Somehow I survived our trip to Woodward. Even got the (not so) old Haro FST off the ground in various places around the park. Pulled a few X-ups over the small box ramps, that sort of thing. John did great as well — he was very brave about the various obstacles and he actually jumped off the top of the 12 foot resi ramp, sliding all the way to halfway up the other side.
The only injury either of us sustained: I fell on some ice outdoors and cracked my head pretty hard, after the parks were closed. Makes sense; I’ve never left Woodward uninjured. And my back hurts so much I can’t stand or walk without pain. It was too bad to sleep after the first day but I wasn’t gonna not ride just because of that. So now it’s much worse. So what.
Click the jump to see what Bark and I wrote last week, hurting nothing but a few feelings along the way.
Brother Bark recommended a sedan and slapped Ford on the wrist.
At R&T, I sobbed over the loss of Victory motorcycles and wondered why anybody would even enter the car business.
For TTAC, I took a sociological look at the Honda Odyssey, told a tale of witnessing an intervention, and asked the readers how they’d choose a “quickest vehicle”.
That’s all, folks!
Ice is your friend! Alternating with a warm pack.
It would have been more fun if you’d made recommendations on the quickiest vehicle. Hopefully at some point Motortrend will invent a brand new metric so the 0-60, 60-100, and quarter mile camps can join hands in hating it.
I really liked the Odyssey piece, and it brought some interesting discussion in the comments about various societal changes that have increased the ‘value’ of children in certain ways.
But it hit sort of close to home (I own an Odyssey and am upper-middle class), and I think you were a little unfair in one respect: the alternative conveyance to the Odyssey is undoubtedly a large SUV/CUV that is ridiculously more expensive, less fuel efficient, less practical and more ostentatious, and also includes all the creature comforts / pampering of the Odyssey. Which would you rather they owned? There is always a bit of humility that comes from driving a minivan, no matter how well appointed.
Also, this idea of the Odyssey where parents can cocoon their children so they don’t have to talk to them at odds with the idea of helicopter parenting? The parents who are always hovering over their children, trying to turn them into the perfect specimens of late American republic mandarins? This seems more the type of this purported cohort.
My children (who are 4 years old) shriek at me from the backseat of my 230. Driving an Odyssey would be much quieter.
I ignore my children, as all good parents do, but I don’t have the right equipment to cocoon them-so they are noisy and skiing. Conversely, a helicopter parent can’t serve his imperial child while driving, and therefore needs to delegate his duty to the vehicle itself.
All good points. Of course I favor the Odyssey over something like a Toyota Sequoia for all the obvious reasons.
The question is what it means when we have all these parents deliberately isolating themselves from their kids. And it’s not necessarily contradictory for the helicopter parents to avoid their kids in the car. Helicopter parents like well-planned, thoroughly structured interactions and choices. Driving around with your kid, talking about whatever comes to mind, is the opposite of that.
The LeSabre was better than the Aurora.
HERESY!
Long live the 3800!
Ack, no way. I still mourn the death of Oldsmobile. I thought they really had a nice suite of products just in time to die. Sad!
Though I have to admit my admiration for the Aurora didn’t stretch quite to the point of actually buying one, I was close.
Jack, I want to preface this comment with the statement that I enjoy reading what you have to write. Although I occasionally disagree with the opinions you present, I always appreciate the fact that you seem to be a smart person who has taken the time to subject his opinions and biases to a logical examination. With that said, this week you wrote something so vile, backward and repugnant that I felt I had to comment. In your R&T article on Victory, you wrote the following:
“You can’t tell me that the Regal was superior to the Intrigue”
On behalf of all former and current Regal owners, I am compelled to take you to task for suggesting that a rational person would chose the flaccid, brittle “Shortstar” over the mighty supercharged thrust of the Regal GS!
Sir, I accept your rebuke.
To me, the perfect GM G-body would have combined the Regal’s mighty blown 3800 with the Intrigue’s sleek styling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efiW2K8gASM
That darned black ice got me 13 years ago. Laid me out, broke my wrist, and stole my wallet. Be careful out there.
the Victory piece goes hand-in-hand with your earlier article here: http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a30324/the-case-for-the-four-wheeled-motorcycle/
Harley basically sells you the two-wheeled equivalent of a 1970 Charger 440. Looks for all the world like the Shovelheads they were selling in the ’70s, but doesn’t leak oil, starts every time, and can stop a lot faster. Indian takes that a step further and gives you a modernized two-wheeled equivalent of a ’57 Chevy Bel Air.
Victory? Victory seemed to be offering the equivalent of that Challenger “Shakedown” concept at SEMA and NAIAS 2017. It looks like a ’70 Challenger, but with a lot of modern styling touches and just looks like a tryhard. And the problem is that you could get the same thing from Yamaha, Honda, and Kawasaki.
what’s definitely true is that both Polaris and Harley are going to be up a creek once their current customer base dies off, unless they can move the needle and start putting out other kinds of bikes and convincing people to buy them.