I haven’t done one of these in a while, but here it is:

April 2008: 152.6 miles

138.0 miles of the total was single track on the M2, 49.8 miles of which was on the M2 after a singlespeed conversion. The remaining 14.6 miles was on the Gunnar on the road, roughly 10 miles of which was towing a trailing with a small person in it.

For those who are interested, the M2 was converted using a Surly Singulator with a 32 tooth chain ring, 18 tooth cog and SRAM PC-1 chain.

It is after midnight on a Friday. Why am I up? Why am I writing this? …Because I just finised rebuilding my ’07 Rock Shox SID Race.

A couple days ago the SID went from an 80 mm fork to somewhere around 35-40mm. Having previously killed a SID, I thought this one may be dead. Luckily, this relatively new fork is still under warranty. I called Karl and gave him the bad news, but decided to do a rebuild to see if things would improve.

I stopped by REI to get some shock oil. Apparently REI doesn’t carry shock oil. However, the friendly guys in the repair shop gave me some 15W SRAM Redrum shock oil for $2 (nice deal).

The rebuilt went well, and the Rock Shox rebuild procedures are pretty good (SRAM Technical Manuals). The fork seems to have 80 mm of travel now, or at least it has significantly more than it did before I started. I’ll take it out soon and see how it does. I don’t think the M2 is quite ready for fork number five yet…

Our ’07 Outback Sport hit 10,000 miles earlier today. How did this happen? Well, it took 388 days and approximately 430 gallons of 87 octane gasoline at a cost of about $1280. This fuel estimates cover a little over 9800 miles; the Subaru had about 40 miles on the odometer when we bought it, and the last fill up was a few miles ago. So, the mileage so far breaks down to an average of 22.9 MPG, a maximum of 28.9 MPG and a minimum of 19.6 MPG. The price of a gallon of gasoline during this period ranged from $2.60 (on the first tank) to $3.26 (last month) with an average of $2.97. Need more?

Other operating costs: The Subaru required no repairs, so that would be a big $0. Maintenance costs were $72.50. This is a little high because I flushed the tranny and differential oil after a stream crossing; two oil changes were done, one free from the dealer and one I did for $18. Other than that, I’ve added a rear differential skid plate ($62) and swapped the rear sway bar and front springs for OE WRX parts ($102).

The 10,000 mile mark was achieved shortly after a ride at Schaeffer (an 8.3 mile, 50 minute, 10.3 MPH average speed ride, since we’re counting). To celebrate I stopped under the Chicken and Subaru sign off of 355 in Rockville. I can’t comment on the chicken (I’m a vegetarian), but I can say that the Subarus are good.

Final thoughts: I’m very happy with the Impreza. I’m glad I didn’t buy the WRX, refer back to chart detailing the cost of gasoline, and I can’t really think of anything I would have done differently. I would like to see better mileage, but the seven minute commute to work doesn’t help. All of the occasions where the Impreza averaged over 25 MPG we mostly highway (most of those had a bike on the roof), and the remained of the tanks are mostly city. I’m taking the Subaru from Maryland to Colorado soon. One leg of the trip will be sans-bike, the rest will be two to four bikes on the roof/hitch rack. This should give a good indication of the highway mileage potential. I’ll post results sometime in June.