[Toshi]

Ear covers may help, not sure how much of a gap there is between the covers and your ears, it could make things worse. A cheaper and potentially more successful solution is just to wear a stretchy type headband that covers your ear-hole.

Well, it didn't make things worse, but didn't make a perceptible difference in noise, either. Plus it's quite hot on the head, with greatly reduced airflow despite the few, token vents on it. All that and it didn't increase my overall efficiency (18 Wh/mi, with recent pre-aero helmet trips between 15-20 Wh/mi), which isn't surprising given my upright riding position, big frontal area from shoulders and torso squared to the wind, and wide panniers without a tailbox.

Therefore it'll be going back to REI for a refund, and I can close out this embarrassing mini-phase of my life.

 

[Toshi]

Top case (SHAD SH46) now on eBay with 1 cent starting bid, no reserve: http://www.ebay.com/itm/110950061438?item=110950061438&viewitem=&vxp=mtr#ht_500wt_990

The Versys itself is on eBay Motors as well, with a $2500 starting bid: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110950065417#ht_500wt_1016

 

[Toshi]

I put my bicycle lights to good use tonight, as I had to ride in to work (night shift, wife with the car at symphonic band rehearsal).

This is what ~1000 lumens up front and ~500 lumens projecting to the rear looks like. I'd say that it was sufficient, in the manner of how a "six and three quarter" liter Bentley engine is "sufficient."

(That's a Fenix TK21 and a DealExtreme special light up front, with my DealExtreme + red filter hacked up rear light and a PDW RadBot 1000 in the rear.)

 

[ALEXIS_DH]

dx.com has some sweet deals for ghetto-riggers like me.
what are your thoughts on that light?
http://dx.com/p/p7-water-resistant-ssc-p7-3-mode-1200-lumen-white-led-bike-light-with-battery-pack-set-82734

is it good enough to be used alone up front on my bike?

 

[Westy]

dx.com has some sweet deals for ghetto-riggers like me.
what are your thoughts on that light?
http://dx.com/p/p7-water-resistant-ssc-p7-3-mode-1200-lumen-white-led-bike-light-with-battery-pack-set-82734

is it good enough to be used alone up front on my bike?

Those seem to be the same lights Geomangear was peddling int he past. I bought a set as did several other friends. The light head seems to be good but the batteries suck. I use mine as a commuter and it often saw rain. Either a cell in the pack went bad or corrosion on the connector prevented the pack from taking a charge. That being said it is probably worth $44.

 

[Toshi]

dante says this one (same price) is even brighter: http://www.dealextreme.com/p/t6-assault-crown-waterproof-xml-t6-3-mode-1200-lumen-white-led-bike-light-with-battery-pack-set-82508

 

[ALEXIS_DH]

sweet. i order myself a set of those and a $3 rear light.
so much awesomely useless crap at dx.com!

 

[Toshi]

My junk is now sold, both auctions still pending payment at this point, though:

Versys for $2908 - $120 eBay fee. I paid $3500 for it 33 months ago, so I'd call that an acceptable rate of depreciation given that I dropped it and cracked the fairing.

Top case for $117.50 shipped - ~$10? eBay fee. Not great depreciation on this one since I bought it for $160 or $180 shipped about two and a half? years ago. Still small in dollar amounts, though.

All that's left is my beat up old yellow Scorpion helmet. My white, newer, more comfortable Shoei will stick around for future exploits.

 

[ALEXIS_DH]

sweet. i order myself a set of those and a $3 rear light.
so much awesomely useless crap at dx.com!

so much awesome useless crap at dx.com...

spent over $200 in junk over last week... including, bike lights, bike computer with hrm, plenty of LED keychains in fluffy animal form, a LED beltbuckle, a scrolling LED thingy for my office door for assorted communication, small dSLR accesories, 10-pack fart flavored stink bombs for my lousy parts guy, etc......

i was going to get a $33 shipped fox flux knockoff to replace my aging xc lid, but then i remembered this is cheap chinese crap after all.... will get a proper helmet later.

dx.com rocks, although it seems they take like 10 days just to pack and ship. i´d say i´d be quite pleased is things arrive within 30 days...

 

[Toshi]

Yeah, beware of most of their stuff unless someone else has tried it (like that light). Not the same outfit, but I was burned on a cheap bike taillight via meritline.com before, and vowed to never use that site again.

 

[stevew]

We don't get the 70 series here. adpanda:

i saw a imported HJ47 troop carrier near my parents in NC...they're out there...although the one i saw was a newer model...

 

[Toshi]

I'm exactly the kind of consumer Tesla Motors should be gunning for, yet the Tesla Store experience has left me a bit cold.

