From the Archives: The tall bike 25 years ago

And now a word from the archivist:


That's me on the bike in 1980 or so, in it's as-delivered state (except for the enormous, solid aluminum seat post). Note the tiny little handlebars, cramped up riding position, quaint Bell helmet, and those unbelievable electric blue Adidas sneakers...

From the Archives: My First Car

A 1966 VW Bus:


I think this had a claimed 60,000 miles on it when I bought it (for $1200). It powered me back and forth to Oberlin from New Hampshire, and also on adventures in the Maritimes, around Lake Superior, and elsewhere. I remember it being a bit of a tank, with such old-school technology as

• Drum brakes all around
• Kingpins
• A 1-barrel Solex carb with oil bath air cleaner

The most amazing thing is that it weighed less than my new Mini does: 2350 pounds empty, as you can see from this spec sheet:

The tall bike project

I've been spending a lot of time working on my bike recently. After riding it for a short while with the upright MTB stem and riser bars using SRAM twistgrip shifters, I decided that:

• It didn't handle well. The steering was extremely light and twitchy. I attribute this to the fact that the riding position put most of my weight over the rear wheel.
• It wasn't comfortable. The trouble with the riser bars is that you don't have any choice of hand position, so I was finding that my wrist was getting stiff and sore.
• It wasn't aerodynamic. When riding on the flat or downhill, I could feel the wind pressing against my chest.

So I decided to re-do the bike using drop bars. The existing drop bars that were on the bike were tiny, and the existing stem was normal size, so the bars were too low. I decided to go with a set of 46cm Nitto noodle bars and a Nitto technomic stem. But even this combination put the bar too low for me. So I got a steel steerer extender which, when used with the Nitto stem, puts the bars about 2 cm below the level of the seat. I also got a set of Take-Offs from Kelly, which let me mount old-style friction shifters in a geezer-friendly location near the brakes. Despite how wacky they look, they're actually extremely nice to use:


As I started to think more about the fit of the bike, my attention turned to the crankset. The existing crank was a low-end three-piece crankset with steel chainrings and 170mm cranks. After reading various articles on crank length, I decided to see if I could come up with a set of 185mm cranks for the bike. But, as with all of these upgrade paths, there were constraints. First, I didn't want to change the front derailleur, so that meant sticking with a double. Second, I didn't want to change the chain or the cluster, so that meant avoiding hyperglide or ulgtraglide chainrings.

Harris had a promising solution: a set of vintage 185mm TA Vis Pro 5 ("cyclotouriste") crankarms.

Unfortunately, they did not have chainrings that would allow me to maintain the current gearing on the bike (which I like, chart appended below).

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
SP  CRxFW    GI      GIdf      DI      diff      DF        PRPM      RT
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
1>  40x32   33.75   14.29%   106.03   15.15    8'10.03"   597.57   1:1.25
2>  40x28   38.57   13.75%   121.18   16.66   10' 1.18"   522.88   1:1.43
3>  52x32   43.88    2.56%   137.84    3.53   11' 5.84"   459.67   1:1.62
4>  40x24   45.00   11.43%   141.37   16.16   11' 9.37"   448.18   1:1.67
5>  52x28   50.14    7.69%   157.53   12.12   13' 1.53"   402.21   1:1.86
6>  40x20   54.00    8.33%   169.65   14.14   14' 1.65"   373.48   1:2.00
7>  52x24   58.50    8.60%   183.78   15.80   15' 3.78"   344.75   1:2.17
8>  40x17   63.53   10.50%   199.58   20.96   16' 7.58"   317.46   1:2.35
9>  52x20   70.20    9.89%   220.54   21.81   18' 4.54"   287.30   1:2.60
10>  40x14   77.14    7.06%   242.35   17.11   20' 2.35"   261.44   1:2.86
11>  52x17   82.59   21.43%   259.46   55.60   21' 7.46"   244.20   1:3.06
12>  52x14  100.29    0.00%   315.06    0.00   26' 3.06"   201.11   1:3.71
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
SP  CRxFW    GI      GIdf      DI      diff      DF        PRPM      RT
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

But I found a fellow in Toronto (Bicycle Specialties) who had a stock of TA Cyclotouriste rings, so I had him send me the rings and the mounting hardware.

Next stop was a new bottom bracket. The experts at Harris (Jim, Sheldon, and Dave) put their heads together and decided that a 116 (+5 asymmetry) Phil Wood bracket would work for me. Pricey at $112 plus two mounting rings and two Phil consumer tools.

When I got this home, I obsessed for a long, long time about whether this setup was going to work. There are a lot of considerations when selecting a bottom bracket, especially when you have long feet and you're sticking ginormous 185 cranks on an existing bike:

• Chainline
• Front derailleur operating limits
• Clearance between pedal and ground, which is related to
  
• Q-factor (tread)
• Interference between rider's heel and rear derailleur
• Clearance between crankarms and rear wheel stays
• Interference between rider's toe and front wheel when turned

And the problem is that there's no way to tell if it's going to work without actually installing it on the bike. Which means your pristine $112 Phil Wood bottom bracket ain't going to be so pristine when you take it back to exchange it. Plus, of course, you cannot assemble and disassemble the crankset without an appropriate crank puller, which in the case of a TA crank takes a 23mm (as opposed to the normal 22mm) thread. This is not a case of blame the contrary French, however, as the TA crank predates the other cranks that used 22mm.

