Positive Ape

heh, yeah, I remember stopping at an uncontrolled T intersection once and applying the current rule, and all those around me, including my passenger, went "what?!"

It has been widely ignored for a long time because it's easier for the person turning into the terminating road to get across one lane of traffic than it is for the other person to get across two.

as for the changes I think they are probably necessary because people don't follow the current rules, but they do upset the great rule of thumb that I was taught: "if the other car will hit you in the driver's door then you have to give way." So it will become harder to teach the give way rule I think

oh, so you just bolted it onto the mudguard braze ons?

what size are those tyres? They look pretty narrow if you plan on loading up the panniers

good score on the panniers. How did you rig the front rack?

foarrr, nice, I wanted one of these pretty bad back in the day.

flat bars would be a good mod, but you'd need to get the right brake levers. Most levers these days are made for v-brakes so they have a different leverage ratio.

another good mod would be buying a adapter that lets you use a modern stem. Then you can easily get the length and angle that you want

what kind of rear hub does it have? is the freewheel mechanism part of of the gear cluster or part of the hub? This bike is from the early 90s so I'm guess it's part of the hub

Yeah, would be cool, but you won't get wusses like me into it. NZ is just too damn cold for chopped bikes (and probably bikes in general!) I reckon. If you want to ride outside of Jan, Feb or March you need windscreens, fairings, electric underwear etc.

I guess if you don't mind it being a summer hobby then bikes are alright

Sorry, back on topic. What size wheels do bikes have? Modern bikes have 17 inch don't they? But old bikes were a bit more variable I think. Maybe 18 inch?

looks nice, more deets like who makes it and what components it has please

two stroke is already forced induction isn't it? The mixture (or air? I can't quite remember how it works) gets pressurised in the crankcase.

There was someone on here that talked about putting epoxy in the crankcase, presumably to reduce the volume and increase the pressure. It doesn't seem like a common two stroke mod though, so I wonder if it is fiddly compared to just improving the motor's breathing.

Any two stroke experts who can enlighten me?

lol. I did that once. Luckily the speed was low and I just went up the curb. Only real damage was to the tow vehicle's tail-light

Oh no!!

This is probably my favorite thread on the whole site so I follow every update. It's just unbelieveable how many things have gone wrong

dude, 100 cars?!! What do you do with them all?

I think the number of owners a car has had says a lot. If someone keeps a car for a while they are more likely to service it and fix things properly so that's what I look for.

Apart from that, these days I want a car that has zero mods. Even a pod filter puts me off. To me, if someone has put a pod filter on their car it says two things: 1. The car has had a hard life. 2. The owner is a munter who is willing to put up with a horrible sucking noise in return for a tiny performance gain.

The last biggie is rust/accident damage. I probably won't buy a car that has mismatched panels (or has been resprayed) unless I can verify that the repairs have been done well. I also look for cars that have been kept in a garage.

The oily bits don't worry me too much. I know that anything oily can be fixed fairly easily so, like the previous poster said, it's just a bargaining point. The exception could be turbocharged cars. I've never bought a car with a turbo but from what I've read they can be a liability.

word.

2ZZ?

Urgg, JZA70? I don't think so. Maybe JZA80? Or are they all electronic gizmo trickery/maintenance disaster waiting to happen?

Ditto S2000, urggg. I don't think I could ever roll a soft-top, it just seems so poserish. MX5 with a hardtop would be OK though

Four doors + tailgate cars would likely fail on the "less than 20,000 produced per year" rule wouldn't they?

Hmmm

Yeah, an R32 would be pretty sweet. I kind of prefer the rx7 though, better styling IMHO. Probably because the R32 looks too similar to the lower spec models of that shape.

On the other hand, when I sit in an FD the rear view mirror is right in my line of sight so it could be a non-option anyway. My long back/excessive height puts paid to a lot of cars like that. Any other good options apart from FD RX7s and R32s?

Anyway, I fail on the most basic SIV requirement which is owning another vehicle, so it will have to be something like

1. return to NZ

2. buy daily

3. investigate sweet SIV options

Ah Kris Holm. I'd just heard of his rims

http://www.krisholm.com/khu/rims

Supposed to be quite a good option for a 29er because they're strong and wide. Would would good for a front wheel I reckon, as the width could help the handling a bit

ooo, a special interest vehicle, what a cunning little exemption.

I guess an FD would pass all four conditions. Ah, maybe not the max 20,000 built per year though?

Cheers Cletus.

Runamuck, that's what I thought, but Cletus's one makes more sense eh?

What's this guy on about with his "special conditions"?

Is he talking about car club membership and a motorsport authority card?

http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/used-cars/mazda/rx-7/auction-389128313.htm

(It's a 1996 FD RX7 that he says can still be registered for road use, as long as you follow the "special conditions")

plug gap. Mechanic possibly didn't check the gap when they put the new spark plugs in.

My 5 door GT had a different gearbox. At an indicated 100kph it was only doing 2700rpm.

Since your car is NZ new I thought it would be the same. Ah, maybe a facelift/non facelift thing?

After my car started jumping out of 5th gear (groan) we sourced another box and it had the lower ratio like yours does.

At that time I really wanted a Healing turbo 10+2 though.

off topic but...

This is what I ride to uni on:

I took the derailleurs off so its just a single speed now, i was getting annoyed with it skipping between gears. It used to have short mudguards and a carry rack.

I put on the longer mudguards but then the rack didn't fit, i will make it fit again. I also flopped and chopped the drop bars into bull horns, they suit my riding style better.

there is surface rust coming through the paint and its starting to look pretty old/shitty so i want to paint it beige and get the stickers remade in brown. I've already bought a brown front healing badge for it. This will be next project now that the BMX is finished.

EDIT: This bike cost me $30 2 years ago and came with another bike for parts which seemed to be fucked but I ended up rebuilding (some of you might have seen the blue 10 speed I built for my mrs).

Hey, you've got one! Choice. Yeah, my friend had one and there was one in the bike shop for ages when I was about 12 or 13. Mum and Dad bought me a healing skylark instead, which I think was also 12 speed, but it didn't have quite the same racey image

looks pretty choice.

shimano biopace (eliptical) chainrings are kind of collectible now. I presume that's what they are. Some people really like them and they're hard to find in good nick. That said, if they sprockets are flogged out then you'll have to put a new chain on, and if you put a new chain on you may need new chainrings anyway.

I remember thinking those super citys were all right back in the day, especially their triangular one piece stem/handlebars. So much cooler than the Morrison sidewinder BMX style bars. At that time I really wanted a Healing turbo 10+2 though.

I wouldn't chop it, and I wouldn't put a motor on it(!), but I would add one of those paperboy front racks. Those big custom-built steel ones. Some kind of plastic crate on that and it would be a handy load carrier. Good for a smallish dog too.

Just to throw my 2c in...

I'd go pinto if it was me. I know 16v twin cam is better in theory, and probably just as fast around a racetrack, but I prefer mid-range torque over top end madness. If you want both then I guess turbo 4age could work, but it sounds a bit dodge.

Ha, I can actually comment on this since I have actually owned a pinto (2l twin choke weber version) and a 4age. The pinto was better. 4age was a bit of a let down, since passengers looked at me funny when I dropped down to third and redlined it just to pass a car

I question your taste, Sassafrass.

Do not want

Hey, Esprit,

just encouraging you to have a quick squizz at the engine. Don't give up now!

My 2c...

sell one then pay someone to get the remaining car into a roadworthy state asap.

being able to actually drive the car will increase your motivation to mod it the way you want it