I'm an electric propulsion aficionado and general early adopter. I dig quiet, smooth powertrains. I have a short commute, and an honest 100 miles of range would be just fine with me. I'm active on social media, am young enough that my friends also use it, and at least make an attempt at being articulate when praising or bashing a product.

Finally–important for Tesla's shareholders, this–I could actually afford one should it really catch my or my wife's eye. An equally-specced Model S is within the price of a crank-window-special Nissan Versa from the RAV4 EV that she covets (and which would be our unquestioned choice were it nationally available in unrestricted quantities). Want a more obscure unit? How about this? The price differential is about one good night's sleep's worth of Mitt Romney's yearly earnings… The point is that the Model S is at least in the same ballpark as the RAV4 EV, and its premium could be rationalized should its driving experience and dealer Tesla Store experience prove to be superior.

(For the record, above is a photo of my pregnant wife: no, she doesn't have a beer gut.)

Tesla started out on the right foot with their store idea, by mimicking Apple so brazenly that they hired away George Blankenship, of Apple Store and formerly Gap retail fame, to be a vice president. Given this clear Apple Store lineage I was disappointed to find that the experience was most definitely not up to that level.

The physical layout of the just-opened Roosevelt Field Mall store is good, at least: open design, interactive, big touchscreens along the walls, and interior color and material swatches on magnets and hangers that fit in body-color "bins" so that prospective buyers can see how the colors relate in the flesh, as it were. The center of the store was dominated by a Model S display model, with a rolling chassis showing off the battery pack and rear-mounted motor behind it.

So far, so good.

It's the details, and, equally as important, the evident lack of customer service training of their employees, that I found disappointing.

What physical details were amiss? The lighting, for one. In contrast to the uniform lighting in the model, the Apple Store, the lighting in the Tesla Store was very inconsistent in its color temperature. The fluorescent lighting bank directed towards the color swatches--the most color-sensitive area of the whole store!--was a pallid, cool tone, so off that the salesperson apologized that the color swatches look different outdoors. The physical details of storage cubbies at foot level coming unlatched and the surrounding aluminum on the interior sample swatches already looking worn were also a bit off-key. The giant touchscreen configurators also were disappointing in that they didn't price out the car with the options chosen, let alone offer to email the configuration to oneself or set up a test drive.

Then there was the customer service, a realm in which the outfit fell in its face, in my opinion. Despite there being a fair number of Tesla-polo-shirted staffers lingering about, it took a concerted effort to get their attention. Sure, they shouldn't hover, but they erred on the side of being standoffish. Once hooked up with a staffer, she proved to be knowledgable about the product and enthusiastic, but the infrastructure to support her wasn't there. In particular, they had no defined way, whether web- or paper-based, to allow prospective customers to sign up for test drives! She improvised, having me put my contact info on the back of a test drive waiver form. (Clearly test drives happen. But how?) Point to her, two points from the company for not having anticipated this utterly basic problem in advance. Contrast this with the Apple Store Genius Bar experience: sign up beforehand online or in the store via a staffer or a kiosk. If you've copied everything else, Tesla, why not this key detail?

The car itself seemed much as I'd expected from having read about it in the usual car rags and blogs. The only real surprise was that rear headroom is very tight. I'd expected it to be Prius level but instead it was more like sub-Miata level. Even my 5'4" wife could touch her hair to the headliner with a bit of a stretch, and I was halfway to head-sideways Acura ZDX antics back there.

This brings me to my final complaint: I have no idea what it feels like behind the wheel because the driver's seat in the floor model was hogged by a Tesla employee for at least the solid 10 minutes that we spent patiently waiting for him to leave. What's more galling is that when I mentioned it to another employee he said that we should have been waiting by the passenger's door as the employee was a permanent fixture within the car, a tour guide of sorts.

This was bad customer service for several reasons. First off, it wasn't true: we saw customers in the driver's seat both when we walked into the store and when we walked by 20 minutes later. Second, the employee in the driver's seat should have acknowledged us and suggested we line up on the other side, if it was true: we'd clearly been standing there, and he'd seen us.

Lesson to store employees: don't make up ****, and don't waste customers' time by playing with the car while others watch. We can see what it looks like on the website. The whole point of a showroom is to experience it for oneself.

Will I test drive a Model S should they contact me? Sure. I'm willing to give it a chance. If I buy one, it sure won't be because of the not-so-stellar experience in their store, though.

 

[Toshi]

The Versys is now gone. I picked up the buyer, who flew in from SLC on a redeye, at JFK this morning, and traded cash for keys and title. He's now on his way back home. He has to be at work Friday night and plans to camp and ride there between now and then with no particular plan...

