Oregonguy

I read Lady_Blackwater's review and agree. And by the way, I work at a retailer that sells this product. This is a good product, well made, by a company that's been in the water sports business for some time. Long ago, I enrolled in a Technical Writing course at my local community college and I know how to write. It is my opinion, for whatever it is worth, that Harmony, and a score of other companies out there, could do themselves and their customers a favor by hiring ANYONE with a command of the English language and bit of common sense to write instructions, with line drawings or pictures, to everything needing installation that they sell. If they do not or cannot accomplish this, then I believe it is wise for the consumer to spend their money elsewhere. Read this, Harmony......I do sell your stuff.

This ski/board carrier is nice looking as well as practical. My older version fits only Thule bars, but the latest version has a universal bar clamp that works with Thule, Yak, and most factory cross-bars, Nissan Xterra excluded. Easy installation, but don't lose the included Torx tool. It's similar to a hex, or Allen wrench, but fits only Torx head screws and it has a "security" feature, which is a tiny hole in the middle that mates to a pin on the Torx head screw. It makes it hard for a thief to steal your Thule ski/board carrier, but also makes it hard for you to remove it if you don't have the tool. In fact, it's darn near impossible. Locks are included, a nice touch. Lifetime guarantee--keep your receipt.

The biggest drawback of the soft CamelBak reservoirs is draining them dry. With Platypus reservoirs, you simply blow them up a bit by mouth and let them drain and dry. CamelBak's soft material won't allow that. Now, this bit of twelve-dollar plastic does work as advertised, but rather than spend money on what probably cost eleven cents to manufacture in China, I use a twelve-ounce empty Coors can, although most other brands works just as well. Simply slip the empty can through the filler hole, hang the entire unit upside down to drain and dry and you're done. If you're the fastidious type, you may want to rearrange the can once or twice to drain any water that was trapped between Coors and CamelBak. On sale, Coors costs about $3.99 for a sixer. That's six dry-outs or, if you're like me, one dry-out and a nice buzz. Figure out what your priorities are.

This simple canister fuel stove proves that simple is usually better. It boils water quickly, is fairly quiet and weighs under four ounces and packs small enough to fit in your parka pocket. Maybe that's how it got its name. It requires no maintenance. Remove it from it's plastic box, screw it on your canister, put a match to it and you're cooking. The only minor drawback is stability. A small "footprint" for a large pot of water requires some thoughtful placement, but common sense takes care of that problem. Simmering is not it's strong suit, but I don't simmer my freeze-dry chili with beans. I cook them. Bottom line--this is an excellent, nearly weightless, budget canister stove that is bomb-proof. For a weight-savvy backpacker, it works well.

This system is so simple that with just a bit of common sense, anyone can figure out how to install them. The "towers", as they are called, clamp onto the side rails of most factory racks, gripping the Yak bar and the side rail simultaneously as you tighten them--but not all. Some early Subaru Foresters require their own towers and there may be a few other cars out there that this product doesn't fit. Nissan Xterra's need something altogether different. So check out Yak's website or call them. Unfortunately, some dealers out there don't know how to read the Yak Fit Guide, so beware. This is a quality product, similar to Thule's 400XT, but each brand must match up to it's own round or square bars. Spendy, but it goes with you when you sell your cherished K-Car.

All you gotta due is suck on it, just like you do with a Camelbak bladder mouthpiece and the rest is bliss. No more tipping, no more dripping, no more sloppy sipping. Remember when you were a new-born? Same gig. This is a great bedside bottle as well as a hiking, biking and tent bottle. Clean the the drinking tube with water and lemon juice after a camping trip to keep it fresh. As for leakage, well, if anything full of water tips over, including us old folks, there's gonna be some leakage. Just stay upright and you'll be good.

The best compromise in a ski/board pant that I've seen, and I've worked in outdoor retail for many years. These pants beat the big names by a mile. The North Face, Burton, Columbia--they all cost the same or more, but for a 10k waterproof/10g breathable pant, I believe this pant is a much better value. Durability is good--I'm a skier, not a boarder, and the cuffs are tuff enough to ward off cuts from ski edges. Waterproofing is excellent--sitting on a wet Oregon chairlift for 15 minutes is the true test of a pant. Chugging hard up a ten degree slope for an hour in Randonee gear creates a bunch of heat, and the fabric's breathability along with the cool vents on the inside of the thighs get the heat out. Nice touch. The mesh lining is not too light or too heavy. I turned the pant inside out and the seams are nicely sewn. There is some quality construction here. No problems with any zippers so far. The "style" is cool, even for an old guy. My warning about the fit--go smaller than you normally would. I have a 34" waist, 30" inseam, took a chance and bought Small-they fit perfect. Pockets are nicely angled, fabric is tough, water-proof/breathable claims are true. Bottom lines is, these pants are excellent. I never heard of Sessions before cruising your site, but I will keep an eye their other offerings.

