Miles

I believe that if you knew the Les Schwab tire stores here in the Pacific Northwest, their history, and their quality of customer service, you would see this in a different light. This company, founded by Les Schwab in 1952, in Oregon, is the # 1 tire store company in the western states, for a darn good reason...and it is all about customer service. They did not push Brian's son to buy four tires. They said they would not sell him one brand new tire on an AWD Subaru that had 3 tires that were already worn 50%. In the end, they would rather lose a sale, than to do something that is in fact wrong for the vehicle. Subaru's are a big deal in the Pacific Northwest. They sell up here like cajun shrimp sell down in Louisiana. Being a Subaru Guru myself, I have offered this exact same advice to many people over the years, and those people that really do know me, and know who I am, also know that I am a very serious consumer advocate when it comes to vehicles of any kind, and not a person that would deliver a sales pitch. Now, I hear that the London Bridge is tired of being in Arizona, and would like to find a good home in Louisiana...want a bridge to get across the swamp ?

Okay, sometimes the weather people just do not listen to me, or don't like me. What looked like was going to be a excellent day for a Meet & Eat this coming Saturday, April 27th, with sunny skies and warm temps, has turned into what looks like a possibility of rain, expecially for our northern neighbors. Quite frankly, I want to see SilvrT there, and Kevin-In-BC there. I want to meet my northern brothers. So, out of respect for the idea that it is not always fun for everyone to ride in the rain, I would like to formally move the Great Pacific Northwest Meet & Eat to Saturday, May 11th, at the same place, and same time...1:00 pm at the Ram restaurant and brewery. I will make every effort to get in touch personally with each and every one of the few folks that did signify they were coming, and hopefully all those that need to can cancel any room reservations they had. Canucks...it will be May 11th, same place...same time. Be there, or get a hockey puck upside the head. Miles:backinmyday:

Jeff, you are 100 % correct on that. It really bugs me too, as a gearhead, to see the tiny space saver spare on the front...rather than on the back...of a front wheel drive car. Take a couple extra minutes and change those tires around...for safety sake. It really makes sense to find out wherre the USED tire stores are in your area. This is one example...Brians' (golf&venture) son could have found a used tire to be oput on there, if he wasn't able to get 4 new ones. Another example...last year I sold my '65 Ford F-250, and bought a '85 Dodge D350 1 ton, dually...to use as my hay hauler. This truck has the old 16.5 " wheels on it, and today it is difficult to find 16.5" tires for a lower price. They can be ordered, but they will cost you a lot, and this old truck...is a hay hauler, so you get the picture. My local Les Schwab store, that I buy a lot of tires from, told me to go over to Rodriquez tire in Olympia, which is a used tire store, and see if they have any. Well lucky me, they had 4 brand new takeoffs from a Dodge D3500 that someone wanted to install chrome wheels and larger tires, so these 4 new 16.5 " tires had less than 50 miles on them. I got them mounted, balanced, and installed for a total of $ 225.00...that is for all 4. I already had 2 very good tires on this truck, so it was js a matter of placing them all in the right place. Find you local USED tire store, and get to know them...for instances like this. As Forrest Gump used to say...you never know what you're gonna get .

Paul, did you mean to say...Reading, Pennsylvania, or...Redding, California. Like Brian (tx2sturgis) said, I am a know it all, so don't try to mess with me when it comes to geography and town names.

Thank you for that info. I just RAN through the house and motorcycle garage to check all of our heated jacket liners...we have 4 of them...and all of ours are good...not part of the recall. Nice to check though.

Brian, the end result in this discussion is two fold...# 1 - most folks agree that you do in fact need to have 4 matching tires on that Subaru, rather than one new one, and 3 tires thast are half worn. And # 2 - if you look at the states or provinces of those that have made posts on this subject, it shows that people that live NORTH of the 36th parallel know what they are talking about when it comes to AWD cars, like the Subaru, but those that live SOUTH of the 36th parallel are used to driving their flat-bottomed skim boats through the swamps, and are not really familiar with what an AWD car is. Now, ask them about a real 4WD mud-bogger, and yes siree, they can recite rhyme and verse about seeing cousin billy bob down at the mud bogs flinging bugger mud at all 'dem spectators. Down there they just calls 'em...'taters.

BTW, I happen to peek inside a local truck store the other day, as I was meeting with GeorgeS to hand off my CarbonOne lift adapter, and that is where we met, and they have the Shell Rotella T6 Synthetic oil priced at...$ 16.95 for a gallon jug. That is cheap. I use Mobil 1 full synthetic, but at this price, it might make me a convert to Shell Rotella synth.

Brian, I do not know why you do not come directly to ME to ask these questions about Subarus. I have told you time and again, I am a Subaru Guru. The "correct" answer is that this is NOT a sales pitch. The Les Schwab store was in fact...correct... to tell you that. It is more of a problem if it is the 4EAT trans, the auto trans, than the manual trans. But it will also affect the manual trans too. Since Subaru makes 95 % of thier cars with an auto trans, and only 5 % with a manual trans, they give serious warning about replacing one new tire, when the other 3 tires are 50 % worn. For those wackadoos that think this is just a sales pitch by the tire dealer...I say...stick to your KIAs and Hyundais, and leave the Subarus to the Gurus:rotf: Subarus don't even belong in Louisiana or Mississippi, because they are designed to be driven in snow country, above sea level, and on twisty roads, which there is none of in those two states.