 

[Toshi]

Having a kid next year is going to screw with my carefully crafted tax-avoidance plan.

No, I'm not talking about Cayman Island or Swiss bank tax shelters, a la Mittens, but rather about the EV tax credit: Worth $7,500 at most, it can't be carried forward to future years if one's base tax liability before the credit is less than that figure.

Well, it turns out that my tax liability for 2013 will be less than that, so if I buy an EV during that year I won't derive the full benefit of the credit. Thanks to the child tax credit from the anticipated-in-February-2013 Thing #1, tax-deferred investment plan contributions, and deductible (large, cross-country) moving expenses my pre-EV tax burden is only estimated at $3,500. I can't even blame the kid for everything: take away the child tax credit and I still would fall under the full credit amount with my relatively meager PGY-6 salary thanks to the other deductions.

On an intellectual level this bothers me--and it screws with my years-to-payback figure for the EV itself!--but I suppose it's a good problem to have...

#firstworldproblems

 

[Toshi]

In bicycle-related news, I'm pleased to report that the WTB Pure V saddle is very comfortable. It's not exactly the same as my old WTB SST.K, but it's much closer to that ideal than the shorter, rounded top profile Speed V I also have.

 

[Westy]

Having a kid next year is going to screw with my carefully crafted tax-avoidance plan.

No, I'm not talking about Cayman Island or Swiss bank tax shelters, a la Mittens, but rather about the EV tax credit: Worth $7,500 at most, it can't be carried forward to future years if one's base tax liability before the credit is less than that figure.

Well, it turns out that my tax liability for 2013 will be less than that, so if I buy an EV during that year I won't derive the full benefit of the credit. Thanks to the child tax credit from the anticipated-in-February-2013 Thing #1, tax-deferred investment plan contributions, and deductible (large, cross-country) moving expenses my pre-EV tax burden is only estimated at $3,500. I can't even blame the kid for everything: take away the child tax credit and I still would fall under the full credit amount with my relatively meager PGY-6 salary thanks to the other deductions.

On an intellectual level this bothers me--and it screws with my years-to-payback figure for the EV itself!--but I suppose it's a good problem to have...

#firstworldproblems

I have figured out a perfect way to pay no income taxes in 2012, no income.

 

[Toshi]

One of the shiftless 47%, I see

 

[Toshi]

It must be a new month, since I'm once again revising my vehicular plans… and the RAV4 EV is out of the running in all likelihood.

Both I and especially my wife had been very amped (cue rimshot) about the Toyota RAV4 EV: Good size and weight for carting a young family about town what with Thing #1 due at the end of February with associated giant rear-facing car seats and all, good range, good performance, good company with local presence everywhere… right?

Since California is the exclusive roll-out area I'd planned on shipping one north to Seattle, having been assured by a Toyota rep back in June that all those ubiquitous, national Toyota dealers would be able to service the thing.

Well, that turns out to be decidedly not the case, and I think that might just kill it in terms of its appeal to us.

How did I confirm this? A conscientious dealer gave me a copy of the mandatory pre-sales completion RAV4 EV Customer Disclosure Form. What does this disclosure form say, and why are my RAV4 EV plans now all phrased in the past tense? Here are the damning things, in my opinion, emphasis added by me:

Your RAV4 EV includes three (3) years of roadside assistance, valid only in the Continental United States and Alaska. This coverage includes towing for failure of a warranted part.

• A service provider will tow the vehicle to the closest Authorized Toyota RAV4 EV Dealer within 100 miles of the vehicle’s location. If the vehicle is located in excess of 100 miles from an Authorized Toyota RAV4 EV Dealer, then the vehicle will be towed to the nearest Toyota dealer and the customer will be responsible for additional towing charges to return the vehicle to an Authorized Toyota RAV4 EV Dealer, if necessary.

DUE TO HIGH VOLTAGE AND THE RISK OF INJURY THIS VEHICLE’S POWERTRAIN AND HIGH VOLTAGE SYSTEMS SHOULD BE SERVICED AT AN AUTHORIZED TOYOTA RAV4 EV DEALERSHIP.

… powertrain and high voltage component maintenance or repairs should be performed by an Authorized Toyota RAV4 EV Dealer.

• Because warranty service for your electric powertrain can only be performed by an Authorized Toyota RAV4 EV Dealer in California, Toyota does not recommend home-basing the vehicle outside the State of California.

 

[Westy]

As you are a fan of un-american transportation thought I would attempt to garner sympathy over the fact that King County Metro cancelled my bus route. I generally ride the bike except when the rain is heavy or my arthritis is killing me. Now my best alternative is to walk/ride/drive a few miles to Ballard to take the 44 which is terribly slow and full of smelly old people. How I will miss my 46, fast and full of young attractive women.

