If you don't have a Crippled parking card, stay out of their stalls.
Good point. Lately, the majority of vehicles I see in these spaces do not have the requisite gimp stickers. It amazes me that people can be so blatantly selfish given the amount of available parking in this community. When it gets cold, though, it is apparently asking too much to walk an extra 30 seconds to the car. :sick:
2018 Subaru Crosstrek, 2014 Audi Q7 TDI, 2013 Subaru Forester, 2013 Ford F250 Lariat D, 1976 Ford F250, 1969 Chevrolet C20, 1969 Ford Econoline 100
What, you don't like seeing the posers with their foglights on in clear conditions? You don't think it makes them look sporty and cool?
I saw a Toyota pickup the other day that had like 8 foglights, and they were all on! In urban traffic!
That reminds me, I was in Germany driving in a rainstorm on the Autobahn, and I turned my rear foglight on to make me more visible. I then left the main highway, and the weather cleared...within 30 seconds, someone pointed to me that I left the light on. Such discipline, I wish we had it here.
Why is the slower vehicle so important as to hold me up? :P
I've also seen a couple crashes in the past day or too...I almost witnessed a contractor-style pickup cut off a Comcast van...unfortunately, it cut a little close and hit the van. Not much later I saw a Scion tC and a cloned crossover - I think a Rogue - tangle...either the Scion ran a stop sign and hit the taller vehicle, or the taller one cut the corner close.
Sometimes I drive with my fogs on not so much to see, but as to be seen. My wife used to claim her van was invisible due to so many folks trying to involve her in their wrecks, doing so many stupid things right in front of her.
Obviously you notice cars with their fogs on. Exactly my point, and I'm sorry if it annoys you.
That reminds me of a little bit of hell I was stuck in yesterday. 30mph residential main street, one lane in each direction. I am stuck behind one of our beloved new residents (the second and third world probably feels at home here, with our embarrassingly decayed roads and asinine irresponsible traffic controls :sick: ), driving a first-gen Hyundai Santa Fe - the ugly deformed one. They were going about 20. Behind me was a new style Highlander, the bloated pointless one. The Toyota positioned itself about 3cm from my bumper. Oh yeah, and it was raining. So, I was behind a slowpoke and being tailgated, by cars that are at best hard on the eyes. Why tailgate when stuck in traffic?
When I used to regularly navigate the snowy roads in the Palouse I noticed the truckers used fog lights and they were mounted well below the bumper. When aimed properly, fogs are not an annoyance. Only the ones set for owl hunting need a bullet through them.
For over 15 years, cars have Amber lights on with the headlights thus fogs are not really needed, to be seen by others, unless it's foggy.
what amazes me is that at the local big blue box in my neighborhood, there is frequently a plethora of huge jacked up monstrous trucks that could give Big Foot a challenge parked in those stalls. And they do have a card or plate indicating they can park there.
I wonder though-- if they can manage to scale into these things, why do they need to have a handicapped designation?
I think this time of the year is very stressful for many people because of the "have tos" that the holidays bring. As a result, people are hard pressed for time. I know my wife is stressed out about getting x, y, and z done before Xmas.
On the old job, it seems there were more family fights, shootings/knive fights, and other out of control violence that resulted in harm to someone.
I just try to be courteously aware of other drivers and be rather vigilant when I drive the deteriorating freeways of Disney...er.. No. Ca. I try to not get distracted and stay away from traffic on the roadways.
I have no stats, but I would guess that this time of year product more discourteous drivers and they may be a major cause of accidents.
Now add in the elements everyone speaks about here, i.e.snow, ice, rain, fogged windows I think it really gets to people including myself.
I hope that everyone here on this excellent site stays safe, has no accidents, and enjoys a peaceful and spiritual holiday season. Our Illinois family is flying out next week and our family will be celebrating together. Life is good and I hope it is good for you too.
This afternoon at nearly 5pm, when it was just about fully dark here, I got behind a slow moving Nissan pickup advertising a small business - and he had commercial plates. He was moving pretty slow, so I went around him. I then noticed - no lights. However, he did have his fog lights on, but nothing else. Why would someone do this?
