I have loved travelling all my life, so when I was recently given the opportunity to go to Australia for work, I jumped at it with abandon. While I was there, I saw some of the most amazing landscapes and structures I've ever seen in my life. I can't imagine too many people get the opportunity to fly eighteen thousand miles to do something they love, and I am most grateful that I had the chance to in the midst of everyday work to travel.

I'll write more about that later, but in the meantime I've got some interesting pictures to share with everyone here while I take the time to properly type the journey up. Yes, they're auto-related. Yes, I promise the next post will have things other than car pictures :)

Honda CBR 1000RR Repsol Replica


Mitsubishi FTO GPX


Police Car with ladder accessory


Nissan Skyline GTS25


Nissan Skyline R31


Toyota Tarago engine bay after travelling across the country


If someone can tell me what this is, I'd appreciate it :D

On the way to work about a month ago, I had the unfortunate circumstance of getting into a small accident with a truck. Yes, that's right, a truck. Actually, a very new and very clean Honda Ridgeline with a premium package and very nice rims, but whatever - on a motorcycle, anything bigger than hatchback may as well be a truck. But I digress.

Here in Southern California, it seems that every other driver on the road is a Very Important Person Slightly Behind Schedule. These VIPSBSes (assholes from here on out for brevity) believe that they must get to their location in as short a time as possible, while paying a minimal respect to other drivers on the road.

This particular fellow, let's call him, oh, K.C., is pulled up behind me at a left turn lane, with every intention of gunning it the moment the light turns green. It's about 8.50 AM, so he's either in a rush to make it in around nine, or in a REAL rush to be no more than an hour late. The light turns green, and I get to examine those nice rims a little closer than I was expecting to, which is to say, not at all.

As I'm going through the turn, I see a split second of bumper in my left hand mirror and WHOOMP, I get swiped ever ever so gently when the Ridgeline nudges me as K.C. accelerates to take the turn on the inside of my line. Just like NASCAR!

I feel my foot pulled downward by an incredible force, as the front wheel catches my foot on the peg and pulls it under at about twenty miles an hour with the 4500 lb vehicle curb weight behind it. It happens fast, with but what feels like a twinge as the foot peg snaps off and my foot is run over, though I am proud to say that I threw up an anguished shaking fist that would have made 1968 Planet of the Apes Charlton Heston proud.

No, there was no middle finger going up or cursing - I remained a gentleman even under duress and mildly serious personal injury.

The explanation that comes out while we're exchanging information is priceless, and boils down to "I needed to get through the turn fast, and since I didn't know what lane you were going into, I decided to accelerate and just take the leftmost as fast as I could."

This is where the sad panda comes in and eats his bamboo morosely under a cloud.

I'm speechless for a second, but seeing how earnest he is that he thought his brilliant plan would work, I couldn't see him as an inconsiderate a-hole.. just a careless one.

To recap:

We had our first real day of rain down here in Southern California this past week, and there's only one word that can describe it:

Disappointing.

Oh there were heavy showers and lighting galore, to be sure, but the rains have been too far and few in between to really make a difference to motorists commuting back and forth. Back home in San Francisco, rain is a staple that everyone lives with, but the clean feeling of a breath of air is well worth the wait after a rainstorm. (Los Angeles, by the way, is a Chaparral climate - not quite desert, not quite mediterranean weather. Random fact.)

The single day of rain made me think, though, of what's going to happen when it begins raining in earnest. I won't be able to ride the motorcycle through all that. Well, technically I could, but it's bordering on suicidal to take a bike out when it's pouring, to say nothing of getting somewhere in a reasonable amount of time.

So! The question of the day is: What's my backup transportation?

One option is to find a old junker on Craigslist or to stop by one of the shadier dealerships and pick up a used car on the cheap. My third option is to go through a friend of a friend, who has the ability to attend fleet and dealership auctions. There's no real clearcut answer, as craigslist selection is a mixed bag, dealerships come with extra fees and unknowable troubles, and the auctionhouse is up to the discretion of the friend of a friend, since these are closed events.