There are two ways to get rid of wind noise from car racks--Get some good speakers and turn up the volume or install a fairing, Yak or Thule on your rack bars. The fairing is also a nice place to put stickers for whatever else you think is cool. The fairing from Yak works as good as the better looking one from Thule. Hey, all they do is direct fast flowing air over the rack bars. Without the bars, fast flowing air howls, screams and whines. (That's where the good speakers come in handy.) It's all simple aerodynamics. Direct the air flow over the round or square thing that is not aerodynamic and things will settle down. Ask the U. S. Air Force. Ask all those aliens that have those flying saucer things. They know.

This kayak rack item is a well crafted, nice looking and relatively inexpensive answer to carrying your boats. You can put four kayaks on a small car securely with some effort. It's a bit harder to turn your kayak up on its side and strap in down to the Stacker than it is to slide it up on a cradle carrier, but if you need to carry more than two kayaks and cost is an issue, then this carrier fills the bill. It fits 95% of factory crossbars and works with Yak bars as well. The J style carriers from Thule and Yak work fine, but check out the cost. The Stackers fold down when not in use--helps a bit with gas mileage and looks better. My advice is to strap each kayak to the Stacker and then another strap around both kayaks and the Stacker. More straps means bomb-proof security at 70mph, not to mention the turbulence from big rigs on the interstate. This is a good looking kayak carrier that delivers. Easy on, easy off.

Take the 20% off offer because this item is rarely on sale at the walk-in stores. You can see how it works at most outdoor stores that have a National Geo Map Machine. (REI, Joe's Outdoor, Dick's, Sportsman's Warehouse--why spend money at those money-grubbing employee abusing retailers?) Keep in mind that the home version does much more than the in-store Map Machine. With the home version you can highlight your trails, etc. and use a 3-D Fly over effect that in reality is more entertaining than useful but it's fun to play with. Your maps at home will print smaller than the Map Machine version unless you have a printer and paper capable of printing the Map Machine version. Warning: if you have an ink-hog printer, you will use up your ink cartridges quickly after you become addicted to printing out all the maps you want. You will first download the install disc and then use separate discs for different regions of your state. My Idaho state version has five separate discs, so I have to load another separate disc when I venture outside a given area. No big deal. You could download the whole works if you have a terabyte to play with, but it still would not be practical. Go play with the Map Machine at an outdoor store and you'll love it. Just remember that the home version does more.

This little stake-out tent is perfect for a solo hiker, a bit crowded for two. My 5'7" frame and expedition pack fit perfectly. Full coverage rainfly, decent vestibule, great ventilation and absurdly easy set-up make it a winner. The Zoid design is a copy of the tried and true Kelty Zen, with rainfly variations, which was a copy of the early tried and true Sierra Designs Clip Flashlight and that was no doubt a copy of something else. A good, basic design that works well in nearly all conditions. It does need a buffer when pitched where high winds are expected. Still, a very good value.

If you're into doing your own waxing, be it XC or alpine, you'll may consider "corking" your wax into your ski/board. "Corking" is an old school way of heating up the wax you've crayoned on your base. If you don't know what I mean by crayoning, then delete this and stay in town with your skateboard. If you don't have an iron, corking does work and it gives you a nice workout besides. In the old days, a real cork created from a cork tree was used to rub crayoned wax into ski bases. The simple friction of rubbing a natural cork along a base covered with wax melted the wax into the base. Certainly not as effective as a hot wax iron but effective nonetheless. These days, a foam cork has replaced the natural cork because it creates more friction (heat) than real cork. I don't know what's worse, saving cork trees (look it up) from extinction or using foam, a petroleum product we get from you know where. Either way, if you don't have an iron (woops, electricity involved), then this Swix synthetic cork works quite well.

If you have any brand waterproof/breathable gear and it needs a "boost", this stuff is it. Actually, I think it's the only product on the market for restoration of W/B fabrics. I've used it on fabrics laminated or coated, and it restores water proofing to like-new status. Best application is at least two LIGHT coatings an hour or two apart. It's a simple cost-effective application for expensive over-priced W/B fabrics. Hey, there really is no such thing as waterproof-breathable. They just have a guvment standard to meet to qualify. When your guvment standard wears out, try this stuff. Saves you some bucks in the long run.