I also saw a rednecked-out 90s Dodge diesel 4x4 (black wheels with weird centers, tasteless 2-tone paint job, dark windows, bullbar) that was belching so much smoke it looked like there was a fire ahead. Why is this legal?
I've also got a new car parking beside me in the garage here - an Explorer. I cringed when I saw it...but the guy has been parking perfectly straight and in the center of his spot. I'm thrilled about this after parking by a brainless girl in an Aveo who couldn't park neither straight nor centered, and once she hit the post beside her car. Finally, I might not have to worry about my car.
It has been awhile since the person who parks on that side of me had my trust. The other side is OK as there's a pillar ...I am skilled enough to get close to it, but others are afraid, so I have room. On that side a woman in a Maxima parks..she's not too bad, a little off sometimes...I'd give her a B+ as she backs in and doesn't hit the lines. Yeah, I am kind of a parking freak.
The Aveo girl though...F. A car that small should be easy to park. She probably caused a good grand worth of damage when she scraped the pillar, sometimes she'd be up on the line or over it with nobody beside her, alarmingly close to me. I would see her park and she would circle around the garage and park from the other side as not to have to turn near the pillar. In an Aveo. I mean, really.
I'm also anal about parking in my indoor garage at the company I work at 2 or 3 days a week (semi-retired now). I get there early so I park against a roof pillar support, so one side is good, but I go to the extreme of parking on the yellow line by the pillar.
This gives a space of maybe 2, almost 3 feet before that spots yellow line on the other side of my space. So the person parking next to me has enough room to almost park a Greyhound bus adjacent to me. Oh No, half the time, the blithering idiot parking next to me is still within door striking range of dinging my car, many times actually parked in my lane with the nearer wheels of his car.
I give up, what else can I do to deflect these knuckleheads?
parking properly is one of my biggest peeves. Especially with how small they make the spaces these days. They barely make them big enough for a decent mid-sized car. So it really peeves me when I see that people can't park properly enough for you to get in with fear of them hitting you on their way out or while getting into their car. It also make me fear because I have a 4 year old you doesn't quite understand yet and is at the stage where she like to open her own door (which I don't let her for the very reason that I don't want to be leaving notes on people's windshields....)
When I am at work I also nestle up near a thick support pillar...I don't worry, as nobody else seems to have the ability to get close to it on the other side. This usually leaves me enough room to feel safe on the other side of the car, but now and then a dimwit will park right up on the line for no reason...that's what you get when swilling a Starbucks and texting while driving :lemon:
There's a grocery store near where I live built into a mid-rise apartment building...I swear 90% of the spots are "compact", and they mean it. Cars started getting bigger again about 20 years ago...but cheapskate negligent property developers keep doing anything to save a buck.
I also like to park adjacent to a nice large cement piller. At least my driver's side door will not get banged into when another driver parks next to me. And the first thing I do when I come into a parking lot is where to "hide" and avoid other cars. I usually walk further but I do find a place away from the other cars.
My wife got upset when I tried to park away from other cars one night when I needed to pick up some ice cream. Well I did what she wanted me to do. I parked very close to the store, and she stayed in the car.
When I returned my wife said the lady who parked next to us banged our door when she got out. Never said a word, nor did my wife say anything to her. Well after that there has not been any arguments where I park. If she doesnot like the parking locale, she walks inside with me.
Hope all have a beautiful day. Good luck to all ans stay safe.
Cement pillars and distant parking spots are good friends of the OCD driver. Although when I park a little ways out in the lot, it always gets a few others to park around me. Sheep mentality.
I love parking out past the crowded areas at Costco, while stooges cruise for a close spot. They will be driving when I park, and still driving when I enter the store. Come on people, pretty much all of use NEED that 2 minutes of exercise.
you couldn't even get into Costco's parking lot yesterday. There were cars backed out onto the feeder road trying to to turn left into Costco. It was a nightmare. I'm just glad I didn't have to go there. Although if I did, there are two other entrances that I would have utilized instead of that one. That particular entrance is always a nightmare.
I only go to that drama show within an hour of opening - mid-afternoon there is a nightmare and to be avoided at any cost. I am sure the one nearest me has its fair share of fender benders - I have seen some insanely poor driving in that lot.