My money's on the second-degree friend to know his craft well enough to pick up a good deal without being able to test-drive it. I'm not expecting to drive off in an exotic supercar, but a fuel efficient runabout could be just what the doctor ordered. Also, what the CARB hopes to order.

'Til next time,

J

Riding a motorcycle definitely has its perks - here in California, lanesharing is legal and consequently, waiting around in traffic frequently becomes something that is left to the drivers. Gas mileage is, of course, incomparably better than car or truck mileage, and refills cost less since the tanks are smaller, so you can hunt for fresh cheap gas more often. With all these things going for it, safety seems to be the big issue that comes up time and time again whenever riding comes up as a topic of conversation.

The new crop of Chinese cars being safety tested, it seems, level the playing field a bit for motorcyclists. A new video posted on blog.vehiclevoice.com linked here shows the kind of carnage that can happen when you cut costs so much that a car wreck becomes indistinguishable from a motorcycle wreck. Twisted metal and broken plastic everywhere. Not cool.

Inasmuch as I can be tongue-in-cheek when it comes to making comments, however, I can only say that these low-cost vehicles need to be as safe as possible with utter seriousness. Having traveled in China and its territories for weeks at a time over the years, it wasn't the historical or cultural locations that got to me most. Nor was it the religious undercurrents in a slowly decomposing socialist nation that made my heart quicken ever so slightly.

There are, to be frank, too many people in metropolitan areas. At high-traffic times, cars will be packed bumper to bumper, and everyone (and I mean EVERYONE, from bus drivers to the elderly) drives as if they were the most important person in the world, and were the only ones that needed to be somewhere on time. Not to malign the mindset of these drivers, but I've seen bicyclists and pedestrians get bumped into with no more hesitation than a cab driver in New York would run a yellow.. or sometimes a red.

The fact that cars are coming out that fail 40 mph crash tests is particularly worrisome, considering the reckless driving I've been witness to. If these people can't be bothered to avoid pedestrians, how much more dangerous would it be for other motorists on the road?

Driving like a maniac (or an egomaniac, as the case may be) isn't specific to China, and Asia as a whole - it seems like everyone these days has got to absolutely be somewhere five minutes ago, and drives accordingly. Here in Southern California, I regularly get tailed by cars that need to go even faster than the flow of traffic will allow, often jumping ahead one car length at a time while they weave in between other drivers.

It might be too presumptuous of me to judge whole geographical areas by the actions of careless drivers, but the last thing the automotive market needs is an influx of low cost death traps. Cars like that have been made and sold in the past, and thankfully passed out of existence eventually. If we're in for another wave, the biggest set of victims is going to be the group that buy these machines expecting affordable transporation.

Oh, and to all you motorcycle tailgaters in a hurry, I can go from sixty miles an hour to a full stop in about seventy feet. If your car can't perform similarly and you see those lights come on, please back it off. :)

These lights clearly show that the owner needs to stop.
Seriously, stop it. 

j.

I swear, I'm much better at parking than it would seem.

In other news, the bike is back!<3

Been unable to ride about a week now, and it's like dying slowly inside. Sure, it's convenient - I don't have to worry about suiting up or what weather conditions are like. And it's nice to be able to go run errands without worrying about how I'm going to cart things around. But there's just something about the freedom of barreling down the mountain roads at speed that is lacking when you surround yourself in a box of metals and synthetics. Ah well. Suppose it's just as well that I have some time to spend away from the addiction of high speeds and dangerous living. Gas prices are going up again (3.49 for regular unleaded in LA this past weekend), though, so maybe I'll look into a cruiser instead of a sport bike next.. In the meantime, if you live in the US or Canada, gas prices at local stations are indexed by members at gasbuddy.com, so you can make sure you're not overpaying at the pump.

And now, the long-awaited PT Cruiser Review! 

