The Cub made it to the BBC!

The BBC called me up a week or so ago and asked me to chat about unemployed people in New York reinventing themselves.  Perfect, right?  So we wound up doing a short film about the Honda Cub, a 100mpg step-through motorcycle which is the most-produced vehicle in the entire history of the world.

Here's a link to a Wired article about the 60 millionth cub being sold, and here's a little video about what makes it so great.  Don't know why they tried to wreck it though--  seems to me to be in poor taste.

The Unemployment Olympics were a great success!

I lost my job in February after nearly three years at a computer firm in downtown Manhattan- It was liberating-- I walked out and into a chilly day holding a big bag off stuff, but the day felt fresher, and I knew that many adventures were ahead. That night, or the next day, I wondered aloud to a friend about how great it would be to be able to compete in athletic events to win prizes--"The Unemployment Olympics", I would call it.

A few weeks later I decided to create and host the Olympics. I applied for a permit at New York's Parks and Recreation office, and submitted an event listing to Time Out.  I put out a press release, and FOX NEWS called and asked if I'd come on their show. It was a huge thrill-- you can check out the bit here-

A whirlwind of making stuff, getting more donations, planning events, responding to the RSVP'ers, and just generally freaking out later...

And check out how it turned out! Everyone had a ball, and it got news coverage from LA to Montreal, Australia and Shanghai--

New York Times
Gothamist

Cup of Jo

Here is some video from the New York Post and The Associated Press...

Fiesta movement winners being picked-

Ford has been contacting the agents of the Fiesta Movement for the past few days-- If you want to see a list of those chosen so far, check out this thread at focaljet.

I spoke with Leslie today from Ogilvy PR in Manhattan, and she confirmed that there are still a few agents who have not yet been contacted/selected. Check out this video below (and my Fiesta Movement video posted 3/25) and keep your fingers crossed that I am one of the remaining few to be contacted...

BBC motorcycle ad-

I've gotta say, this ad Think Bike made in England is pretty spooky. Watch it, and look out for us motorcyclists when you're looping around in your car.

Ford's Fiesta is storming the internet

Ford is holding a contest where people can win an unreleased car (in this case a 2011 Fiesta) and roll around in it for six months. I made a video two days ago for the contest--



I hope you liked it.

So good it Hertz

Ford used to own Hertz, and they did a special deal in the 60's where Shelby tuned some Mustangs and created the Hertz Rent-a-Racer program. Well, they've done it again. This is old news, apparently, as the deal has been going on for over a year.

Anyway, there was a AMA supermoto race in Stafford Springs, CT, and we needed to rent a car to get there. After a quick look through the various rental car sites, it seemed that a $69/day Ford Fusion was going to be the day's chariot. There's nothing wrong with a Fusion, but renting it would ensure highlight of the day was the time spent spectating at the racetrack.

Then something halfway down the Hertz list caught my eye. A black and gold Shelby Mustang convertible.

Sadly, the Mustang was all sold out in Manhattan for Sunday. I called Hertz in New Jersey, and they only had V6 Mustangs. I booked an inexpensive Fusion from Avis and went to bed, after reading a series of glowing reviews of the Hertz, both from magazines and from lucky bloggers who found one to rent--there are only 500 of them, and they are only available in a handful of locations, mainly on the coast.

The next day, I looked again, and BAM, there it was, fairly jumping off the page at me. Some fool had cancelled his reservation for my Mustang--even if I weren't obsessed with the idea, I'd defy anyone from resisting the opportunity to rent the top car- I mean, come on, it only costs $70 more! (actually, mine was a bit more than that, plus .26/mile over 100 miles).

It was difficult to concentrate Saturday night, and I a bit aloof at the party I attended--the whole time I was looking forward to squeezing the throttle and hearing the hollow warble of the big V8 with the wind in my hair. Thankfully, I turned 25 last month, so someone thinks I'm responsible enough to bring the beast back in one piece.

This was all still unknown to Sarah Wilson, who wouldn't share my enthusiasm about "what an awesome day this is going to be" as we ate bagels. Little did she know I had a fire-breathing Mustang lined up just minutes into the future. On second thought, that probably wouldn't get her as riled up as it would me.

