Serious Annoyance...
 

9:59 AMTrue North
Tim
"I run through town in 3rd on my Guzzi. Get it out on the road and a lot of times I'll do the 1-3-5 Dom a dead stop. Lugging isn't good. I agree "


Did you get to any of the Chicago vs St. Louis playoff games?
No Canadian teams to cheer for this year.
....

Hockey? Not really watching per se, but did catch some highlights in the St. Louis satillite news though. Amazing how far the Blues have come up over the years. Some time ago even their fans were betting against them because they were on such a losing streak. Yes, if St. Louis got a score their fans would "boo" them. Lol!

Serious Annoyance...
 

On Tue, 26 Apr 2016 05:42:54 -0700 (PDT), Tim
wrote:

I run through town in 3rd on my Guzzi. Get it out on the road and a lot of times I'll do the 1-3-5 Dom a dead stop. Lugging isn't good. I agree

Lugging is not really a problem if you are spinning up 2500 or more
and with a useable RPM band of 2500-7500 (the redline) you don't need
that many gears to get a little car like mine going.
The V-tech doesn't even kick in until 5000.
If you are driving aggressively you probably try to stay between 5000
and 7000 and if you are not in a hurry you stay between 2500 and 5000,
In normal light to light, 1-3-5 seems to work fine and I end up using
2 and 4 when i am slowing down for turns and such. Four is probably
the least used gear. With the speed limits around here and some well
timed lights, I spend most of the time in 5.

Serious Annoyance...
 

On 4/26/16 1:07 PM, wrote:
On Tue, 26 Apr 2016 05:42:54 -0700 (PDT), Tim
wrote:

I run through town in 3rd on my Guzzi. Get it out on the road and a lot of times I'll do the 1-3-5 Dom a dead stop. Lugging isn't good. I agree

Lugging is not really a problem if you are spinning up 2500 or more
and with a useable RPM band of 2500-7500 (the redline) you don't need
that many gears to get a little car like mine going.
The V-tech doesn't even kick in until 5000.
If you are driving aggressively you probably try to stay between 5000
and 7000 and if you are not in a hurry you stay between 2500 and 5000,
In normal light to light, 1-3-5 seems to work fine and I end up using
2 and 4 when i am slowing down for turns and such. Four is probably
the least used gear. With the speed limits around here and some well
timed lights, I spend most of the time in 5.


I go through the gears on Mr. Blue when starting up from a dead stop,
and downshift through them to negotiate steeper hills and 90 degree
turns. First is pretty close to a stump puller, but the truck is not a
lightweight, so I use first to get rolling. I usually don't use fifth or
sixth unless I'm out on State Route 4 or better.

Serious Annoyance...
 

On 4/23/2016 3:32 PM, True North wrote:
Mr. Luddite
- show quoted text -
"I was reading the other day that most of the AM stations are being shut
down or sold to special interest broadcasters. Affected is the first
commercial radio station in the USA ... WBZ in Boston. I used to
listen to 'BZ all the time as a kid ... Red Sox games and then Dick
Summer and Larry Glick at night. Too bad to see them being shut down
but they are another casualty of the Internet and technology."


I don't think there is a single am station left around here.

Interesting. The two top-rated stations up here are AM stations. One
is a news/sports station and the other is a news/talk.

Its kinda sad, actually... I worked for 10 years as a DJ in music
radio, and watched it go from Fun (the DJ's were allowed to have
personality and fun, which formed a "gotta listen" relationship with the
public) to Vanilla (minimal personality is desired because Corporate
wants the listener to like the brand, not the DJ).

Of course, outside of morning drive, very few music stations have a
live person actually in the studio. Assuming the show isn't
satellite-delivered, its either voice-tracked from another state (like
Entercom and Clear Channel iHeart stations), or the local DJ prerecords
it and while they are "on-the air" are really in a production booth
somewhere making commercials.

Serious Annoyance...
 

