I learned my lesson about following too close on rain slicked roads when I had to lay my Honda 750 down and slid to a stop under a tractor-trailer back around 1980 in downtown Atlanta traffic one morning.
Today everyone drives like 1960's drunks because they are distracted by texting and running all over the road.
I totaled my Honda Accord back in 2016 avoiding a head-on collision with a texter coming straight at me in my lane. Still have the flinch when meeting oncoming traffic . . .
I ride a bicycle and drive a Mazda MX-5 (Miata) and it's a constant thing that people seem to be trying to kill me. I ride/drive accordingly.
Sometimes it's because that don't see me, other times on the bike, I've been forced off the road! Luckily Melbourne has a great bike path network so time on the road avoiding idiots can be minimized.
I think you're used to it in the States, but over the last ten years or so here, the SUV/Hilux type vehicle has become the most popular transport and something like a Miata, motorcycle or bike just isn't visible in the mirrors. Or people choose not to see.
Unfortunately, many motorcycle/motor scooter riders think riding in jeans or shorts with trainers is appropriate road gear. Either that or they don't want to spend the money on leathers or kevlar, boots and gloves.
The worst crash I had on my bike was at just 18km/h when I hit a rock and slid along the bike path on my hands and knees. While my knees were badly bruised and grazed, I was wearing kevlar lined gloves which my doctor said had saved my hands - and huge medical bills.
The Versys wasn't even on my radar and really surprised me. Coming from cruisers, I had no idea a 650 inline twin could pull my fat butt around with that much torque. I'm on the fence - is it an ugly cyclops that only a mother could love, or such a funky look that it's cool? Glenn is absolutely on the money about these being agile & loving the corners!
I'm a pretty defensive rider most of the time. I might be a complete safety/skills nerd, but I tend to watch MC Rider and others on YT to pick up riding tips and keep them top of mind. But yeah - sometimes it seems like drivers are just messing with us. Like last night on my ride home - an idiot in a very dark tinted Audi was just being dangerous.
That's a new one....
Here's a few...
Fix it again, Tony (FIAT)
Sliver-doo (Silverado)
Shove it or leave it lay (Chevrolet)
I'm sure you know the list of Ford acronyms....
Caterac (Cadillac)
Stinkin Lincoln
PONTIAC...
A friend of ours seems to specialise in collecting unreliable, mainly British machines: he's had a Triumph Stag and 2000, various Jaguars including an 'Inspector Morse' 3.8 and S Type, an MG-A, a Lotus Espirit, an Alfa Guiletta sedan and various other disasters.
The Lotus was by far the 'worst' mechanically but that's relative; at least mechanical things can be fixed, albeit at much damage to the wallet. The Alfa's electrics have a mind of their own and nothing ever seems to work properly.
His only reliable car has been a Honda Civic but he thinks that's 'boring'. I'll have to give him a drive of our Miata to show him that reliable doesn't mean dull.
@GeoffMillar said:
Unfortunately, many motorcycle/motor scooter riders think riding in jeans or shorts with trainers is appropriate road gear. Either that or they don't want to spend the money on leathers or kevlar, boots and gloves.
Yeah there is some really inexpensive gear out there that would give them a decent chance at not going to the hospital if they went down. I know the heat sucks, but the mesh stuff can be surprisingly good.
@Tom_S said:
The Versys wasn't even on my radar and really surprised me. Coming from cruisers, I had no idea a 650 inline twin could pull my fat butt around with that much torque. I'm on the fence - is it an ugly cyclops that only a mother could love, or such a funky look that it's cool? Glenn is absolutely on the money about these being agile & loving the corners!
This is my perfection. Just enough power to feel like you've got something to keep under control, light enough to really carve. Simple to maintain. I'm an eclectic type, so it's goofy looks are totally my Jam. My 1st gen vstrom 1000? The only thing saving that would be a 19" wheel and a regular style fender. Maybe then it would feel sporty enough. It is butt ugly but it works lol. The 90deg v-twin sounds nice with some straight through mufflers. That might be the one reason I keep it lol.
