Having forgotten to blog yesterday, I suppose I should mention that I did go for a ride and I was able to push myself even farther then the day before. I made my first stop at the halfway point in my normal ride. I would say that I was pushing myself but the cold hard reality of it was, every time I wanted to stop there was a cute girl around and I didn’t want to seem like a loser — plain and simple, man trying to impress woman.

Though, thinking back on that it may have made some sense, as I could have lied and told them I had ridden all the way in from Wayzata and I was stopping for a bit. However, what if they would have said, “Cool! Come on riding with us!” then it would have rocked, and sucked about fifteen minutes later.

I’m a sucker for looking silly in front of chicks. That’s me.

Anyway, I only made two stops before I got to the torture part of the ride. I walked up the incline by the tunnel and was about to make my way up Niagra lane. Since there were people around I nervously checked my blackberry while I was getting ready. Then I was up the hill and almost dying, made the left turn, went pas the park. Then I had to stop. I was a little bit pissed at the fact that I was so close to home but had to stop again but the truth is it was the healthiest thing I could do. My heart rate was way over margin to be pushing myself like that would be silly.

Saw a girl over there too. She said Hi! and unknown to me I had no voice. I opened my mouth and the schrillest noise you’ve ever heard came out. I think I scared her..damn! One thing is for sure between walking the Chihuahua and riding the trails around here I’m bound to come across some girls…now I just have to figure out how to talk to them, get them back to my house, and dissapoint them with my macaroni art/spin class seduction technique.

Damn you Patrick Swayze!

Ok, so back to tonight. I received my 2″ trailer hitch kit today and was thumbing through the instructions when I realized it should be pretty easy; and it was! I couldn’t freaking believe it, to be honest. If you ever get a chance to order something from BSA of Ohio, do it. They ship incredibly fast and and safe and the part fit perfect.

Just in case you happen to have a 2008 Nissan Rogue…here is what you do

:Remove the old hitch peice from the frame

This part is pretty easy. There are four bolts that hold this part of the car’s towing system to the frame. Simply remove them. Also, there is a fifth bolt you need to take off that is part of the metal shroud that goes around the airbox that has the filter for the main cabin. You’ll remove this, but leave the smaller hex bolt that holds the shroud onto the frame.

Bolts on the right side

Now, there will be three bolts with teeth-laden washers that go into the frame. The Nissan has all these holes pre-drilled, so its really quite damn easy to do. Carefully put the frame of the hitch up the back of the car and then loosely put in the center bolt on both sides. With a little bit of elbowing you’ll get it setup and now it will be loosely hanging on.

Bolts on the left side

Once you have all the bolts starting to get snug make sure it is fitting nicely and then tighten everything down. The manual says to use 75 foot lbs of torque, but I’m cheap and don’t have a torque wrench so I just tightened them to my satisfaction. Someday when I get around to getting to Northfield I’ll have Josh check and make sure they are tight enough. At this point, I’m more than sure that they are.

Close up of the final product

There it is installed. Don’t be fooled, all you can see is the 2″ receiver. The stuff behind that is the muffler and the hitch is completely hidden.

Hitch hidden underneath the car

You can see from this picture that all we see is the receiver. You don’t even get a chance to see the draw-tite logo on the towing frame…Oh well, another missed marketing opportunity! The only thing I’m worried about now is that the mast will adequately clear the back of the car on the Yakima Double Down 2. I used their website configurator so I’m hoping it all works well — but you never know.

Now, for the successful indicator of a project done well. Check out this picture of me. Notice the black shit that is on my nose, thats right folks, that’s grease or something like that. I smell like a grease monkey and truth be told, I kinda like it!

An idiot and a scholar

That’s all for now. Since I’m not biking today I’m going to punish myself with 15+ minutes of cardio and muscle tensioning on the elliptical. If you don’t hear from me in a while, call the coroner. 🙂

lunks