mad082

yeah i am keen to get one for my car as well (in no rush though). i have had 2 cars with aftermarket systems fitted (by previous owners). one was good the other not so good. the second one was very jerky when it was activated. there would be a sudden surge when it activated then it would settle down. other than that it was fine. both systems were stalk type ones.

just make sure you set the bike up right. that will be the key to helping your knees. make sure the seat is high enough (want almost full leg extension when the pedal is at the lowest point), make sure the seat is positioned correctly so that when the crank arm is horizontal and your foot is on the front pedal the knob on the side of your knee lines up vertically with the pedal axle. also if you are putting it together (assume you will be), make sure you get the pedals done up tight. use a 15mm spanner with a piece of pipe on the end. they need to be done up tight. my proper pedal spanner is 14" long and i lean on it when doing up pedals. if you just use a normal spanner you won't get them tight enough and there is a good chance they will undo themselves, and then damage the thread in the crank. depending on how the bike comes in the box, you may be able to flip the headstem upside down to give you a fractionally higher handlebar height to give you a slightly more upright seating position. it only brings it about a cm or 2, but it can be enough to make it that little bit more comfortable. yeah they are good. not a bad price either.

+1 i've seen a 33 front bar on a commodore. brought a smile to my face. also the ease of fitting meant that a hsv front bar could be fitted to a 33. makes me wish i still had my 33 so i could put a commodore front bar on it to piss off all the people who think that skylines are the best car ever made, LOL.

ditch the gold ring.

in the r33's there isn't really any gts-t's that aren't type m (well there is 1 which is an auto sedan which is a type g or something like that). in the 32's the type m was a gts-t with bigger brakes and leather gear boot or something like that.

yeah i looked on there. a mate of mine always links me to stuff on umart, so i asked him for the site (couldn't remember it). similar price on there as to on msy. since i'm not getting one till gt5 comes out, i'm just going to see what bundles are around at the time. i have seen some good priced play tv + remote + console bundles around lately and if it is the cheapest way to go then i will get that. but it just depends on whether they bundle gt5 with a console and what price it is.

apollo vs giant, depends on individual model. in the past i've done a few comparisons and the giant might be fractionally better in 1 model and then the next model the apollo might be better. it's really just a case of comparing specs on the 2 models. as for resale, if you are buying second hand then i'd go the apollo. lower resale means you will get a better bike for less. sure it means that you will get less for it when you then resell it, but in the long run it will still work out to be better to buy the cheaper bike as the older bikes get the closer the resale gets. schleck would've done the exact same thing. and tangles, i was reading through the ebay add and found something that made me nearly fall off my chair. well actually 2 things. 1 was saying that the hasa frame was much better than the giant. 2 was saying that the alloy hasa forks were similar in quality to the carbon ones on the giant. carbon forks are much better than alloy forks, LOL. the 2010 giant is also only $1499 rrp, not $1800. $1800 was the 2009 model. also the cranks on the giant are a lot better. for the price it isn't a bad buy, but in the add they dribble a lot of shit, LOL. the whole carbon head thing puzzles me a bit. why did they bother to carve out a bit of the headtube to put a bit of carbon in? it will have saved bugger all weight and all it does is allow them to say it has a carbon head tube, when it doesn't. it has an alloy headtube with a carbon spacer. they also said that 7000 series alloy was better than 6000 series alloy, and that is only partially correct. if 6000 series alloy is heat treated (as most of it is) then it will be both stronger and lighter than 7000 series alloy that hasn't been treated. hell, big W bikes run 7000 series alloy but they use such a shit quality that the tubing is 4" thick and the bike weighs as much as a light truck. as i said, the bike is a decent buy, but i just get shit off with ebay advertising. most of those people missed their calling. they should be selling realestate or used cars.

i'm not 100% sure but i think the rear track on the GTR is wider, so just bolting on a set of GTR wheels isn't going to quite sit the same as they would on a GTR. you would more than likely need spacers. in all seriousness though, you are going to be looking at big money to get this done. as i said earlier, there is a lot of work involved, and the more i think about it, the more work it seems. just the paintwork alone will set you back a minimum of $1500 to $2000 and that's if they simply paint the rear quaters and blend it into the other panels (cheapest way to do it with the result being that it will be reasonably obvious that it has been resprayed). i'd say that the actual cutting of the guards and fitting the new ones will be another few thousand as well. the more i think about it the more i'm starting to think the price would be closer to 10k. if it was me doing it, i'd simply sell the car and buy a GTR. sure the cost might be a bit higher, but then you don't have the stuffing around and the chance that it could turn out looking like crap if 1 of the guards isn't put on straight, or if the panel bows a bit when it is welded.

