jcannon profile

First day ever riding "downhill" with a full face helmet and crashed hard OTB within the first 10 minutes of the ride. Kept the helmet because of the mighty 6" gouge the rock left through the plastic in that helmet….. Day 1 lesson 1: Wear your helmet

So, let me play devil's advocate here. And I should preface this by saying that I subscribe to the theory that foreign investment is driving up Vancouver real estate as much as the next guy. However, with all the comments above, how do you think people raise kids in a major city such as London? They sure as hell don't do it in detached property with a white picket fence…
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Agreed that people have to put aside the single family detached home if they want to live in a major city. However they are saying now that to be above the living poverty line in Vancouver takes a couple both making $20+, that's insane. People are spending 60% or more of their wage on housing alone to stay within Metro Vancouver.

I should mention that my comment "feel good about raising your kids in a home instead of a condo" was not meant as a jab or looking down at people who do the latter. As Big Ted mentioned it's a reality to most people around the world that raising your kids in a condo is typical and there's nothing wrong with that. I was just implying that people in Vancouver seem to desire the white picket fence and big backyard which is quickly becoming unrealistic for most even as far as the valley.

I didn't get a vote in this plebiscite because I live in Chilliwack however I do work in Burnaby and could benefit from most transit improvements so I am disappointed that the No side won but not shocked by any means. It seemed the Yes side just did not present a case to the non-downtown communities and the only improvement items that did seem to make the news were ground level trams in Surrey and the Broadway corridor. One of which is required and the other is a pipe dream full of unknowns.

As for taking Westcoast in from the valley, the Mission station is 30 minutes from most of Abbotsford and then an hour and a half to downtown Vancouver plus whatever Skytrain or Bus route required to get where you're going. This is why people drive, until transit from the valley is faster than driving in yourself, or at least comparable, people are going to continue to drive. Highway 1 to the Carvolth exchange to Braid Station and then into Vancouver is the closest route to the time it takes driving yourself, you get the benefit of not driving half of the commute however it's 3forms of transportation twice a day.

Look at the vote breakdown. People who voted against the plan are overwhelmingly from the outer suburbs and not well-served served by transit and/or do not live, or work or go downtown very much. They see transit improvements as something that benefits people who already can already afford to live near downtown the most vis-a-vis the Broadway SkyTrain extension.

Exactly, the highways are getting busier because people can no longer afford to live in the metro Vancouver area and are being forced out to Surrey, Langley and further east. It's no coincidence that Surrey is the most rapidly growing community in Canada. It's comparatively cheap to live in a practical home to raise kids, it's still within driving distance (or transit distance) to your previous job somewhere in Vancouver and the developers and politicians are more than happy to increase density to accommodate all the people having to leave Vancouver.

The problem now is that there are only 4 Skytrain stations serving Surrey and all along the King George and Pattullo corridor. And Surrey is the BEST served outlying community as far as Metro Vancouver is concerned. People are pushing further out into the valley to Langley, Abbotsford and Chilliwack where townhouse development boomed over the past 10 years and you can feel good about raising your kids in a home instead of a condo.

The fact that people have had to leave Vancouver to maintain any form of acceptable lifestyle has been completely missed by the people calling the shots with transit improvements etc. If you want to come from Abbotsford into downtown Vancouver to work a 9-5 job you're looking at a 30 minute drive to Carvolth exchange, 20 minute bus to a Skytrain station in Coquitlam and then a 30 minute train ride into downtown Vancouver. You have to change modes of transportation twice each direction, pay $4 to park at the park and ride and then pay your way on transit.

Now you have people who are already upset about having to move further from 1/3 of their lives, their job, and have no accessible transit in these areas, then give them the opportunity to decide if more money needs to be given to the managing company who has been crucified by the media for the past year….. go figure the outlying areas voted no, they're pissed off and they haven't been presented with a plan that would benefit them for another 10 years or more.

I understand the argument that increasing transit service in the Metro Vancouver area will remove X number of cars from the road and reduce congestion for those people who still have to drive. However, with no scientific proof to back this statement, I'm convinced that at least 40% of the congestion in Vancouver is now people coming from Surrey, Langley, Abbotsford and further. If you get on Highway 1, 17, 91 or 99 after 6am on a weekday or try to cross a bridge other than the 10 lane Port Mann just try to argue that.

