欧州自転車レース追っかけ日記

Water (H2O) freezes at 0 degree Celsius = 32 F

Here in Luxembourg and most of Europe is freezing for the moment. It has been like we have been living inside a refrigerator for the last three weeks (or more?). I have been driving my Mazda MX-5 with the soft top open whenever I can even with those freezing temperatures. It is fun.

Just a couple days ago at night (22:20) I had a chat with the driver who pulled over next to me at a red traffic light. He was curious what I was doing. He asked if the roof had been broken. I said it was OK. The temperature at that time of this incident was around -6 C (21 F) so I understood his concerns.



Yesterday I went to a French self car wash (I was working at a place near the border) and did what I had been wanting to do. Rinse off the salt (that the local orange trucks belonging to the local cities had been scattering on the street since the beginning of this cold weather streak).

Since we have not had a snowfall or rain of any significant amount for two or three weeks but the roads are almost dry but they keep scattering the salt just in case (of ice forming on the road surface), the roads are covered with fine grain of salt smashed by the tires.

Whenever you drive, the chances are your car get dusty with fine white particles of salt mixed with fine grain of mud and sand.

I wanted to wash those off my MX-5, particularly from underneath the car. So I went to this "Elephant Bleu" a chain of self car wash spots.

I spent €2 to work them off. It was a fine day with some nice stretch of blue sky but the temperature was -4 C (= 27 F). The water gun provided what felt like warm water of probably 20 C but moments later out of the washing booth, the remaining water on the car began to freeze in the shade. I had to move to a sunny spot soon later to dry the car.

Later Yesterday I drove home using a highway with the top open. I did not speed but kept the speed between 90 to 100 km/h (55 to 60). The temperature dropped to -8 (17 F) by then. I enjoyed the drive immensely although the soft top felt heavy and cumbersome when I tried to fold it (as the moisture inside the top was undoubtedly frozen).

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Washing a car under a cold climate]の続きを読む

テーマ:愛車と日常 - ジャンル:車・バイク

1. 2018/02/28(水) 14:13:21|
2. Mazda MX-5
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A pay time

A short while ago I got a letter from my car insurance company (Bâloise Assurances). It contained a green paper document (a document that says my MX-5 is insured for another year) and an inevitable bill to pay.

So I filled out the paper and signed it with the date and then dropped the slip in the deposit box at one of the branches of my bank.

You can ask your agent to make a bill to your need. Some people want to pay it monthly and some yearly. I pay it once a year because I don't want to be bothered by the bills every month and in this way I pay a bit less.

The amount that I had to pay was almost 150 % of what I used to pay for my old Ford Ka. Mazda MX-5 is a lot expensive than a Ford Ka to buy, thus it costs more to insure.

H&R's HR B6024541 arrived Today

I got it. I opened the box and noticed something immediately. The nuts (that came with HR B6024541) are deeper (or longer) than those that came with its sibling product HR B5024541.

Now I want to get a torque wrench to make a secure installation of these spacers. I am going to get one of those torque wrenches sold on the Amazon Germany.

I want to take some pictures of these and post them here.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Car insurance payment and a torque wrench]の続きを読む

テーマ:愛車と日常 - ジャンル:車・バイク

1. 2018/02/22(木) 01:43:06|
2. Mazda MX-5
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HR B6024541

I have a set of HR B5024541 with me, which I bought through Amazon (Germany) a while ago. They were at that time on a kind of unspecified sale and they (a pair) cost me only €70 and some. They are usually sold around €90 to €110 on Amazon (Germany). I don't know why they were so cheaper than usual.

I bought a pair as I had already written above. I knew that I needed two pairs for my MX-5 under normal conditions (front and rear). I wish I could buy two pairs but I could not as they (a pair) were the last one in stock at that time.

Since then, I have been keeping my eyes on them for another pair.

I also have kept my eyes on HR B6024541, a sibling of the one I bought. As the name suggests they are 30 mm thick. So the part of the name "60" stands for 60 mm extender par axle.

I was expecting to see the price of HR B5024541 drop as they (prices from various sellers and Amazon itself) fluctuate on a daily basis. They have been (fluctuating) but not so drastically. They were as low as around €89 or so during the last two months.

So when I saw HR B6024541 sold at a bit lower than €85, I could not help clicking the purchase button. That is what happened.

So these 30 mm thick wheel spacers will be installed on the rear axle.

I have written an entry about my HR (B)5024541 halfway but have not finished it (thus not made public). It is about the difference between H&R's products and the ones sold by IL Motorsports (in Germany). First I thought that they were identical but it turned out that I had been wrong.

I will take some pictures of the ones that I have bought and try to finish the entry with more details.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [H&R B6024541 are coming to me]の続きを読む

テーマ:愛車と日常 - ジャンル:車・バイク

1. 2018/02/19(月) 23:34:16|
2. Mazda MX-5
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Here are some screenshot clips! Please click on them to magnify!



As soon as I launched Mazda Toolbox on my MacBook Pro (mid 2010) after inserting the SD card from my MX-5 and connecting to the Net, a window came up. I scrolled down to the end to find that it gently encouraged me to extend the subscription for the Connected Services." Initial 3-month free-of-charge trial period had been expired months ago. I don't intend to extend it. It is a very expensive subscription service and I get no much.

And the worst thing about it is that the fees related to connecting to the Net is totally on me.




I can update the map data for the next 2 years and half because the subscription fees are included in the car purchase payment.




The downloading phase is over and the writing to the SC card process is on. It is relatively slow.



Now the map data on the SD card is up-to-date!

The next stop is updating the map data on my Garmin nüvi and on the Garmin BaseCamp.

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [Mazda Toolbox - Map Update December 2017]の続きを読む

テーマ:愛車と日常 - ジャンル:車・バイク

1. 2018/02/07(水) 23:50:51|
2. Mazda MX-5
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I tanked on February 2nd (Friday). As always (as a kind of ceremonial gesture), I purchased the premium gas, which is rated 98 octane.

I drove since January 1st (2018) 572 km. It required 34.84 litters to fill the tank. It cost me €43.65. The gas prices have been raised since the last time and now it cost €1.253 per litter.

I drove on cold wet roads mostly around the town and around 100 km on the highway.

The milage I got was 16.42 km per litter, which translates into 6.1 litters for every 100 km.

Can you tell how many miles my MX-5 run per gallon? Here are the constants!

1 gallon = 3,78(54118) litters
1 mile = 1.6 km

Let's see.
572 km = 358 miles.
34.84 litters = 9.22 gallons

358/9.22 = 38.83 miles per gallon

In Japanese: 続きをどうぞ [How many miles has my MX-5 done lately?]の続きを読む

テーマ:愛車と日常 - ジャンル:車・バイク

1. 2018/02/05(月) 00:18:30|
2. Mazda MX-5
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