I bought this shoe, (the men's version), after using a friend's pair at camp on a pack trip. I laughed at him for bringing these goofy looking sandals along, but after trying them on, I bought a pair the first day back home. Croc calls the material resin and I suppose that's the scientific word, but foam is what I see and feel on my feet. These sandals are very comfy, very lightweight, fairly durable and look just goofy enough to let everyone know you're not with the mainstream of society. Bare skin or light sox, they feel great. The foam molds quickly to your foot shape, like a Birkenstock, only much quicker. Wearing them around on concrete or asphalt will wear them down quickly, though. On sandy beaches, you'll find lots of sand getting in through the crocodile teeth, but those vents are necessary--otherwise your feet will sweat. A very nice product at a reasonable price and they come in all kinds of really weird colors.

Been in the ski and board industry for 23 years, tried all the waxes out there, made my own, tried my neighbor's, even used paraffin mixed with creme rinse. (Dont' ask.) Dakine has great marketing, young boarder appeal, good ad writers, etc., but their fluorocarbon wax is no big deal. Besides, it doesn't even smell like wax, it smells like cheap perfume. (Ah, marketing.) Best way to use this stuff if you fall for the hype is to hot wax some GOOD hydrocarbon wax from Swix, Toko, Dominator or others and then overlay some fluoro wax on top. (Any brand of fluoro, for that matter.) The fluoro is faster, slicker and wears off faster, so you'll have some fast early runs and then get to the hydrocarbon stuff that lasts much longer and is therefore more cost effective. And you'll still be fast, because you waxed and 90% of the people on the slopes didn't. Fluoro wax is really better suited to warm temps and wet snow, so it's a waste of time and money to apply it in cold conditions, no matter what Dakine's temp ratings say. As for the nice perfume smell they put in their waxes...what the heck does that have to do with skiing or boarding? If you're riding or skiing hard enough, you're gonna stink at the end of the day.

This fine piece of plastic, similar to Yakima's but nicer looking, keeps your rack quiet whilst speeding down the interstate. Also a great spot for all you sticker freaks to sport stuff that you're not getting paid to sport. As for helping with gas mileage---now there's a master marketing tool, and that's all it is. A bit of advice: If you want to keep your sticker displayer on your rack, replace the stock hardware with nylon locking nuts or if you have bucks to spare, buy the ten dollar security lock from Yak or Thule. It takes twenty one point six seconds for the casual thief to remove your fairing in the dark, no flashlight, no barking dog.

I read the other review and respectfully disagree, but not because the reviewer is wrong. The purpose of this gummi is to remove light rust, light burrs and to polish steel edges. It is meant to be a follow-up, if need be, to a coarse, medium or fine diamond stone, tools that are intended to remove the big burrs and smooth very rough imperfections on the steel. I use this gummi for polishing and detuning with very good results and have been using this or one like it for a decade. Perhaps the fault lies with the marketing types who have given this item the name "edge grinding rubber". Leave off the word "grinding" and you have an apt description of the tool. Shame on you Toko. Tell it like it is.

The Thule Tracker kit is a simple solution if you're looking for a "factory" look rather than an "add on" look for your car's roof and you don't like the idea of placing "clips" in your door frame, which may or may not deform the weather seal.. The base plates fit a wide variety of factory tracks, which are the long aluminum or hard plastic pieces that run from front to rear on your car's roof. You have to consult a good Thule dealer to find out which base plates you need, or you can use Thule's website. Installing the base plates is easy. A simple hex wrench is provided, and you place the base plates wherever you want on your tracks. If you want to move the plates closer or farther apart (ie: kayak or canoe bar placement is different than ski/snowboard rack placement), then you have to use the hex wrench, so don't lose it. The foot and bar combination then simply snaps down onto the plates by pushing the button on the foot (it holds a lock core). Once installed, it will take you all of 20 seconds to remove your entire rack system, a huge plus. The base plates remain in the tracks, but you can remove them with the hex wrench if you're going to a classic car show or are just anal about appearances. (Get a life.) The feet and bar combo does wobble just a bit when placed in the tracks without any gear weight like bikes, skis or kayaks, but when the weight of your gear is on board, there's no wobble at all. This is a nice set-up, similar to Yakima's Landing Pad, but a bit easier to install and remove. Quality between the two brands is equal. Good stuff. I've been installing them for many years and have never had a complaint about quality, rust, broken parts or bad Karma.