However I think my friend is fawning over the (soon to release?) Transalp so I may end up with his cb500x. I putted it around a parking lot once and was very impressed how smooth it was. Must have a ton of rubber in those engine mounts.
I would have loved to spend the weekend building speakers. But instead, spent literally all day Saturday and Sunday making and installing baseboards. Made sixteen 8' foot boards from two sheets of 3/4" MDF and used half of them to finish off the kitchen wainscoting.
Each board takes 3 passes with the Yonico bit below. Taking about 3/16" per pass. I built a jig so I can run the 8' board through by myself with zero wobble. Then the top roundover with a Freud Diablo quadra-cut 3/8" roundover, which cuts MDF like butter.
Seal the edge with wood glue-water mix, just like an MDF speaker. Sand. Prime with Zinnser Bullseye 1-2-3 primer. Sand. A coat of-Sherwin Williams Emerald with urethane trim paint. Installed. Will do two coats of final paint when the room is done.
This is the profile of the board.
Only picture of the BEFORE I could find - horrible resolution.
AFTER
Wainscoting was already up. Window frames, rails, stiles, baseboards are DIY. Trim mold on the panels and shoe mold are from Home Depot.
Holy F- dude that is some awesome German style going on! I really want to do something like that in the kitchen since I don't have a real entry way in the house. Was considering doing that in the living room but I think would be a bit much.
@PWRRYD said:
Didn't mean to make this into a buzz kill thread... enjoy your 2 wheels power houses! Just be safe my friends.
No problem from for me. The danger is real. It is too easy to fall into complacency. That is when you get caught off-guard.
A friend of ours seems to specialize in collecting unreliable, mainly British machines…
I had a ‘74TR6 (new- to show my age) luved it- even with it’s quirks, and Lucas electronics, was quite reliable (could time-shift after 1st w/o the clutch- probably not the best for it, but it was fun). A 2005 Elise - zero problems (other than getting in and out of it) credit the modified but based Toyota engine. The new Emira is a gorgeous car offered with a supercharged V6 modified Toyota engine as well- and it, unlike the Elise, has some creature comforts. The driving experience of the Lotus cars is what hooked me.
As long as you don’t get one made on a Friday (as the story goes- ha)
@a4eaudio said:
I would have loved to spend the weekend building speakers. But instead, spent literally all day Saturday and Sunday making and installing baseboards. Made sixteen 8' foot boards from two sheets of 3/4" MDF and used half of them to finish off the kitchen wainscoting.
Each board takes 3 passes with the Yonico bit below. Taking about 3/16" per pass. I built a jig so I can run the 8' board through by myself with zero wobble. Then the top roundover with a Freud Diablo quadra-cut 3/8" roundover, which cuts MDF like butter.
Seal the edge with wood glue-water mix, just like an MDF speaker. Sand. Prime with Zinnser Bullseye 1-2-3 primer. Sand. A coat of-Sherwin Williams Emerald with urethane trim paint. Installed. Will do two coats of final paint when the room is done.
This is the profile of the board.
Only picture of the BEFORE I could find - horrible resolution.
AFTER
Wainscoting was already up. Window frames, rails, stiles, baseboards are DIY. Trim mold on the panels and shoe mold are from Home Depot.
I can appreciate the work involved , but damn if the the old wood work doesnt catch my eye. Was the that the original lead glass ?
@Nicholas_23 said:
I can appreciate the work involved , but damn if the the old wood work doesnt catch my eye. Was the that the original lead glass ?
Yes. Here is a shot of those windows and some round ones in the living room. The green windows are actually interior, between the breakfast nook and the living room. The round ones are to the outside. The house is only 31 years old, but the builder added some pretty nice little touches.
My first car was a 1956 Peugeot 403, which cost the grand sum of $300. It had a hideous pink and red interior because its previous owner loved pink and the outside was a combination of rust, light grey and pale green. Her kids had torn out the rear head lining.