We walked into the Hertz, just 2 blocks from Sarah Wilson's apartment, and to my great surprise there were Hertz Mustangs in every corner of the garage. I fired ours up and coaxed the beast onto the street, picked up Sarah Wilson, and roared onto the FDR.

Even before we got there, however, a Jeep wanted to race. Once on the FDR, a tinted Explorer window rolled down, and an approving face looked out. This was the first sign that the Hertz Mustang is dear to the American heart. But man, would it continue throughout the day. People LOVED it.

I had expected it to make a great noise, spin the tires, and put a big smile on my face. And did it ever, on all three counts. I'd drive through tunnels at full throttle, the nose would lift and the tail would squat down.

There was the 10 year-old kid smiling as I did a huge smoky burnout right in front of his house, who gleefully exclaimed "it's coming back" as I looped around to pick up Sarah Wilson before we fled the scene.

There was the guy at Starbucks, who demanded I pop the hood so he could check out the motor, and it looked pretty clear that he was going to head to Hertz and try one out for himself.

And the lady whose just-past-infancy pointed and said "momma, what's that?" "that's a Shelby darlin'.

When I arrived at the motorcycle race, I had a few long conversations about the car that ended with the guys saying "well God bless you man, have fun in that thing."

On the way out, some kids yelled "light 'em up Mustang!" and I obliged, and soon did it again when I heard "do it again!" from someone else.


I stopped to pee on the high way at night, and just for fun brake-torqued it and slithered off in a cloud of smoke. I passed a car a minute or two later who gave me a big thumbs up.

But the best bit was when we were on the way back into Manhattan, we took a wrong turn in Harlem and wound up pulling up to a stoplight next to another Mustang convertible with 3 fairly aggressive looking characters in it. "Oooh, a Shelby, go easy on me!" At the next light the driver said "how many cylinders does that thing have? 68?" and the passenger offered me some hennessy.

There hasn't been a day since when I haven't thought about excuses to rent one again.

Slow Bikes – A Tour de France Special on Slipstreaming

Every July, skinny men on colourful bicycles pedal up mountains in the Tour de France. The riders average over a hundred miles per day for three weeks. How do they do it? Fitness and technology are only part of the story; no rider could be competitive without the invisible boost of the slipstream – the same effect used in NASCAR and by dicing GP racers like Gibernau and Rossi.

At 25mph, roughly 90% of a cyclist’s effort goes into moving air out of his way. Slipstreaming cuts that figure dramatically. In a pack, all but the front row of riders feel the benefit of the draft (there's very slightly more to it than that, and it involves vacuum--the first riders get a tiny benefit from the people behind them), so they take turns slipstreaming to conserve energy. This energy-saving teamwork is the reason a group of riders can catch a solo breakaway with relative ease.

Want to feel the spooky calm of the draft? Get hold of a racing bike and find a bus route along a 30mph street – you’re going to draft a bus. Ride along the route until you pass a stationary bus, then shift into a big gear and accelerate hard as the bus pulls away. Once it passes you, check there are no cars and then duck in behind it, maintaining a distance of 5-10 feet. You should hardly have to pedal, and the wind will disappear. Cover the brakes in case the bus begins to slow.

It is much easier to ride a hundred miles a day if you barely have to pedal. Indeed, a pro rider generates less than 1bhp. So if you cannot arrange the suggested thrills, fear not. Hop on a Fireblade and you’ll be sitting on more power than is in the entire Tour de France peloton.

Runup to Torque

Here is an article I recently submitted to The Truth About Cars. It's about the second-coming of diesel cars in America, and how manufacturers could better their diesel lineups and grab a larger slice of the market from hybrids and gasoline-powered cars.
(That GTO isn't a diesel)


Runup to Torque – the New Diesels

23 May 2007

This is going to be a bad year for US diesel passenger-car sales. Few diesel models have been on sale for the past few years, and they are now scarcer still. Besides trucks, today’s 45-state shopper can choose among only a Grand Cherokee, Volkswagen’s Touareg, and a couple of Benzes. But manufacturers are readying models with new exhaust filtration systems that bring many more oil-burners into compliance with the strict new Tier 2 Bin 5 emissions standards all 2007-and-beyond passenger cars must meet. High-sulfur diesel can damage the exhaust technology, but the nation’s 76,000 diesel stations will soon complete the switch to ultra-low sulfur. By ’08, a host of manufacturers—Mercedes, Jeep, Subaru, Audi, VW, and BMW—will be ready to unleash a bevy of 50-state diesels.

