New guy

[LateFan]

80 degrees yesterday WOOT! Now we just need to find time off at the same time! ..and the budget....always the budget.....

[e30RS]

That should be a vast improvement. Snow should be done hopefully.

[LateFan]

It's warm again!

New Ireland Engineering adjustable trailing arm mounts.
New cunifer brake pipes.
New rear tires.
Replace diff oil.
Valve adjust and cover gaskets.
Rebuild drivers door lock cylinder.
Next is solve ABS random non-function and noises.

[LateFan]

So SO much easier with two people.

[ATTACH]125160[/ATTACH]

[LateFan]

Ruined brand new rear tires in 8000 miles, and the rear snows. It's only an inch and a half low, pisses me off.



So off comes the subframe, again, to add Ireland Engineering adjustable trailing arm mounts. I think it'll all come apart easily - it wasn't corroded the first time with the original bushings, and that was only a couple years ago.

Only issue is unheated garage.

[LateFan]

Yeah, I'm not in love with the idea. It's a big heavy Yakima hitch mount, belongs to the university cycling team. We had a production receiver hitch modified at a muffler shop to fit the car with the shorter bumpers, and added some reinforcement plates. Then when it's loaded, there are guy straps to the leading edge of the trunk lid to stabilize it from rocking or shaking. But with 5 or 6 bikes, it's a handful.

We actually had a cross bike almost come off the roof recently, which was a scare. 180 mile trip over a couple of passes. On the way back, the setting sun made a really weird shadow of the car and a bike - which looked like it was sideways....? We stopped, and it had somehow shaken the quick release loose, then the wind folded the handle back more, which made it able to shake more and come fully loose. It just happened to fall across the roof instead of falling off the side of the car. The crank arm just happened to be rotated so that it landed softly on the roof bar instead of a frame tube hitting, or a pedal hitting the roof. The tight wheel strap at the back helped it rotate slowly down onto the roof. Crazy.

If I wasn't looking at that odd shadow on the side of the freeway, we would have gone another 100 miles at 80mph like that.

He had a teammate / buddy last year with a Volvo wagon and hitch rack. he was taking a biking trip to the SW over spring break. A guy tail-ended him, destroyed both of his high end bikes, and totaled the old Volvo. Sucks.

[Echo30V]

Cool. Those trunk racks always scared me. Just could never see myself hanging my Trek Project One or Seven Odonada over the back of the car so close to the road and disaster. However, I’m sure it works.

[LateFan]

He can carry three on the roof and 5 on a hitch-mount rack - way more bikes than kids! But he helps haul team bikes to regional races.

[Echo30V]

Love all the bike racks. I’m a bike nut too.

[LateFan]

ugh...that white stuff is back....

[LateFan]

I dunno! There are still a lot of new parts to acquire, and he's going back to school in a week (but in town so the car is close).

This weekend is Audi A4 brake calipers, Volvo cam seals & TB, and mother-in-law birthday garden clean-up day. Whoosh, time goes......

[2mAn]

Nice, when is the swap happening?

[LateFan]

[ATTACH]116553[/ATTACH]

[LateFan]

He took a 1000 mile road trip over the weekend, got 25 to 29 mpg at average 75-ish. So it's running better than ever.

[LateFan]

The only rain we've had in a month, but we loved it.