It had many quirks, one of which was that the engine had hemi combustion chambers with the spark plug in the centre. The spark plug was connected to the distrubutor wires by a long spring which went through the rocker cover.
However, the gasket around the base of tube leaked, so the tube would gradually fill with oil until the level reached the top of the spark plug, after which the plug would stop working! My toolkit had to include a bendy straw so I could put it down the tube and suck the oil out - bleah - to get the thing going again!
I learned to drive and jump over ditches in a Puegeot 404 (Red interior/4 speed on the column) with no floor-boards [retired Canadian rust bucket] on seats supported by firewood bridging the remaining frame - we flopped around a lot and the grass would fill the cabin with choking dust driving across a field at high speed so we had to stop and cough a lot . . . (LOL).
In order to get it started we drove nails into the gas tanks of dead cars (junk yard owner's property) and captured the remaining gasoline into buckets then I carried a 12 VDC battery from a Link Belt Excavator we robbed across the yard while soaking my new jeans at the waist with acid and woke up to find the top 1/2 of my pants had dissolved/disappeared the next morning and all we had for food 40 miles from home that weekend was a case of Molson Export ale that some drunk guy who worked for the land owner hadn't consumed and had passed out the night before right after he showed us how to hot-wire the car. (no keys in the ignition).
I was 12 YO and this was both best and worst of times as a result.
We raided a neighbors garden the next day to make turnip and corn stew . . . with crackers from the glove compartment of the Peugeot.
My brother and I had a Peugeot in high school. 4 cylinder aluminum hemi, 4 speed on the column, an emergency crank to start it with, sunroof, front seats that folded flat with the rear seats, and an electric fuel pump with a shut off switch. I suspect my brother used the last 2 features on dates. I don't have a picture of the car but this is what it roughly looked like. I think ours was a 1960 and this picture is a 62 model.
The 403 was a pretty good car, especially compared with what else was around here at the time: Holdens, awful Morris and Austins, Ford Zephyrs etc. They wore radial tyres, too - very radical for the time.
Thanks to an overdrive fourth gear it cruised at 110km/h (about 70mph) all day. The column gear change was light and smooth, unlike the GM Holdens of the time which needed Charles Atlas muscles. Comfortable, too: it even had a heater and fan, which in those days was rare.
Handling, steering and braking were excellent for the time and they were great on bad roads. I sometimes took mine on 4WD tracks; it had a very low first gear, 15" wheels, good clearance and protected drive-train., but I didn't have the kind of adventures described by Steve above...
I owned two, the first broke down several times and I fixed it myself, but the last straw was when I was jacking it up to change a tyre and the jack went right through the rusty sill while the car stayed put! Got $100 for it for parts.
The second was in much nicer condition, 70,000 miles with no rust and a deep red paint job, with a nice deep green interior. Had it three almost trouble free years until some Berk put water in the petrol. By that stage I realised I needed something safer and more modern!
I was super lucky as a young boy because my Dad worked in his Dad's service garage in Sweden growing up. That's back when service garages actually rebuilt engines, trans, brakes, etc. He taught me so much by age 12! My first car was a slightly rusty '66 Mustang coupe with a 289 V8 and C4 automatic trans. We completely rebuilt that engine when I was only 15.
Looks like oil or pellets [but your vent stack leads me to LPG] and your back/sidewall clearances probably void your homeowners insurance guidelines until you cover the walls with hardy backer/underlayment/cement board, dude.
I heat with Wood pellets exclusively since 2004 - much cheaper than LPG or Electric and cleaner than split wood.
I could do most of the work on the 403s myself: I replaced the water pump, head gasket, clutch and fitted a radio/cassette, tachometer and new radiator. These days I would have no chance of doing any of that!
I must admit that after I replaced the clutch I had one bolt left over, I couldn't work out where it came from - until I started the engine and oil poured out of the sump where the bolt belonged. Parents were not happy....
Looks like oil or pellets [but your vent stack leads me to LPG] and your back/sidewall clearances probably void your homeowners insurance guidelines until you cover the walls with hardy backer/underlayment/cement board, dude.
