Posts by Will Stewart

Quote from chavey2

I use to have one of those! Back in late 1984 (19 yrs old), I bought my first new car - a 1986 Nissan 720 pickup truck. Completely stripped - no radio, no AC, bench seat. The only "extra" I bought was light sky blue paint. And of course, I modded it too! Lowered, stereo, Mustang bucket seats, t-top, bed shell with a rag top, etc. Even my engine was painted light blue with pink pin stripes.

Sounds like we had the same truck. I had a bare bones stripped base white 1986 Nissan pick up too. Drove the wheels off that thing. Too poor back then to afford mods, but I added a cheap kraco radio and speakers to have something to listen to. Lots of great memories from those years with that truck.

Quote from BKL

I have the MadStad Ultimate Bumper and have been quite happy with it. The lights are surprisingly bright, but I rarely use them since they are so bright and keep them on a separate circuit as a backup light source. I also keep them aimed down to minimize glare for oncoming drivers. The lights also provide a very good spread of light towards the sides of the road and help me identify deer alongside the road. I have also had a couple encounters during night rides with large possums that I couldn't avoid. One caused the bumper to move a little in its mounts, but the other I haven't even noticed any displacement at all. I had replaced the lower front wing with a wing normally designed to go on a car's rear deck, but replaced the wing with the MadSatd bumper when I caight it on sale for around $100 savings on the bumper, so I recommend waiting for a holiday sale, if you can find one.

I like the different grates and fill panel colors available with the MadStad unit and think it looks a little more refined than the VooDoo bumper. Of course, other folks may have different opinions.

I attached a copy of the MadStad assembly instructions and a pic of my 2015 Slingshot with the MadStad bumper.

Here's a pic showing the changes in my Slingshot's appearance over the years.

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Heard back from MadStad customer service and they confirmed that they can get me replacement components if there is future damage vs having to buy a whole new front bumper. Looks like MadStad design is the winner (assume components have to be cheaper than a whole assembly). DDM coil overs at Christmas depleted the mod account so gotta save up a few more $$ then can get the new bumper (and hope I don't hit any other critters between now and then). Might have to run the river road vs the mountain road until that happens since it seems I only hit critters on the mountain road.

Quote from DJohnson

@Instalerrob Ok we all know what curiosity did to the cat, but what is that metal thing clamper the the windshield if I may ask?

Looks like a fancy bracket for some baker airwings that is the spawn from a cell phone holder and a bicycle quick release getting friendly.... Looks like the airwings are mounted inside the wind shield. never saw that setup before.

Quote from BKL

I have the MadStad Ultimate Bumper and have been quite happy with it. The lights are surprisingly bright, but I rarely use them since they are so bright and keep them on a separate circuit as a backup light source. I also keep them aimed down to minimize glare for oncoming drivers. The lights also provide a very good spread of light towards the sides of the road and help me identify deer alongside the road. I have also had a couple encounters during night rides with large possums that I couldn't avoid. One caused the bumper to move a little in its mounts, but the other I haven't even noticed any displacement at all. I had replaced the lower front wing with a wing normally designed to go on a car's rear deck, but replaced the wing with the MadSatd bumper when I caight it on sale for around $100 savings on the bumper, so I recommend waiting for a holiday sale, if you can find one.

I like the different grates and fill panel colors available with the MadStad unit and think it looks a little more refined than the VooDoo bumper. Of course, other folks may have different opinions.

I attached a copy of the MadStad assembly instructions and a pic of my 2015 Slingshot with the MadStad bumper.

Here's a pic showing the changes in my Slingshot's appearance over the years.

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Thanks for the feedback. The racoon I hit bent the wing all the way back to the tire and ground off the tip of the wing before I could pull over to check it out. The animal the other day might not have been as big as the racoon, but still bent the wing back to the tire since the support tube was already compromised from the original damage. Thanks also to mytoy for your input. The voodoo design is pretty stout and I'm sure it would take a pretty good impact to damage it.