Actually if anyone has access to the number of people commuting into Vancouver now I'd love to see it. I am one of them and have watched the traffic congestion specifically on Highway 1 seemingly double in the last 5-6 years.

Thank you to the FVMBA for building the new bi-directional beginner trail on Vedder. Beautiful climb up to mid mountain instead of having to use the access road.

KO2s are just an updated KO. New sholder lugs and new price. Both come in C,D and E rating. AFAIK BFG is only making KO2s now, stock of KOs is still available. They are a very popular tire but there are better tires for a comparable price. The Cooper Discoverer A/T3, GT Radial AT, Hercules TerraTrac R/S, General Grabber AT2.

I would only put a D or E rated tire on a light truck or SUV that is taken off paved roads. I have seen plenty of trucks with flats running a C rated tire.

The KO2 is winter rated, the KO is just M/S. Also the C load rated KO2s are not available in a lot of common light truck sizes.

Shogun, did you fix your boost leak issue ? What about cutting the CAI back to unbent material and using a silicone coupler to make up the space. You can even get reducing couplers since your CAI and turbo inlet are probably different diameters.

Went through the same process 4 years ago with new vehicles so probably the same vehicles you'll be looking at now.

Looked at the Acadia, Flex, Explorer, Durango, 4Runner, Chevy Tahoe and the like, Nissan Pathfinder, Armada, Toyota Sequoia and finally settled with an Xterra Pro-4X.

We did have the requirement of it being a capable off-road vehicle to get us up into the mountains on a weekly basis which it has done extremely well. Loads of power and torque for towing, nicely appointed interior in cloth with excellent sound system. Spray out interior plastics if you are outdoorsy and comes preinstalled with a roof rack, junk box, off road lights, fogs etc.

Back seats can be hard to get into similar to Jeeps and such as the rear door is cut over the wheel well, however the back seats have tons of room, no third row but the hatch in plenty big for carting around a kids worth of stuff and things.

I would recommend as it has proven extremely capable and handy for daily trips with a young child (only 1 mind you) and plenty big for 4 adults plus 1 child on 5hr plus trips north. Was undoubtedly the best bang for the buck at the time without feeling like a minivan like the Acadia, Pathfinder, Armada etc. feel like inside.

Also we started out looking for used similar to you but came across the 0% financing and settled on buying new off the lot, worked out cheaper than financing a used car.

My 2 cents, good luck looking……

Ok so I have a 56cm Cannondale Road Bike that was given to me when I decided to train for the Ride to Conquer Cancer a few years ago. It never quite fit me right and I've since lost interest in road biking.

The bike is a 2002-ish CAAD 5SI in Saeco colours. I'd like to pass it on to someone who is hurting for a bike and either can't afford one or could just put this one to good use.

If your interested contact me on here.

Thanks

James

+1 for boardroom. West 4th and the clearance room under the Lonsdale location will have clearance boards too, Seabus and bus up to around 17th I think. Plus they carry Endeavour gear, good local builder. Get him over to Intuition in Vancouver for a boot fit before you go too.

https://intuitionliners.com/contact/

Paying full price for new gear is silly, hit up all the clearance sections and buy last years stuff, maybe even ask if the shops have sample gear on sale, usually half price or better.

If you decide to pursue the TDI idea shoot me a PM and I can try to provide you with a list of what to look at when inspecting used ones. Try to stay within the 2001 - 2003 range as this is the ALH engine and 2004 was the change to the PD which tend to have camshaft issues. Stay away from the automatic if at all possible and get all the service records of anything you look at. Timing belt, turbo vane actuator and EGR system are all critical items that need to be kept up on to ensure they don't take out other parts of the engines.

If you're planning to spend a lot of time on the highway running to Cypress, Seymour or the valley a TDI would be great however if you will be driving it in town a lot with plenty of starts and stops you might want to consider other options as you won't see the same savings and will just carbon up the diesel engine.