This should be great news for driving enthusiasts. People in the know have long championed the performance and economy of diesels. Though they generally don’t cope well with the way people think they drive (blasting from 0-60 and redlining through the gears), they do a terrific job with how people actually drive (squirting from 30-70 mph, shortshifting at wide-throttle openings). Unfortunately, all the exciting diesels are staying in Europe.

That’s going to hamper US diesel sales; the low gas (and diesel) prices we enjoy here mean it will take longer for a buyer to recoup the higher initial cost of a diesel, so the motivation for choosing one will be less financial and more emotional. For diesels to make it in the land of Mustangs and Magnums, they will need to be cool.

Regrettably, manufacturers’ proposed diesel lineups are bland. They’re not bringing us much more than an Audi Q7 TDi, a Mercedes R320 Bluetec, and a BMW 530d. Buyers who wait until 2010 can also opt for diesel Maximas and Accords—and will remain bored. People who buy any of these probably haven’t floored a car in 30 years, and the cars themselves aren’t going to win any outright mileage competitions (read: headlines) against a Prius. Significantly, this demographic is also old enough to remember the last time diesels were big in the US—the slow, smelly, truck-like diesels of 20 years ago.

Surely the younger generation would be better suited to starting a diesel bandwagon. Fun-loving, image-conscious youngsters would get jazzed about a sporty option, such as BMW’s 155mph 335d, and would relish eco-hooning around in a runabout like Smart’s 60mpg fortwo diesel (both on sale in Europe). Fighting at those performance extremes is critical; the US market is unique in having had hybrid powertrains become mainstream before diesels, and so diesels will have to take the fight to both gas and hybrid. They can do it—a sporty diesel will trounce its petrol equivalent on torque and economy; a frugal one can school hybrids on weight and brake feel, and have proven longevity. Now back to the coolness factor.

Audi could have made progress on this. In 2006, their badass V12 diesel R10 won Le Mans outright on its maiden outing, a decidedly awesome maneuver. Then, they released the R8 supercar AND devised a 500bhp, V12 diesel cauldron that could serve up a Newton-kilometer of torque. And then wedged the motor into a lumbering concept SUV, the Q7 V12 TDI. Whoops—a diesel R8 concept would have made a good many knees weak over an oil-burner for the first time.

Audi are not going to bring athletic diesels to the showroom either. We’ll get a 3-liter Q7, but not the new A5 3.0 TDi that competes against BMW’s 335d in Europe. Those are two cars people would talk about. Autocar said of the 335d (which has 428lb-ft):

It’ll rev in a very undiesel-like way – a pleasant attribute, but not particularly relevant. The engine’s real weapon is the sledgehammer effect of all that torque through the mid-range and the hushed manner in which it is delivered. The turbo petrol 335i would ultimately be faster, but in a real-world test the diesel is easier to drive quickly, whether intentionally or by accident.

Sounds awesome. So why will the manufacturers bring us only reserved, upmarket cars? It’s partially because the higher production cost of a diesel engine, when combined with the expensive systems needed for a diesel to comply with the new emissions standards, will raise the price of a car by a fairly fixed amount, and it’s easier to slap a fixed premium onto a $35k+ car than one costing $15k. They may also be basing their sales predictions on data from Europe, which, as stated above, employs dissimilar purchase metrics.
JD Power predicts—and manufacturers hope—that diesel’s US market penetration will quadruple to 15% by 2015. Consumers are interested and the technology is nearly here. But to hit that goal, America needs the most interesting diesels from Europe, and soon.

Masculin products

Taking a cue from my sister, there is going to be a theme this week: Masculin products. This doesn't mean they're masculin in themselves, like an older Bentley, it means that they are products for a man. They stand-out with subtlety and boast frillless performance. They are products marketers hope you forget, in hope that you might buy the latest.

