Schnell Porsche.
I did what I said I wouldn’t do: I bought something that I didn’t need for the Boxster. What did I buy, you ask? This:
See the difference? Yeah you do. It’s a Schnell upper strut brace. Why’d I buy it? To stiffen the car, obviously. Not to say that the Boxster isn’t a stiff roadster on it’s own, but anything with no roof is going to be a slight bit floppy. How’s it work? By pairing up with the factory-installed-but-different strut brace in an attempt to keep the tops of the strut towers from flexing ever so slightly inward under compression. Why is this important? Well, when the strut tops flex, they’re bending everything around them. This makes noises, and I don’t like those kind of noises. There is also a theoretical handling improvement, but that’s debatable.
It seems to be built well and gets good reviews, so why not? Plus I low-balled the maker on eBay and got it for 33% off.
Oh yeah – beer kit numero three came today!
Elephant Rock.
We took a drive down to Elephant Rock and a Johnson’s Shut-Ins last weekend. Have a look:
Looks like a lot has changed over at Elephant Rocks since I was six or seven… not that I remember. Johnson’s Shut-Ins? Not so much going on there.
You might also notice that I decided to finally enlarge the photos around here. Um, yes, yes I did.
Per Craig’s comment… yeah, of course Jeni did this:
Weekend.
Busy weekend… but here are some neither high nor low lights. Just lights.
Saturday was a blur, but it involved running the Bug, deep-frying veggie burgers and their buns (do it), drinking some water, and making fun of young people.
At some point on Sunday, I changed the oil in the Impreza. I still don’t get why Japanese four cylinders (specifically Honda and Subaru) haven’t figured out a location for the oil filter that doesn’t involve the exhaust system. It never fails – remove the filter and oil dumps on some part of the exhaust, only to be stinkily burnt off over the next couple of days. I also found out that Castrol Syntec bottles have the same thread pitch as a Subaru oil filler cap. Neat. I also also found out that I drove this poor car 6,355 miles in 3 months and 8 days, during which it burned a quart and a half of 5w30.
Muddy:
Smelly:
Screwy:
After all of that nonsense, we took Butch and the bikes on a bike ride in the perfect 68 degree weather:
To close out the parts of the weekend about which I am going to talk, we took Jeni to buy some bike shoes. The problem with that little quest is that nobody makes bike shoes larger than size 43 for the ladies. Well, some people do, but not Bontrager. Write your senator. Complain. Make a difference. Equal shoes for all.
Man Plugs.
In an attempt to make up for the girlie-manness of Bear’s b-day party, I decided to go be a manly man and change the spark plugs on the Boxster. This required amazing feats of strength, incredible problem solving ability, and the concentration of a herd of oxen.
Really though, it was kind of a bitch to get some of them out and even more of a bitch to fit an 18″ long torque wrench up in the bowels of the wheel well. I could bore you all with a rundown of what kind of plugs you need for a 2001 2.7 (and not the earlier 2.5 or the 3.2 S engine) and how one goes about changing said plugs or why I chose Bosch over Beru, but I hear that some people don’t find spark plugs and other such manly badassness very interesting. So I’ll spare you sisslynancies. Instead, here’s a pretty picture of a miniature Junebuggles playing with sparky sparks.
Note: No Junebugs were harmed in the making of this manly manitude.
Five years old.
Yep. Biz is all old and crotchety… well, more old and crotchety.
The people at the doggie bakery thought that Bear was a she. I have no idea why:
Bear telling Bug to put her stupid tongue back in her goofy big-eared face:
She did this all by herself:
Peanut butter is funny:
We also took a trip to the puppy park, and then the rear tire on the Poopedrad spontaneously deformed on a disgustingly humid gravel ride.
Shoes.
My 13?-year-old Sidi Techno Fires died the other day. I bought them used from my graphic design 2 teacher in 2001 for $60 with a pair of Frogs. They served me quite well. Thanks, Landes. How’d they die? Well, I was riding on a freshly cut trail at Rock Bridge and caught the back tire on a leaf-covered tree stump. I did a front wheelie for about 10′ down the trail, then over compensated, fell backward, and landed squarely on my right ass cheek. Instead of releasing itself from the pedal, the left cleat decided to hang on and knock itself 90 degrees out of line instead:
This also destroyed the sole… good thing I already had some Bontrager RXLs on order from my old buddy Adam.
The Sidis required quite a bit of doing to get the cleats removed. Adam got one out down in Rolla, but no pictures of that. Just imagine him in his shop smock, sipping on a 24 oz. can of Miller Lite, and sawing away with a hacksaw. Unfortunately, he couldn’t locate the shop blowtorch. With the help of a drill, screw extractor, some vice grips, and Bear (Bugs is scared of drills… wuss), I got the other out in my back yard:
I’ve only ridden the RXLs a few times, but so far they and their carbon soles are pretty awesome. Here’s hoping they can stand up to 8 years of abuse and neglect like the Sidis.
Subarus
So it’s been a while… but guess what? I got another car. When Dave, Rachel, and Baby K left for the land of the dollary-doo, they didn’t feel like selling their somewhat abused 2007 Outback Sport. So me, the dogs, my bikes, and the three of them came to an agreement: they give me the car and I continue to abuse it. So that we did.
The first order of business was getting rid of the crappy plastic steering wheel. I replaced it with a leather unit from a 2007 WRX for $40:
The next thing I did, at Dave’s request, was get rid of the horrendous OE Bridgestone Potenza RE92s. I replaced them with a set of Michelin Pilot Exalto all-seasons. Very nice improvement in all aspects. Then I tested them in a few inches of mud:
Lesse, somewhere in there I changed the oil to Castrol Syntec and replaced the headlight bulbs with the slightly brighter but not worth it Silverstars. Then the CD changer broke, but the nice people at the dealer replaced it for the cost of the jammed CDs in the broken changer. Oh well… they were copies anyway.
Before the CD changer got replaced, Jeni and I took Butch, as s/he is now known, out to Yellowstone and back. Along the way, we just about got stuck in the sandy mud of Quinter, KS, almost got drop-kicked by a buffalo, and discovered that Butch has a defective pressure plate that only shows the annoying but harmless ticking defect at elevations of around 7,000-8,000 ft.
The one thing that Butch doesn’t do as well as I’d like, aside from not being a Lexus, is not having quite enough room for the dogs. One fits perfectly… but two is a bit of a crowd. The Bug agrees:
Now, with all of the options in Aussieland – Holdens, V8 Utes, road trains, Mad Max’s Interceptor – what was their vehicle of choice? Another Subaru…
Recent Comments