On Tue, 26 Apr 2016 13:15:52 -0400, Keyser Söze
wrote:

On 4/26/16 1:07 PM, wrote:
On Tue, 26 Apr 2016 05:42:54 -0700 (PDT), Tim
wrote:

I run through town in 3rd on my Guzzi. Get it out on the road and a lot of times I'll do the 1-3-5 Dom a dead stop. Lugging isn't good. I agree

Lugging is not really a problem if you are spinning up 2500 or more
and with a useable RPM band of 2500-7500 (the redline) you don't need
that many gears to get a little car like mine going.
The V-tech doesn't even kick in until 5000.
If you are driving aggressively you probably try to stay between 5000
and 7000 and if you are not in a hurry you stay between 2500 and 5000,
In normal light to light, 1-3-5 seems to work fine and I end up using
2 and 4 when i am slowing down for turns and such. Four is probably
the least used gear. With the speed limits around here and some well
timed lights, I spend most of the time in 5.


I go through the gears on Mr. Blue when starting up from a dead stop,
and downshift through them to negotiate steeper hills and 90 degree
turns. First is pretty close to a stump puller, but the truck is not a
lightweight, so I use first to get rolling. I usually don't use fifth or
sixth unless I'm out on State Route 4 or better.


That is just a reflection of the Northeast thing. Your roads were laid
out when people were riding horses and they have fairly low speed
limits. In SW Florida the 2 lane blacktops are 50 or 60, Us 41 is 55
at the end of the feeder road to my street and the interstate is 70.
Most people speed, at least 10 over. The cops seem to not really care
until you are 15 or 20 over is you are not on a residential street or
s school zone. Unlike Maryland, they do not see speeding as a profit
center.
I have to say I am not really that conscious of what gear I am in most
of the time. I drive by the sound of the engine and the feel of the
road. After 15 years in this car, I just pick the gear instinctively.
I have been driving a stick all my life.
I was out today and 1-3-5 is not right. On US41 it was more like 1-2-5
on my little trip today
At 2500 RPM, 1st is 12, 2d is 22, 3d is 31, 4th is 40 and 5th is
faster than I could go from here to publix.
I downshifted to 3 from 5 to make the turn into the Publix lot road
(made the light) and hit 2d while I was in the lot itself.
I do hit these turns pretty hard tho. That Prelude still handles
pretty well, probably better than my 69 Corvette ;-)

Serious Annoyance...
 

On 4/24/2016 10:22 AM, wrote:
On Sun, 24 Apr 2016 02:58:30 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

On 4/24/2016 1:12 AM, wrote:
On Sat, 23 Apr 2016 16:05:49 -0500, amdx wrote:

On 4/23/2016 1:37 PM, Mr. Luddite wrote:


I was reading the other day that most of the AM stations are being shut
down or sold to special interest broadcasters. Affected is the first
commercial radio station in the USA ... WBZ in Boston. I used to
listen to 'BZ all the time as a kid ... Red Sox games and then Dick
Summer and Larry Glick at night. Too bad to see them being shut down
but they are another casualty of the Internet and technology.



I listened to WBZ in the 80's and part of the 90s. I lived in Michigan
at the time and WBZ came in very well in the evening. I enjoyed Larry
Glick in the middle of the night, starting at 1 or 2 am. Glick had some
hilarious skits. Anyone recall him calling the Hawaiian pay phone? I
also listened to David Brudnoy earlier in the evening, around 10 or
11pm, Brudnoy was very intelligent and did more serious interviews.
After I moved to Florida and got up an antenna, I only received
WBZ very clear for about 30 seconds one evening and then never again.
I sent a letter to them asking if the were going to put their
programing on the internet, I got a response, "not at this time", some
CBS rules as I understood it. Years later, I received an email saying
their programing was now on the internet. They must have saved all the
emails asking about internet programming.
Sorry to hear they are shutting down. Good Memories.
Mikek

When I was in DC we went the other way and listened to Dick Biondi on
WLS in Chicago. A good super het radio connected to a 100' antenna
locked it in like it was local at night.

We used to have one good AM talk station here that was all local
during the day and went to syndicated shows like Dr Dean and that
travel/money guy.
The local show was good because it was mostly local stuff and they got
the real guys on. I called in one day, talked to the Lee County DOT
director and got the light at the end of my street retimed within a
week.
That was also where we heard the real story about James Billie (indian
chief and casino manager) and the panther he killed. We also heard the
real story about Reahart and his fight with Lee County that made it
all the way to the steps of the SCOTUS who let his ruling stand (the
government has to pay if they rezone your property)
Both of them just quietly went away in the news.

Rush Limbaugh killed local talk. He started giving his show away and
it was cheaper than paying local people for a bigger audience.

