Posting this reminded me that I need to check them again since I had it in for it's 10K service last month and the tech might have "fixed" it back to factory specs again....
Posts by Will Stewart
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I noticed with the factory specs on aiming the headlights the low beam setting really only illuminated a short distance in front of the SS when the low beam shutter was down. I felt like I was driving blind since I couldn't see anything more than a few feet in front of me on low beams. I noticed that the SS didn't even illuminate the road signs in my neighborhood when I could see them clearly in every other vehicle we have so I decided to check how far the lights were throwing compared to other vehicles. I used my son's car since his headlights are about the same height as the SS and used a 2x4 to see how far ahead I could see it in the road and verify that the stop sign at the end of the road was illuminated. I then parked my SS right next to it and adjusted the headlight aim up until the 2/4 came into view so the throw distance was the same on the SS and his car. I could also now see the stop sign at the end of my street that I could never see before until I was right on it. I didn't see any noticeable difference in how bright the low beams would look to oncoming traffic between his car and the SS and haven't had any issues with people "bright lighting" me when I'm coming towards them since I did the adjustment. Was pretty easy to do since the low beam shutter makes a pretty clear light / dark line and it wasn't hard at all to keep the factory offset where one is a bit higher than the other as long as I made small adjustments to each headlight as I pushed the throw distance further out. Was a zero cost fix that only took me a few minutes to do, but made a significant improvement in being able to see things in the road at night even with stock headlight bulbs.
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S&W M&P Shield 9mm or Ruger LCP 380
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I have the Nitto 555 G2 also on the rear and would have to agree with ability to spin that FunCycle talked about. Gets really slippery in the fall / spring when temps are still cool. thinking about going with an all season tire vs summer time next time and was looking at the BFGoodrich Comp-2 A/S. Anyone using that for an all season tire on the rear?
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Ordered a new NRG steering wheel, NRG Quick Release and the NRG Hub adaptor last night. Also order the Baker Luggage racks. Hopefully will be in next week for installation.
I swapped out my stock steering wheel for a NRG setup right after Christmas. Be patient when pulling the old steering wheel off. Mine was stuck a bit and slow and steady pressure took it off without any issues. Also make sure that you line up the clock spring tab with the cutout for it in the hub adapter when installing it. Easy to get it misaligned when putting everything back together because the clock spring rotates freely and you don't want to mess it up. Overall a pretty easy job and I love the looks and added convenience in getting in and out of the drivers seat now.
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News releases out this morning that he is in serious condition with non-life threatening injuries. That was a scary wreck once I saw the replay, but a testament for the safety engineering those cars go through that he came out of it alive. I know NASCAR wants to use the overtime format to finish the race under green, but these guys push so hard those last two laps that it isn't a matter of if they will wreck each other, but how bad will it be.
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My local dealer sells both slingshots and vanderhalls. The sales girl was talking to me about the heaters in the vanderhalls a few weeks ago when I had mine in for the recall (it was in the low 40s and kind of damp that day so I was bundled up a bit). If vanderhall was able to squeeze a heater in there as tight as they have things in that engine compartment you would think that Polaris would be able to find a place to put one in. Polaris added a vent that apparently works, but missed on capitalizing on adding a bit of heat to help market to those that will want the automatic transmission. Most of us that come from bikes are used to dealing with cold and either dress for it or buy heated gear to wear, but they probably missed an opportunity to add something for that new market of owners they want to attract with the auto transmission.
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Not sure what any of you see as socialism. For me, expecting corporations and people of all incomes to pay nearly the same % in tax and feeling that those in need should be given a hand UP, is not socialism. It is fair and the right thing to do, respectively.
