What did you consumer fucks buy today?

Charles U Farley

Well-Known Member
I bought a brand-new slot car controller today- it's just like the one I already have except it's a different color and it was a really good deal

Consumer fuckery at it's finest
I'm almost afraid to ask, because of my ancient age, but a slot car controller? Back in the Triassic period when us dinosaurs reigned, in the mid-60s, this was a slot car:


What are slot cars now?:confused:
 

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
I'm almost afraid to ask, because of my ancient age, but a slot car controller? Back in the Triassic period when us dinosaurs reigned, in the mid-60s, this was a slot car:


What are slot cars now?:confused:
I used to race slot cars at a big track in Vancouver just across the bridge from Richmond where I grew up. Get a clear body car and paint it up from the inside. Build the frame and buy different motors, tires etc. The place had a track with a dozen lanes and you paid for track time. Organized races with car parts for prizes beauty contests for your cars. I did pretty good in both categories and pissed off some of the older guys as I was one of the younger ones. Spent most of my allowance and paper route money on that stuff.

Then I got a Yamaha 80 and sold all that stuff to buy knobby tires and stuff to play with that instead. I put the street tires and turn signals back on it when I turned 16 to go take my driver's test on it. That lead to a couple other bikes then a year old Triumph Bonneville in grade 11 which lead to dropping out of school and lots more fun. :)

I'm such a dinosaur that one of the jobs I had as a young teenager was setting up pins at the local bowling alley.

:peace:
 

Charles U Farley

Well-Known Member
I used to race slot cars at a big track in Vancouver just across the bridge from Richmond where I grew up. Get a clear body car and paint it up from the inside. Build the frame and buy different motors, tires etc. The place had a track with a dozen lanes and you paid for track time. Organized races with car parts for prizes beauty contests for your cars. I did pretty good in both categories and pissed off some of the older guys as I was one of the younger ones. Spent most of my allowance and paper route money on that stuff.

Then I got a Yamaha 80 and sold all that stuff to buy knobby tires and stuff to play with that instead. I put the street tires and turn signals back on it when I turned 16 to go take my driver's test on it. That lead to a couple other bikes then a year old Triumph Bonneville in grade 11 which lead to dropping out of school and lots more fun. :)

I'm such a dinosaur that one of the jobs I had as a young teenager was setting up pins at the local bowling alley.

:peace:
Holy moly, you sound like you could be my older brother. I still remember him ranting about how good the Champion of Chamblee motors were. His first bike was a Honda 175 until he upgraded to Norton 750 Commando.

From one dinosaur to another, much respect!
 

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
My first Triumph was a 1968 Bonneville I bought from my brother in about 1973ish? The T120 would do 120 MPH if I was all tucked in.
Mine first was a 1970. I was hanging out at the motorcycle shop doing odd jobs helping the mechanic. I had a 120 Suzuki with a banana seat and ape-hanger handlebars that the owner said he'd give me $400 for on a trade-in. Then someone traded in the Bonny for another bike and I fell in love with it. I was working on getting my mom to co-sign a loan for the Bonny for about a month when some guy came in and wanted to buy the Bonny and was going to leave a deposit. The old fart salesman was all set to take the deposit, a cheque, so I got him in the back and said Jim told me he'd give me $400 for my bike and I've almost got mom talked into a loan for the rest. He didn't want to do it but said if I left my bike there he'd tell the guy the Bonny was spoken for.

I walk into the house later and mom says I didn't hear your bike and I told her what happened. She made out that she hadn't decided yet and dad sure wasn't for it but she went out for a while on Sat then Sat night told me that I could pick up the Bonny after school on Monday. Yeah right! As soon as the school bus dropped us off me and a buddy hiked the mile, ran more like, to the shop and were sitting on the front stoop when Jim showed up to open the shop. Got the paperwork signed and ran to the MV to get it transferred and buy a plate then went on a drive down to Bellingham, WA for fun. Showed up at school the next day and suddenly had a lot of female admirers having the biggest and coolest bike at school now. Much cooler than the 500 Kawasaki ring-dinger that held the previous title. This thing had 6" slugs to extend the front end with chrome covers, 6" dogbone risers with Z shaped handlebars and chrome TT pipes with no baffles and sounded like a real machine. Wasn't too much longer that I dropped out of school as I was never there any more.

Don't even remember what happened to that bike now but had two more Bonnys. Got a stone stock '69 while still in BC then moved to Calgary in '76 and came back to BC in '82 with a basket-case '70 that I spent the first winter turning it into a chopper and putting a 750cc kit on it. I put a bigger front drive sprocket on it and got clocked at 160mph by a radar trap coming out of the Deas Island tunnel into Richmond. I could hold that bike in a wheely right thru 3rd gear and be doing 100 by the time the front wheel hit the ground. Ended up crashing it in Sept '83 and spent a year on the couch with a compression fracture to my L1 and a shattered left elbow. I'd hit a deep storm drain cover at the side of the road when forced over by some d-bag in a pickup coming home from a bar in Surrey one night. There was an off-ramp being built and they hadn't raised the cover to road level yet. Both wheels got smashed in but otherwise the frame and motor etc were OK. Once I was semi mobile I ended up selling it to a guy and rebuilding it for him for some extra cash.

Got into doing bike repairs and got a nice Norton commando 850 cheap as teh guy couldn't get it running. Magneto bearing was shot and it had main jets in the carbs for running alcohol. Cost me about $50 to get it going but my back couldn't take it so sold it for a tidy profit.

Haven't had a bike since but got my eye on getting a 2-wheel drive Ural sidecar unit like this one. Go anywhere for fish. :)

sportsman-18-3.jpg

:peace:
 

Drop That Sound

Well-Known Member
They had a big slot car track somewhere in Bellingham too. Up until the 90s anyway.. I recently seen the same kind of huge track for sale on marketplace, who knows maybe even the same one.. Big enough to fill a large living room.. I'm sure some lucky consumer has it all setup nice.

My Uncle would take me there as a kid, and I had a fast 80s Iroc Camaro bodied car that would fly right off the track NP. RC cars pretty much took over at some point (and RC Pro AM on nintendo, lol), and I remember losing interest fast. I can imagine it was super fun and competitive to race them back in the days though. I'm sure there are still tracks set up like that today..
 

Drop That Sound

Well-Known Member
I was about to buy a new starter for my rig, but I smacked it with a hammer and it started right up. Not only did I save well over a hundred dollars, my vehicle is pretty much theft proof now. If I get tired of smacking it, why should I buy another starter? Seems like it would be much cheaper to build a remote control hammer actuated swinger, so I can just push a button to smack it, without even getting out of the car. :blsmoke:
 

Charles U Farley

Well-Known Member
... If I get tired of _smacking_ it, why should I buy another starter? Seems like it would be much cheaper to build a remote control _hammer_ actuated swinger, so I can just push a button to _smack_ it, without even getting out of the car. :blsmoke:
Here in the backwards, redneck mountains of the SouthEast :cool:, we call that an "impact adjustment".

DTS, embellishments added.:o
 

OldMedUser

Well-Known Member
I was about to buy a new starter for my rig, but I smacked it with a hammer and it started right up. Not only did I save well over a hundred dollars, my vehicle is pretty much theft proof now. If I get tired of smacking it, why should I buy another starter? Seems like it would be much cheaper to build a remote control hammer actuated swinger, so I can just push a button to smack it, without even getting out of the car. :blsmoke:
When it hits -30 around here I'd rather spend the money. Until then tho I have a good assortment of hammers. :)

:peace:
 
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