Quote from mytoy

I love my voodoo bumper, very sturdy.

Agree that definitely looks to be the strongest option, but I ride in areas with lots of wildlife and given my experiences the odds are that I"m going to hit something again. The stock wing is pretty easy to pull off the tire and continue to drive. If the voodoo one gets bent back looks like it would be a much tougher roadside fix and then I would probably have to replace the whole thing. Madstad comes in sections which was what first made me favor it.

So the stock front wing has finally taken just about all the abuse that it can. Twice I've hit animals (one confirmed racoon and one unknown, but similar size, that I just caught out of the corner of my eye as it darted out into the road) that ran right out in front of me on the passenger side. The tube attaching the wing to the frame is crimped badly from pulling it back off the wheel twice and now the plastic cover on passenger side is only held on my the top screws (using gorilla tape underneath to keep it from flying off until I can figure out replacement plan). The replacement bar and black wing base aren't too bad ($474), but they want over $300 for the red pearl plastic cover for just one side. For that much I"m looking to go with something aftermarket that hopefully can not be destroyed so easily. Not many choices out there (madstad or voodoo), but I think I like the look of madstad a bit more and with a 2016 I get the plug and play light bar as a perk. Also figured since it is a modular design I hope I can get individual replacement parts from madstad instead of having to replace the whole thing if I continue to have this problem. Anyone else swap to the madstad bumper that wants to share pros and cons?

Quote from echoraven

I'm guessing ID theft?

I was targeted with something somewhat similar. A slight variation on the traditional craigslist scam.

Mine was a remote graphic design company for a local magazine. Interview, offer letter the whole 9 yards.

A few things made me suspicious.

Everything was virtual. To me it didn't make sense that a local company hiring a local employee not do at least an in person interview...

Next was the scam itself. The sender sent me a "check" for about $3k, so I could purchase my equipment from their "authorized vendor".

What they wanted to happen was:

1. I deposit the check

2. Order from their "vendor"

If I did this, the "check" would have bounced in a few days and I would have been out $3k.

What I actually did was contact the magazine itself and law enforcement. The magazine did verify my suspicions, but law enforcement didn't care. Told me that the scammer would be gone by the time they got there.

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Yep, I got a call from HR a few weeks ago and someone had applied for unemployment using my name and SSN. Of course HR knew that I was still with the company and notified the state to deny the claim. HR calls me and links me to the state website so I can send them my statement that I hadn't applied for unemployment. The state site gives a list of other things to do (review credit reports, credit freeze, police report, etc). So I call the PD and they send an officer out to the house. I'm thinking I need to give a statement and he says nope and hands me a idenitytheft.gov business card and says to go to their website. We chat about dogs, weather, etc for a bit and then he leaves. No plan to investigate.

Quote from drfubar

Y'all in the south and southeast be careful out there starting this morning, afternoon, evening and going thru part of the early morning of Friday. Very high risk of dangerous weather. Rain, Lightning, High Wind and the worst,...Tornados are all forecast. When they forecast this kind of weather, lives are lost. Pray for all involved. My family has a center area in the house away from all the windows and we we wear our helmets if we are in a tornado warning while in our "safe area". Good luck to all.

Yep, local news showed the weather channel storm chaser team in a local hotel during their broadcast last night. Never a good sign with those guys show up in your town....

I know many of you are retired, but maybe this will help someone in your family. I got this warning from work today and it apparently happened to a local company. Never even thought about this being something they would do. I can't imagine the person that thinks they just got a great new job only to find out it was all fake and on top of that they have probably stolen their ID and made their personal finances a mess.

The most interesting new method of attacking people takes advantage of the fact that virtual jobs are starting to become widely available. Take the below scenario.

