Thursday, July 29, 2010

New Tires

I guess you would call my driving style "spirited." I have a lot of issues finding Tires. While i like to drive fast and need something that handles, summer tires are not an option because of the extreme northeast weather. one minute its sunny, than snowing, than downpour.

I have finally found a great tire that keeps up with my driving style and provides all season traction wet or dry. After reading some reviews, I put a set of Bridgestone Potenza RE960 Pole Position tires on to replace my aging Goodyear Eagle F1's. As of so far, I haven't chirped the front wheels despite my cars torque, but then again I haven't tried either. Wet traction has been solid, and the tires grip with no squeal even as I press in and out of the off ramps. The only drawback has been the price, but you will find this is an ongoing issue with all lower-profile performance tires. As stock rims get bigger and bigger, sidewalls decrease and tire prices skyrocket. I paid $220 a price for 245/45/R18's at my local Firestone dealer.  Also, they have an aggressive directional tread pattern which looks pretty good with stock rims.

Bridgestone Potenza RE960AS Pole Position

Check them out, worth a ride.

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires.jsp?tireMake=Bridgestone&tireModel=Potenza+RE960AS+Pole+Position

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

LIRR's dirty secret

About once a week, I work in NYC. I take the train into the city because I hate driving in Manhattan. Each time I occupy the platform, I notice something is off, something isn't quite right, and I couldn't quite put my finger on it until now.

It's the clocks. There are none. In any LIRR train station. Anywhere. Or on the trains.

Now I am no conspiracy theorist, but why would you have no clocks on somewhere that is so heavily dependandant on time?

Unless of course you didn't want all of the riders to notice how late all of your trains were. LIRR prides itself on its On Time Performance (OTP) which is a completely randomly generated number thats 100% BS. How is it they can be hitting 90-something percent OTP, when 90 percent of the trains I have ever been on are late.

Additionally, have you ever read the fine print? OTP is defined as less that 6:59 late. I don't know about you, but I would call that a pretty signifigant amount of time. Maybe we need to let more MTA workers falsely collect disability and get paid massive pensions, so we can raise the fare even more.

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Wired's top worst commutes

Think you have it bad? Wired has a great article on the worst commutes in the world, with Beijing and Mexico Cty topping out the commuter pain index formulated by IBM.

Here it is by the Numbers. NY is 17th worst in world.

Image from WIRED

Check it out here at WIRED

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2010/06/you-only-think-your-commute-sucks/