I looked and we have 16 AM stations that you might be able to hear.
Half are spanish, 1 adult contemporary, 1 country, 2 news and the rest
are sports talk.


WBZ is one of the "clear channel" stations meaning there are very few
other AM stations that broadcast near WBZ's frequency assignment. Last
I knew it was a 50,000 watt station and at night it's signal is
listenable over a good part of the country, especially the mid-west.
I have a friend who occasionally co-hosts a call-in talk show on WBZ
that runs from midnight to 5 am. She gets calls from listeners from
Minnesota, Colorado and other states across the nation.

Yup, when we were doing "AM DXing" there were 3 or 4 far away stations
we could get at night if the atmospherics were right. I have picked
up WLS on I-95 in the Carolinas while I was on my way to Florida. It
is weird because it will pop up as clear as a bell and a while later
it just fades away. The old Childrens Band worked that way too.
Occasionally you would hear someone from 1000 miles away but they just
came and went. Whether you could actually respond was another thing.
(although it was technically illegal to do so)


I frequently get WSM up here in Wisconsin. When traveling, I've heard
WTMJ in Nevada when the conditions were right at night.

I used to work for WOKY, and one time we got package in the mail with
a recording of our station and a letter from a guy in Finland who's
hobby was DXing. The format was Standards at the time, but we had an
old-timer DJ (Tom Collins, former Milwaukee Braves announcer) that did a
Big Band show on Saturdays. Kinda interesting picturing Finn's
listening in!

Serious Annoyance...
 

On Tue, 26 Apr 2016 13:15:52 -0400, Keyser Söze
wrote:


I go through the gears on Mr. Blue when starting up from a dead stop,
and downshift through them to negotiate steeper hills and 90 degree
turns. First is pretty close to a stump puller, but the truck is not a
lightweight, so I use first to get rolling. I usually don't use fifth or
sixth unless I'm out on State Route 4 or better.


It's a Tacoma, correct? It's actually pretty light as pickups go.
Depending on configuration it's curb weight is around 4K lbs. Compare
that to a full sized medium duty pickup like a Chevy 2500 or a Ford
F250. Curb weight is over 6K lbs for the gas models. Heck, the curb
weight on the Nissan Altima I recently bought is only about 500-600 lbs
less than the Tacoma.

Serious Annoyance...
 

On 4/26/2016 3:33 PM, wrote:
On Tue, 26 Apr 2016 13:15:52 -0400, Keyser Söze
wrote:

On 4/26/16 1:07 PM, wrote:
On Tue, 26 Apr 2016 05:42:54 -0700 (PDT), Tim
wrote:

I run through town in 3rd on my Guzzi. Get it out on the road and a lot of times I'll do the 1-3-5 Dom a dead stop. Lugging isn't good. I agree

Lugging is not really a problem if you are spinning up 2500 or more
and with a useable RPM band of 2500-7500 (the redline) you don't need
that many gears to get a little car like mine going.
The V-tech doesn't even kick in until 5000.
If you are driving aggressively you probably try to stay between 5000
and 7000 and if you are not in a hurry you stay between 2500 and 5000,
In normal light to light, 1-3-5 seems to work fine and I end up using
2 and 4 when i am slowing down for turns and such. Four is probably
the least used gear. With the speed limits around here and some well
timed lights, I spend most of the time in 5.


I go through the gears on Mr. Blue when starting up from a dead stop,
and downshift through them to negotiate steeper hills and 90 degree
turns. First is pretty close to a stump puller, but the truck is not a
lightweight, so I use first to get rolling. I usually don't use fifth or
sixth unless I'm out on State Route 4 or better.


That is just a reflection of the Northeast thing. Your roads were laid
out when people were riding horses and they have fairly low speed
limits. In SW Florida the 2 lane blacktops are 50 or 60, Us 41 is 55
at the end of the feeder road to my street and the interstate is 70.
Most people speed, at least 10 over. The cops seem to not really care
until you are 15 or 20 over is you are not on a residential street or
s school zone. Unlike Maryland, they do not see speeding as a profit
center.
I have to say I am not really that conscious of what gear I am in most
of the time. I drive by the sound of the engine and the feel of the
road. After 15 years in this car, I just pick the gear instinctively.
I have been driving a stick all my life.
I was out today and 1-3-5 is not right. On US41 it was more like 1-2-5
on my little trip today
At 2500 RPM, 1st is 12, 2d is 22, 3d is 31, 4th is 40 and 5th is
faster than I could go from here to publix.
I downshifted to 3 from 5 to make the turn into the Publix lot road
(made the light) and hit 2d while I was in the lot itself.
I do hit these turns pretty hard tho. That Prelude still handles
pretty well, probably better than my 69 Corvette ;-)



