that can opt to drive like a less than HKD$100K Hyundai Getz.
The question is, WHAT THE FAUD FOR?!
And also, could we have it the other way instead?
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Archive for the 'Vehicles' Category
Rode a folding bike 700Km from the basecamp of Mt. Everest back to Lhasa and stood on his head for 5 minutes.
It’s almost 5-1/2 years old now. It’s been 1-1/2 years and over 13000 Km since the maintenance service before last, and I didn’t do any checking, only oil changing service during my last visit to the service centre about 3 months ago.
Earlier appeared and still current symptoms :
Car starts only after a few seconds pause at the alternator on key turning position.
Radiator leaking coolant.
Engine gasket leaking engine oil
Power-steering oil cup lid leaking power-steering fluid.
New symptoms since Saturday afternoon :
Power-steering weak when the radiator coolant level is low even after topping off power-steering fluid (go figure this one).
All these on top of having just had the air-con coil replaced since the refrigerant had completely leaked away rendering “zerocool” air from the air-con. The mechanic (not BMW this time to save some money) had washed my entire engine compartment for easy spotting any leakage and had asked me to keep an eye on it so we could figure out what needs to be fixed or replaced. It is only then after one week since I had the air-con coil replaced that I have discovered the leaking point on the radiator with the same fluid stain pattern in the engine compartment as it was before the coil replacement. Since I have just discovered that topping off the coolant level keeps the power-steering working properly, that should save me from having to replace the power-steering pump blindingly only to end up not being necessary.
Will just keep an eye on the coolant level for now.
… unless you are prepared to drive it hard. But don’t drive it hard unless you are prepared to have it fixed. That’s how it goes for having hired an American designer to do a German job.
The new BMW M5 as it is reported by Top Gear.
bikes, there is a new 14″ bike designed for young women and children called the Sweet Pea. Maybe there is a bike for middle age men in the works which shall be called the Split Pee?
A couple of days ago while Alec was biking in the parking lot, he crashed again; unhurt.
At first glance, it appeared to be the plastic Chain Guard was cracked which in itself isn’t a big deal. Last night, just before we went out for dinner, a closer inspection revealed that the Chain Ring was bent. Not enough to let the chain come off, but still too much to be fixed. Since no one saw the crash, this odd damage without getting hurt remains a mystery. Maybe Alec is afterall the Boy Wonder.
Of the 4 well used bikes I have ever owned in the last 30 some years, other than normal wear, none of my bikes needed any fixing or replacement parts. Since we lived with our cousins when we were kids, as far as I know, none of their bikes needed any repair works either. When we took the bike to the shop, the owner was so surprised to see the damage he said he has never seen anyone had so many damages within the first month after the purchase.
An aftermarket replacement Chain Ring with Guard with the same T number but longer crank set came to HKD$350 discounted with free labor.
This one is coming out of Alec’s own pocket.
The Mushroom from the Mario Brothers.
The lamp post on the left across the bike path is exactly where Alec crashed into the Sunday before.
The ride itself was quite uneventful. However, I forgot my phone, so we had no means of keeping track of time either. Thus, we had to cut the ride short just in case we ran overtime and missed lunch.
Alec was riding very slowly behind me all morning. When I asked him afterwords why he was going so slow, he said he didn’t want to crash or fall anymore. He was very glad and happy that he didn’t fall at all for this 16Km ride. I think he has learned his lesson.
We met a gentleman in his late 60’s on his bike who we’ve chatted with for a while about bikes; and then he went on TCH bashing. Helloooo…, we went biking to get away from things, not to get into them. So I just “yeap…yeap…” all along just so we could get on with our biking sooner.
At the end of the ride we saw the owner of the bike shop we bought our bikes from. Since he was with a pack of riders, we just said hi and told each other where we went and parted our ways.
I have figured out what the rattling was. With the hight adjustable handlebar stem, there are two locking mechanisms. One is the obvious quick release lock. The other is the conventional Allen key lock. In order for the quick release to work what a QR is supposed to be - quick, the bike tech had left the Allen key lock loose. This let loose the part inside the stem tube which kept hitting the tube and created the rattling sound. Once I had it tightened to a point where the part inside isn’t loose yet allows the QR lock to work effectively, the rattling sound was gone.
I have also replaced one of the two medium softness rubber tubing in the Thudbuster suspension with a firmer one that came with the set. This is supposed to be a step firmer for a heavier load which is one step higher than the specified load for my weight. I have also tightened the screw adjustment one thread further for a slightly higher tolerance before the start of the compensating movement of the suspension. This is very close to my sense of optimum setting where the movement of the Thudbuster is just subtle enough that it doesn’t keep reminding me I am on a suspended seatpost yet providing me with the same comfortable ride.
The bike still feels a little lighter than I am used to with the tail bounces around a bit. Perhaps the rear tire has too much pressure which I have not adjusted and would rather like to get used to instead lowering the pressure and get a soggy feel.
During last night, I was able to ride in a mid high (2nd-7th out of 21 gear) on a small uphill where I was able to go even faster than those pathetic cargo van learners there, and which two rides ago I had to lower to the 2nd-3rd (4 gears down) gear in order a get to the top. My legs and butt feel just fine now without any pain or fatigue, although my back is a little stiff this morning.