I heat with Wood pellets exclusively since 2004 - much cheaper than LPG or Electric and cleaner than split wood.
Wood pellet. It’s 10” from the walls more than recommended. Sheet rock will be hung this winter but I have outside stuff to get done first.
Comments
I learned my lesson about following too close on rain slicked roads when I had to lay my Honda 750 down and slid to a stop under a tractor-trailer back around 1980 in downtown Atlanta traffic one morning.
Today everyone drives like 1960's drunks because they are distracted by texting and running all over the road.
I totaled my Honda Accord back in 2016 avoiding a head-on collision with a texter coming straight at me in my lane. Still have the flinch when meeting oncoming traffic . . .
I ride a bicycle and drive a Mazda MX-5 (Miata) and it's a constant thing that people seem to be trying to kill me. I ride/drive accordingly.
Sometimes it's because that don't see me, other times on the bike, I've been forced off the road! Luckily Melbourne has a great bike path network so time on the road avoiding idiots can be minimized.
I think you're used to it in the States, but over the last ten years or so here, the SUV/Hilux type vehicle has become the most popular transport and something like a Miata, motorcycle or bike just isn't visible in the mirrors. Or people choose not to see.
Unfortunately, many motorcycle/motor scooter riders think riding in jeans or shorts with trainers is appropriate road gear. Either that or they don't want to spend the money on leathers or kevlar, boots and gloves.
The worst crash I had on my bike was at just 18km/h when I hit a rock and slid along the bike path on my hands and knees. While my knees were badly bruised and grazed, I was wearing kevlar lined gloves which my doctor said had saved my hands - and huge medical bills.
Geoff
The Versys wasn't even on my radar and really surprised me. Coming from cruisers, I had no idea a 650 inline twin could pull my fat butt around with that much torque. I'm on the fence - is it an ugly cyclops that only a mother could love, or such a funky look that it's cool? Glenn is absolutely on the money about these being agile & loving the corners!
I'm a pretty defensive rider most of the time. I might be a complete safety/skills nerd, but I tend to watch MC Rider and others on YT to pick up riding tips and keep them top of mind. But yeah - sometimes it seems like drivers are just messing with us. Like last night on my ride home - an idiot in a very dark tinted Audi was just being dangerous.
I haven't taken the Harley out of the garage in years, but I never had much trouble with cars, possibly because it is stupid loud.
Oh you're one of those...
Hardley-Ableson, the most efficient way to turn fuel into noise LOL
Very true!
But I'm also the guy who isn't afraid to cut into the frame and swingarm.
That's a new one....
Here's a few...
Fix it again, Tony (FIAT)
Sliver-doo (Silverado)
Shove it or leave it lay (Chevrolet)
I'm sure you know the list of Ford acronyms....
Caterac (Cadillac)
Stinkin Lincoln
PONTIAC...
InDIYana Event Website
Lotus: Lots Of Trouble, Usually Serious
Ford Defect (aka Ford Prefect, a horrible little car from the 1950s)
Geoff
But, soooo much fun to drive
When/if they're going, I'm sure they would be.
A friend of ours seems to specialise in collecting unreliable, mainly British machines: he's had a Triumph Stag and 2000, various Jaguars including an 'Inspector Morse' 3.8 and S Type, an MG-A, a Lotus Espirit, an Alfa Guiletta sedan and various other disasters.
The Lotus was by far the 'worst' mechanically but that's relative; at least mechanical things can be fixed, albeit at much damage to the wallet. The Alfa's electrics have a mind of their own and nothing ever seems to work properly.
His only reliable car has been a Honda Civic but he thinks that's 'boring'. I'll have to give him a drive of our Miata to show him that reliable doesn't mean dull.
Geoff
Same , should probably get around to that thing and get it running again. Rebuilt the carb a few years ago and semi installed it lol. Sigh
Yeah there is some really inexpensive gear out there that would give them a decent chance at not going to the hospital if they went down. I know the heat sucks, but the mesh stuff can be surprisingly good.