I now find myself passive aggressively taking the whole lane when followed by a bus and not letting them pass. As I am forced to buy a quarterly metro pass those lazy ****s I am subsidizing can ****ing wait.

 

[Toshi]

Heh. You can opt out of the U-PASS if you want, I think. You just have to return it after it's sent to you. Update: Never mind. You're right now--until 2011 one could opt out. http://seattletransitblog.com/2011/05/17/uw-u-pass-cheaper-no-longer-optional/

Why did they cancel the 46? Lack of ridership? It's not being replaced by a RapidRide line?

 

[Westy]

Heh. You can opt out of the U-PASS if you want, I think. You just have to return it after it's sent to you. Update: Never mind. You're right now--until 2011 one could opt out. http://seattletransitblog.com/2011/05/17/uw-u-pass-cheaper-no-longer-optional/

Why did they cancel the 46? Lack of ridership? It's not being replaced by a RapidRide line?

It was replaced by a rapid ride line that now goes downtown, wrong direction for me. The 46 didn't have many riders from Golden Gardens to Old Ballard. You could argue the rest of the route was redundant with the 44. However, from Ballard to the U it was significantly faster. I guess this is a problem being poor in a rich neighborhood.

 

[Toshi]

Now my current plan–always gotta have a plan, yo–is to not pester Jessica at all about cars until after she comes home from the hospital in February with Thing #1 in the carseat. I figure there's still a fair chance she'll want something big and bulky after that switch flips in her head, but if she still wants something saner and greener I will oblige as well.

In the meantime I think I'll embark on some more local test drives. It's been a while. On my list:

- Tesla Model S, once they get their act together
- Honda Fit EV, should it come to the NY market in 2013 as hinted at by Honda
- Nissan Leaf once we get aforementioned giant rear-facing infant seat in our possession, probably in January. If said seat fits behind my seat with some room to spare, which is possible thanks to my short-ass legs, then maybe a Leaf would work after all? It certainly would be available in Seattle without any issues.
- Ford Focus Electric, which has the same possible rear legroom issues as the Leaf
- Ford C-Max Energi
- Prius PHEV
- Prius V
- Land Cruiser or Lexus LX, to see if my own plans shall be disabused or not
- ???
- profit

I already have "normal cars" mapped out and pre-test driven for her: Nissan Quest if she wants a minivan sized thing, Lexus RX if she wants to be like 100k per year (yeah, they sell that many! crazy) other generic upper middle class soccer moms, etc.

 

[Toshi]

So tomorrow will be my first long commute on the e-bike, indeed longer (but less hilly) than the one I propose in Seattle. I'm away at one of two alternate hospitals located northwest of mine, and the route I have mapped out is 13.9 miles each way.

13.9 miles is well within the range of me + the bike + the battery pack, as I do 13 and change with each round trip to my own, closer hospital, but 28 miles isn't. I'll have to charge up the pack during the day there.

It's not so much the range issues that I find most unsettling but rather that I'll be exposed to traffic for twice as long on unfamiliar roads. I've rehearsed my route on Google Maps + streetview but that only goes so far. In the worst case I'll ride there and have Jessica pick me up with our fancy SportWorks hitch rack once she's done teaching lessons at the end of the day.

 

[Toshi]

I think I'll embark on some more local test drives. It's been a while. On my list:

- Prius PHEV
- Prius V
- Land Cruiser

I test drove the above three vehicles 8 days ago. I liked them in ascending order. Read much more here.

With that I think my recent run of test drives may well be nipped in the bud: Since the Land Cruiser didn't disappoint, I found its smog forming emissions to be fully comparable to Jessica's current Prius, and I've worked out the surprisingly cheap math with regard to carbon offsets I see no reason to alter my own plans. What's more, my wife has resigned herself to suburban Seattle generic-ness and doesn't even care to stay true to the Prius-family faith.

Yes, she's given up the EV dream for now: the Leaf/iMiEV/Focus Electric are all too small in the rear for her baby-toting tastes, the RAV4 EV is a unicorn only serviceable in California, the Prius PHEV is underwhelming and arguably less pleasant of a vehicle overall, and the Model X still is merely vaporware. Instead she's come full circle, and now hopes to drive an RX Hybrid come next summer, at least for a few years until a hypothetical 2018 RX EV materializes.

The upside is that said RXh should be available in used or CPO guise in plentiful quantities around Seattle, for 2/3rds the price of a new RAV4 EV to boot. (I know, apples to oranges, operating costs, etc. Meh.) Due to its very boring and mundane nature this plan actually might come to fruition, for once… or she could flip out in the summer and decide she wants to cram the as of yet-unbought giant rear-facing car seat in the back of a Leaf instead. Whatever floats her boat.

