Fancy-Shmancy New Treadmill

In keeping with our desire to constantly improve our health, this week Chelsea and I bought a brand-spankin' new treadmill. Also, as indicated in the title, it is fancy-shmancy. Here, you can take a look at it on Health Rider's website. I know it may seem like a dumb idea to spend a lot of money on working out indoors in June. At first thought that would be right, but when you think about it for a little while it will make sense. Buying stuff off season usually turns out well. We were going to buy one this fall, but we found this one now. It was on sale for half price, which works out well, because the half price ($700) is about what we thought we wanted to spend. I don't think we'll get much mileage out of it over the next few months, but that's fine, we'll make up for it this winter. This is one of those things we'll have for a long time.

Maybe we can buy road bikes in January.

My Racing Team Grows by One

I'm finally posting about my second RC car purchase. I've actually had this car for a couple of months now and it's really fun. It's a Team Losi XXX-T. Here's a picture of the two cars together so that you can see how much larger the XXX-T is than the RC18T.

The XXX-T is in the 1/10 racing class while the RC18T is in the 1/18 class. There are advantages and disadvantages to each class. For one thing the larger car is easier to drive and control during jumps. but components for it are more expensive than for the little car. Racing the little car is also a rare opportunity since few people have them. Also, the local track is designed for 1/10 cars and sometimes has a tendancy to beat up on the little car. It has been a champ, though; the amount of beatings it takes without breaking is impressive. Don't think I do it on purpose, remember how I said it was hard to control on the jumps. The car is only 9 inches long and will easily fly 10 feet off of some jumps. The XXX-T doesn't get that kind of air, but that's mainly because the motor is not as hopped up as the motor in the RC18T.

Another downside of the RC18T is that I can't seem to keep the steering aligned. It's a constant battle. There is no sense in using the trims because a hard landing or bump into the wall just knocks it out again. The XXX-T on the other hand, never seems to be out of alignment. I've crashed that thing into the wall and thought for sure turnbuckles or A-arms were broken but it was alright and not even out of alignment. I think the problem is Associated's design for the servo saver. It's just not as accurate, though I do have to admit it is very durable.

Recently the reciever in RC18T has been acting up. It's range is down to less than 15 feet. I don't what is wrong with but all the indicators are that it must be replaced. Chances are that I won't replace it for a while. Right now I would much rather spend money on the XXX-T, I have more fun with it. Also I still haven't entered it in any races. I was going to do it once school ended but since I still work nights it hasn't worked out. Soon I will race to see how it does.