[896] Random Car Thoughts

I'd rather not think about stuff happening in the real world so I'll just ramble about a daily driver. Let's talk about the 2001 Toyota Rav4 I've been using all these years.

It's still pretty reliable. It does need work done and it does consume gas at a relatively alarming rate but it still gets the job done. Given the opportunity to have it fixed at a good, reliable, and honest service center I would have the following done.

1. Engine overhaul. It's nearing 150,000 kilometers. I'm not sure if what I read online was that it would need an overhaul at 150k kilometers or miles so just to play it safe might as well have the engine checked. Seal any leaks, clean any carbon deposits, replace any worn out parts that need replacing. I did also read that the timing chain is a pretty crucial piece of the engine.
2. Repaint the car. At best the whole car, at worst just the hood. Full disclosure that a tree fell on the car and smashed the hood during one storm, and we had it fixed at a body shop. Sadly the paint has faded and it's pretty obvious the hood needs work done. At the least. It also has its fair share of dings and dents from over twenty years of being driven around Luzon. Yes, Luzon. Our loyal Rav4 has been as far south as Naga in Camarines Sur and as far north as Aparri in Cagayan.
3. Replace the headlights. And fog lamps. They're really yellow and no amount of headlight restoration kits I use will bring it back to its original look.
4. Replace small electrical/mechanical stuff that needs replacing. Auto door lock doesn't work for the driver side door, you need to lock it manually. The side mirror switches don't work so I have to push the mirrors on my own. The air circulator button needs to have paper jammed on the side so it'll stay in re-circulate mode. The latch that covers the extra power outlet near the handbrake doesn't auto-close anymore. Replace the driver side seatbelt because the thing is frayed already. Small stuff like that.
5. Clean the interior. Freshen up the seats with whatever deep clean service can do. Vacuum the nooks and crannies. Maybe get the steering wheel wrapped in leather, because that leather wrap I got may work now but having a pro do it will make it look 100 times better.
6. A new head unit. With bluetooth, Android Auto/Apple Car Play or whatever they're called. Maybe a rear camera. Still have CD and cassette capabilities if possible.
7. Dash cam. Yeah I still haven't gotten one.
8. LED light bulbs for turn signals, brake lights, and interior lights. I'm keeping the headlights and fog lamps halogen because I don't know if replacing them with LEDs will just blind incoming traffic.
9. Roof mounts for the roof rails. This is so I can put bike racks and car top carriers on the roof. Maybe Thule WingBar Evo for the mounts, a Thule ProRide for the bike carrier, and a Thule Force XT Sport for the top carrier. That setup looks like it can all be mounted on the roof at the same time.

While I'd love to write more I'd rather keep it at that. I'd be spending so much for just the overhaul and I honestly don't know where I could have that done. That is priority number 1 and once that's done then I can probably worry about the other stuff. I'd like to try to make the Rav4 last way longer and considering all the things it's done for us I'd like to take care of the car as well.

Out.

[895] The New Year

To say farewell to 2021 and hello to 2022 I drank red wine last night. It was a cabernet sauvignon given to my wife and I by my best friend. I drank half of the bottle and was pretty hammered.

It was a good kind of hammered though, not the drunk-pick-a-fight-with-anyone type or stumbling-around-the-block drunk. It was the I'm-so-hammered-I'm-going-to-take-a-nap-on-the-sofa-sitting-down type.

So basically after recovering a bit last night I took a bath and went to sleep. I was mildly awaken by my daughter when new year rolled in here in the Philippines, I can't remember if I greeted them back before I feel asleep again.

Then I woke up this morning and find out Betty White passed away. Sheesh.

Anyway this morning I woke up and took a quick bike ride around the subdivision. I barely did 5km before going home, simply because I drank a mug of black coffee before riding and was really thirsty during the whole ride. I drank water before leaving but apparently that wasn't enough. Plus I was also nursing myself from the drinking I did last night.

Anyway it's 2022 and I wanted to welcome the new year with a blog post. No resolutions from me since I never get around to accomplishing them, or even remembering them. I'll just continue on my journey of self-improvement.

Good luck everyone.

Out.

[894] A Bike Trainer and Other Bike Thoughts

I recently bought a bike trainer from one of our local and well-known online shopping apps. My logic for buying a trainer is I can do HIIT or high cadence rides on it since I don't think it would be safe for me to ride fast either inside or outside the subdivision.