Just key your own car the first day you drive it off the lot and no worries. :shades:
I'm on vacation in Austin and the drivers here have been good (haven't hit a rush hour yet though). One guy sort of roared through the Whole Foods parking lot in his big honking F-250, but most of the roar was from the veggie oil he was burning (per his paint job - didn't smell any fries).
Just key your own car the first day you drive it off the lot and no worries.
A friend of mine used to own a bike shop. One evening after building up a new mountain bike for himself, he took a screwdriver and put a nice scratch in the top tube. I was in horror --- "Whaaaat are you doing?"
"There, now I can ride this bike and not worry about it!"
I at one time had a pretty nice mountain bike that I didn't want to lose by it walking away mysteriously. I went down and bought some duct tape and some athletic pre-wrap (the tape that's not tape that you put down before wrapping your ankle or wrist in tape).
First I wrapped the entire bike in this pre-wrap and then I covered the pre-wrap with duct tape. The bike looked horrid after words. The only way you would be able to tell that it was worth anything would be to look at the components and your common thief that would be tempted by a loose bike wouldn't know a high end component from your typical big blue box store type bike....
I never worried about the bike after that. And when I finally took the duct tape off? It came off without a bit of residue left behind except for where I had secured it to start my wrappings.
Age-old bad habit. Late yesterday afternoon, heavy overcast, snow covered fields in rural area, 5 to 20 minutes after time of sunset, some people driving with "only" parking lights. As usual, mostly pickup trucks. What is that mentality?
This was a longstanding tradition in Pittsburgh where I grew up. Things may have changed now with the passage of laws stating headlights must be used from sunset to sunrise and whenever the wipers are on.
I see that a lot here, too, and it's the same vehicles out here that like to do it. I think there's some old belief that it looks cool...but it doesn't.
Good locks and chains are heavy. You buy a good bike to avoid the extra weight. Tape's not so heavy but spray paint is popular too. Mostly you don't want to let it out of your sight.
Of course, I could lose 20 pounds and that'd be equivalent to about $4,000 worth of an expensive bike frame and parts.
Cruised the oil-patch country from Midland TX over to the White Sands NM area today. No one was speeding much in TX, and there were a few cops here and there. But the limit in most places is 75, so you don't really need to go much faster than that. Pretty good drivers mostly.
If the few extra pounds that a lock and chain adds to a bike really slows you down or makes biking harder you have bigger issues. In reality the vast majority of people will not notice the weight of the lock and chain. Heck I probably have more weight in water when I start out than I have in a lock and chain.
I might add that 99.99% of the people don't need a $4K bike.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
this was only about a $600 bike... But still I guess. I don't know why I didn't mess with a lock. Although I never really worried about it and that bike still sits in my garage. It only get's used around town now. It needs a complete overhaul to be trail worthy again. And it would cost just as much to do that as it would to just get a newer bike that I would be happier with... (which is what I plan to do once riding season comes back around)
It needs a complete overhaul to be trail worthy again.And it would cost just as much to do that as it would to just get a newer bike that I would be happier with...
I don't know abut that, a complete overhaul shouldn't cost more than $300 (a tune up of the bike, bearings cleaned re-greased, new brake pads, new chain, new tires and new tube), unless the chain got stretched to much and/or you need new rims. My hybrid will be overhauled this spring and it should be under $150 and that includes a new chain as the current one is stretched almost to its limit.
If you just ride around town and on paved surfaces I would suggest a road bike.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
This morning, driving around 0545 on a dark road with no other traffic, I notice an anomaly in the way the light reflects and in the shadows maybe a quarter mile ahead. As I was exceeding the arbitrary speed limit by 5-10mph, I got closer to the mysterious phenomenon within a minute or two. A black Suburban driving with no lights :sick:
Ok stopped real quick at the grocery store to pick up some steaks and fixins for dinner tonight. I found a real good spot end of the isle right by the door. Just dumb luck.
Now as I was leaving and walking to my car I noticed in that isle someone had stopped in the middle waiting for the soccer mom to load the kids and groceries. This guy was blocking two cars behind him and those two cars were blocking the car parked next to me (who was wanting to leave) and me (as I was in the car waiting for a bit before traffic cleared up). So to get 20 feet closer he waited several minutes holding up at least 4 cars and most likely took longer to get into the store.
