47,001 Reasons

I have a lot of reasons as to why I haven’t written anything real here, the Monday car posts don’t really count, in almost 2 weeks.

Fourteen of those reasons are I decided to rewatch, for possibly the 4th or 5th time, that 20-year old short-lived space western, Firefly.

A quartet of those reasons is I discovered The Brokenwood Mysteries. There are 8 seasons with a total of 36 episodes, but only 4 are available on Prime Video. Like a lot of mystery shows that tickle my fancy, this is one also has a quirky detective whose personality is mirrored in their car. Like Columbo with his old Peugeot 403 convertible and DCI Vera Stanhope with her Land-Rover Defender 90 Tdi. In this show, set in New Zealand, Senior Detective Inspector Mike Shepherd drives a 1971 Holden Kingswood. Come to think of it, all three of them come from the “almost leaving, but before going, turn around and ask another question” school of detectiving.

But, most of those reasons are because nothing exciting has happened to write about, until this morning. When I got in the Mini to run to the store the odometer read 47001.

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

No Reserve Edition of SORT
As of Monday, August 1, 2022 at 6:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
1973 Porsche 914 2.0 2003 Lexus LX470 2003 Mercedes-Benz SL500
After last week’s Reserve Not Met discussion we of course had another, the Chevy Wagon. For this week, to guarantee all the vehicles will sell, the three I chose are all “No Reserve” auctions.

Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Sports: 1993 Mazda RX-7 R1 Sold for $70,500 on 7/27/22
Off-Road: 1982 Jeep Cherokee Sold for $25,500 on 7/26/22
Touring: 1951 Chevrolet Wagon Bid to $26,250 on 7/28/22

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

Has The Car Market Bubble Burst Edition of SORT
As of Monday, July 25, 2022 at 6:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
1993 Mazda RX-7 R1 1982 Jeep Cherokee 1951 Chevrolet Wagon
I don’t know for sure, but it seems to me that the car pricing bubble has burst, at least on BAT. There were probably a bunch of folks taking advantage of the wacko car market to get top dollar for their vehicles by setting the reserves on their auctions higher they might have several months ago. I’m basing this on the fact that a lot aren’t meeting the reserve recently.

As you can see below, 2 of 3 cars I picked last week didn’t get sold. Because I keep track of what each car I choose for these posts just so I can do a yearly wrap up (this is last year’s) I can tell you how many cars did not sell. From August 2020 to August 2021 of the 156 cars I chose a mere 3 came back as Reserve Not Met. This year from August 2021 to today of the 150 cars picked 15 have not met their reserve.

Ten of those fifteen have come in the last 3 months…

Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Sports: 1971 Alpine A110 Bid to $93,110 on 7/22/22
Off-Road: 1996 Land Rover Defender Bid to $37,500 on 7/20/22
Touring: 2001 BMW M3 Sold for $86,000 on 7/21/22

Aaah…

…I had a few ideas for posts this last week but I never got around to actually writing them here.

Because I haven’t written anything and the Miata has been driven a few times this week I lumped them all together below. As you can see the CTBNL went significant miles for the first time since last year and over two thirds of that number happened yesterday.

Took a nice drive early, to beat the heat, and did a quick backroad loop to a couple of small Oregon towns to take pictures of their post offices, Sprague River and Beatty.

171.2 miles on 5 drives since last Monday.
Times Miata Driven since 01/01/22: 52

Sport, Off-Road, Touring

Too Hot for Convertibles Edition of SORT
As of Monday, July 18, 2022 at 6:00 PM pacific time:

Sport Off-Road Touring
1971 Alpine A110 1996 Land Rover Defender 2001 BMW M3
Old school European sports car. It is in Germany so the shipping will hurt. An old standby pick for this category, these things have so much character. Another old standby pick, but these usually appear in the sports category.

Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Sports: 1972 Chevrolet Corvette Coupe Sold for $45,500 on 7/16/22
Off-Road: 1987 Chevrolet K5 Blazer Bid to $17,001 on 7/14/22
Touring: 1957 Chevrolet 210 4-Door Wagon Sold for $27,777 on 7/12/22

Busy Tunnel

On my morning cannabis run last month, because I was unsupervised, I decided to stop and take a Miata picture for Instagramming. There is this cute little one lane tunnel under some railroad tracks a short detour off the way home that I thought might be nice. In all the times I have passed by on the road perpendicular to the tunnel I have never seen anyone use it.

HA! I pulled in and stopped and hopped out to take a photo. When I moved a little closer to take a photo from a different angle I could see someone trying to come through from the direction I entered, so I just hopped in the car and moved forward to let them by.

I did a K-turn and headed into the tunnel to take one from the other direction. Sure enough, the same thing happened again. I got one photo and had to move the car for a whole different vehicle coming in opposite direction.

When I previewed the photos it really wasn’t that scenic, so I just went home.

Broken Spokes

Toward the end of June I took the road bike out for a ride for the first time in a while. I was going down a small hill not far from home slow with hands on the brakes because of the stop sign ahead and because of the cracks in the road. Halfway down I heard the distinctive “PING” of a spoke breaking and I could see the front wheel wobble in a singular spot. I opened the front brake so the rim wouldn’t scrape against them and turned for home.

I dropped the wheel off at the the local bike store to get it fixed and they said it would be done later that day or at worse tomorrow for a total cost of $37 ($36 for labor and $1 for the spoke. True to their word, early the next day I received a text to let me know the wheel was ready. I brought it home and stuck on the bike, but things were busy, so I didn’t take the bike out for a spin.

A couple days later I had time for a ride, so I got all dressed and ready to go, but when I went to roll the bike out of the garage the back tire was being tugged at by the brakes. I lifted the back wheel off the ground and spun it. The rim was contacting the brake pad in one spot. Sure enough, there was another broken spoke! I only heard one “PING”, did the two spokes, on different wheels, break in sync?

I took the second wheel down to the bike store. This time the repair was going to take week because they were backlogged. I bought this bike, used, in 2016 and from my research it was actually brand new in the year 2000 based on the color, so probably these rims are 22 years old. Wondering if this broken spoke problem will continue because of their age, I asked how much it would cost to have the wheels rebuilt using all new spokes. So, the total would be: 32 spokes per wheel, 2 wheels $64 plus the labor of $90 per wheel equals $244. This makes it, based on the fairly inexpensive group set of the bike, a better to just buy a new set of wheels.

The back wheel was ready yesterday afternoon, so this morning I got to go for a ride. I didn’t break any new spokes so maybe that whole conversation about new spokes or wheels is moot.

47.4 miles on 5 drives in the last week or so.
Times Miata Driven since 01/01/22: 47