Random Thoughts

"functionoverfashion" (functionoverfashion) 07/24/2017 at 12:29 • Filed to: None

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Someone I work with has a small collection of cars, but none are of any significant value. There’s an older Saab, a couple Cherokees, an ‘09 Corolla, a ‘13 Tacoma, and then some motorcycles, too. ALL the cars are manual. This appeared at work the other day and I knew immediately it was his, even though I’d never seen it before.

I heard oppo likes these things for some reason. Oh wait, I had one and loved it. And this is the 4.0 with a manual, too.

I gather there’s a black one from the 80's, I haven’t seen that one yet. This one isn’t rust-free by any means, but it’s the cleanest one I’ve seen in New England in years.

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Yesterday I got my truck back from the guy who was fixing the tailgate. He has quite a collection, this is maybe 25% of his small fleet. My truck was among the newer ones, although you can just see a 70's era Ford behind mine in this picture. Most he bought in various states of disrepair, and he slowly restores them in his retirement. All are driver quality, none are showroom-perfect. Which to me, IS perfect.

And I’ll get some better pictures, but here’s a quick shot of the tailgate, all painted up except for the FORD lettering which should be black.

Here’s what it looked like before:

It was the worst part of the truck; about to fall off, in reality. He cut the whole bottom off and made a new sleeve, along with two new “hinges” on either end - basically a round stud that fits into the sleeve.

And oddly, the nearest paint code that came up when I had an auto parts place check it with a fancy paint-scanning camera was a modern Volvo color called Hello Yellow. I’ve never seen one in the US, but it’s a color that apparently was on some C30s a few years back.

photo credit: caricos.com via google image search

I’d rock that. Especially alongside my truck.

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Lastly, I got to ride this thing to work three days last week - it belongs to the girl who’s watching our kids for the summer, and she offered to let me ride it anytime. It’s a 2012-ish Honda CBR 250. Fun to drive, but easy to stay out of trouble. It fulfilled my desire to ride a motorcycle occasionally and was a nice way to commute when it was so hot last week.

This little guy is probably the most fun you can have with around 20hp. Wikipedia says 23.7 / 21.9 hp citing different sources; either way, it’s faster than any car I drive on a regular basis, and a whole lot more fun while using basically no fuel. It’s quiet at idle, but makes a satisfying noise when you get on it. It’s not the smoothest as you wind it out near the top end, but hey. It’s powered by a single cylinder the size of a small coffee mug and it will make you smile unless your daily is a bike with twice the power. And for someone like me who might go a year or more between riding any motorcycle, it was a blast. It would make a great first bike.

That’s all for now. This has been a series of random thoughts, brought to you by a Strong Cup of Coffee and a Slow Day At Work.

Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs > functionoverfashion 07/24/2017 at 12:40

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Awesome truck, awesome post! Thanks!

As for the motorcycle, I’ve always figured I would never want a very fast one. Something like that, an enduro or something else with relatively low power would be fine with me (A) because it’s cheaper, (B) because it’s safer, (C) I’d just wanna cruise around anyway

XJDano > functionoverfashion 07/24/2017 at 12:44

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The wheels on that XJ are called Gambler. I always liked them.

functionoverfashion > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 07/24/2017 at 13:03

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Thanks for the compliments!

I agree on the bike; faster would mostly be more dangerous. This is similar 0-60 time as an older WRX - in the 6 second range, maybe a little slower, of course I’m sure a lot depends on the rider’s weight. When you hear people talk about usable power in a car, much over 300hp isn’t going to get you anything in a normal daily commute. For a bike, this might be all you’d ever need to have some fun and get where you’re going.