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According to all the fastener web sites I have checked so far there is no such thing as a 8.75 mm dowel pin. Are you sure its not 9mm or 3/8 inch? Standard appear to be 8mm, 10mm, 5/16" or 3/8". You may have to get a 10mm and have it turned down and cut to length.

Prices started to climb after the Olympics were held in China in order to pass scrutiney from a larger than normal presence of international media in China.

Today China faces such high air pollution levels that they are forced to restrict travel or even shut down airports and all motorized transportation to combat it. Look at the notices just this past month of travel restrictions in China due to bad air quality it will make you wonder what impact this has on the young and elderly in the areas impacter the worst. The days of unregulated pollution by industry in China are just about over and since they waited so long to bring this change about its going to cost a lot more to fix it. John Maxwells Law of the Price Tag applies here as the longer you put off paying it the more its going to cost.

Things are changing there and while they are making improvements in their products cost have to go up across the board to pay up for what they have done to their own environment the past 100 years.

In the 50's the US laughed Dr Deming out of the country when he claimed that most quality and production issues with American products were caused by the poor management practice of not consulting with production line workers on what potential issues were however the Japanese welcomed him with open arms and sponged up what he had to say and the rest is history. If Chinese manufacturers take action on what they are seeing from the best of what Piaggio, Yamaha and Honda showed them and take on Dr Deming's methods we should see similar improvements in Chinese products coming from those factories. Its mostly office politics and management perceptions of what drives quality that makes or breaks things.

Today Western Private Equity practices are driving Western Quality down in many industries so one does have to be careful of whose example they follow. Look how bad Harley quality got under the Private Equity group that took over AMF. Private Equity tries to lower costs by having their trained and expert workers distill each job position down into recipes and then optimizes things by getting rid of the people who know what they are doing replacing them with people who can read well enough to follow the recipe calling this process Work Force Optimization headed by a corporate officer called the CIO. When problems or variations arise the Monkey See Monkey Do workers who only know to do the A, B, C, etc steps on the recipe can't handle it and everything falls apart. Meanwhile the expert work force that would have prevented the quality escapes keeping everything running smoothly and such stand in unemployment lines.

Condensation from winter clothing that does not breath has long been a problem beyond riding gear and once enough builds up you get cold very fast and a prime candidate for chilblains and frostbite. Hiking and camping in sub zero temps you become acutely aware of this, that even though you never feel warm your body as it is made up of mostly water develops a large amount of vapor that can soak your clothing if sealed up too tight.

For riding sometimes just a flap of material or paper to prevent wind that passes through the zipper of your jacket from getting all the way through is all it takes to stay warm on your commute. And it saves your rain gear so it stays leak free for when its raining.

After a while the rain suite and rubber gloves can become so wet inside from perspiration that you can end up getting chilled to the bone. A bib front under my riding jacket (even made from a paper bag) will many time be all that's required to make riding in 40 degree weather tolerable. Water proof boot spray on just the backs of ones riding gloves can also make a large improvement. Yes some helmets are not designed well to keep condensation from you breathing from fogging the face shield. The ones with the removable guards to prevent this usually work out the best.

Still 20 mph shy for serious commuting where any Interstates are concerned. Cost more than I paid new for my 249cc 4 valve overhead cam Aprilia with double the hp. Cleveland Cycle Works bikes sell for over $3,000 while my Piaggio powered Aprilia was less than $3,000. Get the hp into the mid 20's and speeds closer to whats needed for occasional rides on the interstate and I could justify the $3,300 base price of the CCW 229cc bikes. They do not need to match the performance of the 150 mph Aprilia RS250 just come closer to what you can get from the Aprilia 250cc scooters that many of us bought new for $2,999.