 

[Toshi]

So tomorrow will be my first long commute on the e-bike, indeed longer (but less hilly) than the one I propose in Seattle. I'm away at one of two alternate hospitals located northwest of mine, and the route I have mapped out is 13.9 miles each way.

Well, I didn't die. At least that part is good. Indeed there were some segments of my commute route that were much better than expected, in particular one stretch that I'd never been on that turned out to be marked as 30 mph with new bike lanes each way between the single traffic lane and parked cars.

On the other hand, a stretch that I'd thought would be two lanes each way x 30 mph was actually marked as 40 (so realistically 50) with heavy traffic for much of its length. That bit was very, very unpleasant. Did I mention the tractor trailer crowding me? Gah. The unfortunate part is that there's no good way to bypass this road given Long Island's obsession with culs de sac.

Numbers: 13.9 miles, just as Google Maps said. 6.9 Ah/350 Wh used, so definitely not possible with my current 10 Ah pack without recharging at work (now complete--I "stole" the ~10 cents of electricity, so sue me). Just shy of 24 Wh/mi, iirc, higher than normal and probably due to the strong winds. 50 minutes riding time not inclusive of waiting at lights (? Unsure of this).

 

[Toshi]

So my return journey was a bit more eventful than the trip out. In particular, I got hit by a car.

Details here: https://plus.google.com/u/0/115479414905422234350/posts/6q5yQEmrVyz

Cliffs notes are that a woman turned in front of me after being addled by the low sun, I'm ok despite landing on my head (see helmet below), and the bike will need a new front rim and a new XLR connector for the charger.

I think I'll rebuild the wheel myself. It might be a pain in the ass since the hub motor is so giant (and the spokes correspondingly oddly short and highly angulated) but it's something I'd like to learn how to do. I'd rather spend an equivalent amount of money on a nice truing stand than shop labor, and I'm in no real hurry to hop back on the bike. I'll resume commuting on it eventually, but not this week or the next…

 

[HAB]

Damn dude. Glad you're okay. I'll read the details when I'm not on my phone but getting hit sucks. Been there twice.


The monster flanges shouldn't make the build that much harder. Building wheels is very fun, feel free to hit me up if you want any advice

 

[Toshi]

Ever built wheels 1-cross? That's what's recommended given the short spoke runs. It'll probably make life easier, I imagine. In any case, the library copy of The Bicycle Wheel is now waiting for me to pick it up.



In alternative personal transportation-of-me news, my mother pushed for me to get a car (again) following learning of this latest car vs. bike mishap. Understandable, and as a dutiful son I explored the options available.

What I discovered was that it's probably not a good idea to extend myself more financially before moving. Rent and utilities here eat up a tremendous amount of money, and the kid probably will, too… Although there are lending companies (Toyota Financial Services, Carmax in particular) that are ready to throw money loans at us, I'm not going to bite.

What I am going to do is to rent a car for the portions of the two weeks in December that I need to be at one of the away hospitals. (Recall that my long commute during which the car driver smacked me into the ground was to one of these more distant away hospitals. My main hospital is closer and accessible via roads marginally less treacherous.) In proper manic form I created a Google+ post describing my research process and picked a goofy vehicle choice for the first of the two weeks. (The second of the two weeks is going to be in an "economy car", probably some ****box Kia Rio with poor lower leg impact protection scores. I'll try not to crash it. Heh.)

In any case, from December 3 through December 5 I'll be rockin' the following van, assuming Hertz doesn't try to pull a bait and switch for a Ford Econoline.

http://www.nissancommercialvehicles.com/nv



I hope they issue me a high roof one.

 

[Toshi]

New thought experiment: How cheap can one go? I'd always assumed that I knew the answer: Pick a 5+ year old, used, fuel efficient, reliable compact car and stick with it. Well, I was right and I was wrong.

[see below post for better numbers]

This surprising-to-me finding of EVs being the lowest shows why TCO is a useful metric indeed. It also is useful the other way, demonstrating how the Lexuses would be huge money sinks…

 

[Toshi]

Upon feedback and suggestions from dante, I updated the TCO figures with more accurate assumptions based on my actual usage:

I think the most important point about the above is that continued usage of our current Prius is within spitting distance of all but the efficient-beater-car options. I'd almost certainly enjoy driving the Prius more than an old, beater econocar, and the quality of our Prius is a known quantity.

