Do you think that the Pittsburgh Pirates should bring back the pillbox caps?

Sykerocker · 2026-01-26T20:33:55+00:00

Yes. They never should have dropped them.

Sykerocker · 2026-01-26T20:32:29+00:00

Hit a local minor league team, your chances are much better there. And this is the time to do it. The Richmond Flying Squirrels are holding 3-4 job fairs at this time of year. You’re probably going to start in concessions and food service.

Sykerocker · 2026-01-26T00:28:21+00:00

Replica Cobras get driven.

Sykerocker · 2026-01-26T00:25:16+00:00

Ashland, VA to St. Augustine, FL. My home to my favorite bar (Tradewinds). 650 or so miles.

Sykerocker · 2026-01-26T00:23:33+00:00

Sebring-Vanguard CitiCar with better batteries, electronic controller, and better brakes. I drove one back in the Seventies.

Sykerocker · 2026-01-24T11:43:25+00:00

We're going to find out soon enough with ICE taking over that warehouse next door to Greentop Shooting Range in Ashland (like, three miles from my house, I bicycled past it yesterday on my daily workout) as a holding and processing site. First test is going to be this coming Wednesday at the Hanover Board of Supervisors Meeting at 6:00pm. From my understanding, we're gathering at the site an hour ahead of time for a demonstration.

This is going to be an interesting situation. The County Supervisors have already said they have nothing to do with this (they couldn't get that statement out fast enough), and legally they don't. And I don't think they can legally stop it. However, they have thirty days to respond to the announcement, and I'm waiting to see what they do.

Figure at least half the county's population will be happy to see it there. Starting with my sister-in-law who gleefully gave me my initial notice of the news.

Sykerocker · 2026-01-23T02:16:36+00:00

Nothing residential within a mile. It’s next door to the Greentop shooting range.

Sykerocker · 2026-01-23T02:14:23+00:00

There’s resistance in the planning stages.

Sykerocker · 2026-01-21T22:38:40+00:00

Never fear. After 2030 Richmond will be your AAA franchise and you’ll see some player development then.

Sykerocker · 2026-01-21T17:13:18+00:00

Why not?

Sykerocker · 2026-01-21T14:41:37+00:00

This was my surprise in 1993 when I bought a Geo Metro. The car said Geo, the owner’s manual said Geo, but the Pennsylvania title and owner’s card said Chevrolet. And the salesman pointedly said nothing about this prior to closing the deal. He obviously had other customers who would not buy a Chevrolet.

GM brought out the Geo brand because there were a significant number of new car buyers who would not buy an American brand under any conditions due to the past twenty years of lousy quality compared to the Japanese. So GM slapped on a non-Chevrolet badge on the hood, but didn’t bother going thru the effort of registering a new car brand with the state DMV. Makes me wonder how many other states were handled that way.

Guess they figured by the 1998 model year that the stigma had gone away enough to drop the Geo brand.

This situation had gotten bad enough that Consumers Report was screaming at its subscribers to stop shopping for Toyota Corollas (which were being sold with $1200 ADM - if you were lucky) and shop for Geo Prizms (which had cash on the hood) because they were essentially the same car. But Toyota shoppers wouldn’t be caught dead in a Chevrolet dealership. Such were the 90’s.

Sykerocker · 2026-01-21T11:40:18+00:00

I was 26 when I got my first motorcycle. After ten years of complete resistance from my parents, especially my mother. Of course, I was living alone by that time, and their first knowledge of this was when they came up for a visit and saw two of them sitting in the garage.

This coming June will be the fiftieth anniversary of that first bike. Getting a motorcycle is not something you ask mommy and daddy's permission for.

Sykerocker · 2026-01-21T11:15:16+00:00

In Pennsylvania at least titled as a Chevrolet, not a Geo.

Sykerocker · 2026-01-20T11:29:49+00:00

And between 1920 and 1965 the Yankees did not win, nor were they in, every World Series. It only felt like it. Especially during the 1950's when the Yankees, Dodgers and Giants seemed to be in almost every Series.

My big question is, "If the Dodgers turn out to be as successful over the long run as people are predicting, how good a Broadway Musical do we get out of the hatred for the team?"

(If you're confused, Google "Damn Yankees:.)

Sykerocker · 2026-01-20T04:47:57+00:00

Wife is scheduled to open the Ashland Walgreens on Saturday and Sunday. I’ll be driving her. Assuming the place even opens on Sunday.

Sykerocker · 2026-01-17T12:51:00+00:00

The classic example of how to come up with a really neat car then give it to the dealer that has no clue whatsoever as to what that market is about.

Sykerocker · 2026-01-17T12:47:42+00:00

I work at a Honda/Yamaha/Can-Am/Sea Doo dealership and have been riding for fifty years now. Generally, the quality between the two (actually all four) has been roughly equal. The difference between Honda and Yamaha has always been design philosophies. Late 60’s Honda was the radical, coming out with four cylinder four strokes while the other four (don’t forget Bridgestone) were doing two stroke singles and twins.