Now there are two suppliers of 23mm crank pullers, Park tool used to make a reversible 22/23mm puller with handle and VAR still does, although their distribution in the US is spotty. Turns out that Harris didn't have one of these, but VELO Orange did.

In order to minimize potential pedal-to-ground interference problems (all of the technical advisors to whom I spoke had the same response: "Don't pedal through the turns, buddy"), I bought a set of MKS platform pedals, which are narrow and slightly shallower than the non-name touring pedals that had been on the bike. Plus, they take 'standard' MKS toeclips.

So last night I put this whole thing together, and the end result is pretty amazing: The chainline is quite close in, the crank arms clear the rear stays by just 3 or 4 mm, and my feet clear the derailleur. Because of the closer Q-factor and the smaller pedals, I have at least as much pedal clearance through turns as I did before. The only real interference is toes-to-pedals, which is a non-issue above parking lot speeds.


Parenthetically, I would note that this upgrade has been extremely satisfying on a personal level. From the moment I first acquired the bike about 25 years ago, I was not satisfied with the crankset. I disliked the cast-in-place nonremovable chain guard, the heavy steel chain rings, and the fact that the damn thing was warped.

Sweet new TA crankset

Nasty old "custom" crankset

I never had the time or money when I was a kid to go through the rigmarole of putting on a proper crankset (and before the whole internet thing, living up in the woods of New Hampshire, it would have been impossible to find the components anyway.)

Anyway, the only thing left to do now is take it out for a ride!

Which I did. It works well, and is very comfortable. Biggest problem is that the front shifting requires more finesse than the old chainrings. In particular, if you don't downshift firmly and with an appropriate amount of pedaling force, the chain gets hung up on the inner ring, and then wedges itself into the chainstay.

Selling MINIs

I'm writing this in the waiting lounge at MINI of Peabody, while I'm waiting for my car to get its oil changed. I've had the car for about three and a half months but only put on about 2700 miles. I'm scheduled to do a track event at Lime Rock in two weeks, and because I'm so lazy I've hired MOP to do the change.

I had a beautiful drive up this glorious sunny Saturday morning, and a nice chat with Hrach, the legendary MOP "Motoring Advisor".

Next door to where I'm sitting, the MOP sales staff is having their morning sales meeting with the dealership manager. Here are some snippets from this morning's order of battle:

We have got a lot of used cars to move. We've got a bunch of overaged cars here. Whatever cars we don't sell by the end of the month are going to auction.

So we're having a special contest, and a special bonus for these cars. You will get an extra $100 for each car you sell. If you sell five, you get the $500 plus another $500. And we're having a contest. The person who sells the most of these cars gets an additional $1000, so the maximum possible bonus, plus your regular commission, is $2000.

This should be great motivation for you guys.

It's always interesting to get a glimpse at how the sausage gets made.

Just a little arty shot of the Porsche and the Mini in the driveway.

Can a car make you happy?

Maybe not.

But it doesn't hurt.

You do it electronics

A nagging problem here has been that the wireless router, along with the backup file server, is located in a very inaccessible spot, tucked under the stairs. I had been meaning for some time to

1. Hard wire some Ethernet ports in the kitchen, so that I could connect to the router with a laptop without needing to crawl under the stairs (a necessity when changing wireless network settings).
2. Add an Ethernet port in the basement, so that I could relocate the backup server.

I've never done any Ethernet wiring, but I'm reasonably clever. I went to CompUSA looking for Ethernet wall jacks, a punchdown tool, and some bulk Cat5E cable. They had all this stuff, but it was expensive and poor selection.

Then I remembered the Needham institution You Do It Electronics (or, to the initiated], You Blew it Electronics). Wow. They had exactly what I needed, and at excellent, excellent prices.

And subsidiary goodness: I actually got all the wiring installed and it works!

Tall web resources

The height site.

Tallpeople.org.

And (drum roll please) an actual tall blog. Kind of.

Poor, stupid (but not hapless or hopeless) Ford

Unlike GM, Ford seems to be facing up to the reality that the age of the gas guzzler is finally gone.

Also unlike GM, they have a reasonable passenger car and crossover range:

• Fusion (aka Mazda6)
• Edge (reskin of Mazda CX-7)

• 500
• Freestyle

What they're missing of course is a decent subcompact and a B-car. When are they going bring over the (no longer) new second-generation Focus, and what about the Ka and Fiesta.

I give Bill Ford credit for telling some truth here:

As you know, our response to the challenges to our business is the subject of ongoing speculation in the news media, on Wall Street, and in our own hallways and lunchrooms. That's to be expected at a time of great change in our industry and renewed urgency among all of us.

That's why I want you to hear directly from me how I view our situation. First of all, the company's top priority remains the turnaround of our North American operations. As I said when we released our second quarter financial results, Mark Fields and his leadership team are accelerating their efforts, and we expect to tell you in the next couple months what additional measures we will take. These measures may be difficult, but are necessary.

Secondly, I will continue to evaluate the rapidly changing landscape of our industry and review the best ways in which we should adjust. That's why I've hired Ken Leet to assist me and our senior management team in evaluating our business and exploring strategic options. You can read more on Ken in the news release below.

Contrary to speculation, nothing has been decided and we will not rush to judgments. I'm proud of the progress that our operating units and brands around the world are making. Nearly all of them have been through turnaround efforts and have improved as a result. They will continue to pursue the strategies that have guided their progress.

And, as we've said before, Ford Motor Credit Company is a strategic asset to Ford that generates solid profits and dividends. The automotive financing unit continues to have strong business fundamentals and provides key support for Ford vehicle sales worldwide.