Attacker – cyber attacker

Recruiter – company’s legitimate HR Recruiter

Victim – unfortunate victim of the attack

The Recruiter posts a job req for a new software engineer. The attacker then copies that posting and goes to a site that the recruiter doesn’t use, such as Monster or Hot Jobs and reposts the job, but with their own contact information. The Victim is out searching for a job and stumbles upon the posting on Monster, and decides its worth a shot. The Victim then reaches out to the contact info on the job posting, and gets the attacker instead of the Recruiter. The Attackers have then gone on to conduct multiple interviews and asking all sorts of experience related questions, making it really hard to tell it’s a fake. The Attacker then sends the Victim a job offer and new hire paperwork. The paperwork is usually very generic and designed to look like standard IRS forms. Once the Victim has accepted the job, the Attacker then uses this same information to target the Victim with other attacks before anyone is the wiser. The job offers usually have a starting date of 3 to 4 weeks out, so the Attacker has time to exploit what they got before the Victim would expect to start working.

I picked up the DDM 3-way adjustable over Christmas and they made a huge difference. The nice thing with those is DDM Works provides recommended settings for different driving conditions (around town, mountain / twisty road, track, and drag strip) and those have been right on the mark (at least town and twisty - no track time). Now real easy to set them to a comfortable setting when driving around town / running errands and bump it up to a more sportier setting when on my favorite twisty road.

And on today's google news feed.... Batman and his slingshot

https://www.autoevolution.com/…is-slingshot-158129.html#

Quote from Frankie55

Cool story thought I would share. Last weekend while helping my friend move assets from an electrical company he acquired we came upon a box tucked away, full of dust it was painted green the bottom was unpainted. It was marked Tuscaloosa Alabama 1952. The owner said I could have it. I was suspicious as it looked like an ammo box. After stripping some paint this is what it contained. If you zoom in two 75 MM rifle carterages with fuses. It’s in really good solid shape to include the rope handles!

The M20 recoilless rifle is a U.S. 75 mm caliber recoilless rifle T21E12 that was used during the last months of the Second World War and extensively during the Korean War. It could be fired from an M1917A1 .30 caliber machine gun tripod, or from a vehicle mount, typically a Jeep. Its shaped charge warhead, also known as HEAT, was capable of penetrating 100 mm of armor. Although the weapon proved ineffective against the T-34 tank during the Korean War and most other tanks, it was used primarily as a close infantry support weapon to engage all types of targets including infantry and lightly armored vehicles. The M20 proved useful against pillboxes and other types of field fortifications. Its poor armor penetration by the HEAT round was because of it being a spin-stabilized projectile rather than the later fin-stabilized rounds used in the 106mm M40 recoilless rifle.

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that is cool. A friend of mine is one of the senior leaders in the Army munitions field and he sent a pic the other day from a wooden ammo crate that contained WWII era 50cal ammo they were destroying. The crate had a hand written note at the bottom that said "may the contents of this box blow the shit out of Hitler".

Quote from Dave@DDMWorks

If you are not sure, just pop the ECM out real quick and send a picture of the back, or just let me know what the numbers are. When the ECM is sent in, we can tell also, it just helps us keep track here.

Love the Johnny Cash reference -

Will do. Just checked the mod bank account and might be a few more months before I can pull the trigger on this after picking up your coil overs a few months ago (great improvement in ride quality by the way, but zero'd out the account balance).

Noticed that there is a drop down for 15-16 and another for 16.5-17 on the website for these reflashed ECMs. How do you tell the difference? I bought mine as a factory demo from a dealer (4K miles, used price, new vehicle warranty). The body work matches the red pearl 2016.5 SL (grey stripe on seats instead of red stripe, silver wheels, graphics on hood), making me think it is a 2016.5, but it did not come with the engine heat management kit that was supposed to be on all 2016.5 models. So do I have a 2016 with 2016.5 wheels, seats, and hood graphics or do I have a 2016.5 that rolled out without the heat management kit?

Dave@DDMWorks what is the difference in the 2016 vs 2016.5 ECM flash? Trying to figure out which to select on order screen since apparently Johnny Cash built my slingshot like he built his Cadillac and I'm not sure what model year it is....

Quote from FunCycle

Are you talking about the console by the emerg. brake? If so go to DDM and they have what you want. A thick pad that fills in the cut out around the brake lever.

