VW pickup ahoy

Once in my youth I had a chance to trade a sweatshirt (nice HS track team sweatshirt, champion) for a VW rabbit pickup. Alas, I lived in Oakland, the car was in Nevada city and i had no way of getting up there and an unknown mess of things if I got up there. I guess I have a soft spot for these high mpg rattle trap junkbombs since then. There are not too many around anymore, but I spied this one in the UNMLA parking lot, I suspect it was being actively lived in.

Bumper was strapped on, spare strapped to the roof, camper cap, hood strapped on, some sort of bicycle hunting prize strapped to the roof. Biodiesel stickers on the windows. How could it not be good?


Here is a cleaner example of the specie spotted in Oakland last year:

Its a thing! Bikes on smartcars

If you see three, its a thing.

1st sighting:
Driving north near Pojaque, I saw a smart car going the other direction with a Yakima hitch mount rack with a dual suspension MTB on the back. It was cattywumpus on the rack with the rear wheel above the roofline of the car.

2nd sighting:
not a week later

Framebuilder and tiny car aficionado Curtis Retrotech Giantman Inglis himself seems to have this set up, seen on his flickr stream click for source.

3rd sighting:
A day after number 2:

This guy in my neighborhood has a homemade rack added to the factory hitch on his Smartcar. Factory hitch! Who wouldathunkit. Note the sweet lustron home in the background.


It is now officially a thing. All the rage. I am going to get a smartcar and festoon it with biketites screwed directly into the plasticky smartcar body and mount as many bikes as I can simultaneously so I can join the fun.

Also, Smartcar v. Bakfiets

update! 4/30/10
From the comments, we received:
This excellent visualization of smartcar bike festoonage:

from reader JRA

And then this most excellent conceptually troubling folding bike on a smartcar:

Caught in california by andy R.

Thank you fellers! I knew it was a thing.

Subaru and NZ

Lots of stuff came together in a hurry in the last two days:
Newkar




We have been saving and waiting for a higher milage AWD to come out an finally decided to go ahead and get a 2010 Subaru Outback. It is a 4cylinder CVT model that should get 30ish miles to gallon at this altitude. Woooo. We are selling elena's jetta wagon and considering what to do with the golf, but we are considering going down to one car. Maybe. We shall see.


Secondly, through some miracle I was actually able to use my frequent flier miles to get us to New Zealand in October. Somehow I managed to accumulate an ungodly shitpile of British Airways miles thanks to a number of trips on BA and AA over the last decade and some credit card miles, I have tried to use them repeatedly but never was able to. I am still in shock they became useful. So SS worlds here we come. I actually got up at 4 this morning to register, but it looks like registration is still open. So Aida, Elena and I will be bound for Aukland in 11 months or so. We should get there a couple of days before the race and then have 10 days to mess around NZ. Woooooooooooooo! So now I need to figure out what to do with the family in NZ an how to get around and where to rent a baby trailer and a bike for elena, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. But we gots time to figure it! WOooooooooooooooooo!