Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Happy Holidays from East-West Brothers Garage!

To start, thank you to all of those readers who have continued to support our efforts to bring you a balanced look at how cars, motorcycles, and bicycles are a part of our transportation landscape. We hope everyone has a safe and fun filled holiday season and is able to enjoy some time with (or away from, if that's your thing) family.

For Christmas this year, we take a look back at some of our favorite vehicular gifts that we have received over the years whether they are gifts given to us by others, ourselves, or even just surprises we have encountered over the years. Here is what we enjoyed the most.

West Brother's Favorites

I think the best gift I have gotten for my car over the years I have owned it has to be a brand new soft top for $100, including installation. When I bought my car nearly four years ago, there was a small hole developing near the soft top support beam on the right side of the car. What started as a tiny tear eventually turned into a three inch long gash that only got bigger each time I opened the top. I was able to mitigate the tearing with a vinyl repair patch, but it looked ugly. After some digging around on the internet, I found a recall  for the soft top that addressed the very tear that plagued my car's soft top. I brought my car into my local Honda dealer along with the recall. Since my car's warranty had already expired, I was expecting a repair total of at least $1000. However, due to my family's long time Acura loyalty, Honda approved the repair for only $100. Naturally, I was ecstatic. My car now has a brand new top and looks better than ever!

East Brother's Favorites

My favorite gifts to myself frequently are two-wheel related and usually in the form of rental time on a motorcycle as my own bike is stashed away on the East Coast while I am out in gloriously sunny Southern California for the holidays. In the past, that has been the GSX-R 750 that I rode around some of the best roads in the Angeles National Forest as well as a Ducati Monster that I took to visit my alma mater while I in the area. This year, time simply does not permit me to rent a motorcycle, but I will be getting some time with the excellent Brammo electric motorcycles soon.

As far as bicycling gifts go, this year my wife has graduated to her first road bike after many decades of riding various cobbled together hybrids. She has only taken a single ride on it so far, but loves the fact that it is significantly lighter than the bike she rides on a daily basis. For me, I got my Shogun 300 bike all fixed up and picked up a new pair of pedals for it along with a new pair of mountain bike shoes that look a lot like regular sneakers to allow me to get around town without looking like a total bike nerd. Looking forward to taking advantage of the warmer climate to get in some extra training miles before I am once again stuck on the indoor trainer back home on the East Coast.

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