This is my perfection. Just enough power to feel like you've got something to keep under control, light enough to really carve. Simple to maintain. I'm an eclectic type, so it's goofy looks are totally my Jam. My 1st gen vstrom 1000? The only thing saving that would be a 19" wheel and a regular style fender. Maybe then it would feel sporty enough. It is butt ugly but it works lol. The 90deg v-twin sounds nice with some straight through mufflers. That might be the one reason I keep it lol.
However I think my friend is fawning over the (soon to release?) Transalp so I may end up with his cb500x. I putted it around a parking lot once and was very impressed how smooth it was. Must have a ton of rubber in those engine mounts.
Didn't mean to make this into a buzz kill thread... enjoy your 2 wheels power houses! Just be safe my friends.
I would have loved to spend the weekend building speakers. But instead, spent literally all day Saturday and Sunday making and installing baseboards. Made sixteen 8' foot boards from two sheets of 3/4" MDF and used half of them to finish off the kitchen wainscoting.
Each board takes 3 passes with the Yonico bit below. Taking about 3/16" per pass. I built a jig so I can run the 8' board through by myself with zero wobble. Then the top roundover with a Freud Diablo quadra-cut 3/8" roundover, which cuts MDF like butter.
Seal the edge with wood glue-water mix, just like an MDF speaker. Sand. Prime with Zinnser Bullseye 1-2-3 primer. Sand. A coat of-Sherwin Williams Emerald with urethane trim paint. Installed. Will do two coats of final paint when the room is done.
This is the profile of the board.
Only picture of the BEFORE I could find - horrible resolution.
AFTER
Wainscoting was already up. Window frames, rails, stiles, baseboards are DIY. Trim mold on the panels and shoe mold are from Home Depot.
Holy F- dude that is some awesome German style going on! I really want to do something like that in the kitchen since I don't have a real entry way in the house. Was considering doing that in the living room but I think would be a bit much.
No problem from for me. The danger is real. It is too easy to fall into complacency. That is when you get caught off-guard.
I had a ‘74TR6 (new- to show my age) luved it- even with it’s quirks, and Lucas electronics, was quite reliable (could time-shift after 1st w/o the clutch- probably not the best for it, but it was fun). A 2005 Elise - zero problems (other than getting in and out of it) credit the modified but based Toyota engine. The new Emira is a gorgeous car offered with a supercharged V6 modified Toyota engine as well- and it, unlike the Elise, has some creature comforts. The driving experience of the Lotus cars is what hooked me.
As long as you don’t get one made on a Friday (as the story goes- ha)
I can appreciate the work involved , but damn if the the old wood work doesnt catch my eye. Was the that the original lead glass ?
Yes. Here is a shot of those windows and some round ones in the living room. The green windows are actually interior, between the breakfast nook and the living room. The round ones are to the outside. The house is only 31 years old, but the builder added some pretty nice little touches.
Freaquing awesome millwork . . . Love it!
I'm sure you've heard of "LUCAS - Prince of Darkness" or Leaves Us Cold And Stranded"?
The only electrics worse than British might have been Italian.
But you obviously had a lot of fun with your cars over the years, that's the main thing!
Geoff
My first car was a 1956 Peugeot 403, which cost the grand sum of $300. It had a hideous pink and red interior because its previous owner loved pink and the outside was a combination of rust, light grey and pale green. Her kids had torn out the rear head lining.
It had many quirks, one of which was that the engine had hemi combustion chambers with the spark plug in the centre. The spark plug was connected to the distrubutor wires by a long spring which went through the rocker cover.
However, the gasket around the base of tube leaked, so the tube would gradually fill with oil until the level reached the top of the spark plug, after which the plug would stop working! My toolkit had to include a bendy straw so I could put it down the tube and suck the oil out - bleah - to get the thing going again!
The joys of old cars.....
