Moment in the sun…
October 28, 2007
“In a normal sort of way, like I am you and you are me.”
–Clem Snide
My cast is unofficially off. The doctors expect me to continue wearing it until its official removal in a couple weeks, but I have shorted my time into it and my hand continues to heal. My own physical therapy is bringing back the strength and motion that it once had, yet I understand that I will never come close to regaining where I was at before my motorcycle accident.
My motorcycle is ready to ride once again, and I sat on her and she felt good to sit upon. Putting my right hand on the throttle grip felt natural and right, proving to me that I am physically capable of riding. I can throttle and front brake accordingly, and I have no reactionary problems in the event I needed to be quick about something.
The new dillemma is I still have metal sticking out of my hand. Once I go see the doctor in a couple weeks, a few of these metal shards should be removed which would allow me to put my hand back into a glove. At that point, weather dependent, I hope to ride once again. It’s been a long time.
Then the next question is will I continue to ride motorcycles, in light of the events that caused my injury? I am undecided, rather waiting to see how life plays itself out. I look at it as I have ridden the last 12 years covering 165,000+ miles on the street, telling me I could hang it up and close a chapter in my life. Closing chapters can be just as hard as starting the next one.
I have learned that nothing in life is certain, but our will can take us farther than our minds can imagine. I am at peace with walking away from motorcycling. One thought process keeps me riding for at least one more year on the street, which would provide me the last opportunity to take one more long cross-country motorcycle trip. I would love to ride to all four corners of the contiguous United States, taking 1-2 months to do it, and my motorcycle is more than capable. Another thought process has been retiring off the street and taking my hobby strictly to the race track. The track would provide a minimized risk environment, and would keep my motorcycle fix where it needs to be.
Either way, I still have some time to see how things pan out. Winter is on its way, and my life has a lot happening. I am thankful that the cast is finally off, so that I can get back to typing. Along with getting caught up on work, I am granted with the ability to get back to my involvement within the various forums and communities online. It’s good to be back a part of PNW Riders, as I am emotionally attached to the great community of riders we have on there.
This picture has been my avatar for over a year on PNW Riders, it was taken in May of 2006 as I sat on top of Spiral Highway, which is on the border of Clarkston, Washington and Lewiston, Idaho.
2008 Mercedes C300 Sport Review
October 25, 2007
I am a big fan of Dan Neil, an automobile columnist for the Los Angeles Times, as his humor and observations show an astounding method to keep me reading with enjoyment. I have always loved to read, especially reviews, but he takes it way further. You will catch yourself feeling as if you’re right there, understanding all the better as it makes sense. It wants to make sense too.
Jafar turned me on to Dan Neil after reading his piece on the Ducati 999, and I give credit to Keith for finding this recent column on the all new for 2008, Mercedes C300. Keith and I have had discussions on German automobile engineering. My Mercedes 190E is old school, but runs like a champion. I have always felt that Mercedes has awesome engines, with the problems being more on the electrical side, and when things break - they are definitely expensive!
Dan Neil not only reviews the new Mercedes C300, but he takes into account what Mercedes is facing as they try to improve their image in regards to quality. Dan Neil does indeed enjoy the new C300, yet reserves judgement on the improved image of Mercedes build quality - well, read it for yourself and enjoy every bit of it too.
Review of the Mercedes-Benz C300 Sport
Plagued by reliability issues, the company is doing damage control with its new C-class.
By DAN NEIL
October 24, 2007
On average, the angriest e-mails I get are from former Mercedes-Benz owners on the occasion of my saying something nice about the company’s products. I imagine an irate reader pounding away at his keyboard in the wee hours of the morning, with a shiny Lexus in the driveway and a Stuttgart-made knife still quivering in his back.
Allow me to gloss: “I can’t believe you raved about the [insert gaudy hunk of German schteel here]. I bought a Mercedes a few years ago and it was a total piece of [insert colorful metaphor here]. I took it back to the dealer [exponential figure times] and finally got sick of them looking at me like I was speaking a foreign language [English?]. So, when did you go on the company payroll, you toadying, Hun-loving shill?”
Dear Mom: Thank you for your recent e-mail. . . .
What energizes these missives is a sense of betrayal, and in a perverse way — and wholly unwelcome, I’m sure — the galled, bug-eyed fury of disappointed buyers is a tribute to the expectations attached to the Mercedes-Benz brand. It is also, I believe, a measure of the hollowness of luxury and mass-class branding in general. When the plaid patterns on a Burberry’s handbag don’t line up; when Coach boots come marching out of Chinese factories; when Breitling, Baume & Mercier, Bulgari and Breguet all sell the same watch losing the same time with Swiss precision, consumers can only hope that Mercedes-Benz — which can fairly claim to have invented the automobile — would be a redoubt of quality.
In the last decade, it’s been kind of a slum. Last year, Mercedes and Consumer Reports went all pistols-at-dawn when the magazine listed many MB models as least reliable in their respective categories. And the company has fared no better with J.D. Power’s pivotal dependability ratings. All of this, I’m sure, has occasioned a calm and orderly procession of engineers and executives off the rooftops at Untertürkheim.
This background is necessary to decode the new and ubiquitous ads for the 2008 C-class. These ads portray the heroic lengths the company has gone to to develop the vehicle: the seven years’ worth of road-pounding chassis development, the brakes fit for Autobahn duty, the doors that support the weight of a 200-pound man. Why? “Because we promised you a Mercedes-Benz, that’s why,” says the earnest spokesman. Just in case you thought you had ordered a BLT.
