Musings about the (sole) downside of the long wheelbase of the Clem Smith Jr

[Jim Bronson]

I have owned my 65cm Clem for 8 years now, and I have run into the first downside of the extra long wheelbase after 8 years of mostly happy riding.

I recently changed out vehicles after my former ICE vehicle chunked it's transmission, I now have a 2024 F150 Lightning that I have leased for, let's say less than I thought could ever be possible for any EV.  The only EV things that were cheaper to lease were things that I could not live with because well I'm 6'7" and I'm not getting a Hyundai Kona ever.  I liked the ID.4, but I know those things are hardly selling and the dealer acted like he was doing a favor by taking off the superfluous paint coatings and letting me buy it at sticker.  I found some single pay leases on Blazer EVs that were pretty attractive, but I wasn't sure how I was going to come up with $6K all at once other than borrow most of it.  The unmentionable brand starting with a T was not considered.  So huge EV truck, it is.  Only the first very low payment due at signing and give it back at the end of the lease for $399 disposition fee, fine.

Anyway....

I haven't had a full sized truck since the 00s as I've been trying to lower my environmental footprint, but back then I could fold up the back seat of my crew cab and roll my Rivendell Custom into the back seat with the wheel turned to the side.  And fit another smaller bike facing the other direction.

The cab on my Lightning is even more cavernous than my Nissan Titan I had back in the day which was pretty big in it's own right.  So when I folded up the back seats this morning, I figured it would be no problem getting my Clem in the back in the manner that I used to back in the day, for my 3 mode commute, i.e., car, train, bike.  But it was not to be.  I could not get the doors to close, even after I took the front wheel off!  It's just too long.  And I wasn't about to take the back wheel off and expose the interior of my clean new truck to my dirty drivetrain.

Worse, after I struggled with it for a while, I realized I was too late leaving the house to make the 7:30 train, so I had to drive all the way to the office, whereas normally I'd only spend about 15 minutes in the car, it was over an hour.  There's not another train until 8:00, and that wouldn't have gotten me to the office by 8:30.

I suppose the casual reader might be thinking, well, why didn't you throw it in the back?  The answer to that would be that I have a bare painted bed without any sort of bed liner or bed mat, and being that this truck is a lease, don't want to scratch up the bed and be liable for paintwork at the end of the lease.  Another reason is, it's a 5.5 foot bed and I'm not sure just how well my very large Clem will fit back there either.  I did go ahead and purchase a bed mat from the jungle river site, we'll see how well that works out.

I guess next time I'll just have to take my Custom.  There are worse problems to have.

Jim

Austin suburbs, TX

[J-D Bamford]

They probably still make those cross-bed bars which pressure-fit into place and have fork mounts. Then just put your front wheel loose in the back seat/footwell. Will be interested to hear your long term impressions of the F150 Lightning.

We flirted with an ID.4 last year, but refused to give up physical pushbuttons/switches for things like climate control. We'd rather drive our 25 year old Passat a couple more years into the ground than compromise on ergonomics and driver situational awareness (keeping eyes on the road, not distracted by software buttons buried in touchscreen menus). We'll probably end up with a hybrid, since there are more sedan offerings and hybrids haven't been subject as much to button/switch elimination (yes, we're aware of other offerings but it's complicated so no need to delve into it here). We're uncompromising on physical, tactile controls. 

Funny how we've always hung onto the ICE term. "Internal" is always implied, because external would be a bonfire, LOL. I simply taught my kids there are combustion cars and electric cars. Fewer syllables/acronyms :-). And as a mechanical engineer, I can't help being in Toyota's camp, holding off on EV a bit because hydrogen fuel cells (back to combustion!) will arguably be a preferable solution in the long run. But yeah... folks will endlessly debate that too.

[Nick Shoemaker]

Big Clem + Big Truck + Moving Blanket:

Not sure if there's enough room in a 5.5' bed, but this worked for me when I briefly had a huge truck! (and shouldn't scratch anything)

[Garth]

Yeah, with Nick here, get yourself some moving blankets, Harbor Freights are fine. Then put it wherever inside or out.

