Dan smelled blood in the water. We rolled past doing about 22 mph and Dan slowly upped the pace for his closing interval. The next mile or two got us to 24-25. Into a headwind. A good looooong pull.

Can't really say we punched his ticket, as he clung on (like me) for the ride in. But Dan certainly kept us respectable.

Green Circle

Been riding with Dan in the early a.m. He stood me up on Tuesday. Green Circle was wet, a bit of rain, 40's. And he's getting married on Saturday. No wonder.

Verdict

Our big take-away message from our car search?
Our old car is a 1994 Toyota Corolla Wagon. In the last 15 years, the entire auto industry has somehow not been motivated to develop a car with similar space, the same quality fit and finish and at least as good fuel economy. That is, we could not find a wagon today that looked good, drove well and got mileage as good as our old beater. Progress.
Diesels. We need more passenger diesels. Yes, we know about VW. Their reliability needs to improve.

• Honda Fit - A little small and works a bit too hard on the highway.
• Honda Insight - A few grand less than the Prius, and it really shows.
• Toyota Matrix 1.8L - A contender but lacking in overall comfort and fit.
• Pontiac Vibe 1.8L - Twin of the Matrix. We like the 60% domestic content of both. Better suspension, seating and pricing. Still, a bit ticky-tack cheap.
• Toyota Prius - We tried to love it. We drank the kool-aid. We were immune to it. They've engineered a vehicle where even the driver feels like a passenger. This technological tour-de-force just seems like overkill. And, replacing the batteries every 8 years for $3,000-$5,000 puts a big crimp in the mileage savings. We even looked at a lightly used one for a good price. We tried, we really did. It made the most sense. But we were entirely unmoved.
• Hyundai Elantra Touring - Mileage is OK, not good. Value is great, fit and finish is great. Reliability is recently great. And we liked it. Let's give it a run.