It is prudent in a time of rapid change in our industry for us to carefully examine all of our options. In the meantime, however, all of us must continue to remain focused on doing our part to get our company on the path to sustained profitability and success.

Thank you for your continued support of Ford Motor Company.

Bill Ford

More on Casual Male "XL"

A reference to Casual Male's target customers as tall but not fat.

Traffic safety program unlikely to work in Mass

In an attempt to reduce accidents followed by tailgating, Washington state DOT officials...

...painted dots 80 feet apart and posted signs telling drivers to stay at least two dots -- 160 feet -- from the vehicle ahead, based on the traffic safety principle of being at least two seconds behind another vehicle when going 60 mph.

Long backups developed Saturday, the day after the program began, when drivers slowed down because of heavy traffic and continued to maintain the two-dot separation, although that much distance was not necessary at slower speeds, said Lisa Mordock, a Transportation Department spokeswoman.

Can you imagine. People actually

(a) followed the instructions on a road sign
(b) maintained a safe following distance
(c) didn't cut each other off

Read the full story here.

Poor, poor, hapless, helpless, stupid GM

Hummer ads fight 'misconceptions' (or, if you don't have a Wall St. Journal subscription, see the original press release).

It's enough to break your heart. GM brings out the Hummer H3 as a way to broaden the affordability and appeal of the Hummer brand, but at a lower price point. Gas goes to $3 a gallon, and suddenly there's a Hummer backlash. Now the 'affordable' ($30,000+) and 'economical' (20 MPG, if you get the lame 5-cylinder motor) Hummer is left out in the cold.

I mean the thing sure looks economical, compact, and environmentally friendly to me:


Plus you get the gunsight windows, high step height, and an interior that's so cramped there's no place for a spare.

Having a family

I was going to write about the tremendous walk that I took on Friday morning. My neighbor's field was completely mown and cleared, a full moon was setting over the treeline, and my friend the red tailed hawk was soaring high overhead.

But something else wonderful happened on Friday. My wife and son came back from a week down on Cape Cod. I couldn't make this trip, due to the pressures of work. It was just so wonderful to see them and smell them and hold them. I mean things are nice and quiet around the house when they're gone, but it's a quiet that gets old fast.

So it is wonderful to share this life with a family of warm, caring, wonderful folks!

A recent trip to the Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence -- a simple thing all by itself!

Haying

Over the past few days my neighbor's field has been hayed. The racket that the machinery makes is incredible, but when the grass is down, the whole look of the field changes.


I really appreciate that my neighbor keeps his field in active cultivation. It provides an excellent habitat for birds (I saw my friendly red tailed hawk this morning) plus air and light. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts provides an incentive for keeping land in cultivation. Chapter 61a allows cities and towns to abate property taxes on land in agricultural use.

Something simple that I like.

The best car in all the world...

My Alexander Technique teacher and I were talking cars the other day. She said that she owns the bestest car in all the world: a first-generation Toyota Rav 4:


Why? Because of the "styling".

But she also said that she used to own a car that was also the bestest in all the world: 1963 Dodge Dart.


I concur. The chirr-chirr-chirr of the starter, the gimcrack chrome trim, the fake wire wheel hubcaps with fake knockoffs, the square speedometer, pushbutton shifter...

A really tall bike...

Yao Ming's Gunnar Rockhound:

I'm not sure that Yao's bike is that much bigger than mine, even though he's 10 inches taller than me.

By the way, I've been out riding on my tall bike a few more times. After 25 years, I have to say it takes a while to get used to riding with cars. The roads around here are narrow, and the drivers are...well...not particularly skillful or considerate. But I have a little loop that I like first thing in the morning.

I posted to all four of my blogs tonight

Not that they were great posts, but I did it. And it's not even 9:00.

Something simple that I like!

Branded

Today's Wall Street Journal has an interesting article (subscription only) on the problems at Ford's Premier Automotive Group, Jaguar in particular.

Ford has done a singularly inept job managing the european nameplates it's acquired over the past 15 years (Volvo, Jaguar, and Land Rover). Volvo has lost all of its signature features (safety, good load capacity, and rear wheel drive) and now sports an expensive, bloated, gas guzzling SUV model. Jaguar styling and engineering have vanished, leaving only the legendary British quality to go along with re-hashed Taurus styling jobs.

The only company that's done a worse job is GM's trashing of SAAB.

Tall bike

Twenty-five years ago, I used to ride a bike a fair amount. I had a Univega Viva Sport bike that I purchased around 1981. It was a low to mid-range Japanese road bike with a Chrome-Moly butted lugged frame, Sun-Tour drive train, no-name cranks and headset, and Dia Compe side pull brakes.

In order to ride the bike, my Dad fabricated for me a 14" seat post turned from billet aluminum (solid). There did not exist at that time seatposts longer than about 8 inches. The bike was never that comfortable, because the handlebars where way below the level of the seat.

Anyway, recently I decided to try to rehabilitate that bike as a more relaxed cruising/commuting bike. I found that the selection of seat posts and stems was much greater now. This is what I came up with:


The work I did on it to bring it back to life (it had been sitting in a series of barns and garages since the mid 80s):

• Disassemble, clean, repack, and adjust wheel bearings. Old-style cone and cup bearings in 27" wheels.
• New tires (Conti Gator Slicks) and tubes. The selection of tires for old-style 27" rims is pretty limited. I may switch over to 700c wheels at some point, along with long-reach brakes.
• Clean and lubricate chain.
• Replace seat post, seat, and handlebars with MTB units. Switch shifters to indexed SRAM MTB shifters. These worked perfectly with the Sun Tour Vx derailleurs on the bike.
• Install a taillight and buy a Gilo helmet.