Car engines today are designed to rev higher than in the old days and
the torque/horsepower ratings can be deceiving because they are
developed at RPM's that you don't get near in normal driving. It's
interesting to look at their horsepower/torque curves and compare them
to the old big blocks of the 60's. A big old 454, 440 or the famous 426
Hemi developed gobs of torque at 3000 RPM or so. The new
engines can develop decent torque but at much higher RPM.

Serious Annoyance...
 

On 4/26/16 3:33 PM, wrote:
On Tue, 26 Apr 2016 13:15:52 -0400, Keyser Söze
wrote:

On 4/26/16 1:07 PM, wrote:
On Tue, 26 Apr 2016 05:42:54 -0700 (PDT), Tim
wrote:

I run through town in 3rd on my Guzzi. Get it out on the road and a lot of times I'll do the 1-3-5 Dom a dead stop. Lugging isn't good. I agree

Lugging is not really a problem if you are spinning up 2500 or more
and with a useable RPM band of 2500-7500 (the redline) you don't need
that many gears to get a little car like mine going.
The V-tech doesn't even kick in until 5000.
If you are driving aggressively you probably try to stay between 5000
and 7000 and if you are not in a hurry you stay between 2500 and 5000,
In normal light to light, 1-3-5 seems to work fine and I end up using
2 and 4 when i am slowing down for turns and such. Four is probably
the least used gear. With the speed limits around here and some well
timed lights, I spend most of the time in 5.


I go through the gears on Mr. Blue when starting up from a dead stop,
and downshift through them to negotiate steeper hills and 90 degree
turns. First is pretty close to a stump puller, but the truck is not a
lightweight, so I use first to get rolling. I usually don't use fifth or
sixth unless I'm out on State Route 4 or better.


That is just a reflection of the Northeast thing. Your roads were laid
out when people were riding horses and they have fairly low speed
limits. In SW Florida the 2 lane blacktops are 50 or 60, Us 41 is 55
at the end of the feeder road to my street and the interstate is 70.
Most people speed, at least 10 over. The cops seem to not really care
until you are 15 or 20 over is you are not on a residential street or
s school zone. Unlike Maryland, they do not see speeding as a profit
center.
I have to say I am not really that conscious of what gear I am in most
of the time. I drive by the sound of the engine and the feel of the
road. After 15 years in this car, I just pick the gear instinctively.
I have been driving a stick all my life.
I was out today and 1-3-5 is not right. On US41 it was more like 1-2-5
on my little trip today
At 2500 RPM, 1st is 12, 2d is 22, 3d is 31, 4th is 40 and 5th is
faster than I could go from here to publix.
I downshifted to 3 from 5 to make the turn into the Publix lot road
(made the light) and hit 2d while I was in the lot itself.
I do hit these turns pretty hard tho. That Prelude still handles
pretty well, probably better than my 69 Corvette ;-)



Yes, we have hills and curvy roads. The two lane state roads here are 50-55.

Serious Annoyance...
 

On 4/26/16 3:45 PM, Mr. Luddite wrote:

On Tue, 26 Apr 2016 13:15:52 -0400, Keyser Söze
wrote:


I go through the gears on Mr. Blue when starting up from a dead stop,
and downshift through them to negotiate steeper hills and 90 degree
turns. First is pretty close to a stump puller, but the truck is not a
lightweight, so I use first to get rolling. I usually don't use fifth or
sixth unless I'm out on State Route 4 or better.


It's a Tacoma, correct? It's actually pretty light as pickups go.
Depending on configuration it's curb weight is around 4K lbs. Compare
that to a full sized medium duty pickup like a Chevy 2500 or a Ford
F250. Curb weight is over 6K lbs for the gas models. Heck, the curb
weight on the Nissan Altima I recently bought is only about 500-600 lbs
less than the Tacoma.


I think my model weighs 4500 pounds, but it's only a V6. If memory
services, the four cylinder Altima we had weighed about 3100 pounds.