as lotsalag said, won't be a boot issue. the boot is simply a rubber seal. i'd say it will either be an adjustment issue or a pivot bolt issue. i've seen a few skylines snap the pivot bolt (mine included). there is a small chance the that actual clutch fork is bent, but i doubt it unless you have a super heavy clutch.

if you just let the car idle in gear i'd say that it would be spinning a lot slower than a normal lathe. a timber lathe would be much more dangerous than doing it this way as you have a smaller, pointier tool and the lathe is spinning at a higher speed.

yeah gamescon is supposed to be when pretty much everything is revealed.

i don't think it will be 1st of nov. i think it will be later in the month. the US has nov 2 as their date, france (and therefore most of europe you would assume) has nov 24 as the reported date. i would expect us to be similar to europe. and i am well aware of what is in the collectors edition as i was the first person in this thread to list up what it comes with. you also left out that that it has a keyring and some bonus cars in the game. and as i also said earlier in the thread, it has been reported that there will be an ultimate edition that could be up around $400

yeah but half the roadies out there are unfit rich pricks who only ride them because it is the done thing. as for your frame being hand made in USA, it probably is, but the whole point about the chinese componentry is that so many brangs get ragged on because they are made in china, etc despite the fact that they are running all the same running gear and the frame may in fact be the same as the one that is "made" in taiwan. and a lot of high end carbon frames are made in china. even some of the european brands get their stuff out of china and then finish it in europe because to get them built in europe would cost them much much more and the quality can be the same, or lower than the chinese made stuff.

so i got an email through today with a sneak peak at some of the apollo bikes i will see at the show this weekend. some nice looking gear. full carbon roadbike at 6.4kg, nice dual suspension and a nice 29er. this got me thinking as to what factory they came from and what other brands come from that factory. the short answer, lots. also i found out something that i suspected all along. you will never look at a "made in taiwan" sticker the same again. in the bike industry the whole "made in ......." thing doesn't quite have the same truthfulness to it. if you look at most bikes made in taiwan you will see them covered in parts that say "made in china". now foods will say things like "made in australia from local and imported products". bikes don't though. a bike can be entirely made in china, but be painted and assembled (known as "value adding") in another country and it will be classed as being made in the second country. i of the biggest companies to do this is cannondale. while they do make some of their frames in america, they don't make all of them and some of them will come from china or taiwan.

was speaking to my mate at harvey norman yesterday. asked him about the release date. he said that all they have been told is that it will be november. no official date in november yet though. also no word on any of the collectors editions, etc. he said they don't normally get announced until 1 month before release.

+1 for s2. lack of ignitor pack is the first sign, also the TPS is a giveaway as well.

i had wondered about this. i'd had a very quick look around and hadn't really been able to find any bigger hard drives

as kinks said, just drive it gently until it has warmed up. no need to sit there idling it for 5 mins before driving off. run 98 octane fuel if it is anywhere near to 100,000kms get the timing belt changed if it hasn't been done never trust how many kms are on the odometer, there's a good chance it's been changed don't run an atmo bov change the oil and filter every 5000kms, and use either full synthetic or semi synthetic oil.

i'd hate to see that chassis on a jig. it would be all sorts of twisted, LOL. that thing is savage.

and make sure you have a good hold of the part or it will be a few metres away very quickly, LOL

you are best off using a plastic primer if you are doing it from a spray can. as for sanding, read what it says to do on the spray can. same goes for how long to wait between coats and going from primer to base coat.

for the loss of value of the car, that doesn't suprise me. you were lucky to get as high as 30k for last years agreed value. as for it only dropping $200, that also doesn't suprise me. the fact that you have had 2 speeding fines in the past few years will definately be putting your premium up by a few hundred dollars. even if they are only minor they can still add $100 or $200 onto the cost of insuring a car.

try starting the car with the TPS unplugged and then adjusting the idle and see if that lets you adjust the idle.

i checked it. paint code is correct. BP9. it has obviously had a respray that wasn't just a shut door respray (was done properly). as to what your current colour is is anyones guess. you are best off getting it colour matched as you said.

i'll take a guess at maybe $5000 to get it done by a shop. but i wouldn't be suprised if it is closer to $8000 or possibly much more. there would be quite a lot of work involved. cutting out the old guards, welding in the new ones, making sure there are no gaps on the inner guard, repainting. certainly the type of work that unless you really know what you are doing you could end up totally ruining the car.