When it comes to the whole "save the planet" guilt trip from societal media, I can't help but go back and watch George Carlin's talks about it all. The day I drive a laptop on wheels will be, prolly never ;-). Double triple hell yea to having real tactile controls, though it seems autos of late have gone a little to far in that regard. I drove my aunts new-is Nissan SUV and there was buttons all over the place for everything but the darn radio which is controlled by the tablet panel in the dash. Blasphemy ! Hah hah ! Contrast that to my '99 F150 with only the essentials. The display on the radio went out long ago, even despite re-soldering the darn thing. Who needs it anyways, the rocker switches work just fine. Not so much with laptop on wheels. But I digress ..... being a smarty pants. .... teeheehee ;-)

[George Schick]

Garth - I strongly recommend that you read a recently published SF-ish kinda novel, "The Day of Knowing: A Future Story" by Josh Moody (2024: CentRed Press).  I think you'll get a kick out of it and maybe see a corollary to some of your remarks.

George

[Jim Bronson]

My 70-something parents have a 2022 ID.4 and I recently drove it to Dallas and back, because we went together with them to visit a friend in the area and it was easiest for my dad to get in and out of their ID.4 than my truck or my wife's smaller vehicle.  Of course I drove because then the trip is more restful for them and for me.  You get used to the controls pretty fast in an ID.4, they're much more conventional than say the controls on a Model Y where almost everything is driven through the center screen.  I test drove a Model Y over the summer and I hated it.  In contrast the ID.4 is one of the least new-agey EVs.  The infotainment system is not too intuitive or well thought out, but I don't think that's so EV specific.  But that said, I mean how many times are you going to futz with the climate control on a 4 hour trip?  Set it at 68 or 70 or 72 or whatever, then just drive.  The next time you get in the car, it'll be set the same way.  The driver assistance technologies make longer trips less stressful than a traditional car as well, but you still keep your hands on the wheel and your eyes on the road.

My Lightning is an XLT and has almost 100% conventional controls, there is no adaptive cruise for example, and you can choose to turn the regenerative braking on or off.  It has manual knobs for the climate control, although I leave it between 72 and 74 most of the time.  It does have lane keep assist, which basically gives you a slight nudge if you drift over the fog line or the center line, it's not very strong though and not hard to overcome with additional force on the wheel.  It is "push button start" even as opposed to just turning on when you get in the car with the keyfob like many EVs.  It doesn't lock and unlock itself, you have to use the fob to manually lock it.  It does have rear sensors for backing up but not front sensors for when you are nearing an object.  I just use the cameras to see where I'm at in relation to the objects around me.  Probably the biggest drawback is the turning radius, it's the least nimble parking vehicle that I've ever driven, and if we take a ride to downtown Austin, I prefer to take the wife's car to get in and out of tight spaces.  I also wish I had the bigger battery, but, it costs $10K extra and I can live with the small one.

I have driven a Cybertruck at Circuit of the Americas and it's much more nimble with the 4 wheel steering.  While I liked the experience behind the wheel, It's expensive and ugly, not to mention highly polarizing.

Just talking about modern cars in general, I like the technology.  As a cyclist, I like the idea of the computer steering the vehicle away from me because the driver is inattentive.  Not everyone loves it though.  For people who are attentive drivers, I can appreciate the viewpoint.  For people who are inattentive and on the phone though, I'd prefer the car overrule them.

But anyway.

Jim

Austin suburbs, TX.

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[Nick Payne]

About ten years back I made up a rack in our garage to hang our bikes from (except for the tandems). The rack makes hanging them up considerably easier than having the hooks directly in the ceiling, and provides additional us with additional shelf space above. All our other bikes fit fine, but when I bought an Appaloosa in 2020, I found that it was too long to be able to hang it from the hooks...so it leans against the wall when it's not being ridden.

Nick Payne

[Minh]

Jim, 

as a related aside, I just started waxing my chains, and the big side benefit is how clean it leaves the drive train.  i'm clumsy and will grab my chain for no reason when moving my bike and always get dirty hands, but with the waxed chain there is no reside.  It's a great side benefit of waxing for me.  

[Jim Bronson]

Nick,

Your garage is enormous.  I am envious.

-Jim

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