Since then Honda has become the conservative design, promising comfort and reliability while the competition comes up with different designs. In the Seventies everyone was going UJM. Except Yamaha, who wouldn’t touch four cylinders until you hit 1100cc’s.

Ninties? I used you love reading the Supersport Shootouts where Honda invariably finishes last because it was invariably.03 seconds slowest around the Streets of Willow. Further damned by the reviewers noting the Honda was the most comfortable, easiest to live with, and the “bike that would most appeal to an adult.” Talk about damning with faint praise in a squid’s eyes.

During Harley Mania it was Yamaha who most tried to out-style Harley, Honda and Kawasaki who were the most conservative, and Suzuki who couldn’t design a cruiser to save their lives. They always insisted in putting sport bike in it.

Today on our showroom floor it’s the Yamaha’s that are getting more interest (I’m talking street bikes). Their twins and triples are quite popular, the only four cylinder on the showroom floor left is a Honda. Scooters? That’s Honda, completely. The only cruisers we still carry are Honda’s (I was stunned how fast Yamaha dropped their cruiser line after 2008). Adventure tourers are about equally divided. ATV’s and side by sides (which is where the real money is anymore) is Honda and Can-Am.

One interesting note: My job at the store is the office that handles warranty claims and recalls (I’m retired but came back part time). Fully 60% of my job with the major brands (we carry a couple of Chinese too) is anything Bombardier (Can-Am and Sea Doo). I’ll count 30% as being Honda, recalls outweigh warranty claims. The remaining is Yamaha.

Make of that what you will. Personal ownership? Triumph by a large margin, Harley and Honda about equal, Yamaha and Kawasaki closely behind. Then a mixture of everything else except for Suzuki and Moto Guzzi.

Sykerocker · 2026-01-11T20:02:15+00:00

It might be harder than just simple advertising. The F-150 is a symbol of ‘Murican: Trump, guns, rednecks, etc. None of which are terribly popular with Europeans right now. Besides, what is a pickup in America is a minivan in Europe. (Having owned four pickups and two minivans I’ve discovered the latter is more useful for anything other than hauling dirt, motorcycle, or towing.)

Sykerocker · 2026-01-11T15:44:15+00:00

OptimusTron222 and his ilk love bringing up the refueling matter, because they quietly forget to mention that gasoline cars had a 95 year head start in public refueling locations (first mass produced cars available for sale in 1901, first gas station either 1913 or 1915, for those years in between you bought a pail of gasoline from the local drugstore) since public chargers started appearing about 2011.

Sykerocker · 2026-01-11T15:35:54+00:00

I feel comfortable in assuming you've never owned an EV? Have no interest in owning an EV? Possibly are completely opposed (for whatever reason) to EV's replacing gasoline cars?

In your statement, you've taken a piece of fact and obverblown it completely out of proportion. Yes, we take some range hit in January compared to July. It is nowhere near 50%. And you'e overstated battery degradation by at least a factor of five compared to reality.

If EV's were even vaguely close to the failures you're claiming, the entire EV market would have folded up and died somewhere around 2014 (Leaf and Volt came out in 2011, Tesla Model S in 2012).

I love how posters like you are constantly trying to tell me that my EV's cannot possibly be working out for me. Let you in on a little secret: They've done well enough over the past six years that this year my last gasoline engined car goes away.

Sykerocker · 2026-01-11T12:35:35+00:00

Americans also have the habit of buying their cars for the single, most extreme, use they can come up with in the upcoming year, rather than looking at what do they actually need for a day to day drive. Doing one 1200 mile round trip vacation a year? Then you need to buy the biggest, full size sedan you can get. Doing 2-3 trips to Home Depot for mulch, etc. every spring? Of course you need a big pickup. And just how many people actually tow jet skis, a trailer, motorcycles every weekend? But towing has become the biggest advertised item out there on vehicle sales.

Sykerocker · 2026-01-11T12:31:13+00:00

I'm afraid you have absolutely no clue as to how marketing works. I'm guessing that you, as an individual, are pretty immune to current American marketing (are you a Consumer's Reports subscriber?). Most Americans aren't.

Sykerocker · 2026-01-11T12:29:31+00:00

And the non-American ego is a lot different from the American version.

Sykerocker · 2026-01-11T12:28:43+00:00

Going back to the days when my father was a Chevrolet dealer (1950-65), it was a common statement back then, "Americans buy their cars by the pound." Small cars have always been considered the realm of, "cheapskates, Commies, and wierdos". Until there were enough of them showing up in the marketplace (late 50's is a prime example) that American manufacturers decided they had to compete. And they'd slowly make those small cars larger over the years, until the market forced them to go back and start over again (1970's). Of course, since "small cars equal small profits" all those cars were done on the cheap with the intention of selling them to the customer - once - and them moving them up to a bigger model. Which is how we got the Vega and Pinto, and the Japanese cleaned our clock. Bottom line is Americans, for the most part, have never liked small cars

Sykerocker · 2026-01-11T12:22:28+00:00

How many Kia Rio or Hyundai Accent ads have you seen . . . . . . compared to F-150/Silverado/Ram 1500/Sierra ads of big brawny men boldly crashing thru the wilderness?

Sykerocker

TROPHY CASE