About Tom

Fly Fishing and Motorcycles.

Recent posts

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  Is 10W-30 motor oil really that much different from 5w-20 oil?

  0 0 I put almost anything into my 86 Toyota pickup and used to use used motorcycle oil on a dodge van I had. 300k miles so far. But the 22R motor is a miracle of Japanese engineering. You probably don't need to change your oil more than every 5K miles and good filters last over 10K IME. The 3500 mile thing is more about jiffy lube selling its service rather than good mechanical protocol. City fleet (and many other fleet) vehicles are often only changed at 5-7K miles. I’ve heard of 10K intervals and longer on newer vehicles. Do you have an owner's manual? The manufacturer's recommendations are a good guideline but even those tend to err on the side of more maintenance rather than less. I feel very differently about my motorcycles and for those I use specific oils and change them based on very different schedules since they usually rev higher and run hotter, are older and need more of the old timey additives which are not in modern oils and, in general, are far more precious to me than any car. Tom answered in Cars & Motorcycles 1 day ago Answer, comment & read 2 more answers »

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  we are planning to spend the week in seatle. from a remote part of texas a very small town. whats to do here in seatle? dont have alotta extra cash, f

  1 0 What are you into? Art? Music? Scenery? Will you have a car? Are you over 21? More info! Tom answered in Long Distance Travel 1 day ago Answer, comment & read 2 more answers »

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  What is the equivalent of the 3000 mile oil change for most motorcycles?

  0 0 I own or ahve owned at least 20 motorcycles. currently own two with one on the way. Maintenance sechedules vary. What is the bike? Year, model, displacement is handy. 2 stroke or 4 stroke? Bikes tend to get better mileage but many also tend to put out more emissions than a 72 valiant. 2 strokes are flat out eco-killers. Modern fuel infected bikes are better. Big ass and older bikes around 1000cc should be in the vacinity of 40mpg and many newer bikes around 500cc or smaller can get 60mpg or better. I put tends of thousands of miles on my bikes every year (well, not this year) and change oil regularly using synth and synth blends for some bikes and dino for others. I rearely go more than 3K miles and on older bikes like Thunderbolts and Eldorados for instance you may want to change the oil every 1000 miles (a bit extreme but these bikes are special). Tom answered in Cars & Motorcycles 2 days ago Answer, comment & read 3 more answers »

• Comment on Andrew Beck's answer…

  0 0 And then i read your other post. Tom commented 3 days ago

• Comment on Andrew Beck's answer…

  1 0 Well aware of and probably know personally 1/2 the the actual population of Deadwood. I was just cracking wise. My own personal needs for internet speed are minimal. I doubt I ever come close to using taking advantage of what I already have and what i already have is base on what my wife wants. That means comcast. What I do want, though, is for this whole city to be as wired for speed as much possible. And I don't want to give Comcast a dime. Being that tech is how many people make what i understand to be a good living in Seattle (I'm not a tech pro by a long shot- ) and as how so many folks are making that living at home and that number is growing and as more folks are signed on as independent contractors then let's get this city wired for it. With a publicly owned FOC network that allows multiple ISPs to compete fairly for business. The cost of instalation maybe higher in Seattle per cap then it is in Deadwood. The per cap income is also exponentially higher. And I would think that long term maintenance costs per cap would much less. And I think a lot of residents, myself included, would be glad to pony up $ for it whether through fees or dedicated taxes or inceases in the city portion of the property tax so long as it was for a publicly owned system. I work for the City of Seattle. We rip up roads all the time. Ripping up roads is not a big deal. We like to make it seem like a big deal but it isn't. The big deal is the inconvenience for residents and workers more than anything. Much of downtown is vaulted anyway so running new cable system wouldn't mean as much digging as one might think. And we (the City) already own the electrical infrastucture. I don't know who owns the steam infrastructure in downtown and SLU. My own life would not change much if the internet disappeared today. My wife would be devastated but I'd be fine. Except for medical equipment and modern "less toxic" industrial alternatives I'm pretty much down with technology from the 40s-60s anyway. Essentially, my point is, and I'm sorry it took so long to get to it, is that Seattle is all in with tech. There is a lot of money to made with tech by a lot of people doing a lot of different things from a lot of different places. It's both mega huge corporate and a cottage industry. As such it it way too important a thing to be left to what amounts to one or two massive companies who are only concerned with their own bottom line. Ultimately it's any argument about a "natural monopoly" making any sense that gets my hackels up. Tom commented 3 days ago

• Comment on Andrew Beck's answer…

  1 0 Why wouldn't we not only accept a new set of high speed fiber optic lines rather than put up with antiquated coax crap? doesn't matter who the isp is when you have to deal with coax. I don't just want fast I want blazing fast with wifi available throughout the city. And I'd be glad to pony up. I've got friends in Deadwood Oregon population: them that have fo. That this city doesn't have it yet sucks and that needs to change. Tom commented 4 days ago

• Comment on Tom's answer…

  1 0 I remember these virtually exact discussions when i was in high school (or junior high, maybe). I would guess that the post office wanted each two letter designation to not only be unique but also as not as easy to confuse with other states. WN may be Wisconsin. MA may be Maine but it's Mass so it's hardly perfect. ME is main but could Minnesota as could Michigan. States beginning with M and N were a hassle apparently. I would also guess that the license designations were grandfathered in and had been in use for so long for those particular purposes that they decided not to change it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._state_abbreviations Tom commented 6 days ago

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  What can you do with pistachio shells? Environmentaly friendly ideas?

  1 0 Pistachio shells are great for kid's art projects but for most folks the best thing to do is compost them. Tom answered in Other-Food & Drink 6 days ago Answer, comment & read 2 more answers »

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  Why is Washington abbreviated "WN" on boats when it's "WA" everywhere else?

  1 0 WA is the Fed (post office) designation for Washington. They began standardizing such things around 1980 or so. Before that folks used all sorts of letter combos to describe the state. Washington had been using WN for decades before the Feds opted for WA. Letters mailed at the post office were just as likely to read Wash. in the 70s and before. Standardization was wanted since some states used the same two letter combo on official docs. I'm sure there's a more wonky explanation out there but that's the gist. Tom answered in Whatever 7 days ago Answer and comment »

• Comment on lilmonster206's answer…

  0 0 legal-ish, I should have said... Tom commented 8 days ago

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