Therefore this is probably the sanest route, for the Prius to be "passed down" to me as a commuter in 2014. At that time we could get a larger car for Jessica, perhaps that RXh or a Prius V Five, perhaps (CPO, of course).

I still want to test drive a smart electric drive when it becomes available, but it'll have to be pretty fantastic for me to seriously consider it.

 

[Toshi]

I built my first bicycle wheel tonight.

I laced it up one-cross per Jobst Brandt's instructions and then tensioned it using the musical-pitch method, but could only get to C sharp/D natural/D sharp before I ran into the limitations of my cheap spoke wrench and the brass nipples: They started stripping instead of turning at that point. At least they were all within a minor third, which is the suggested maximum tension-difference interval–a major second, really.

Truing it was time consuming but easy, as truing is truing, whether on a new wheel or a well-used one. (I've never paid a shop to true a wheel, to the best of my memory.)

Best of all, it works! The e-bike is now back up and running, just in time for a hurricane to roll into town next week. It's just as well my crash replacement helmet from Giro hasn't arrived yet…

 

[Toshi]

For those who've followed my automotive musings in this thread, you'll note that there are a few disparate chains of thought that I periodically revisit, with evidence supporting each in parentheses:

1) Fun (past flirtations with sports cars, including owning several)
2) Off-road capability (LX, Wrangler, cheap off-roader, ATV, side by side, Unimog thoughts)
3) Zombie apocalypse survival capability (see "Unimog" again, M35A2/bobber, F-250 diesel running on WVO, Sportsmobile)
4) Clean emissions, both in GHG and smog (EV obsession, carbon offsets, smog forming emission tabulation)
5) Cheap to buy and run (beater hunt, operating cost tables)

Well, "fun" is long discarded: I'm having a kid, after all. Cheapness in terms of purchase price is also out the door for the most part, as after considering the bottom of the used market I find that it's an ugly place, without such niceties as "side airbags" and "reliability."

I think that I may have figured out a good way to tie together the remainder of the list, namely off-road capability, survivability, clean emissions, and cheap running cost objectives, all in a single vehicle… and the base vehicle is a domestic, no less.

No, that's not the hybrid: Its 20 mpg combined mileage (or is it 21?!) doesn't impress me, still. It's not the fancypants Denali edition, either, but rather just a plain-jane Yukon (or Tahoe, if you prefer the other badge and name). The standard Yukon gets "only" a 5.3L V8 compared to the Denali's and Escalade's 6.2L mill, but in exchange offers the option of an OEM "off road suspension" package including skid plates, a two speed transfer case, and 265/65/17 (30.5") tires.

Anyway, that's only the beginning of the story. As I wrote/whinged/mused about here, my experience in the post-tropical cyclone named Sandy has changed my thinking on what's important. Hedonism for hedonism's sake in a Lexus is much lower on my list after seeing how quickly things degrade when, say, gasoline and power is unavailable for a few days.

Much of Long Island has been in the dark since Sunday, and gasoline is hard if not impossible to come by at the moment. I have power through sheer luck alone and gasoline enough only through the foresight of topping off the tank on Saturday + having a short commute. As I wrote in the linked post, I now realize that the most useful of "luxuries" would be the ability to continue to live normally even if weather/natural/unnatural disasters caused massive disruption for everyone else.

So how does a Yukon fit into this? Well, thanks to the fleet and government markets (I'm guessing), there are various and sundry EPA certified CNG bi-fuel conversions available, and all for domestic products. The Yukon would be more useful to me than a pickup truck, although the latter would make it easier to mount and access the auxiliary CNG tanks…

In any case, this assumes that we'd have access to grid-provided natural gas for cooking and heating via our future hypothetical house, wherever I end up in practice. We'd install a natural gas powered generator to supply power when the electrical grid failed (and would probably have some solar/wind/small hydro? as well). Therefore we'd have supplies of NG and electricity (via the generator) in all foreseeable non-horrific-earthquake scenarios.

Add in a Fuelmaker FMQ-2, which runs ~$5k used (here's a roughly equivalent model on eBay) and now you have a consistent supply of CNG just outside one's garage.

Finally, add in an EPA certified IMPCO or Auto Gas America CNG/gas bi-fuel conversion for said Yukon's 5.3L V8 powertrain and then you see the whole picture: low range 4WD to let me play offroad on easy trails; big enough to be the dominant bowling ball in a multi-vehicle collision; $1.89 per gallon gasoline equivalent CNG prices for cheap operating costs, nevermind the large sunk costs of conversion and the fueling apparatus; and, with a NG home electricity generator, the capability to keep on truckin' even when the world/flow of gasoline stops.

Any big holes in my logic, peanut gallery?

 

[Toshi]

I have no idea why that inlined photo isn't working, btw



Here it is hosted on RM.