What you are describing and my definition of socialism don't match. I'm all for a flat or fair tax process (don't think it will ever happen because of the political power it would remove from our elected representatives, but that is a whole other discussion topic). I'm all for the providing for those that cannot provide for themselves or provide assistance to get those that can provide for themselves but need a bit of help to get there. I believe that most everyone would agree that we as a society have a duty to do these things based on the Judeo-Christian values our country has long held. I agree it is the fair and right thing to do. What I hear from many of the democrats goes well beyond these basic beliefs and exceeds what I feel is the "fair and right thing to do". My wife's aunt has CP and has been in a wheel chair most of her life. I have absolutely no problem knowing that part of my paycheck goes to providing a basic standard of living for her and those like her that are unable to take care of themselves because of illness, injury, etc. My wife worked for a while as in intervention specialist that provided additional one on one or small group teaching to mostly immigrant children that needed a little bit of extra help to get them caught up and I was very proud of the work that she did and had no problem that some of my tax money was used to provide that capability for those kids so they had a better chance of being successful in life. There are many other programs all across the country that I would venture to guess just about all of us would agree are good and are the "fair and right thing to do". My concerns come with people want to expand those programs beyond the people that really need it to those that just want it. I like free stuff as much as the next guy, but I know that on a national scale it isn't sustainable and will eventually fail. My favorite Bernie story was from the last election cycle. Chatting with a new waitress at a restaurant we eat at regularly we found out that she had moved to Alabama from Pennsylvania because "things were a mess up there" (her words). Bottom line is she couldn't afford to live there any longer because of the taxes she had to pay and couldn't find a job that paid enough to cover the cost of living. Imagine my surprise when the next words out of her mouth were that she planned to vote for Bernie because he was going to give us all free stuff and fix all her problems. She literally did not see the correlation and similarity between the policies that forced her to leave the state she had been in her whole life and what was being proposed on the national level. We gave her a good tip and wished her well because no use in even attempting to have that conversation. I'm pretty much a middle of the road independent that leans a bit right on fiscal policy and a bit left on social policy, but even I can't get behind anything that this current crop of democratic candidates are spouting as their vision for the country. What they seem to want goes well beyond what I feel are the fair and right things to do as part of just being a decent human being.
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The Republicans can really end this quickly and send Pelosi and her cronies home with their tail between their legs by just saying one simple thing. Lets assume that EVERYTHING the Democrats have charged him with in articles one and two have been proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Then they vote to not allow any witness to be called since they have no reason to hear any additional evidence. The next motion is to vote on the actual impeachment and removal from office. They just have to say that while he may be guilty as charged, they don't believe that those two charges rise to the level of a high crime and as such he is found not guilty and life goes on.
Double jeopardy prevents him from being impeached in the future for this event, so they would have to go back to square one and impeach the M***F**** a couple years down the road. I think they'll know if they attempt this again, their chances of winning the White House in 2024 ain't gonna happen
This is pretty much what Lamar Alexander from TN said last night. He indicated that he will not vote for more witnesses. He believes that what the President did was inappropriate, but also said that you can't remove someone from office for doing something inappropriate. They just need to end this so they can do back to hurling insults at each other as part of the campaign process and get everyone else back to work.
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I put a detachable steering wheel on last month. Mostly for ease in getting in and out, but partly for security. Ordered from slingmods.com. Pretty easy to install as long as your existing wheel isn't too had to remove. I used a security cable and ran that through the frame and steering wheel before I installed the quick release one for deterrence and to keep people from sitting in it when it was parked. Same cable I used to use through the wheels on my bike to keep people from being able to easily roll off with it.
I have another security cable that I run through the handles of my gym bag and the frame when I have to park to keep honest people honest. If they want the bag easy enough to cut the strap, but prevents people from being tempted to grab it and walk off. I drove a jeep for years and got used to not carrying anything that I couldn't live without if it was stolen out of it. I pretty much use that same logic in the SS. I had a kill switch on my old jeep and probably will do something like that again on the SS when I get around to it.