The Awkward First Date

Lack of the feeling of freedom aside, driving the PT Cruiser has been a time of learning and exploration, if nothing else. Getting used to the dimensions of the car was the biggest thing, for me, as the PT sits low and has flared fenders front and back. To compare it to a 2007 Honda Civic, for example, the PT is actually skinnier, but the squat look and the flaring are deceptive, and require some getting used to when parking. (See minivan post here to learn about my peerless parking with that particular monstrosity). I'd see a compact parking space only to realize too late that the wide swinging doors of the PT are not exactly conducive to jumping in and out in tight areas - so it was to the further sections of the parking lot for me! As I grew more comfortable with it, though I realized that the space wasn't actually that tight - I could fit into the compact spaces just fine if I went EXACTLY into the center of the spot. After that, getting in and out become more of a careful execution than an exercise in flexible agility. Success!

I have dimples when I smile! :)

High Octane Action

Or.. lack thereof? Hmm. The PT is a heavy beast of burden, weighing in at 3031 lb. dry. As such, it won't exactly get you moving in a hurry, but the inline 4 2.4L engine will try its best to get you there. With the manual transmission option (as on the one I'm driving), you're more in control of the way the engine moves through the gears, so things are definitely better than the 4 speed automatic that is available. Once you move north of the 2.5k mark on the tach, you begin to feel a little more pull as the full 165 ft-lb of torque come to bear. Not an insignificant amount of pull, as far as small cars go, but it's nice when the car is hiding a white elephant named Where Does All That Weight Come From. At high revs, there's actually a fair amount of pep in the engine, and the car can get moving and keep moving as long as you're keeping it in the optimum power band. Unless you get something like the car below. Then you're just asking for trouble when you barrel down the freeway.

Wolf in sheep's clothing.

Debrief

Everyone's heard the term "don't judge a book by its cover" but I really was surprised when it came to this PT. The sound isolation in the cabin is surprisingly good, and the sound system complements it well. Visibility is good since this is another upright driver, and the windows and mirrors are well placed. Fuel economy - well, it's no Civic, but it isn't THAT bad; just take it easy on the gas, kiddo! Fairly fun to drive, and the long throw of the manual transmission does not take away from the feeling that this is a relaxed kind of car, with its generous cabin space and power windows controllable from the center console.

Cliff Notes

It's not particularly agile or graceful, but it'll get you to where you're going in a hurry when you need to move without breaking the bank in gas costs. Standard shift > automatic. 7/10 overall.

Seven out of ten? I'll eat your soul! RAWR!

MONDAY MORNING BONUS(!)

Print and make your own PT Cruiser out of paper here! 

j. 

The previously broken hand, after the weekend riding hard, has decided to bring me more grief in the form of overexerted joints and wrist pain in general. I've been instructed to use my laptop less and stay away from riding excessively, in a bid to let my mutant regenerative powers magically heal my hand. Oh, and trying not to fall onto it too much would probably be of some small help as well.

The upshot of all this is that I've been very generously offered the use of a PT Cruiser for the week, so that I'll still be able to motor around instead of being held under the power of the Orange County Transportation Authority.

Digression: OCTA has signed up with Google's service Google Transit. Plan your trip with public transportation with the super slick interface, and play around with satellite pictures at the same time! This is leagues better than their old java based system, which I dealt with extensively when I was still in college and transportation-less after the car-totalling accident.

Digression 2: When I was growing up in Hong Kong, public transportation was the name of the game - different tiers of public transportation existed for all kinds of ranges.

Going out of the Special Administrative Region (SAR) proper? The railway system connects to the MTR subway, and into the great nation of China herself. Hooray for cheap copies of.. EVERYTHING!

Across the city? The MTR is the underground high-speed subway sytem for that goes to every borough of the city, costing about fifty US cents to access the entire system. You could ride this all day and make as many transfers as you wanted for one price, eating at the underground station food courts and entertaining yourself by shopping in their convenience stores and newsstands.

Between boroughs, you can take the double decker bus lines around the entire city, for about thirty cents. And guess what? These guys run twenty-four hours.

Around the borough? Minibuses are owner-operated, and run specific lines that you'd probably only know if you lived in the area for a while, or were lucky enough to know where these routes would run. Cost? About eight cents US.