Before the trainer arrived I noticed the pace of my morning rides was getting faster. Not insanely fast, but faster than usual. I usually average around 14 - 15 kmh inside the subdivision. The past three or four sessions before the trainer arrived I averaged well over that, peaking at 17 kmh.

I rode around again this morning after spending the weekend trying to do HIIT and high cadence cycling on the trainer. This morning I got around 15.3 kmh, but that probably had to do with me continuously stopping to wipe my fogged up glasses.

Anyway back to the bike trainer. I tried doing HIIT last Saturday and I was only able to do 4 reps of 30-sec effort 30-sec rest before stopping. I have no idea if I'm exerting too much or not but it was a fun challenge. Then Sunday I tried riding at high cadence and was able to do maybe eight minutes overall. The reason why I stopped was I increased the seat post height by around 5 mm. When I did high cadence before raising the seat post I felt discomfort on my knees. After raising it disappeared.

Sadly I also got bored staring at the wall which is the biggest reason why I stopped after a total of ten minutes including the time needed to raise the seat post height. Besides, I was excited to try out the raised seat height in an actual ride and this morning I did just that.

It felt great this morning. I just rode and couldn't hear my Runtastic app notifying me how far I'd gone so I just rode around and around the subdivision. I ended up going around 9 km, about 2 km farther than my usual morning rounds.

I'm planning on using actual rides as my "recovery" ride or relaxed ride, and using the trainer for higher cadence and HIIT, like I said earlier. Hopefully I can get used to riding inside the house on a trainer that I can increase the number of HIIT cycles to maybe 3 or 4 30/30 efforts. Then if I can consistently do that I'll probably shift efforts to 40/20 or so. Of course the resistance of the trainer is also a factor but as of the moment I'm happy doing my efforts on 3/6 resistance.

I honestly wish I had a speed sensor to mount on the rear tire so I have an idea how "fast" I go on the trainer. A cadence sensor would also be nice so I also know just how high my high cadence pedaling is. For all I know I could just be doing 60 rpm.

Out.

[893] Bike Upgrades / Replacements

Not that I'm planning on doing it any time soon since I need to be tight with my budget for in-real-life reasons, but here are some things I would love to get as upgrades or replacements for my bike.

1. High end smartwatch with heart rate monitoring and GPS, a cadence sensor, speed sensor, and a power meter. I want to know what zones I'm in whenever I ride, even if it's just inside the subdivision. My past few rides have had faster average speeds so I guess that means I'm getting stronger. I still want to be able to see how my performance is and I think all these sensors can tie in with either a smartwatch or all of them will tie in to my mobile phone.
2. A modern, advanced bike computer with GPS. Yeah this serves the same purpose as the smartwatch. I'd rather have a small GPS device so I can go around and not get lost. I don't need to pull my phone out to look at a map. Or I can tie it all with the smart watch and mobile phone so that hopefully the data will be as accurate as possible. I honestly don't know.
3. New saddle. A third one basically. My first saddle was too short. The current one I'm using is gel filled and seems okay but aesthetically it doesn't look sleek. So yes, a very shallow reason.
4. Cycling shorts with gel padding. I really need these, even in my rides here if I have the wrong shorts on it gets uncomfortable riding around.
5. Flared drop bars. I was a noob on the online shopping app I used when I bought parts for my bike. I'm not saying my drop bars aren't good, they're great actually. I do want to have flared bars in the event I finally get to go off road. Then again I can pretend I've got a cyclocross bike instead, except my tires are too wide.
6. Fenders. I'm just making my bike heavy but I really like the classic fender look for my bike. Unfortunately because of my 38mm tires I don't think I can fit them on my bike anymore.

Those are some of the upgrades I'd like to do to my bike. Unfortunately my bike isn't even six months old and I've already got a bad case of upgrade-itis. So I'll basically just day dream and stay happy with what I currently have. I would love to improve myself as a cyclist and hopefully finally be able to go riding around Metro Manila.

I'm just really, really scared of other motorists here because this place is crazy.

Out.

[892] Death

Last December 5, 2021 a friend of mine passed away. I heard it was due to a heart attack. That guy was a few weeks older than me.

It's scary. I'm glad I've done a few steps to hopefully improve my health, but remembering your mortality is a chilling wake up call.

My friend was a swimmer. He'd gotten a bit round the past few years, and he'd always leave words of encouragement whenever I used to post my walking data on Facebook. Gave me great advice what to focus on and basically helped keep my interest on walking going.

And now he's gone, just like that.

Rest in peace, Paul. And thank you for being a friend.

Out.