Now as I was driving away and getting to the end of the isle (angled spaces oneway traffic) some yahoo whips around the corner to go the wrong way almost hitting me head on. :surprise:
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Just got back from Christmas in podunk...always a fun drive. The way there wasn't bad....interstates moving along OK, other highways had light volumes and good lane discipline...cruised for about 60 miles on a secondary road at 5 over and didn't get passed by a single car.
The drive back to the 21st century today was different though. The secondary highways were full of LLCs and crawlers...even if you tried to get within 5mph of the limit, you would soon come up on an LLC pacing the guy beside him...saw this several times. Also saw some scary distracted drivers...one trying to put down a cup, and another tending to an unrestrained child. Both weaved sharply left and had close calls with the median or concrete barrier.
Also saw an odd crash on I5...traffic nearly stopped, but I couldn't see why...no visible crash, no extreme volumes. I noticed what looked like the grille or fascia of a car in the road...maybe people were dodging debris. Shortly later I spotted what looked like a Trailblazer clone on the shoulder, front smashed in...but no other vehicles in sight. I have a feeling it rear-ended a semi trailer, who maybe didn't notice if they were braking or something.
I was bombing around the Texas backroads this last week and the speed limits are often 70 or 75 even off the interstate. There are tree stands visible all over but I only noticed a few carcasses on the shoulder. Nothing like, say, Pennsylvania. Still makes you think.
hmmm.. that's a good thought. Although it would be used mainly on some "light" downhill stuff and a dual suspended bike would be much better and make me safer on the trails and not a danger to others (trying to relate this however slightly to being an "inconsiderate biker :shades:)...
There is actually a lot that needs to be done. It needs a new rear hub as the current hub set is worn and doesn't pick up the chain like it should. The crankset is the same way and the headset knocks back and forth. So it actually needs a bit more than cables and a chain. The brakes are good, tires okay, rims a little bent and would need trueing and the spokes tightened. The front derailure is also in good shape. So it really does need a bit of work to be worthy for what I do with it. But for around town just a simple would tue-up would be sufficent....
We did a Saturday 'over the river & thru the woods' trek to visit the MIL in Colville on Saturday - must have been a 'drive slow for Christmas' confab somewhere close by... lots of piddling along at 50 or less (SL 60), with just enough oncoming traffic & a lack of passing zones to make it a bit frustrating. Did get to engage the Vortec warp drive a time or two :shades:
It was like people were afraid to even approach the SL...
But it's more metropolitan than Colville as it is only 2 hours from the 21st century, so you've got me there :P
What you describe sounds like my last venture over White Pass and the roads on each side between Yakima and I5. I must have passed 20 cars and still had an average speed of just 60mph. It was in October and the weather was dry...people were just dawdling.
The sunny weather here has baked people's little brains, I think. Yesterday I used my horn twice, both at people who virtually stopped when turning off of 35mph suburban arterials. Are people afraid their cars will flip over?
It needs a new rear hub as the current hub set is worn and doesn't pick up the chain like it should.
It could be that the chain is stretched to much. Measure a 12 complete links (a complete link is 1 inside and 1 outside link) on a new chain it will be 12 inches. If it is up to 1/16 of an inch longer you should be OK. if its between1/16 and 1/8 it needs replacing, if its more than 1/8 inch longer you should replace the chain and rear sprockets. If the chain is stretched up to the 1/8th inch point the chain would skip under stress and replacing the chain should solve it, but if its past the 1/8th inch mark you most likely have to much wear in the rear sprockets.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Yesterday/s winners - W203 C-class on a 40mph yellow signed off ramp....going maybe 20. By the end of the ramp it had maybe 6-8 cars behind it, and continued to crawl down the 40mph road at 20-25. I don't get it.
Not much later saw a coffee-cup clutching middle ager in an Outback going about 25 in a 35mph 4 lane arterial, who then proceeded to make a left turn across a double yellow line. Nice.
Finished it off by getting close to a PT Cruiser driven by one of the new resident drivers we are blessed with, who was driving on the wrong side of the road in a parking garage...not from a wide turn or anything innocent, just simply dawdling down the way on the left.
