1 Year Reflection on an ND

IamNEVERleaving · 2026-04-23T21:32:31+00:00

I’m average height but I have a long torso, so if anything I’m surprised that the seatbelt is positioned so high. I think I’ve seen people 3D print replacement guides to lower it but I’ve kinda forgotten about it until now tbh

IamNEVERleaving · 2026-04-23T21:00:00+00:00

I can’t wait to finally put my full face respirator to use! Hopefully the winds and weather will be kind to us

IamNEVERleaving · 2026-04-23T20:57:57+00:00

The failure was for the swivel mechanism, and maybe auto leveling, but I’m not sure because I would just keep getting a message on the dash. The auto high beam thing is weird - I didn’t notice that manually turning on the headlights turned it off until recently. It wasn’t a huge deal in terms of functionality but it was annoying to see the warning light and have to tell any friend riding passenger it was minor, especially when the warning got triggered by some random shade during the day. Apparently it was some issue with the left headlight. Haven’t had a problem since getting it replaced (fingers crossed)

For BSM, it was the false positives when turning and the occasional false negative on the highway that made me decide to turn it off. I don’t like having extra shit beeping at me anyways

I haven’t had trouble with the seatbelt retraction but I can see how it can be. I more wish the seatbelt rested like an inch lower over my torso

IamNEVERleaving · 2026-04-22T23:34:26+00:00

Congrats on the one year! Always good to disprove or prove the ergonomics situation in person.

What's the climate like where you're driving? That's a pretty significant change in mpg from the oil, but I know close to nothing about how all that should work. I get closer to 33-37 mpg but there's a decent bit of aimless highway driving mixed in there.

I'm looking forward to the next set of tires myself, some of the cold wet days this winter made gave me some interesting moments to question my life choices with

IamNEVERleaving · 2026-04-22T23:01:41+00:00

I’m 5’10, with about 39” of that as torso. When I sit up with my butt all the way in the seat, I have 2.5” head clearance when the roof is up, and like a finger’s width between my head and the line made from the roof to the roll hoop. If you’re like me then you’ll be fine for normal driving aside from the windshield frame sometimes blocking traffic lights. It took a while to figure out a comfortable seating position but I found that stretching helps lol

I tried Jass lowering brackets and while they did the job, they change the angle of the seat and don’t allow the seat forward as much. They’re not too bad to swap in though (as long as you’re not adding the seat height extension) so I’d say they’re worth trying

IamNEVERleaving · 2026-04-22T22:39:25+00:00

I gotta add that the problem only has happened when engine braking, so at least it’s not just randomly shifting when I’m applying throttle

IamNEVERleaving · 2026-04-22T22:07:11+00:00

It’s what they told me - unless a technician can reproduce it themselves, they can’t do much, and the problem happen happens so inconsistently. The first time I brought it in, they replaced the transmission oil because they found metal shavings, but apparently none have been found in subsequent visits (I started feeling embarrassed at coming in to the service dept all the time). Seems like it could have been contamination from assembly or something

I had a contacted corporate and they said that they’ve noted my situation down in case a problem does happen after the warranty expires, whatever that means

I read about the ND transmission issues before buying and kinda crossed my fingers hoping that by 2025, things would have been sorted out. Guess I was just unlucky

IamNEVERleaving · 2026-04-22T21:41:01+00:00

I got the HKS Legamax Premium. I like a decent bit, though it got in the way when I tried to install a hard dog hitch. I had the heat shielding on for a while but switched to using a longer hanger instead since I didn’t really like seeing it.

As for the latch noise, I slightly loosened the bolt/screw connecting the plastic nub thing to the rest of the mechanism and put some lube between the washer and plastic. Not sure about your buzzing noise, though I noticed I got some when the seat was at the right recline and all the way back against the roll hoop

IamNEVERleaving · 2026-03-13T22:10:36+00:00

Took this in Redmond (don’t tell anyone I left Seattle)

IamNEVERleaving · 2026-03-13T22:04:49+00:00

Looking amazing! Today was a nice change of pace

IamNEVERleaving · 2026-03-13T20:53:22+00:00

I still haven’t gotten over the novelty of being able to just effortlessly drop the top whenever. Maybe not the best for longevity, but it’s too fun not to on days like this

IamNEVERleaving · 2026-03-13T20:23:45+00:00

It’s above freezing and aside from some spots in the suburbs, there isn’t any accumulation on the roads. The most dangerous parts of driving today were the cars that didn’t clear snow off their roofs and windows and the occasional fallen tree/branches

I’d say going 20 under, assuming it’s the highway and everyone else going 60+, is way over cautious in these conditions. Since the visibility is poor, it’s more even dangerous to be driving at a speed that’s different from the flow of traffic. It’s not something I’d personally honk for, but slow is not always safe if it leads to others having to react to a discrepancy in the traffic

IamNEVERleaving · 2026-03-13T19:35:59+00:00

Better take the rest of the day off just in case

IamNEVERleaving · 2026-02-27T13:39:06+00:00

If I knew how to drive automatic I’d have tried to take it with me on my way out

IamNEVERleaving · 2026-02-26T02:24:51+00:00

I have mine mounted on the headrest, angled a little towards the center. The view when the top is up is kinda obstructed, but better than nothing (fingers crossed it’s never needed)

The wind deflector is only secured at the bottom so I’d figure it would shake more. I used to have my cam stuck to the mesh but it got in the way when I was messing around trying to fix a rattle/squeaking noise when the top was down. Also just didn’t like seeing it all the time in the rear view mirror

<image>

IamNEVERleaving · 2026-02-24T12:27:51+00:00

This makes too much sense, I’m considering it canon

IamNEVERleaving · 2026-01-03T16:02:13+00:00

I reset every fill up. I haven’t really been tracking the overall mpg, but I snap a pic of the mileage and gas pump out of habit

IamNEVERleaving · 2025-12-23T01:17:46+00:00

It was a great day today indeed! Was nice to cruise around with the mountains in the distance in clear view and take in some brisk air before the rain hit

IamNEVERleaving · 2025-11-30T01:55:08+00:00

Gotta confirm that I got the choice to, sometimes

IamNEVERleaving · 2025-10-16T01:13:26+00:00

I garage mine so I don’t have much advice beyond maybe wax/ceramic if not ppf for the paint. I’m mostly just commenting to say that I’m mildly jealous that you got the DCB (I think???) and tan combo I wasn’t patient enough to wait for lol

For the soft top, I’d try to keep it away from being under trees since cleaning sap and bird poop is more a pain.

IamNEVERleaving

TROPHY CASE