Overall, I'm very impressed with the variety, quality, and low price of bike components nowadays.

How's the riding part? I would say tentative. It's hard to get used to riding with cars, and I quickly determined that the original saddle was no longer compatible with my 25 years older behind.

If you're 205 cm tall, how much should you weigh?

After many years of weighing about 250 pounds, I recently decided to lose some weight. It was a lot easier than I thought, and now I'm down to 215 pounds. But I don't really know if I was overweight before or not, and I don't know if I'm underweight now.

	250 lbs	215 lbs
BMI	27 (overweight)	23.2 (normal)
Tall BMI	26.1 (overweight)	22.4 (normal)
Dr. Koop	Ideal (232-255)	Underweight
People's Choice	Overweight	Ideal
Devine Ideal Weight	Overweight	Ideal

So clearly, everybody except Dr. Koop (a bit of a pudge himself) thinks I was overweight at 250, and pretty much at a good weight at 215.

So why are there no tall blogs?

Because being tall is so incredibly boring? I mean there are scads of fat blogs, and I don't think being fat is any more interesting than being tall. More common, maybe. Short people blog, but being tall is much more difficult than being short.

Car to hurry in

Yesterday, late for a meeting, I found myself needing to travel from an outer suburb of Boston (Natick) to an inner suburb (Newtonville) in a hurry. This turned out to be a perfect application for the Mini Cooper S.


Each control (steering, throttle, and brake) has immediate response and prodigious range. As soon as you see a gap in traffic, you can fill it. Not just because the car is small, but it's also fast and it changes direction quickly.

The only limiting factor is how obnoxious the driver is willing to be.

New cell phone

I have a pretty good job, but just recently I was given a bunch of new responsibilities that entailed a lot of talking on the phone with folks in other parts of the planet. I really loath talking on the phone, so I extracted from my boss an agreement to get a company-paid cell phone.

I ordered a Motorola RAZR phone, because it was compact and seemed to have good battery life. I have it now, and with the exception of a couple of odd usability choices, I'd have to say it's a pretty good phone.

I happened to come across the first cell phone I ever owned, which by chance was also a Motorola from the late 1990s. I thought it was interesting to compare the size of the two phones:

Small cars

As you can see by the list of cars I've owned (and that I now own), I like small cars. This is ironic, of course, since I am anything but small myself. Now that I drive the Mini on a daily basis, I get a lot of razzing about being so tall while driving such a small car.

I'm not sure why I like small cars so much. They're generally fun to drive, since they have low polar moment and less inertia sloshing around. I like that making a car lighter creates a positive feedback loop (a lighter car can use smaller brakes, which makes it lighter, which means it can use a smaller engine, which makes it lighter...).

People often wonder why, since I'm so tall, I don't drive a big car or SUV. Being 205cm tall, the first thing I look for in a car is how roomy it is for the driver, and I have not found any correlation between exterior size and interior room. Some cars that I have looked at that have excellent room:

• Mercedes E-class, S-class
• BMW 3-series and 5-series
• Mini Cooper

And some cars that have rotten interior space:

• Porsche Cayman
• Porsche 911 (1965-1986, 1999-on)
• Ford Explorer/Expedition
• Nissan Quest

Being tall has kept me out of some cars that I would have loved to own:

• Formula Ford
• Mazda Miata

The circus

My son is just getting to be old enough to enjoy the circus.


The last time we went, he was such a mass of fidgets that I didn't really enjoy it. But this time, he made it through nearly the entire show, and I had a great time. I especially enjoyed the clowns and the trapeze artists.

Bottom freezer refrigerator

I'm visiting relatives today, and they have a normal refrigerator with the freezer on top and the refrigerator on the bottom. Bending over to fish a gallon of milk out of the refrigerator made me realize how much I like our refrigerator at home. The refrigerator section is on top, so it's easy to reach the stuff you use every day, like milk. The freezer is on the bottom. I love it.

Field of grass

My neighbor has a 20 acre field behind his house, which he uses to grow hay (and thus save money on his taxes, as the Commonwealth of Massachusetts has a program to abate taxes for active farming operations). With his permission, I walk across this field on my morning walk, and lately as I'm walking back, the sun is rising above the field.


If you stand in just the right spot, you can see the twin white chimneys on his house rising above the field of hay, creating the feeling that Wyeth's Christina evokes in me:


Something that made me happy this morning.

Washed

The BMW wagon is now almost six years old, five of those years with us. It has 54,000 miles on it, and I've spent this weekend fixing little broken bits, like a new cup holder and a new exterior temperature sensor. A couple of weeks ago, I had Landshark Automotive in Natick change all of its fluids (brake, coolant, transmission, final drive, and engine oil). It is going to need new tires soon, and it has a bit of a shimmy at 62 MPH, which I think is from worn bushings in the front trailing arms.

I'm hoping this car will serve our needs well for another five or six years, and I also figure that giving it a nice wash can't hurt:

Not having to work weekends

The workload at my job fluctuates, like most jobs. It's been pretty intense lately, and last weekend (and on my vacation the week before) I needed to spend some time working, just to keep up.

But this weekend, all I really need to do is take an hour or two to go through my e-mail inbox and clear out the debris from the last two weeks.

Plus no social engagements and no travel.

So I can mow the lawn.

