Glory, Glory, I finally drove the Bus to work today! After sitting,
desponant in the cruelwinter and spring weather, I drove to work 
today. All sounded good, and the front wheels have stopped their
'whine' now that they are both packed with new bearings on the
passenger side. (aside: is it OK to mix a new bearing with an
old bearing race? The race looked fine, no pits or scratches)

It was quite a feeling, sitting high above the crowd, my butt
banging against the seat frame every time I hit a bump. (gotta
get some padding in there!) I think my greatest pleasure is
putting my arm on the window sill and just staring out at the world.
No other car has a window sill that is so comfortable, it is
placed JUST RIGHT.

I do now understand what people mean when they say 'flat spot'
when talking about 34PICT3s and 009s. I now have to double-pump
the gas when taking off from dead. I also have to watch my foot
at the RPMs get above 1200, because the torque comes on like
gangbusters then, giving me whiplash. In a bus. filled with 
two bikes, two full backpacks, two spare engines, and a 100 lb
toolbox. My poor rear tortion bars.

Well, anyway, it felt good, real good.

--- Chris Chubb (cchubb@ida.org)
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