FXS Facts

Archive for December, 2009

Test Drive
Test drive using the maximum number of passengers you are likely to be carrying on a normal trip. Check if their feet can touch the floor? Is there enough room for a child booster seat? Will the heater or air-conditioning be up to the job in extreme conditions? If possible, simulate a full load – if it’s a garage model, ask the sales person if you can load your bikes or scooter to see how the motorhome copes with the weight distribution. If you like to drive with a full water tank, ask to fill it. Ideally, visit a weighbridge to check the motorhome’s weight, either unladen or, better still, with your kit in it. (Remember, many weighbridges need to be booked in advance.)

Plan your route to sample all possible driving conditions and make it long enough so that you can get a genuine feel for the comfort levels of the travel seats. Include a steep hill, a section of motorway or dual carriageway and some urban driving. Try a hill start, to see how the clutch feels. Consider long-trip factors: for example, will the stereo provide enough volume for all passengers to easily listen to audio books or music on long journeys?

Overnight Parking
Does the motorhome fit in your driveway? If the dealer is local and your drive is difficult to get into, it’s worth checking to see how easily you can park. Consider whether it will be more difficult to negotiate at night and assess the security of where you intend to park. Check how easy it would be to empty the waste outlet on a campsite with no dedicated service point. Can you fit an extension to empty the waste water into an ordinary drain?

Driving
Try parking the motorhome as you would on tour – if you prefer smaller motorhomes and like to park in town centres, see how this works. If it’s an older motorhome, will anyone else likely to drive the motorhome be able to cope without power steering? If you sometimes drive alone, try parking on your own. If the motorhome is an A-class (which may have only one cab door), or an import with an offside habitation door, where will each passenger get out?

Car maintenance is very important in the long run. If you need to sell you car in the future you need all the brownie points you can get during the car inspection! There are some rules you should always follow; wash the car regularly, don’t eat or drink and don’t smoke in the car either. Start with the simplest things!

• Inspect the car oil filter regularly. Make sure it doesn’t get clogged and no water enters the engine oil. Follow the car manual to check when the car is due for an oil change. Make sure you change the oil and the filter once every 5000 km.

• Always check all the fluids in the car and you know there are many fluids in the car. The fluids include the brake, windshield, transmission and transaxle fluids. If anything is low, refill it immediately, if you don’t it will effect the working of the car and cause long term damage as well.

• Always check the air in the tyres. Your car manual has the air pressure level at which the tires have to be. If the air pressure is low the car will feel like its dragging and you also risk a flat.

• Make sure your wipers are working and if they are old replace them as they might cause more harm than good. They may cause blotches on the windscreen. Once they start streaking try wiping them or replace them.

• If you hear a screeching sound while the air conditioning is on, have a look at the engine belt. It may be scratched. Repair it immediately to avoid more scratches and tears.

• You don’t want the engine heating up so check the coolant level from time to time and fill it immediately when the level drops drastically.

• All the lights should always work they include the headlights, indicators, fog lights, hazard lights and the brake lights. If any aren’t functioning well it can be extremely hazardous so repair them quickly.

Mountain bike or mountain bicycle is a bicycle designed for off-road cycling. The main function of mountain bikes are designed for mountain biking. It has to withstand off-road condition and surmounting obstacles such as logs and rocks.

Mountain bikes are likewise designed to withstand abuse such as jumping, traversing on rocks and washouts and steep decline. It may also be used in dirt trails, logging road and other unpaved environment.

The bicycle wheel in a mountain bike is usually wide and knobby. This adds extra traction and shock absorption. There are likewise suspensions used in a mountain bike to help it perform as expected.

There are different designs for mountain bike and there are likewise discipline oriented designs. Below we will discuss a bit about these designs of a mountain bikes to know which ones fit your needs.

Design classification of mountain bike relative to suspensions

· Fully rigid: The frame, which is known to be fully rigid, has rigid fork and fixed rear. There is no suspension in this mountain bike.
· Hard tail: The frame of this mountain bike has a front suspension fork and no rear suspension.
· Soft tail: A frame with small amount of rear suspension, activated by flex or the frame instead of pivots is a mountain bike classified as soft tail.
· Dual or full suspension: This bike has front suspension fork and rear suspension with rear shock and linkage that allow the rear wheel to move on pivots.

Now, let us discuss a bit about discipline-oriented designs for mountain bikes.