I have never NEVER driven in a place in the US or Canada where a significant portion of the driving public goes SLOWER than the posted limit in clear dry conditions. I've been in 38 states and 3 Canadian provinces, but in none of the northern tier of US states stretching from Minnesota and Wisconsin westward to Washington and Oregon. Something in the water?
There must be something in the water... I'm a southwest native having been transplanted to the northwest. The local's here, at least on the outskirts of town never seem to go the actual SL. It's 55 on the highway, but most seem to hover around 50 and frequently around 45. That may be because all the side roads and such are 45 and so when they get to the main road they continue to go 45?? But even on those roads, they go 35-40 so what gives?? A lot of the side roads are curvy and follow creeks or the lay of the land (Oregon never figured out how to cut through the land and make a straight road) so sometimes 45 is the fastest you dare go, but there are a lot of places that will all AT LEAST that speed.
I think it's just the "nowhere to go" and "all day to get there" "so I don't have to go faster" mentality that seems to be so pervasive.
There is this one road near me, its wide open 4 lanes (two each way) not much traffic or lights with a SL of 50 MPH. I swear that half the time I am on it I can fly past 75% of the traffic doing 45 MPH.
Its not that people in the area drive slow, just that for some odd reason people drive slow on this section of road.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
9 out of 10 people will go a normal speed...but it seems 1 in 10 vehicles in this area is diven by a scaredy-cat slowpoke. Get a couple of those close to each other, and it just destroys any traffic flow.
Many people here are generally very timid too...get a few of them at a 4-way stop, and it becomes hilariously stupid.
Comments
Good point. Lately, the majority of vehicles I see in these spaces do not have the requisite gimp stickers. It amazes me that people can be so blatantly selfish given the amount of available parking in this community. When it gets cold, though, it is apparently asking too much to walk an extra 30 seconds to the car. :sick:
I saw a Toyota pickup the other day that had like 8 foglights, and they were all on! In urban traffic!
That reminds me, I was in Germany driving in a rainstorm on the Autobahn, and I turned my rear foglight on to make me more visible. I then left the main highway, and the weather cleared...within 30 seconds, someone pointed to me that I left the light on. Such discipline, I wish we had it here.
Why is the slower vehicle so important as to hold me up? :P
I've also seen a couple crashes in the past day or too...I almost witnessed a contractor-style pickup cut off a Comcast van...unfortunately, it cut a little close and hit the van. Not much later I saw a Scion tC and a cloned crossover - I think a Rogue - tangle...either the Scion ran a stop sign and hit the taller vehicle, or the taller one cut the corner close.
The vehicle in front is not more important when you are being held up, it's just that you're not more important than he when both are being held up.
Obviously you notice cars with their fogs on. Exactly my point, and I'm sorry if it annoys you.
Cheers!
Paul
That reminds me of a little bit of hell I was stuck in yesterday. 30mph residential main street, one lane in each direction. I am stuck behind one of our beloved new residents (the second and third world probably feels at home here, with our embarrassingly decayed roads and asinine irresponsible traffic controls :sick: ), driving a first-gen Hyundai Santa Fe - the ugly deformed one. They were going about 20. Behind me was a new style Highlander, the bloated pointless one. The Toyota positioned itself about 3cm from my bumper. Oh yeah, and it was raining. So, I was behind a slowpoke and being tailgated, by cars that are at best hard on the eyes. Why tailgate when stuck in traffic?
For over 15 years, cars have Amber lights on with the headlights thus fogs are not really needed, to be seen by others, unless it's foggy.
I wonder though-- if they can manage to scale into these things, why do they need to have a handicapped designation?
On the old job, it seems there were more family fights, shootings/knive fights, and other out of control violence that resulted in harm to someone.
I just try to be courteously aware of other drivers and be rather vigilant when I drive the deteriorating freeways of Disney...er.. No. Ca. I try to not get distracted and stay away from traffic on the roadways.
I have no stats, but I would guess that this time of year product more discourteous drivers and they may be a major cause of accidents.
Now add in the elements everyone speaks about here, i.e.snow, ice, rain, fogged windows I think it really gets to people including myself.
I hope that everyone here on this excellent site stays safe, has no accidents, and enjoys a peaceful and spiritual holiday season. Our Illinois family is flying out next week and our family will be celebrating together. Life is good and I hope it is good for you too.