The slightly padded full hand glove that I bought two nights ago works really well. It kept my hands warm in the wind and provided just enough padding to ease on the pressure to the palm.
The new helmet is also perfect for the fit and comfort as well as ventilation.
Hopefully, in one or two more weeks of training, I would be able to go for long distance rides.
If I could just find someone to ride with until Alec is experienced and big enough to ride in traffic…
In a discussion about bike wear in an online forum I wrote the following real live story which I thought I should post it here as well….
When I was a boy, during a time when Hong Kong was still building its Mass Transit Railway (underground subway), I lived nearby a station to be where the roads were dug up and replaced with steel slabs for the construction work. I rode my bike through one day at maxed out speed and I must have hit some small piece of rock or something which threw me off nose first. Just as I was watching the steel slab ground getting closer to my face, I managed to turn myself around with the bike on top of me. My back hit the ground and my bike and I must have slid at least 50 ft before coming to a stop. As I didn’t feel much differently, I thought I was unhurt with just some bruises and a sweat in the back.
I picked up my bike and started walking home.
It wasn’t until some female pedestrian walked passed me and screamed really loud that I realized the entire back of my white shirt was covered with blood and still running (the sweat I thought). After I got home and saw my mom and dad who were watching TV at the time, as I told them I was badly hurt they had no idea what I was talking about until I turn myself around and my mom screamed….
A trip to the doctor’s office reviewed that luckily, it was only flesh wounds on my back and arms.
That was the bigger of the two accidents that I had.
The smaller one happened earlier in my life and I cut my eyelid. The sight of the view with blood flooded my eye was definitely a sight for sore eye in that sense to say the least. That’s the time I think a helmet would have prevented the cut.
A helmet to me is still a sense of fashion and I didn’t like the look of the one I have in the last few years, so maybe that’s why I’ve never worn it. I just bought a new helmet yesterday that I like much better, and hopefully I would start wearing it.
I stick with traffic rules just as I drive my car and perhaps even more carefully so when I ride. I hate those who ride through red lights with some even go through the opposite way of the traffic.
After a 10Km ride last Sunday morning on an on-road bike trail and 45min road ride each in the last two nights, I have a pretty good idea on how my Speed Pro runs.
First of all, the main differences between the my specific Speed Pro folding bike described here and a regular full size bike is that the balance of the Speed Pro takes a little more work from the rider, and the Thudbuster/Trek CRZ+/suspended hub combo is much more comfortable than a rigid bike. As I haven’t been riding at all this year before I bought the Speed Pro, the expected soreness is amazingly non-existing! Neither the muscles above my knees nor my bum have any soreness or even fatigue. That goes for the entire body for that matter. I feel like I could ride on and on forever almost.
However, I think it is also because the 20″ wheels and the relatively lightness of the bike, it feels like it bounces a little more. Maybe I had the tires pumped up too high a pressure. The fenders also rattles quite a bit on rough surfaces. I’ll have to check on that to be sure.
On flats and downhills the Speed Pro is plenty fast enough for me at this age. Gear changes smoothly and the hub gear changes like a hot knife cutting through butter. The hub gear is exellent when you come to a hilly stop and forgot to select the proper gear for restart. I don’t have any problems with the gears and chain so far. Gear range hasn’t been tested much as I have only been riding on relatively flat roads with some relatively lengthy but low upward inclined roads so far in order to adjust my muscles for higher rides.
On one occasion I was lucky that I have replaced the original 1/2″ race tires with 1-1/2″ road tires. The roads in Hong Kong have about 1″ gabs between slabs of asphalt with strips of rubbery fillers. These fillers comes off quite easily and they don’t get replaced until the next time they dig up the road for pipe repairs. Around pot holes, there would be some of these gaps in rectangular shape so two sizes would be in the direction of the traffic. My front tire hit one of these gabs with a slight wider broken surface and got caught in it. In a panic, I squeezed the brake slightly only to realize braking rocks the bike even more, so I paddled forward faster to speed up the bike and got out of it safely. Other than these gabs, the grid of the sewage covers on the side of the road also have 1/2″ gabs between them and the read…. Needless to say, I am more than pleased to have replaced the tires.
The Thudbuster does take a little getting used to. With the default setting at medium softness, it seems be a little bit too soft for racing as there is a definite backward movement of the saddle. I am not sure how much this affects the efficiency, but I think I might prefer a slightly stiffer ride and may switch to the next step firmer setting and see how that rides.
The folded size of the Speed Pro is not as tight (thin) as the 16″ Yeah that I had before. It isn’t a matter of tire size, but rather the geometry of the fold as well as the bar end and the bulkier hub geared hub. The relatively shorter Thudbustered seat-post also can’t be lowered enough to provide a rock solid folded stand. I managed to get it into a folded standing position with a little leaning to the gear side. So not all is lost. A 180 degree rotation of the saddle makes handcarrying the folded bike a lot more balanced.
I am thinking of what I should do for covers/bags to get into the MTR for more remote rides. The Dahon SlipCover works, but without carrying straps, it might be too heavy to carry all the way to and from the MTR carts inside the stations. The Dahon DoublePlay might be more versatile.
We’ll see.
WhaUSay?!