Something simple that I like.

How rare?

The 99th percentile for the height of adult USA males might be 6' 3 5/8" (192 cm). So if you're 6' 4" tall, you're taller than 99% of other adult males.

If you're 200 cm tall (6' 6 3/4"), then you're taller than 99.98% of other adult males.

If you're 205 cm tall (6' 8 5/8") like me, then you're taller than at least 99.999% of other adult males. Among the US population, you are taller than all but about 7,000 other adult men.

Which is why, in my life, I have only met 2 people who were taller than me. And one of them was Robert Parrish.

Toys

Three oddball toy cars that my darling wife gave to me:

Replica of a wind-up tin toy (even the tires are folded tin) loosely modeled Malcolm Campbell's Bluebird LSR car:


LEGO model of Michael Schumacher's Ferrari F1 car, circa 2001:


Automoblox C9 sports car:


No reason, just for fun.

BMI (Body Mass Index) for tall folks

If you went through high school physics, you probably learned the cube rule: as you increase the size of an object, the surface area increases by the square of the linear size while the volume increases by the cube. Thus, if an object is twice as big in linear size, it has four times the surface area and eight times the volume.

The (often discredited) BMI or body-mass index formula is designed to provide a quick estimate of whether one is underweight, of normal weight, or overweight. The formula assumes that weight increases with the square of height rather than the cube, so it tends to overstate the BMI for tall folks.

This page provides a calculator which adjusts for this effect.

Extremely lame Mini swag

I received my "Motoring Welcome" kit in the mail from Mini yesterday. Truly some of the lamest swag ever:

- "Buy a Mini" trading cards to hand out to my "like-minded" friends
- Window placards with such charming messages as "Hey, Sexy"
- A cheesy ballpoint pen
- A really cheap Moleskine knock-off notebook from China
- Various come-ons for Mini financing
- A duplicate roadside assistance card

The only remotely cool item was two "Interstate Bingo" cards. Of course they were bent in half by the ape who packed the box.

Blogger

I have to say, I've really grown fond of blogger. It's so easy to create a reasonably good-looking blog, easy to add pictures and other media, and easy to post videos. I'm running four blogs now, and I just like it. Free, easy, satisfying. Something simple that I like.

Casual Male thinks I'm "freakish"

In a recent interview with the New York Times, Casual Male CEO David Levin displays the contempt with which he regards the customers of Casual Male Big and Tall, recently renamed Casual Male XL.

Q. What exactly makes the name XL more palatable than Big and Tall?

A. It is strong. It exudes confidence. Whereas big and tall is like, 'I am a freak.'

Other tidbits from the interview include a discussion of the travails of getting "premier" clothing labels to manufacture (or license the manufacture of) large sizes:

Q. Casual Male XL has persuaded elite brands to manufacture big and tall sizes. Why did it take them so long?

A. These brands do a lot of aspirational, inspirational-type branding. To see it on a big size — they don't want to go there. It took us a year to work with Reebok, to have them shop our stores and realize that a lot of these customers are jocks themselves. These were football players and basketball players so why would you not try to continue the brand heritage into those sizes?

I find Mr. Levin's cynicism breathtaking. In an earlier interview with the Boston Globe, he said:

Q: You recently changed the name of stores from Casual Male Big & Tall to Casual Male XL. Why such a fuss over a few letters?

A: The big and tall market is a $6 billion business. It was puzzling why our market share -- at $430 million -- was so small. We got a focus group together of men those sizes who never shopped at Causal [sic] Male. We asked them what their perception was and it was alarming. They thought we didn't carry their sizes, that we don't have their brands, and that our clothes are for older men. When we asked them about the big and tall market, they said: 'We're not those guys. Those are obese guys, overweight guys.'

Q: But these sound like big and tall men. Aren't they?

A: Even though at a 42- or 44-inch waist, they are pretty big guys, it's a matter of self-perception. Today, we don't think we're as old as we are, as big as we are. We don't look in the mirror and see ourselves that way. Lazy, fat, and unmotivated were what they associated with the words big and tall. XL, though, that's powerful, that's masculine. So the light bulb went off.

It's wonderful for David Levin's wallet, I'm sure, that he has figured out how to sell clothes to overweight men without forcing them to admit that they are overweight. But what about tall guys? Casual Male retail stores do not stock any pants with inseams longer than 36 or waist sizes smaller than 44.

Ruins

Many (OK, ten) years ago, I lived in the small town of Maynard, MA. I lived at the edge of the town forest, which abutted a large, abandoned US Army facility.

Then, as now, I love to walk in the woods, so I used to venture from the town land onto the Army land. The annex was, I think, about 600 acres, and it included some truly beautiful wetlands. I particularly enjoyed exploring the old networks of roads. You could see the traces of the original farm roads (the Army seized the property during WW II) overlaid with the newer paved roads used by the base. There were numerous abandoned ammunition bunkers as well. At that time, the annex was not open to the public, and in fact was actively patrolled, so you had to be on your toes to enjoy a decent walk.

When the toxic cleanup and remediation is finally completed, I believe that the land is going to remain undeveloped. I also understand that the bulk of the land is to be opened for hunting, which is great for hunters but not so good for everybody else.

What brought this to mind was a walk I took yesterday, to the abandoned US Air Force base in Truro, Massachusetts on outer Cape Cod. The same derelict buildings and roads, but this time sited on a 200-foot high bluff overlooking the Atlantic ocean.