An alternate take on the idea above (Yukon + 3rd party EPA certified bi-fuel conversion) would be to go with one of the OEM options. Civic GX is out since I wouldn't want a CNG-only vehicle (get an EV at that point!).

That leaves the Sierra/Silverado HD and Ram 2500 as the factory options. The General Motors twins only come in extended cab versions, so they're out given need to cart around child car seats and the like. The Ram is ugly, huge, and incredibly long given that it's a long bed crew cab model (168.9" wheelbase! 259.4" length!), but at least that long bed would give a good place to store the CNG tanks safely away from the passenger compartment while maintaining decent utility.



https://www.fleet.chrysler.com/v7fleet/StaticFiles/files/general/Ram_2500_CNG_Brochure.pdf

Pricing is $12k more than an equivalent gas-only Ram, so about $55k all said and done for a nicely equipped SLT model. Used wouldn't be an option given the CNG conversion's weirdness. The best part, besides the whole "wheelbase 7" longer than a Honda Fit" aspect? The availability of a paint color titled "National Fire Safety Lime Yellow."

HELL YES.

I could finally drive a hi-viz vehicle instead of just being dressed up as a nerd in such an outfit.

(Seriously, though, that is one ugly color, especially with chrome this and that. Still a highly amusing idea.)

 

[Toshi]

Bringing things back from the ridiculous brink of 260" length crew cab long bed Ram 2500s that happen to be able to run on CNG, a more sane CNG vehicle to consider–indeed the only sane CNG vehicle available from an OEM–is the Civic GX Natural Gas (whatever, still going to call it the GX).

In its favor is that it's exempt from WA state's sales/use tax. Honda also is throwing in a $3k fuel card with each sale. Against it is that the alternative fuel vehicle tax credit for CNG vehicles expired at the end of 2010 and has not been replaced or renewed, and the legally-iffy $0.50-true-excise-tax (so ~$0.32/gge) credit went away at the end of 2011.

Assumptions: $9k installed price for a new 1 gge/hr BRC Fuelmaker FMQ-2-36, $1.41/gge NG based on actual Seattle utility rates as of Sept 2012, 33.05 combined miles/gge, depreciation equivalent to an also-$28k-MSRP Civic Hybrid (leather + navi on the hybrid to reflect CNG with navi MSRP), 7.5k miles/yr with repair and maintenance scaled down from Edmunds' 15k yr figures, a scaling factor of 0.5 for insurance to reflect my household's reality, and 4% financing x 60 months after a $5k down payment.

Under the above assumptions 5 year TCO for a 2012 Civic Natural Gas with Navigation is $33,631.

Although the Civic GX can go a theoretical 248 miles on one tank as opposed to the 80 or so from a Nissan Leaf, I think the Leaf is the clear competitor. Recall that the presence of a NG-plumbed home generator is assumed under both of these scenarios (electricity would be needed to run the CNG car's Fuelmaker in a power outage!), so this option would also provide a way to get around when the gasoline is short.

Assumptions for the Leaf: $1k after credit installed price for EVSE (EV Project takes care of most costs and provides the equipment for free), $0.10/kWh electricity, 0.339 kWh/mi (== 99 MPGe), $7.5k Federal tax credit, WA sales/use tax exemption, with the other assumptions as per the Civic scenario.

Under the above assumptions 5 year TCO for a 2012 Leaf SL is $28,089.

I just don't see the draw of the Civic. With it being CNG-only you're still tethered to your home, more or less (no taking it down the coast), even though the tether is a longer one. The only scenario for me where it'd be a better option than a Leaf would be if my commute were longer than 30 miles each way. That's simply not happening, period.

 

[Toshi]

As for what bearing this ridiculous end-of-the-world thought experiment has on my actual plans, well… I'm not sure. I'm less psyched about gas-dependent luxo-boats (see "LX") now that I've become acutely aware of the fragility of the infrastructure upon which it relies so heavily. As I wrote on Google+, that's not true luxury.

I would truly like to have a non-bicycle, non-public transit transportation option that wouldn't be knocked off its feet, as it were, in a scenario of gasoline and electricity shortages/outages such as we continue to experience out on Long Island almost 1 week since Sandy. Since both the CNG and the EV options mulled over assume the presence of a NG line, a NG generator, and a house to which it's all wired, this fantasy will therefore have to wait until I have a house.

