then it’s worth overdoing. This past friday I picked up my Exedy Hyper Single clutch kit, part #TH01SD (note that it is speced for later 4AGE so does not include the pilot bearing). Since I have the engine and tranny completely out of the red Corolla, figured might as well change out the clutch. And since this is supposed to be my weekend fun and race car, why not go for something a bit more uprated. I have what Exedy considers their “Stage 1” Sport clutch in the FX right now and with the lighter OEM last gen 20 valve flywheel it’s pretty nice and I kill the engine only a couple times a week. What the heck, skip Stage 2 and go right for “Stage 3”. A set with a lightweight chromoly flywheel, forged aluminum clutch cover, and 6 puck cerametalic friction pads. Flywheel is about 9 lbs compared to the original stock of 16. Cover, pressure pad assembly is a pound or so lighter. We shall see how dramatically different this feels. Continue reading ‘If It’s Worth Doing…’
Monthly Archive for September, 2009
The second BMX tuesday was shaping up and I dug out of work as soon as I could. Scat, Risu, Ckucky, and myself met up once again at Ckucky bicycle storage. I had my pieced together Chase, but in keeping with the theme, I borrowed Scat’s 20″ BMX. Jeff was also there with a freshly built up S&M. WOw, 20, 24, and 26″ BMX was all represented! We eventually cruised out to McBike since Risu had to go to work. Once there, we checked out some of the Redline BMX’s hanging on display. Dang, just how old are we? Talk about regressing! Isn’t this what we did as “kids”?
There is something to be said about cruising about on little single speed bikes. It is fun. We leave McB and head to Ala Wai to check on the little jump that used to be there. The palm trees there were totally gone, a crater where one of the stumps was. Not much fun there, we continued on the bike path, to find that it’s still closed off from the sewer work. Detour along Iolani and come out across from Kaimuki. Dead Guy track calls. Continue reading ‘BMX Tuesday’
At the bottom of my street, there is a T-intersection. While out riding today, I stopped at the stop sign at the bottom of the hill. Being the after work rush, there was comparatively a lot of traffic at this otherwise quiet intersection. There were two cars on the left, and three cars on the right.
No biggie.
I clipped out and footed down to wait for an opening. The first right car was a Lexus RX. She (I’m profiling here: Lexus RX + illegally dark tint + bad driving = short Asian mom) stopped appropriately to make a left into the street I was coming out of until the left cars passed. She then waited there. If the windows (including windscreen) weren’t excessively dark, I would have probably seen her waving me through. I had the stop sign: She had right of way. I unclipped the other foot and stood down. I was not going to trust her and go. Continue reading ‘Wrong of Way’
For some reason, I felt inspired to ride today. Part of it was being off the bike for a long time, and another was getting used to a high level of daily exercise while in Kyoto. My arms hurt from riding BMX with the crew last night (thankfully, I wasn’t cut and bloody like JT). My ischial arches hurt from riding on Monday. Nonetheless, I went for an after-work spin when I got home. I forgot to switch out to clear lenses, so by the time I was heading home, I had to pocket the Oakleys in order to see.
D = 13.3 km (8.14-miles), Vavr = 17.9 km/h (11.1-mph), Vmax = 36.9 km/h (22.9-mph), T = 44-minutes
Fool! At the quitting time busy 4-way stop at Cooke and Pohukaina, saw a plateless new luxury sedan (you can probably guess what brand from the dealers in the area) being driven by a dude in the corporate service department uniform pass a car stopped appropriately at the stop sign on Pohukaina and blow through the intersection. He creeped around the stopped car on the right side and narrowly missed being nailed by the cars on Cooke whose turn it was to go. The only thing worse than the drivers in Hawaii is maybe the drivers in Korea, or the bicyclists in Kyoto.
(0)Toyota really believes that Americans hate station wagons. The LHD version of the JDM Altezza Gita station wagon was sold on the USDM as the IS 300 SportCross. Considering the “IS” part of the name is “International Sedan”, that means this station wagon was a really a sedan with a liftgate – in other words, aside from the fact that it wasn’t a sedan, it was a sedan. Just so long as you don’t use the word “wagon”, everything is right with the world. WTF?!
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Where is this? …specifically, where is the white horse? The first person to give me the correct lattitude and longitude and win a potentially fabulous prize! To enter, register and add a comment to this post with your guess and I’ll tell you if you’re right!
This month’s prize is a foliage green Fastex Grimloc. If you win and are outside the USA, there might be some issue in getting this to you, so you may just win recognition of your weird knowledge!
Contest ends 31 October 2009. Contest terms subject to change.
Okay, the end of the month has come, and many of you were within the correct area, but nobody nailed the precise location. Fabio even spent part of his day driving around the area looking for the white horse! I figured the golfers amongst you would have had the best chance of seeing it, since it is just off the back section of the West Loch muni golf course behind HMC West. Here are the longitude and lattitude coordinates of the horse: 21.370707,-158.031708
Thanks to everyone who participated!
I’m part of a group art show, “Monster Mash,” at Chinatown Boardroom this coming month. The opening reception is this Thursday, 01 October 2009, from 18:00 to 20:00. The show runs through Halloween. Come by and check it out and say, “hi!” If you can’t make it by for the opening, gallery hours are normally Tuesday-Saturday, 11:00-16:00.
Wow – it’s been a month-and-a-half since I last rode my bike! I got home in time for a quick after work ride today. It was a bit dark as Summer has given way to Autumn, but my health has been good since I got back from Kyoto, and the artwork for Monster Mash was turned in, so I was hankering for some riding time. I passed on a trail ride with Ckucke and Root yesterday since I was still feeling burnt out from working on my paintings from Friday night straight through Saturday afternoon. The wind was strong when I started out, but after almost an hour of riding, it had subsided. Riding is fun.
D = 12.05 km (7.49-miles), Vavr = 16.4 km/h (10.2-mph), Vmax = 35.6 km/h (22.1-mph), T = 44-minutes
The first generation Toyota Highlander hybrid had LED taillight clusters and incandescent bulbs in the high-mount brake light. The non-hybrid was the opposite. The current Tacoma pickup has the same LED/incandescent thing going on. WTF?!
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