Brian, about 2 years ago...or was it 3...I replaced all the toilets in my house, with ones I bought from Costco. They have the dual flush buttons on the top of the tank lid. They are very quiet. You will not hear them refill. They do come with a new wax sealing ring, but...it is better to have the thicker wax ring on hand, just in case you need the thicker one. If you are unable to do this, due to motorcycle accident, and if you don't have a family member or friend that is a plumber, let me know, and I will drop everything I am doing, to come over and replace your toilets.

Only one more week to go, and some of us that have no snow......will be dining at the Ram restaurant, in Lacey, WA. for our 1st annual Great Pacific Northwest Meet & Eat. For those up North...COME ON DOWN ! For those down South...COME ON UP ! For those stuck in the Midwest SNOW...we will take pictures of the event, and post them for you.

YEAH !!!

My personal arrangements with the powers-that-be for a good dry sunny, and warm day on April 27th (8 days from now) have come through. We are expected to have nothing but sun, Sun, and more SUN for an entire week, starting this Sunday, and the following Saturday, the day of our event, should be close to 69 degrees, warm, dry, and a GREAT day to ride. Anyone that wants to come to the Great Pacific Northwest Meet & Eat, you are welcome. Please go to the VR rallies page, find our date, and please rsVRp. Thanks,

I am not going to spill the beans on a Canuck. If he wants to come forward, that is up to him, but I consider it a matter of respect to let him claim the new ownership, rather than me outing him. I will say, even worse...he is from B.C.

I just read this story on the news. Do we have any members of the VR family that live in that immediate area ????

My '06 RSMTD is SOLD. SOLD>>>SOLD>>>SOLD... Delivering it Monday to a forum member that lives north of the border.

Kevin, that is amazing, he is an incredible young man, and both you and your wife have every reason to be very proud, of him, and of how you raised him. Miles:backinmyday:

Pete, if you take $ 12.00 and divide it by Pi...12 / 3.14159 = 3.81972186 That is the number of seconds that you have to rethink the idea of...just crunching numbers... when it comes to our membership tithing. Please leave the numbers crunching to us old-school retired mathematicians. Miles, 35 miles south of you.

Brian, thank you, but I do have several, of those and others in my shop. I do use them, but for the long ride bikes I use the Kuryakyn Iso-grip throttle boss...the larger one. Thanks,

Rip, sorry to hear about the oil leak. I too agree that there is a 93.14159 % chance that it is the new Valve Cover Gasket that is leaking. Contrary to the way that most people install their new valve cover gaskets...I saw that this was going to be a problem...so...I intentionally took both of my valve covers inside the house...let them warm up over night...then used yamabond to secure the new gaskets into place...placed the cover rightside up, so that there was the weight of the cover pressing down on the new gaskets to keep them in place, and left then to dry over night the next night. After doing my valve adjustment...to perfection...I then installed the front valve cover...the easy one, and got used to doing it with the new gasket already in place, in the cover. Then, I had to do the rear valve cover...and yes it was very tight (no analogies here), but I did make it fit in there, and I was 100% satisfied that the new gasket was correctly in place before I thightened things up. Even with that satisfaction level, I still made certain that when I started it up and ran the engine, I very carefully inspected the entire surface area of the gasket edges, to make certain that there was no leak at all. So, installing the new gasket into the cover in advance can be done. It is tight, but well worth the effort.

Dennis, that is why all of my (modern) bikes have the throttle boss palm rest on the right side. I have a bad right hand. It was crushed so bad in a non-motorcycle related accident back in February 2010, that they wanted to amputate my right hand. My wife intervened while I am laying on a gurney in the ER, and she told them...do not remove the right hand. Being a doctor herself, she had them call in a hand specialist, and he saved my hand. I cannot make a tight grip like I used to. So I use the Kuryakyn Iso grips with the larger palm rest on the grip, so that I can palm the throttle, rather than grip the throttle. [ATTACH]75583[/ATTACH] See, I included a good picture of it.

Okay, okay...I sit corrected.

I would like to imagine Annie as being one year YOUNGER. Happy Anti-Birthday, Annie:bighug:

Geeesh...you could have bought my '06 Royal Star, and it runs absolutely perfectly. It is advertised in the classifieds, and I even would have delivered it.

SilvrT, I looked at that bike, and I don't think it is that personalized. Other than black muflers, a new windshield, and he removed the Honda name plates on the front and rear, it looks the same. Today, I just received my second large box of new parts for the F6B. Next week at this time I will take some new pictures of it, with "most" of the new items installed. It will look even better then.

Condor, my Ariel Square Four is a '48. I got it about 10 years ago, and have hauled it all over the country while I moved. Now that I am finally settled...it has a permanent home.