Until then:

- soldier on with Prius as our shared car through the Seattle 2013-2014 year (my years start in July and end in June)
- get Jessica whatever she wants when I start as an attending in 2014, inheriting the Prius as my commuter car as we pay down loans per the "poverty plan" above
- get house with requisite NG-plumbed generator… in 2014? 2015? 2016? Seems so far away.
- once that's all in place, get something (???) and live out the scenario that I touched upon briefly in my old "futility of the Prius" thread, either through electrification or compressed natural gasification:

Of course, it might also not be a bad idea to build an underground bunker with an electric car, water purification setup, and enough solar panels to be self-sustaining. 100 years from now my great-grandchildren may well be able to live like a king (a sheikh, even) if they have such equipment for their use when Mad Max roams the barren earth above…

 

[Toshi]

In (e-)biking news, I already reported that the rebuilt-by-me front wheel seems to work. I also have a replacement helmet, so my gear is all in line.

I didn't ride in to work at all this week due to the sketchy situation caused by the hurricane: numerous traffic lights out, drivers acting even more crazy than normal (1/2 mile gas station lines!), and all manner of road debris and crap on the roadway.

Perhaps next week I'll venture out again. Gingerly. With my thumb hovering over the horn button and a finger covering the brakes…

 

[Toshi]

View attachment 112449

TCO nerdiness on the Ram 2500 CNG with the following assumptions:

- MSRP estimated at $57k ($45k base truck + options + $12k CNG tick box), with depreciation snagged from the Edmunds figures for that of a loaded non-CNG '12 Ram 3500 that's basically the same price
- Finance charges calculated via interestcalculator.org based on a $5k down payment, 4% APR, 60 month term for simplicity
- 12k miles/year x 5 years, scaling the Edmunds default 15k/yr repair and maintenance figures down appropriately
- 0.5 scaling factor for insurance based on what Edmunds thinks we should be paying for our current Prius as compared to what we actually pay as solid/boring/responsible drivers
- 14 miles per gge <-- this may be optimistic
- $1.41/gge NG cost, as that's what it is at the moment in Seattle, I believe (much more expensive than in the Midwest! they also have state and local incentives there)
- $0.40/gge in Fuelmaker maintenance based off this poster's experience
- $0.20/gge in Fuelmaker electricity consumption during refueling (the FMQ-2-36 uses 1.9 kW while running and fuels at ~0.9-1 gge/hr)
- $9k sunk cost of a new FMQ-2-36
- No Federal or State level tax credits or sales tax exemptions due to expiration of the same and bi-fuel nature, respectively (dedicated alt fuel vehicles like the Civic Natural Gas are exempt from WA state use/sales tax, but not bi-fuel ones)

Whew.

In any case, the 5 year TCO for the Ram 2500 CNG based on all the above comes out to around $66.5k (inclusive of Fuelmaker maintenance and electricity).

What's that TCO in context? Well, it's about twice that of the cheapest to own new vehicles out there but is substantially cheaper than the $76k I estimate for a bought-as-3-years-old Lexus LX 570. What's more, the lead of the CNG beast would only widen compared to the premium-swilling Lexus each year, with about $1550 in yearly fuel + Fuelmaker maintenance/operating costs vs. over $3400.

When placed in that context, it doesn't seem too bad at all. Rather than getting brand cachet and supple leather in exchange for my chunk of change I'd instead get a huge piece of American iron, cheap ongoing operating costs, the convenience of being able to refuel overnight at my own house, and the ability to get me and my family around even as the rest of the vehicles on the road ground to a halt.

I think that's worth something.

 

[DaveW]

There used to be CNG vehicles in NZ, the CNG one tended to be really sluggish and had a reputation for having really bad engine wear. The LPG vehicles had much better performance and less reliability issues.

I used to have a Mitsubishi L300 LWB van with dual fuel, ran on LPG or by turning a switch on the dash it would swap over to Petrol while the motor was still running effectively giving you 2 gas tanks and a stupidly huge range before you had to refuel (I routinely used to get 1,100-1,200km between fills).
It was a great road trip wagon, used to go on awesome skiing, surfing and mountain bike trips with the boys!

 

[Toshi]

Yeah, that's the idea: the Ram CNG makes the gas/CNG transition on its own, too. Warms up on gas, runs cng until that's out, switches back to gas on the fly. Pickuptruck.com or some such dynoed the beast on CNG and saw 12%? I think lower HP. As it has 383 to start--thank you 5.7 liters!--that'd still be ok.

Update: http://news.pickuptrucks.com/2012/10/first-drive-2013-ram-hd-2500-cng.html

12% less power, 10% less torque. That still leaves about 345 HP and 360 ft-lbs...

 

[DaveW]

You can't start on CNG??

Odd the LGP was fine for starting on for me.
I kinda miss that van, by the time I sold it I'd clocked up over 380,000km and it had a total of 520,000 on the clock, still ran perfectly!