Good luck to all and stay safe.
jensad
I also saw a rednecked-out 90s Dodge diesel 4x4 (black wheels with weird centers, tasteless 2-tone paint job, dark windows, bullbar) that was belching so much smoke it looked like there was a fire ahead. Why is this legal?
I've also got a new car parking beside me in the garage here - an Explorer. I cringed when I saw it...but the guy has been parking perfectly straight and in the center of his spot. I'm thrilled about this after parking by a brainless girl in an Aveo who couldn't park neither straight nor centered, and once she hit the post beside her car. Finally, I might not have to worry about my car.
That was a long time coming! Good luck....
The Aveo girl though...F. A car that small should be easy to park. She probably caused a good grand worth of damage when she scraped the pillar, sometimes she'd be up on the line or over it with nobody beside her, alarmingly close to me. I would see her park and she would circle around the garage and park from the other side as not to have to turn near the pillar. In an Aveo. I mean, really.
This gives a space of maybe 2, almost 3 feet before that spots yellow line on the other side of my space. So the person parking next to me has enough room to almost park a Greyhound bus adjacent to me. Oh No, half the time, the blithering idiot parking next to me is still within door striking range of dinging my car, many times actually parked in my lane with the nearer wheels of his car.
I give up, what else can I do to deflect these knuckleheads?
My wife got upset when I tried to park away from other cars one night when I needed to pick up some ice cream. Well I did what she wanted me to do. I parked very close to the store, and she stayed in the car.
When I returned my wife said the lady who parked next to us banged our door when she got out. Never said a word, nor did my wife say anything to her. Well after that there has not been any arguments where I park. If she doesnot like the parking locale, she walks inside with me.
Hope all have a beautiful day. Good luck to all ans stay safe.
jensad
I love parking out past the crowded areas at Costco, while stooges cruise for a close spot. They will be driving when I park, and still driving when I enter the store. Come on people, pretty much all of use NEED that 2 minutes of exercise.
I'm on vacation in Austin and the drivers here have been good (haven't hit a rush hour yet though). One guy sort of roared through the Whole Foods parking lot in his big honking F-250, but most of the roar was from the veggie oil he was burning (per his paint job - didn't smell any fries).
A friend of mine used to own a bike shop. One evening after building up a new mountain bike for himself, he took a screwdriver and put a nice scratch in the top tube. I was in horror --- "Whaaaat are you doing?"
"There, now I can ride this bike and not worry about it!"
First I wrapped the entire bike in this pre-wrap and then I covered the pre-wrap with duct tape. The bike looked horrid after words. The only way you would be able to tell that it was worth anything would be to look at the components and your common thief that would be tempted by a loose bike wouldn't know a high end component from your typical big blue box store type bike....
I never worried about the bike after that. And when I finally took the duct tape off? It came off without a bit of residue left behind except for where I had secured it to start my wrappings.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
(so I guess I would deserve it if my bike got stolen huh??) :shades:
Oh well I guess it kept all that mud of the bike.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Of course, I could lose 20 pounds and that'd be equivalent to about $4,000 worth of an expensive bike frame and parts.
Cruised the oil-patch country from Midland TX over to the White Sands NM area today. No one was speeding much in TX, and there were a few cops here and there. But the limit in most places is 75, so you don't really need to go much faster than that. Pretty good drivers mostly.
If the few extra pounds that a lock and chain adds to a bike really slows you down or makes biking harder you have bigger issues. In reality the vast majority of people will not notice the weight of the lock and chain. Heck I probably have more weight in water when I start out than I have in a lock and chain.
I might add that 99.99% of the people don't need a $4K bike.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
I don't know abut that, a complete overhaul shouldn't cost more than $300 (a tune up of the bike, bearings cleaned re-greased, new brake pads, new chain, new tires and new tube), unless the chain got stretched to much and/or you need new rims. My hybrid will be overhauled this spring and it should be under $150 and that includes a new chain as the current one is stretched almost to its limit.