Taxis are a dime a dozen, and all belong to a large conglomerate that is, again, owner operated. They'll run you a little more than a mixture of the above public transportation options, but they know every back route and trick in the book. Chances are they'll speak a reasonable amount of English, too, if you don't have a friend or guidebook that does Chinese.

If you're one of the privileged that can afford to drive a car, you'll pay through the nose for gas and will beat yourself over the head trying to find parking. But what kind of self-respecting globe-hopping international businessman would be seen riding public transporation? Get that Rolls, a driver (labor is cheap and plentiful), and get to your high-powered meeting!

/digressions

Getting back to the issue at hand, it is my contention that I will be unable to avoid having an adventure with the Cruiser this coming week. I've never driven one before, but this one is sporty! And manual! And a random third party put in Altezza-style tail lamps! Excited! :P

Filled with childlike wonderment,

j. 

Two years ago when I broke my hand, I never imagined how long the recuperation would take, and the lasting effects of having bones surgically reset after shattering. Changes in weather cause pain. Changes in humidity cause tension. Prolonged use causes it to tighten up. Just a bit stressful when I ride for both leisure and to commute, you might say, but that would be understating things just a tad.

I had the chance this weekend to drive a 2002 Chrysler Town and Country while car-sitting as a favor to an old friend of mine, and that beast blew me away.

Bear in mind that this is going from a 300 lb. bike with 36 horsepower to a 4000 lb. minivan with a 215 hp V6 engine.

The first thing that struck me about the key fob were all the d*** buttons on it. Besides the standard 'Lock,' 'Unlock,' and 'Panic' buttons, this one featured automatic open/close for the rear passenger doors and trunk. Convenience, however, was second only to luxury, it seemed. Six CD in-dash changer with premium sound system, check. Leather and suede combo upholstery, check. Classy tint, oh yeahhh. ..and All-Wheel Drive?! Further investigation was required.

My pro parking job.

Visibility was excellent, and the upright driving position afforded me a commanding view of the road I hadn't felt since the last time I rented a U-Haul. Slogging through traffic with two tons of Detroit steel was a bit of a chore though - all two hundred and fifteen ponies sound like they're dying all at once when you jump on the gas. Having driven the car through the early afternoon, though, I went on to the first thing on every minivan driver's mind around 3 o'clock.

Delicious Smoothies!

The other, less obvious choice would have been an Orange Mocha Frappucino(!) - but the smoothie place was closer by a hair. Settling back in the supremely padded seats and went about being domestic, stopping by department store and local independent organic-food store with ease.

Oh, and I stopped by the local biker hang out the next day (with the minivan, no less) and saw this beauty parked outside:

Oh riiiiiight!

That's right, a Ducati 999R Xerox Replica, which would run you somewhere north of 30k brand new, plus dealer markups and the inevitable hospital bill. This one was in pristine condition, though, and purred with all the subtlety of a rhinocerous in heat.. And here I am rolling in with a Champagne Limited Edition T&C. Oh, the humanity of it all.

And that was pretty much made up the weekend - running errands and giving rides to more than one person at a time. The term 'soccer mom' came to mind more than once, but nothing describes my experience better than Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land."

Hell of a minivan, though. /grin

Til' next time,

j.

Since I was a small child, I've always been mesmerized by the seemingly invincible aura of anyone that rode a motorcycle in the media. Like the valkyries of old descending from valhalla to pass judgment upon the populace, motorcycles always seemed to be connected to the kind of toughness that John Wayne or Clint Eastwood could exude with ease.

Akira, a film made in 1988 when I was 5 years old, was one of the first movies I saw where a bike was featured prominently: 

Absolutely amazing.

Not surprisingly, I rode on and off throughout the years but only this year bought my own little Kawasaki Ninja to ride around with. Driving, as it turns out, is only the beginning of enjoying the road for me - doesn't mean I don't know how to enjoy a nice car when I get my hands on one, though.

I'll be sharing stories from time to time here, though more for the sake of keeping a record than anything else. Youth these days, you know - terrible head for remembering things.

Regards,

j.