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Folks, executive privilege is not meant to be use for avoiding prosecution. In a trail, I feel executive privilege has lost its power. If this is posible, we would never be able to put any president out of office. That is unacceptable. We are now at another super level of our discussion. executive privilege! I want to ask members, can a president use his power of executive privilege to block impeachment trial request for witnesses. If you say yes, then we can never expel a President for wrong doing as we would never be able to prove the facts for the charge. I want to know how you all answer this question. Folks, what if we get a president that is really power hungry and does things really bad for all us. How would we ever get him out with the executive privilege power so great, he can stop any inquiry into his wrong doing. Now think really hard on this question and give me your reasoning and thinking here. I really want to know. Please all members respond with your thoughts, this is a discussion, we are not arguing, we are discussing.
Maybe I'm wrong here in a legal sense of my understanding of executive privilege and if I am someone please let me know.
My understanding of executive privilege is that the President's closest advisers cannot divulge information that they are privy to because of their position to protect the privacy of those conversations. I don't see executive privilege as a get our of jail free card for this or any other future impeachment action since that testimony is only part of the evidence that they should be able to uncover if a serious offense has occurred. Evidence encompasses much more than just testimony from the President's closest advisers. I understand why the democratic house managers would like to hear from President Trump's advisers under oath, but I also understand why that is a dangerous thing when it comes to national security, foreign policy, etc. Any action that rises to the level of seriousness that it could result in the removal of a sitting President should have evidence trails sufficient to make their case and petition the courts to make a ruling on whether the material is protected or not. If congress feels that the information not available by the President evoking executive privilege there appears to me a remedy for that through the courts (according to my quick read of the wikipedia page). I am not sure why the house did not complete the legal action to determine if executive privilege applied in this case before forwarding it to the senate (my guess is that they were worried that the courts would rule against them). To me this boils down to the democrats saying "we want to know what you discussed with your advisers so we can use it against you" and the President saying "nope, can't have it because it is privileged". The next step, it seems to me, would be to take it to the court for decision. If the court ruled that executive privilege didn't apply in this case and the President ignored that decision then I agree that we would all have something to be up in arms about. However, the House did not pursue that court decision for some reason.
To me that reason was to further this as a political theater show since they had to know that it would be pretty much impossible to get 2/3 of the senators to agree that what he did was serious enough to remove him from the office (largely because I think this kind of stuff goes on a lot in the deep halls of Washington DC at that level of politics). I don't think either side actually thinks they can remove the President, they just want to leverage the political theater that is going on to further their political party's objectives for the election cycle and are using this to spin up their political bases as the elections get closer. I feel there is a reason why there are so many past quotes from senior member of both parties that state that impeachment should never be undertaken when there isn't bipartisan support in agreement that the offense is serious enough to warrant the removal of a sitting President by a vote from the members of Congress. Seems that several of those involved in this current situation don't feel that is important anymore when the Executive Branch is led by a member from the other political party.
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I just want to know if it's too late to buy stocks in the company that provides the pens to Congress and the POTUS. Damn. Did you see Pelosi yesterday when she signed the charges to be brought to the Senate? Each complaint was signed and each letter in her name used a separate pen so all their "donors" get steal (I mean RECEIVE) a free pen that was actually used to sign something. One way to save a few BILLION DOLLARS would be buy a box of BICS at the Dollar store and use it until it runs dry. Goes to show you that we have the BEST members of Congress that money can buy - and usually does
Speaker Pelosi's actions and her words are not consistent. She states how somber this process is, but then publicly signs the articles with much fanfare including multiple pens for mementos of the occasion to share with her democratic leaders and capturing the images of them walking it down the hall like they do when celebrating a significant legislative win. If the democratic leadership truly felt what they say then the articles would have been delivered without fanfare and would have had a simple announcement that they had been delivered to the Senate. I am really afraid that our political system has set a new low standard where we can expect any President to be impeached in the future if their party does not control the House. These political weapons, once unleashed, will not be put back in the box. If a President happens to serve where their party doesn't have a majority in both the Senate and the House they might as well not unpack their stuff because success in the first 100 days of office might be making it to that point without articles of impeachment being filed against them.