If you just ride around town and on paved surfaces I would suggest a road bike.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Now as I was leaving and walking to my car I noticed in that isle someone had stopped in the middle waiting for the soccer mom to load the kids and groceries. This guy was blocking two cars behind him and those two cars were blocking the car parked next to me (who was wanting to leave) and me (as I was in the car waiting for a bit before traffic cleared up). So to get 20 feet closer he waited several minutes holding up at least 4 cars and most likely took longer to get into the store.
Now as I was driving away and getting to the end of the isle (angled spaces oneway traffic) some yahoo whips around the corner to go the wrong way almost hitting me head on. :surprise:
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
The drive back to the 21st century today was different though. The secondary highways were full of LLCs and crawlers...even if you tried to get within 5mph of the limit, you would soon come up on an LLC pacing the guy beside him...saw this several times. Also saw some scary distracted drivers...one trying to put down a cup, and another tending to an unrestrained child. Both weaved sharply left and had close calls with the median or concrete barrier.
Also saw an odd crash on I5...traffic nearly stopped, but I couldn't see why...no visible crash, no extreme volumes. I noticed what looked like the grille or fascia of a car in the road...maybe people were dodging debris. Shortly later I spotted what looked like a Trailblazer clone on the shoulder, front smashed in...but no other vehicles in sight. I have a feeling it rear-ended a semi trailer, who maybe didn't notice if they were braking or something.
I was bombing around the Texas backroads this last week and the speed limits are often 70 or 75 even off the interstate. There are tree stands visible all over but I only noticed a few carcasses on the shoulder. Nothing like, say, Pennsylvania. Still makes you think.
Texas probably isn't a bad place to drive, if those reasonable limits are common. I'd imagine the weather there keeps the roads relatively smooth too.
There is actually a lot that needs to be done. It needs a new rear hub as the current hub set is worn and doesn't pick up the chain like it should. The crankset is the same way and the headset knocks back and forth. So it actually needs a bit more than cables and a chain. The brakes are good, tires okay, rims a little bent and would need trueing and the spokes tightened. The front derailure is also in good shape. So it really does need a bit of work to be worthy for what I do with it. But for around town just a simple would tue-up would be sufficent....
We did a Saturday 'over the river & thru the woods' trek to visit the MIL in Colville on Saturday - must have been a 'drive slow for Christmas' confab somewhere close by... lots of piddling along at 50 or less (SL 60), with just enough oncoming traffic & a lack of passing zones to make it a bit frustrating. Did get to engage the Vortec warp drive a time or two :shades:
It was like people were afraid to even approach the SL...
Cheers!
Paul
But it's more metropolitan than Colville as it is only 2 hours from the 21st century, so you've got me there :P
What you describe sounds like my last venture over White Pass and the roads on each side between Yakima and I5. I must have passed 20 cars and still had an average speed of just 60mph. It was in October and the weather was dry...people were just dawdling.
The sunny weather here has baked people's little brains, I think. Yesterday I used my horn twice, both at people who virtually stopped when turning off of 35mph suburban arterials. Are people afraid their cars will flip over?
It could be that the chain is stretched to much. Measure a 12 complete links (a complete link is 1 inside and 1 outside link) on a new chain it will be 12 inches. If it is up to 1/16 of an inch longer you should be OK. if its between1/16 and 1/8 it needs replacing, if its more than 1/8 inch longer you should replace the chain and rear sprockets. If the chain is stretched up to the 1/8th inch point the chain would skip under stress and replacing the chain should solve it, but if its past the 1/8th inch mark you most likely have to much wear in the rear sprockets.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Not much later saw a coffee-cup clutching middle ager in an Outback going about 25 in a 35mph 4 lane arterial, who then proceeded to make a left turn across a double yellow line. Nice.
Finished it off by getting close to a PT Cruiser driven by one of the new resident drivers we are blessed with, who was driving on the wrong side of the road in a parking garage...not from a wide turn or anything innocent, just simply dawdling down the way on the left.
I think it's just the "nowhere to go" and "all day to get there" "so I don't have to go faster" mentality that seems to be so pervasive.
Its not that people in the area drive slow, just that for some odd reason people drive slow on this section of road.
2011 Hyundai Sonata, 2014 BMW 428i convertible, 2015 Honda CTX700D
Many people here are generally very timid too...get a few of them at a 4-way stop, and it becomes hilariously stupid.