I really enjoy walking through abandoned ruins, even modern ones. People (and societies) are happy to talk about themselves, but it's what they leave behind that really tells their stories.

Garage Queen

Well not really, but ever since I got the Mini, I only take the Porsche out for fun, and only on nice days.

911 Handling

The Porsche 911, especially the pre-964 cars (1965 through 1989, except the 1989 Carrera 4), have a bad reputation for handling, particularly unexpected oversteer.


The first time I took my 911 on the track, it was with a fair bit of trepidation. But I found that when driven normally, it handled wonderfully. Brake steadily for the turn, begin turn in while the brakes still on (to get some weight on the front), then steady throttle to the apex, followed by full throttle from the apex to the exit. At any point in the turn, minor throttle adjustments can be used to trim the line. Perfect, just like a race car.

I've done a fair amount of racing and time trialing, and I've also done a lot of instructing at BMW and Porsche driver schools, and I would say that a Porsche 911 also serves as an excellent error amplifier. For example, if you get on the throttle before the car is turned into the corner, you will experience tremendous understeer. React by cranking in more lock and easing off the gas and you will experience a dramatic shift to oversteer (as the cranked front wheels find grip) followed by tail-first exit. Or if you come in to a turn too hot, turn in to early, then get off the gas in mid turn, same scenario.

But in the hands of a capable driver, what a thrill:

Land conservation groups (in general), Mass Audubon (in particular)

When I need a simply sublime experience of the outdoors, I head for one of Mass Audubon's sanctuaries. Mass Audubon sanctuaries are masterpieces of land management. The sanctuaries provide extensive, protected wildlife habitat, wonderful passive recreation (walking trails), and extensive educational programs.

I'm a big fan of land conservation groups in general, such as the Trustees of Reservations (TTOR), but Audubon is one of my favorites. The three sanctuaries that I know the best are Drumlin Farm in Lincoln, Wellfleet Bay, and Broadmoor in South Natick.

Deer fly defense

During their relatively short breeding season, four to five weeks in June and July, the deer fly (Chrysops discalis) can make life miserable for the dedicated woods walker. These flies feed by dive-bombing the victim, quickly slashing a hole in the skin, secreting saliva with irritating chemicals that increase blood flow, then eating blood from the wound.

These flies typically feed on large mammals. They are attracted to the plume of carbon dioxide that typically emanates from such mammals, as well as to the movement of large dark shapes. Their brute-force feeding style does not work well on fur-covered surfaces, so the flies tend to seek out parts of the body without protection, such as the eyes and ears.

In my experience, the use of DEET-containing repellent has absolutely no effect on deer flies. What does work is to wear a broad brimmed felt hat. The flies lock on to your CO2 plume, then home in on the hat, then dive in and attempt to feed madly on the brim of the hat. Their behavior pattern is fixed. They do not attempt to move around on the victim prior to feeding; the dive bomb and instantly start chewing.

Discovering this quirk of deer fly behavior has really improved my experience of the woods this time of year!

Spare tires

My BMW has the best spare tire in the world: The spare wheel is an OEM alloy that matches the four on the car, as does the tire, a 235/45-17 Michelin Pilot. Any kind of flat tire or wheel damage and I can pop on the spare and continue my journey for any distance at any speed. If the tire must be replaced, it is a standard size available anywhere.

The Porsche has a temporary service spare which must be inflated using a pump prior to use. It has restricted speed and distance limits.

The Mini has no spare. The tires are run-flats, which can be driven on with zero air pressure for a limited distance (120 miles) at a limited speed (50 MPH). Once they've been run flat, they must be replaced. They are not commonly available, especially outside of the core Mini markets (the Northeast, California, and the Pacific Northwest).

The two types of tire problems that I've experienced in my motoring career (not counting delaminating retreaded tires) have been slow-to-fast leaks caused by nails in the tread and catastrophic loss of pressure caused by bending the wheel rim on potholes. The former can typically be repaired, and as long as you keep pumping up the tire, aren't a big deal. The latter, of course, require a new tire and a new wheel.

To make the Mini more useful and usable, and to reduce the chances of needing to buy a new run-flat tire just because I pick up a nail, I assembled the following on-board tire kit:


The items in the kit fit, more or less neatly, in a small bag:


which in turn nestles happily in my newly installed euro parcel tray:


I also purchased the smallest tire pump that I could find, which fits easily in the glove compartment:




I'm going to live with the run-flat tires for a while, but I expect to ultimately replace them with regular tires with better performance characteristics.

My life

My life is just making me happy right now. I've been going on adventures with my son (we hiked up a really steep trail, in the rain, last weekend and he did an amazing job). I'm having fun with my new car. I've been facing a lot of new challenges at work, which I had been dreading, but which are actually really stimulating.

And physically I've been feeling the best I've felt in a while. I've dropped about 25 pounds over the past few months, and it's making a huge difference in how I feel.

I guess part of being happy is not needing to spend a lot of time blogging about the stuff that makes me happy.

The Banzai Pipeline?

The traffic reporter on Channel 4, in a passing remark this morning, said that the State Police refer to route 128 (aka I-95) as the "Banzai Pipeline". This term certainly captures the essence of driving on 128, and if true, it also provides a clue as to (a) why you never see anyone pulled over on 128 and (b) what the likely limits of acceptable driving speed and behavior are, at least in the eye of the law.

Cowabunga!

Round headlights rock

Just an odd coincidence. Three cars with round headlights. Some old, some new. English. German. No reason.