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I just recently bought a used 2018 this past November and I have to say it is one of the funnest vehicles I have ever owned. It is crazy that people still do not know what it is after being out so long. That falls on advertising in my opinion. The other thing that I think that is hurting them (in my opinion) is that a lot of the dealers that once were selling the slingshot are not selling them anymore for whatever reason. My local dealer here in Lufkin no longer sells them and another dealer in the Woodlands stopped selling them. Kind of hard for people to buy something that they do no know existed lol.
We have two dealers in the local area that sell / service SS. Dropped mine off last night for some service / recall work at one of them that has always had several on the showroom floor in the past and noticed that the vanderhalls were inside in the showroom and the slingshots were in the outside display areas. While I was talking to the service manager the sales girl was pimping the vanderhalls to my wife.... Vanderhall has dropped the price point for their low end models to be competitive with the SS. Polaris has some work to do not only in advertising, but also in product quality, fit, and finish if they are going to stay competitive in this market and with their dealer network.
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There's a LOT of significant others who would like to ride with their spouses, but for one reason or another, don't want to be hanging on behind the rider on a conventional bike. the Slingshot collected a good part of that market, but were not able to break into the 70%+ who can't drive a standard. This move SHOULD increase their sales and market share dramatically. So much so that PII stocks are worth investing in once again. It's trading at its 30 day lows and over $10.00 per share off its 52 week high. With its almost 2.5% annual dividend, it's almost better than money in the bank. (JMHO - as with any investment, there is a risk of loss of capital and past performance does NOT guarantee future returns)
That was my wife exactly. I've been riding bikes for a long time and my wife never would ride with me. One short hop in my neighbors new slingshot changed all that. the moment I looked over and she was smiling from ear to ear I knew that the bikes were coming out of the garage and a SS was replacing them. I actually wouldn't be surprised if she brought up trading in my current one for an automatic later. She doesn't know how to drive manual and has made it clear that she has no interest in me teaching her in the SS, but..... if there was an auto trans version in the garage I might get a note one day that she would be back in a bit and was taking the long way to the grocery store to get what we needed for dinner....
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Is the new Slingshot going to have a auto transmission as a option for sure or is it speculation?
I do like he front end lights.My guess that they will all have automatic transmissions now (along with the new engine). Polaris just doesn't build enough slingshots to make the economy of scale worth the effort and cost of building manual and automatic versions in my opinion. With so few units produced the advantage of just having one drive train to streamline the manufacturing process is probably just too much to warrant having multiple engine / transmission options.
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Really? "The biggest news since Slingshot launched in 2015" is just days away and this is all the excitement that it is generating?
Bill
The leaked video footage from the dealer meeting sort of stole the "biggest news" thunder since anyone that saw the video has a pretty good idea what the big announcement is going to be. I think most all of us assume that the announcement is going to be an automatic transmission and a new engine. Hard to have a "big announcement" when your dealers are leaking the information months in advance.
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I remember years ago stopping to check on a biker sitting on the side of the road in the middle of no where. He had just bought his first fuel injected bike and didn't realize there was no reserve on his new bike. He was pissed and complained the whole way to the gas station and back that he was going to take this "piece of ####" back to the dealer and get my old bike back.
I only had that "crap, I forgot to switch over from reserve when I filled up" once. Luckily I happened right at a gas station when I realized what had happened and I was able to coast into the pump so I came out OK, but made me check that I flipped over from reserve when I filled up from then on. Sort of like I now double check that I'm not driving off without my gas cap on now after losing the cap on the sling not long after I picked it up. I seem to have to learn that lesson to make it stick with me.