Tonight, we’re going to take a look at Gillette Foamy Regular. Later on we’ll touch pickup trucks, raincoats, bikes, and magazines. Sports cars as well. Maybe sports car drivers.

Gillette Foamy Regular. Gillette’s most generic shaving cream—it doesn’t have Vitamin E, or Advanced Gel, and it isn’t for Sensitive Skin. It’s just fluffy and white—pure shaving cream. And we don’t have Barbasol in the US, so men have to use Foamy Regular.

Contrast that to Gillette’s Edge Advanced Shaving Gel, Extra Skin Protection. Just read:

From drugstore.com:

Sometimes you're cool and contained. But other times it feels good to get into a real lather. Edge Pro Gel is dispensed as a gel, but oh, baby, look what happens when you rub it onto your face. It lathers right up for a sinfully luxurious shave. Extra lubricants allow your razor to simply glide across your face, making it especially nice for guys with sensitive skin.

But if you aren’t quite ready to leap to Regular from Jack Black’s Face Buff, or your girlfriend isn’t ready to switch from her Satin Care, Gillette’s Foamy Lemon / Lime can ease the transition.

New York City is the "greenest" place in the US

I used to think that cities were filthy, dirty places that consumed vast quantities of resources. The thing is though, they house vaster quantities of people--and consume less resources per capita than rural areas (apologies for the goofy font choices).

The Herald Tribune agrees:

"The old paradigm of the pollution-filled city as a blight on the landscape and the leafy-green suburbs as the ideal is outdated and does not lead us to a future of energy independence, clean air and a stable climate. Cities are the best hope to realize our need for a bright, sustainable, and promising future.

New York City, for example, is the most energy efficient place in America. Yes, it houses 8.2 million citizens and uses an enormous amount of energy to do so. Its electrical load, more than 12,000 megawatts, is as large as all of Massachusetts. Yet because the buildings are dense and thus more efficiently heated and cooled, and because 85 percent of all trips in Manhattan are on foot, bike or transit, New York City uses dramatically less energy to serve each of its citizens than does a state like Massachusetts. Indeed, it uses less energy, on a per capita basis, than any state in America."

There's some pretty heavy red-taping going on when you compare a 20-some square mile island to spread-out states, but the article is still worth a read..

Ferrari and Shell

Okay, I must admit that I am absolutely speechless at how cool this Shell ad is. I'll let it speak for itself.



Edit: The above link is down. see it on youtube (albeit in lower quality).

Passenger-miles per gallon

This is what's been on my mind lately: Passenger miles per gallon.

A cyclist gets 600mpg, and a person driving a car gets 40mpg. Well, what about with 2 people? Lets say a car gets 40mpg. With one person in the car, that's 40 passenger-miles per gallon. With two people in the car, it would achieve 80 passenger-miles per gallon (move two people 40 miles with one gallon). Four-up, it would get 160 passenger-miles per gallon (4*40mpg). More on the bike later.

This concept is especially important when calculating the environmental impact per person of mass transit. A bus, which gets an abysimmal 4mpg, gets 160 passenger miles per gallon with 40 passengers on board (40*4mpg). The trouble is, if a bus holds 40 people, and you want to move 41 people, you need two buses. you double the amount of fuel consumed to move that extra more person, and the passenger-miles per gallon of the convoy comes down to 81. (from: 41 passengers*(4mpg)2 vehicles)

A 75% full 747 might get 30 passenger-miles per gallon, and a cruise ship gets about 10-passenger miles per gallon.

So what about a bike. I got 633 miles per gallon, but what if two people go on a bike ride. It takes twice as much energy for two people to ride bikes, but they get twice as many "passenger-miles." So the efficiency stays the same. So whether one person rides to work, or everyone rides to work, each person is getting 600 passenger-miles per gallon [ 2*(600 mpg / 2 vehicles) ]. And you don't have to go in the same direction as anyone else!

I saw a guy with a kid in a child seat on the back of his bike on my way to work this morning and thought, holy crap, (approx.) 1200 passenger miles per gallon!