Not a typo: Really did have two 525 Wagons

For a while, two years in fact, I really did have two nearly identical 2001 BMW 525iT wagons:


I bought the first one in November 2001, used. It had 10,500 miles on it and was less than a year old. It was such a great car that I bought another one in 2004, to replace the Toyota Matrix, which I couldn't drive after a back injury (not enough leg room). The second one came to us with 3 years and 36,000 miles on it (an ex-BMW financial lease car). It recently left, a victim of its own quiet competence, to fund the purchase of the new Mini Cooper S.

A car that I had never seen

I've been watching cars for about 40 years, and it is rare that I see a car that I couldn't identify. But this past Sunday, at the fast-growing Elm Bank Classic Car Show in Dover, I came across this one:



Clearly an Alfa Romeo, but small and ... ahem ... not very attractive. The size and proportions are reminiscent of a SAAB Sonnett III. The detailing, very '70s Italian.

The interior, classic Alfa, arms-out driving with the gear lever at a 45 degree angle.


The answer? A 1972 Alfa Romeo Zagato Junior 1300.

VW Headed Down-Market

Fresh off their ridiculous ad campaign showing inattentive, distracted drivers getting into completely avoidable accidents in their Jettas, VW announced that it will be cutting prices on US-market Jettas for model year 2007.

VW: Crap cars for bad drivers

Porsche Ramble

One of my favorite weekend activities is taking the 911 out for some exercise:

I said it before, and I'm saying it again now

I love walking in the woods in the rain.

It's been raining here in Boston for about two days now. Morning temperatures are typically in the low 40s, Fahrenheit.

Yesterday I put on a pair of shorts, a Gore-Tex shell, and an old felt hat and set out on what I call the 'short long walk'. There is are approximately 500 acres of conservation land just south of my house, and there are many different possible trail journeys. But in essence, there's the northern loop complex and the southern loop complex. The two complexes are connected by a single trail that runs through a big wetland. The 'short long' walk involves making it all the way to the southern loop complex, but taking a short path once there. (The 'short short' is a short path just in the northern complex, the 'long short' is a long path in the northern complex, and a 'long long' is... well, you get the idea.)

It was about an hour and half walk, probably 5 or 6 miles, of pure bliss. The sound of the rain on last fall's fallen leaves, the sheen of the water on the trunk of an enormous silver beech, the squish of mud under my feet.

The sound of the rain is like a blanket around you when you walk. You can't year the distant sounds of traffic, or construction, or airplanes. It is as if you have the world to yourself.

Wildlife

This past Tuesday, while out walking I came across a pair of big fat beavers trying to build a house. The trail I walk takes me across an intermittent stream. For much of the year, the stream carries a pretty good flow of water, draining from a nearby pond. In fact, Horace and the local boy scout troop built a wooden walkway across the stream about 6 years ago. In the late summer, the water level in the pond recedes to the point where the stream dries up, so it turns out that this wasn't going to be a great place for a beaver lodge. I didn't see the beavers the next time I was there.

I enjoy seeing wildlife when I'm out walking. Here are some of the animals that I've seen lately in the woods:

• White tailed deer (too numerous too count)
• Chipmunks
• Beavers
• A Fisher cat
• Turkeys
• Garter snakes
• Frogs
• Toads
• Snapping turtle
• An eastern box turtle
• Red tailed hawks
• Chickadees
• Woodpeckers

I really enjoy coming across the other types of creatures with whom I share the woods.

My Mini spec

I've got a 2006 Mini Cooper S currently on order. Mini really encourages and facilitates the special ordering of their cars. Their web site has a very easy to use tool for creating a custom configuration, which you can then view, print, or dispatch directly to your local dealer.

It took me about a week to come up with my configuration:

My 2006 MINI Cooper S
Base MSRP*		$20,900
Destination & Handling		$550
paint
	British Racing Green Body Color	$450
	White Roof/Mirrors	$0
	White Bonnet Stripes	$100
package
	Cold Weather Package	$300
	Heated Front Seats
	Heated Side Mirrors and Washer Jets
performance
	Sport Suspension Plus	STD
	Limited Slip Differential	$500
	16" V-Spokes (All-Season)	STD
	Front Fog Lamps	$150
	Rear Fog Lamp	$100
	6-Speed Getrag Manual	STD
cockpit
	Sport Seats	STD
	Leatherette: Black	STD
	Int. Surface Anthracite	$0
	3-Spoke w/Cruise and Multifunction	$250
	6-spkr AM/FM CD Player	STD
TOTAL MSRP AS CONFIGURED*		$23,300
accessory**
	Black Carpet Floor Mats (4) (installation not incl.)	$95
TOTAL ACCESSORIES **		$95
TOTAL MSRP AS CONFIGURED*		$23,300
TOTAL COMBINED		$23,395

My color choice was driven by what I think of as the classic Mini color scheme, with a white roof over British Racing Green. I'm not thrilled that the current BRG is metallic, but I think it will look OK.

My other choices were really driven by my experience trying to find my Porsche 911. When I first bought a 911, it fit me, but snugly. But when I decided that I wanted to do a trackday, I absolutely could not get a helmet on. It took about a year, but I found another 911 of the same year without a sunroof, and it was definitely worth the wait. I was grateful to the original owner that he specified such a basic car: no sunroof and no optional equipment other than body-colored Fuchs alloys.

I decided to do a similar thing with my Mini: I wanted to get a light, performance-oriented car. I'm 6'9" tall, and I fit fine in a Mini. But when I put on my helmet, I need the extra headroom that comes from not having a sunroof. Plus, the sunroof adds about 40 pounds to the car in the worst possible location.