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Wondering if there are any other independents on here and if they see this thing the same as I do. I'll preface this with the fact that there are parts of each party (republican, democrat, and libertarian) platforms that I can get behind and other parts that I cannot, but generally I'm probably more right leaning than left. I fully believe that President Trump wanted the Ukrainian Government to announce they were investigating the Biden's actions during the President Obama's term in office to use against Joe Biden in his campaign efforts. I have no doubt that any politician would do the same if they felt it would help their campaign. I do not think asking someone to announce something that hurts your political foe makes you a foreign agent for that country. My gut says this is a two birds with one stone situation and can imagine that if I was President and I could do something that supported my foreign policy agenda and helped my campaign at the same time that would be a win-win. My gut also says that President Trump would have never actually pursued an investigation on Joe Biden based on the fact that he has not initiated any investigations into the Hillary Clinton campaign actions other than his bravado in speeches which excites his political supporters, but does no real damage to her or other democratic leaders. It appears to me that he does things to win the political game and actually doesn't want to hurt his opponents (to use a football analogy he wants to hit them hard enough to make them fumble the ball, but doesn't want them taken off on a stretcher).
I understand that nothing at that level of business, politics, etc is black and white and that people that operate in the gray spectrum at that level will seek to gain every advantage available to them as long as it doesn't cross too far over a line. I fully believe that the President Obama administration crossed that line and used the power of the FBI and DOJ to launch an investigation into the Trump campaign and the personnel associated with it to prevent him from winning the election. Their actions have done serious damage to the lives, reputations, and finances of innocent American Citizens in that quest. To the best of my memory the investigation into the Trump campaign has uncovered illegal acts by some, but none were linked to direct campaign actions or involved being an agent for a foreign government. The others that got found out for their extracurricular activities that crossed the legal lines deserve what they got, but it still worries me that they weren't investigated for those actions prior to joining the campaign effort. I am afraid of where this might go in the future when allegiance to the political party is more important than allegiance to the nation and the lines that those people are willing to cross moves more and more to the extreme.
When I compare those two actions of the Obama and Trump Administrations it looks like President Trump asking the leader of another country to do something that is based on fact (Biden's actions were suspect by any measure of analysis) and helps his campaign efforts pales in comparison to the Obama administration conducting investigations on American Citizens that it appears they knew were innocent of the charges to further their political agendas.
There is very little an innocent citizen can do when facing the might, power, and resources of the US Government. From my viewpoint the worst that the Ukrainian announcement would have done would have been that Joe Biden doesn't win the nomination and goes back to what ever he was doing the day before he announced he was going to run for President. He likely would not be facing a prison sentence, living with a damaged reputation, or experiencing long term financial ruin. I really believe that what the Trump administration did was not very significant in terms of what seems to go on behind the scenes at the national level of political campaigning everyday.
While I believe it was wrong for President Trump to mix his presidential duties and his campaign actions, I am not naive enough to think it is the first time that things like this have happened in Washington DC at that level of governance. The fact that the Obama Administration leveraged the FBI and DOJ against the Trump campaign and that prominent democrat leaders were working towards impeachment as soon as Trump completed the inauguration ceremony makes it hard for me to believe that impeachment was the proper action in this case and not a continuation of using significant Government capabilities (FBI, DOJ, Congressional Impeachment) as political tools against your opposing party. I have hoped that the moderates from the democratic party would learn from the President Clinton impeachment and not pursue that as a course of action if it was a purely partisan act. I believe this whole situation has further eroded the standards of working with people with views different than yours that allowed for the civil governance of the nation by the elected officials from the political parties. I am very afraid that they have set a new standard for how the parties will deal with each other from now on.
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2003 HD Dyna Super Glide and Yamaha dual sport 250; sold both when I got the slingshot
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As FunCycle said....adding air flow will help a lot. There should be several threads on that topic.
Yep, soon to follow the heat kit were baker air wings to get more air flowing into the passenger area. Between the two she was much happier riding with me (at least until the weather cooled and she asked about how to take it back off....
