stickboybike

This post is a tad late but bettter late than never. Since I spend a ton of time driving with my job, it is a must to have the Sirius hooked up in the Element. My good friend Cinco has a Subie with a Sirius tuner and a really cool bracket that mounts the unit to the dash. His bracket gives the installation a clean appearance without some weak suction cup/window system that will drill you in the face should you ever be in an accident. In my case, the more I can attach firmly to my dash via hardware the better off I am. TSS Radio stocks the bracket . I ended up finding it from a store on eBay and since I had some Paypal bucks to burn -- click! With the passenger side door open, I started removing the side dash cover, removed the passenger side facing dash cover which contains the air vent assembly, removed the bezel around the radio. And installed the bracket utilizing the bottom faceplate mounting point. I suppose you could use the bracket screw up top thus moving the Sirius unit aw

Ah, coffee. I love it. l limit myself to two cups a day, mostly in the morning. Giant Food Stores has an organic grind - Breakfast Blend which I combine two scoops along with a health dash of The Pampered Chef Cinnamon Plus Spice Blend (Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Allspice, Ground Orange Peels, Cloves and Ginger) in a Melitta Coffee Filter for optimum brewing flavor. 10oz of cold filter water. Coffee mug provided by Skip of YAMBA , thanks for the gift! -------------------------------------------------- s.b.

I have a very good selection of tools that can be used to fix most road and mountain bikes. However, while doing a build up for a cycling comrade, I did not have a BB tool for Campagnolo's Dayton/Veloce. Ugh! I called up one of my dealers that happens to be within a 15 min drive of my house and this is what he had to offer. The story behind this gorgeous tool is that it was made by a Swiss tool maker and he can no longer be contacted or found for that matter. The tool engages the flange notches wonderfully and a spring loaded shaft threads into the BB axle to prevent any slippage during full torque/removal or installation. I've used the Park BBT-4 in the past for a job like this and it pales in comparison to what the Swiss tool can accomplish. -------------------------------------------------- s.b.

Bike update. I'm getting more miles lately on the Pista than the T-Cube. The roads are crap and simplicity is sometimes more fun than an expensive Italian bike...sorry T-Cube. Hello Pista! Upgrades continue. I purchased a crank from Chaz at the Bicycle Stable , one of my dealers. Visit him for all things related to Bianchi. In addition to the crank, I snagged a JIS BB to along with it from Pro Cycling . Just a tad of carbon stink, even on a fun bike. 170mm is the stock length, so I replaced it with the same. More to come. -------------------------------------------------- s.b.

I left this morning (Friday)for a 3 day excursion ending up in Virginia Beach, VA. Dealer visits Friday, Saturday a dealer open house/informal demo and Sunday the Capitol Cross Classic cyclocross race. This trip is the first test of the Element which I purchased last month with the intention of it being a more 'rep worthy' vehicle. As you can see below, it's pretty full. I completely removed the rear seats. This allowed me to fit in 5 bikes total. 4 road bikes, 1 fixie, tool box, Bianchi Tent, bicycle repair stand, camping table, 1 pr rims, 1 frame, and a 'triathalon stand' for the bikes. I was netting 26mpg on the highway. Not bad for a vehicle with the aerodynamics of a toaster. Once I get my racks back on top this summer, I'll be able to get in all the bikes plus 3 on top and all the loose gear in the rear of the vehicle, up in the Rocketbox. Capacity running wild! The down side is that I got only 4 hours of sleep last night as I was up until 2am wrench