Haven't skated on wheels in over 15 years, probably closer to 20.

Anyway ordered up these bad boys...

 

maybe don’t put your watch on when you go

 

Lol this is an excellent point!

 

Update:

Just did an hour on the new skates after heat molding and a bit of set-up. It was strange to try and get used to again but found my stride pretty well, I'd say. A few wobbles here and there but no spills!

Looking forward to getting back to a higher skill level.

PS...I did wear my Nautilus and didn't even think of it!

 

Not quite today - but day before lockdown started in New Zealand (25 March) I made a desperate dash to the supplier... Rocket is NZ designed, Italian crafted and manufactured ...

 

Mrs STANDY wanted one for her birthday next month, thought I would order early with freight slower than normal.

 

Nice! I bought a dob right before the shutdown. It's been a nice distraction.

 

i gave money to Meals On Wheels, NRDC, WHO, Ocean Conservancy,

 

Delivery from Coles

 

I didn't know Coles sold watches.



PS: Did you register for COPS?

 

at D+60, now I’m ready to rumble! — I just need to have the wife watch a few YT videos

.

 

Intel Explorer K2 two person inflatable Kayak

 

Inflated.

 

It's amazing what you can find in the dollar bin!
COPS, no I signed up as an old bloke who needs some help with carrying the shopping, they're happy to deliver to me....

 

ever try standing up in canoe with 2 other peeps that weight 500 combined, and throw in my 175.?...max weight was 900 and the water came up almost to the top. needless to say we capsized before we made it out far.

 

My virus suppression tonic....

 

Four gold color Subaru STi BBS rims for my 2017 WRX LTD. I already have some used STi BBS rims (painted gold, was grey) for my Continental all-seasons. Now I can put my Michelin Pilot Sport 4s summer-only tires onto these rims (my Michelin X-ice snows are on the stock rims, and I can save these tires for when I wear out the X-ice).

 

The X-ice are tremendous tires. They were on my Fusion when I bought it. It was a leaseback that someone bought then decided they wanted a VW so they traded it to the VW dealer right in the beginning of winter. It sat until spring because nobody coming to a VW lot was hunting for a Fusion. So I showed up and basically stole it for what I paid. The tires were new and lasted me two seasons. Great tire!

BUT! I will never buy a Continental tire again.

Nice purchase, my friend!

 

I tend to think that I am somewhat of a tire connoisseur. For $900 cash + an 8oz bottle of hand sanitizer, these wheels and tires didn't cost me much at all. The Subaru dealer wants $3400 for a set of the wheels alone. So the tires were like free and the wheels were 1/4 price.

The Continental Extreme Contact DSW have been great tires for several of our cars over the past many years (2005 Impreza, 2006 RAV4, 2008 Infiniti G35x, 2017 WRX). I was going to get Michelin Premier A/S like on our Forester XT, but they didn't make it in the correct size for my WRX. As far as I can tell, the Continental perform just as well, but with better wear although worse noise.

I've had Blizzak on my previous 2004 STi and they wore out so fast but worked great, so I also used them on the Forester XT when it was my primary car. The General Arctic Altimax were good on snow and lasted long, but sucked on icy roads vs the Blizzak. A good compromise snow tire (balanced performance on dry, wet, snow, ice) has been the Yokahama Ice Guard, which seems to rank a close 3rd in tests vs the Blizzak and X-ice; but they have been a lot noisier than Blizzak or X-ice. We had the Ice Guard on our Subaru Tribeca, WRX, Forester XT, and Impreza Sport. But, as of this winter we now we have the X-ice on my WRX, the Forester XT my son drives, and the Grand Cherokee that my daughter drives. I sold the Yokahama from the WRX in January when I got the X-ice, but we kept a spare set for the Forester on 17" rims while the X-ice for Forester have to go on the same rims as the summer tires.

For performance, the Dunlop SuperSport that came with the WRX were very sticky and lasted, but were quite noisy. When the shop ripped the bead on two of them trying to remove them after 3 summers, I couldn't replace just one, and had 2 more years left in them, so the shop GAVE me new tires. I picked Michelin Pilot Sport 4s to replace them, but I had to pay the price difference between the Dunlop and Michelin (like $40/tire I think).

So, when it's all over I'll have the Pilot Sport 4s on the new gold BBS rims, the Continental all-seasons will stay on the refurbished painted gold BBS rims to use in April/May and October each year, and the X-ice will stay on the stock black OEM wheels for use in Nov-March.



The new rims have barely used Champiro WinterPro HP on them, but as a medium grade winter tire I'd probably use them as an all-season in spring and fall after I wear out the Continentals.

 

They look super clean. Yeah, I almost ended up with the Michelin but got a nice discount on a set of Goodyear which have been really nice. I rack up miles pretty quickly so the 80k mile warranty is nice.

The Continentals I bought last time were slipping on dry pavement the very day they were installed but I also moved for a job that day and didn't want to deal with a return and choosing a new set and having them installed blah blah blah... Utterly useless in the snow, shotty in the rain, and just lame on dry pavement. I believe they were the Conti Pro Contact variety.
Having since returned to Michigan I wasn't messing around with poor performance and made sure to select verifiably good tires for each season.

Problem is that my size is 235-45-R18 so they are expenyjust based on rarity alone. The shitty Continentals cost me north of $900 for a set. The Goodyear (after discount and rebate) ended up less than $600. Couldn't be happier with them.