Nope, the panel on the exterior is what I'm looking for. She throws her arm up there like we are summer time cruising in my old "no air conditioner" pickup on the straights. She also told me it helps to brace her as we run through left hand curves. She reminds me that she doesn't have the steering wheel to hold onto if I get a bit too aggressive....

Does anyone know of a pad for the inner wing panel / arm rest? My wife likes to put her arm up there, but complains it gets uncomfortable after a while because it is just hard plastic. Slingmods has a foam peel and stick solution, but looking for something with a bit more padding that might be more comfortable for her on longer runs. Thought about trying to fit one of those gel wrist pads that you see for keyboards, but not sure how it would hold up in the sun. Anyone know of a product for sale or come up with their own good solution already?

Quote from rdtwombly

Thank you for the response. I did discover the Day/Night adjustments. I set both to full bright to see if that helped. Nothing happened. And if I push any of the buttons, the screen reacts but the buttons nor the backlight illuminates. I'm thinking that the head unit it toast unless someone has some insight.

Sounds like it is stuck on night mode. I know you bumped up the display to full brightness for both settings, but did you try to set it to Day setting and see if that helps? Had a guy in town that had something covering the sensor and it was stuck on night mode like that because it was in auto mode and wasn't getting enough light to go to day mode. At least it helped to troubleshoot the issue he way having.

Quote from wjfyfe

Yep, I confess, I can resemble that remark at times, but in this case our stock links on our 2015 are looking just fine, so I just cannot bring myself to fix something that simply is not broken? What a stingy bastard I am!

Some folks purchase the SlingShot as a sport motorcycle, some, like us, purchased our SlingShot as more of a touring motorcycle. I like to believe that the SlingShot can do both jobs well?

Bill

The best explanation on what a slingshot is to bike riders is that it is a really really fun touring bike. You get a sound system, good wind protection, lots of storage (compared to bikes not cars), and a very comfortable riding position at a similar price point you would pay for a touring bike. The difference is that it is so much more fun to drive than a big touring bike. I tell them it is a touring bike that doesn't leave a shower of sparks trying to go through the turn.

Quote from drfubar

Like a couple of cups of coffee in the morning and was wondering if anyone else uses an "Aero Press"? I normally don't use it unless I make myself a single cup in the afternoon. Sure does make a great cup of coffee.

I don't use that exact one, but I've been using a French press for years to make my coffee. The one for the house is 34oz, but I have a small one with about the same capacity as that aero press along with a backpacking pot to boil the water that I took with me everywhere I went while I was in the army (even crappy army coffee grounds taste better when brewed in a french press). I've started cutting out a small piece of paper filter to add to the filtration now that I'm older to minimize potential cholesterol impact and remove the old sludge at the bottom of the cup. I enjoy using a "manual" process to make my coffee and as long as I have access to coffee, water, and heat I can always make it (I even have a manual hand grinder to grind my beans right before brewing). Power went out for several hours on Saturday morning a few weeks ago. Just went out to the grill and fired up the ole side burner and had a pot of coffee ready to go in about 10 minutes for me and my wife. All those electric coffee makers were useless until the power came back on after lunch.

I bought a Bonavita immersion dripper (sort of like a pour over pot) last year and really like that if I'm just making a cup for me. Fills my yeti camp cup to the top and stays nice and hot the whole time. Uses cone filters so easy to use / clean.

Quote from Kip

Sounds like an annual brood. I went to Japan in 2016 and their cicadas are HUGE, but by extension, so are the cicada wasps, and in turn, the birds that prey on those.

The cities we stayed in were mostly quiet until we got to these clusters of trees in the inner-city parks, then it was a noise like none other with them all concentrated there!

It sure did get loud, but for some reason I just love that melody!

We had a cicada wasp show up a few years ago digging a hole in the sand around my firepit. Scared the crap out of me when it came out of that hole. I grew up in this area and lived in the country for most of that time and had never seen one of those things.