Jack M

I'll take that Stealth!!

Uhh... this would carry more weight if you had also owned/driven Porsche, Audi, Saab, Mercedes, Alfa, etc... rwcow... I hear you, but I have realized in my ripe old age of 33 that I am a big friggin' preppy and that's that. It's the only image that works on me. I embrace it now. Might have to bring the gold Ray Ban aviators out of retirement for this car!

looks Photoshopped.

Bumper sticker seen on a Jeep: "Hummers are for dicks" huh huh huh.... get it?

thanks, and yes.

Ford F650... omfg....

http://cgi.ebay.com/Burton-PJ7-Racing-Carving-Alpine-Snowboard_W0QQitemZ200095932958QQcategoryZ36297QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem Man, with all the hype about asyms and wide boards here, I thought for sure someone would snatch this baby up!! ;) Got some decent nasty-grams though from some ebay regulars... studio_xchange: "you have got to be kidding. Serious racer, up and coming carver? That board is a RELIC and would completely hinder anyone that tried to ride it." delaneycarlson: "What are you smoking? I want some! These sell on ebay regularly and seldom go over $100 what makes yours so special?" u12: "FYI JUST SO YOU KNOW THESE PJ BOARDS SELL REGULARLY ON EBAY FOR LESS THAN A HUNDRED DOLLARS YOU LOOK REAL STUPID LISTING THIS FOR A GRAND FYI" oldsnowboards: "Will you ship to MARS? Monopoly money ok?" hehehe..... april fools!

yawn... nobody's doing it fakie!

LOL. In case there's any five-oh scanning this, I can vouch Erik is indeed an accomplished chef.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Burton-PJ7-Racing-Carving-Alpine-Snowboard_W0QQitemZ200095932958QQcategoryZ36297QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

A bunch of us met the inventor at SES 05. The skis and the piston system look pretty cool. He gave carvers props for the inspiration... http://www.bomberonline.com/articles/SES05.cfm

dude, the last time I heard that joke I fell off my Snurfer! :p

Ahhh, woops. The CR stats are indeed for the 2WD bimmer. Road & Track reports for the AWD 325ix: 16.7mpg overall in their test (heavy right foot I'm sure), 19/28 city/hwy. So still noticeably better than the Subaru. And I'm sure the rest of your comments are right on the money. It will be an interesting social experiment! modifiede30: thanks for the offer!

A thousand pardons..... <b>Bimmer</b>!! Doh!! What can I say, I'm a motorcycle guy. Good info here, thanks for the tips. Suby GT: yeah, I love that car on paper, and I like the looks of it, however I want something smaller and more nimble. The real deal-breaker is the fuel economy is frankly ridiculous. Consumer Reports' MPG findings:<table border=1 cellpadding=5> <tr><td> </td><td>Subaru GT</td><td>BMW 3</td></tr> <tr><td>Overall</td><td>18</td><td>24</td></tr> <tr><td>150 mile trip</td><td>22</td><td>27</td></tr> <tr><td>city/hwy</td><td>11/27</td><td>17/34</td></tr> </table>

Yeah, that's the only problem. (well, that and the apparent electrical and awd gremlins cited by skategoat) Hoping the fun factor would get me past that. Audi seems to have less of the a-hole factor, but worse reliability. Same for Saab I believe (and no awd). That pretty much leaves bmw. Not at all: http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/cars/used-cars/used-cars-best-and-worst-406/index.htm That GT would be ideal except for the piss-poor gas mileage, unless you have a *very* light right foot. (and if so, why buy the GT?) nope.

ha! good point though. thank god for carfax.

My wife has a friend-of-a-coworker who buys cars at dealer auctions and will sell them for cheap to friends/acquaintances. Apparantly he typically gets upscale stuff like bmw, audi, saab, etc. So it looks like we could get into a used 3-series for about 12-15k. And behold, it comes in AWD!! Any experiences? Reliability seems decent based on Consumer Reports and all the old beemers I see driving around. I really like the looks of the 03-04 models, and I've always wanted a 6-cyl. I want something smaller and less emasculating than the 03 Passat wagon (err, sportswagon... SPORTSWAGON!!) I inherited from the wife when she got a job that provided a car. Plus, Consumer Reports ranks VW reliability as abysmal as they get older. The only niggling thing about the beemer is the stigma/snob factor. (funny how a $15k car can have that, but anyway...) Will the car be so great that I'll instantly get over that?

wouldn't hiking a ski mountain be called "frontcountry"? hmm...

eff me hard. Sugarloaf. Today.

It appears from the image of the top board that the sidecut and nose are not tangent....? Also zero tail is going to make it hooky. There's no significant swing weight penalty for a standard 5cm tail. Burton's forumula for a very long time was 15cm nose, 5cm tail. Worked well.

http://www.bomberonline.com/articles/toesideproblem.cfm You don't have it anywhere near as bad as the photos in the article. But your hips could be down a little more on toeside, and your shoulders more level. Don't reach for the snow. Your hand shouldn't touch the snow until the rest of you is so low that it's got nowhere else to go. Otherwise, there is good potential here. Nice.

My wife dismissed the Metrons out of hand simply due to the weight, and I'm sure I would too. She ended up with the black Volkl Supersports with the 5 star graphics. They must weigh at most 2/3rds that of the Metrons, and she loves them. I inherited a pair of hammy-down Fischer RC4's from my dad - 170cm, 15m, lightweight, very fun! Had my first day on shapers this year and had a blast. I'm going to ski more when conditions aren't good for (snowboard) carving.

you're sooooo two minutes ago.

My wife demo'd a pair of Metrons in about a 152cm length. The pair with bindings had to weigh 40 pounds, no joke. WTF?

I was told I have fairly "normal" feet. My orthotics work wonders. When I got mine made, the guy spent about 2 hours with me and I paid $150. I'd say that's fair. He's out the materials, some electricity to run the oven and vacuum pump, his time plus probably a half hour of prep/cleanup... and they ride like $150. I've heard that the shell molds for one boot size cost over $20,000 to make. Using just moldable liners is probably an improvement over stock liners and stock insoles. However I believe most people either pronate or suppinate some amount, which can only be corrected with some kind of structure underfoot.