I did not order the 17" s-lite wheels, because they weigh 25 lbs each, as opposed to 17 lbs for the V-spokes. This means that I have fewer tire choices, and also that I won't be able to fit the JCW brake kit.

Finally, the fogs. I ordered those because I didn't like the look of the blanking panels.

A good dump

With the exception of Jamaica Plain, pretty much every town I've lived in has had an excellent dump. Twenty years ago, when I was living in New Hampshire and Vermont, the local dumps were still burning trash. You'd haul your stuff up and dump it, and an old bulldozer would shove it into a burning pile. You could pick through all the non-burnable junk that was lying around, and sometimes there was a swap shop where people would drop off or pick up still-serviceable stuff.

Nowadays, of course, our dump is a transfer station. You put all of your recyclables into the correct bins, then dump your remaining household trash into a big dumpster, which is taken off to a central landfill, or more commonly an incinerator.

I was out walking with Horace yesterday in the woods behind an abandoned state hospital when we came across an old dump from the mid-70s. There are a number of civil war-era dumpsites in town, full of great artifacts, but this is the first intact 20th century dump that I'd seen. There were old cars, appliances, furniture, and bottles. The staples of 20th century life. My favorite find was the back two thirds of an early 70s Ford Country Squire station wagon. Acres of wood grain vinyl siding, great swaths of Naugahide upholstery (where was PETA back then, before the Naugas became extinct?)

So that's today's simple thing. A good dump.

My new Mini

Like pretty much everybody else who's ever ordered a Mini Cooper, I'm gonna blog about it. To save time, here's the compressed

All about tub's cars

In my life, I've owned a lot of cars. This blog is where I'm going to write about my automotive history, the cars I own now, and pretty much anything else related to...cars.

People with staying power

Most folks who turn up at this site are searching for information about Limmer boots or boot grease. I hope those links get you where you need to go. (I am a big fan of the grease, but the jury is still out on the factory-made boots. The take a long time to break in, and they seem to be designed on the theory that if your foot doesn't look like a good German foot, the boot will reshape your foot so that it resembles a good German foot.)

But recently I noticed that there is an actual link to a post on this blog from Universal Hub, a project of long-time internet personality and Rozzie resident Adam Gaffin. Adam doesn't know me, although we exchanged e-mails one when I was thinking about relocating from JP to Roslindale, but I've been aware of his presence and contributions to the Boston community for a while. Here's to staying power.

Walking in the rain

Such a cliché, but I love walking in the rain. It's been terribly dry for about a month, but this morning it is raining. I love putting on my slicker and my hat and walking in the woods in the rain. The sound of the drops on the leaves creates a feeling of privacy that is hard to match, as if you were alone in the world.

Something simple that I don't particularly care for

Today is my birthday, which is OK I guess. But it's also the beginning of something that I detest: Daylight Savings Time.

One of the best things about spring and summer is the early mornng dawns. The chance to get outside in beautiful sunlight while no one elese is awake. Well, alas, those days are over.

The end of daylight savings time. Something simple that I'm really looking forward to.

Peepers

This time of year, in wet spots, vernal pools, swamps, and marshes, it is time for the baby frogs to hatch out and start singing. I absolutely simply love driving home on a warm spring evening with the windows open, driving past a wet bit, and hearing the peepers. Simply love it.

Woods sounds

Yesterday, I took the big walk, about 7 miles through the woods behind my house. I live about 15 miles from downtown Boston, and it amazes and delights me that I can walk out my back door directly into 600 acres of parkland, forests, and fields. There's immense development pressure on this land, so it's not clear how long this treasure will last, but every day that it's there and that I can walk in it is a special, simple, wonderful day.

On my walk yesterday, I heard some of my favorite woods sounds. When you're in or near a stand of high oaks or beeches, the sound of the wind blowing through the tops of the trees creates a distant, lonely sound. A quiet sound that you can't really hear if you're with another person.

The trees behind my house, and those along my neighbor's field, is home to a red tailed hawk. He is beautiful to see, soaring in endless loops over the field, but his harsh, innocent call is terrifying and stark.


Finally, as I was coming home, I heard a hairy woodpecker tapping away in a tree in my back yard.


I had trouble locating him, but with patience I noticed a dead limb in the tree, and there he was.

The sounds of the woods. Something simple that I like.

Spring

Yesterday was the vernal equinox. The longer days creep up so slowly that you hardly notice. But I love waking up at 5:30 and having the sky already glowing with light. And I like being able to drive home in the light.

My nemesis, Daylight Savings Time, appears soon. But for the moment, we morning folk have the upper hand.

A wonderful poem from W.S. Merwin, again heard on The Writer's Almanac and reproduced here without permission.

Trees

I am looking at trees
they may be one of the things I will miss
most from the earth
though many of the ones I have seen
already I cannot remember
and though I seldom embrace the ones I see
and have never been able to speak
with one
I listen to them tenderly
their names have never touched them
they have stood round my sleep
and when it was forbidden to climb them
they have carried me in their branches

The house

Bruder trucks

Bruder makes the best toy trucks out there. They play well. They're full of clever design touches, like booms and jibs that articulate like the real thing. Little pumps on the fire trucks. My son has five Bruder trucks:

The MAN crane truck:


The ladder fire truck:


The MAN dump truck:

The JCX backhoe/loader:

And the Schaeff mini-excavator:

I love these trucks, because the people who designed and manufactured them really care about the equipment.