Geoff
I learned to drive and jump over ditches in a Puegeot 404 (Red interior/4 speed on the column) with no floor-boards [retired Canadian rust bucket] on seats supported by firewood bridging the remaining frame - we flopped around a lot and the grass would fill the cabin with choking dust driving across a field at high speed so we had to stop and cough a lot . . . (LOL).
In order to get it started we drove nails into the gas tanks of dead cars (junk yard owner's property) and captured the remaining gasoline into buckets then I carried a 12 VDC battery from a Link Belt Excavator we robbed across the yard while soaking my new jeans at the waist with acid and woke up to find the top 1/2 of my pants had dissolved/disappeared the next morning and all we had for food 40 miles from home that weekend was a case of Molson Export ale that some drunk guy who worked for the land owner hadn't consumed and had passed out the night before right after he showed us how to hot-wire the car. (no keys in the ignition).
I was 12 YO and this was both best and worst of times as a result.
We raided a neighbors garden the next day to make turnip and corn stew . . . with crackers from the glove compartment of the Peugeot.
Thanks for sparking the memories, Geoff!!
My brother and I had a Peugeot in high school. 4 cylinder aluminum hemi, 4 speed on the column, an emergency crank to start it with, sunroof, front seats that folded flat with the rear seats, and an electric fuel pump with a shut off switch. I suspect my brother used the last 2 features on dates. I don't have a picture of the car but this is what it roughly looked like. I think ours was a 1960 and this picture is a 62 model.
It was a fun car and we beat it pretty hard.
The 403 was a pretty good car, especially compared with what else was around here at the time: Holdens, awful Morris and Austins, Ford Zephyrs etc. They wore radial tyres, too - very radical for the time.
Thanks to an overdrive fourth gear it cruised at 110km/h (about 70mph) all day. The column gear change was light and smooth, unlike the GM Holdens of the time which needed Charles Atlas muscles. Comfortable, too: it even had a heater and fan, which in those days was rare.
Handling, steering and braking were excellent for the time and they were great on bad roads. I sometimes took mine on 4WD tracks; it had a very low first gear, 15" wheels, good clearance and protected drive-train., but I didn't have the kind of adventures described by Steve above...
I owned two, the first broke down several times and I fixed it myself, but the last straw was when I was jacking it up to change a tyre and the jack went right through the rusty sill while the car stayed put! Got $100 for it for parts.
The second was in much nicer condition, 70,000 miles with no rust and a deep red paint job, with a nice deep green interior. Had it three almost trouble free years until some Berk put water in the petrol. By that stage I realised I needed something safer and more modern!
Geoff
I was super lucky as a young boy because my Dad worked in his Dad's service garage in Sweden growing up. That's back when service garages actually rebuilt engines, trans, brakes, etc. He taught me so much by age 12! My first car was a slightly rusty '66 Mustang coupe with a 289 V8 and C4 automatic trans. We completely rebuilt that engine when I was only 15.
Mustang: a pretty cool car to have as your first!
Whenever I see that era of Mustang on the roads I think of Steve McQueen in Bullitt, possibly the coolest car/driver combination on film.
Geoff
Doing a little test run on the garage heater I installed today.
https://www.jfcomponents.com/
Oil, Wood Pellet or LPG fired?
Looks like oil or pellets [but your vent stack leads me to LPG] and your back/sidewall clearances probably void your homeowners insurance guidelines until you cover the walls with hardy backer/underlayment/cement board, dude.
I heat with Wood pellets exclusively since 2004 - much cheaper than LPG or Electric and cleaner than split wood.
I could do most of the work on the 403s myself: I replaced the water pump, head gasket, clutch and fitted a radio/cassette, tachometer and new radiator. These days I would have no chance of doing any of that!
I must admit that after I replaced the clutch I had one bolt left over, I couldn't work out where it came from - until I started the engine and oil poured out of the sump where the bolt belonged. Parents were not happy....
Geoff
Wood pellet. It’s 10” from the walls more than recommended. Sheet rock will be hung this winter but I have outside stuff to get done first.
https://www.jfcomponents.com/