Of course it’s a Mercedes-Benz. But what precisely does that mean? At its best, the brand stands for over-realized, over-engineered, survive-the-apocalypse quality that, to the extent that it conveys luxury, signifies that rich people are also smart. That’s the “promise” to which is referred. That is the compact between company and buyer, recently abrogated but now, the company insists, back in force.
So, is the new C-class — in the deathless prose of the ad — a Mercedes-Benz? Well, it feels like one. The moment you touch the door handle, you register the lubricated heft, the mantle-of-the-Earth solidity of Mercedes’ biggest and best products. Fall into the stiff, low-bolster seats and the familiar comes at you in waves: The optional COMAND nav/audio/vehicle controller interface is the same as in the S-class, only the central rotary knob is a smaller, knurled aluminum wheel. Much of the switchgear is identical to that of the higher-end vehicles. I was fairly unexcited about the C-class interior until I saw it in person; the grade of materials is richer and more appealing than it looks in photos. This is an organized, serious interior with lots of evident deliberation behind it. Sightlines are excellent, and it’s especially nice to be able to see the hood stretching out with small audacity like the S-class.
In the U.S., the 2008 C-class comes in three flavors: C300 Sport and C300 Luxury — both with the 3.0-liter, 228-hp V6 — and the C350 Sport, powered by holdover 3.5-liter, 268-hp V6 mated to the seven-speed automatic. A six-speed manual is standard in the 300 models, and 4Matic all-wheel-drive is an option in all three cars. I tested the rear-drive C300 Sport with the seven-shifter and — inspired by the commercials — abused it about as hard as I could. More about that in a moment.
You can call it lines of force, graviton waves or celestial harmonics, but there is something deeply Benz-like about the C-class’ interior ambience. It’s not simply the deeply muffled interior and wind noise levels, but the timbre of those sounds. The thing sounds like it should have European air woofling through the air ducts.
It also looks like a Benz. Styling an entry-premium car is one of the trickiest exercises in the business, because the big expressive gestures of a luxury car don’t easily translate to a smaller car. The C-class shares the S-class’ stiff-necked formality — the level hood, the upright grille, the classic roof-line arch. All in all, very like an S-class, Sire. But it doesn’t look like it’s wearing its dad’s suit, the Cadillac CTS. The Sport model gets the big, three-bar grille with the three-pointed star in the center. The Luxury model gets a more traditional grille with the three-pointer as a hood ornament.
The new C is capitalized in various dimensions. Compared with the outgoing model, the car is 3.9 inches longer overall (182.3 inches). The wheelbase has gained 1.8 inches (108.7), and front/rear track are up over an inch. The biggest gainer is the trunk, which now measures a competitive 12.4 cubic feet.
The C300 isn’t drunk with power, but with 221 pound-feet of torque from 2,700 to 5,000 rpm, and a quick-witted adaptive transmission with seven gears in the transom, the car always seems to be on the right foot. Zero-to-60-mph accel is about seven seconds, and the car’s high-speed cruising has a light, effortless Zen to it. I took the car out for a flog up through the hill country to Kern County and came away thinking the larger engine option (and diminished fuel economy) couldn’t pay for itself in adrenaline. For those who simply must drive the nail all the way through the 2 by 4, MB will soon offer the C63 — the same car, plus about 300 more horsepower.
You’ll note, I haven’t mentioned BMW, the perennial bogie in this segment, pursued by Audi, Lexus and Infiniti like witches during the Inquisition. The C300 has terrific road manners: lots of raw lateral road holding from the 17-inch Continental tires, firm and composed ride with excellent transitions from corner to corner, a comfortable understeer that, with a lift of the throttle, translates to an easily catchable oversteer. This car has no bad dynamic habits. It might not be as much kinky fun with the road-to-neuron connection of a BMW 3-series, but I would be surprised if the Benz can’t hang with the Bimmer around a short road course.
Overall, I’ve got no complaints. In fact, I think this is an excellent automobile and a credit to its breed. The C-class feels precisely like what you would hope, as if Mercedes had invented a shrinking ray and turned it on an S-class.
But then, I don’t own one. The question has never been, can Mercedes blow up the skirts of an auto reviewer like me. Obviously, they make savagely cool and desirable cars. But can those cars be trusted? That is the C-class’ mission. To paraphrase Poe’s raven, Mercedes, take thy knife from out my back.
–
2008 Mercedes-Benz C300 Sport
Base price: $31,910
Price, as tested: $41,085
Powertrain: 3.0-liter DOHC 24-valve V6 with variable-valve timing; seven-speed automatic transmission; rear-wheel drive
Horsepower: 228 at 6,000 rpm
Torque: 221 pound-feet at 2,700-5,000 rpm
Curb weight: 3,527 pounds
0-60 mph: 7 seconds
Wheelbase: 108.7 inches
Overall length: 182.3 inches
EPA fuel economy: 18 miles per gallon city, 25 mpg highway
Final thoughts: A better class of C
Source: Los Angeles Times
Breaking in that new Honda means a video!
October 21, 2007
My friend, Barry, has been getting better with his video production. He was not a man when he was using Pinnacle, so I like to tell myself thanks for supplying him with Adobe Premiere as he now produces some top notch videos. I am not just saying this, but they are getting better and better!
Barry travelled from Kirkland, WA to Clarkston, WA to pick up his new 2007 Honda CBR 600RR from Mac’s Cycle, and the opportunity to break in a new motorcycle presented itself as good subject matter for a ride with some friends and a video to produce.
I will be entering into the video podcast world, with the help of Barry - more on that another time, for now just enjoy this cool video:
